Military Physical Fitness Training for your Protagonist
So your YA protagonist (or any protagonist, really) has decided to join the rebellion! But before they can free their country from the oppressive dictatorship, they need to prove their worth.
Military training is a lot more than just learning how to throw a punch. In general, military training seeks to build up a cadet in several main areas: in this, we’ll talk about physical fitness.
A recruit is not going to be able to carry a heavy pack, armor, and a weapon through a combat zone without having at least a little bit of stamina and strength. The training your character will receive will cover a few things:
Strength in a variety of places (upper body, core, etc) so that they can lift heavy packs, other soldiers, equipment, etc. Pushups are a favorite training method, but weights, pullups, and carrying a fellow cadet while screaming incoherently also work.
Endurance, which is often forgotten in fiction. After all, it’s not enough that your character can lift a 200-lb weight: if they can’t also carry their 140-lb fellow soldier out from under fire and back to a safe zone, then both of them will get killed. Runs, marches with heavy packs, and long obstacle courses can train for this. Teach your character to sprint, too—although it’s not endurance to run a short distance, they’ll need it when they’re scrambling to get out from under fire.
Flexibility. This is usually not explicitly tested, but if your character is super rigid, all their instructors will know as soon as they hit the obstacle course.
To get an idea of how intensely your character will be trained, you can look up “physical fitness standards” for any branch of any military in the world.
Especially in YA dystopia, you will need to make some considerations about your character’s training and the army they join:
If your character was starving or otherwise malnourished (perhaps under heavy rationing) before joining their army, they will have a REALLY hard time keeping up in training at first. This could be a fun obstacle to have your character overcome to build up their courage and resolve.
The more desperate an army is for recruits, the more lenient it will be with its physical fitness standards. A ragtag rebellion army may not impose much fitness training, save for giving the character a gun and telling them to shoot any enemy soldier that moves. This is a sign your character should seek a better military career, preferably one with health insurance.
The less resources an army has, the less it will spend on physical training equipment. The US Army can afford to have well-stocked gyms on its bases used for training soldiers; other militaries and militias make do with less. Having a fancy gym makes training easier but is in no way necessary. Basic training exercises—running, situps, pushups, etc—can be done with no equipment at all, and obstacle courses can be made in the woods or the desert with little work. That means that if your world is impoverished, your character will be able to see in their training. UNLESS you want to show that the country is impoverished but it spends ridiculous proportions of its money on its military—then bring out the fully stocked gym.
Unless your characters live in a desert, they should have some swim training. They will thank you.
So send your character out on that three mile run, but remember to give them some water or else their drill sergeant will scream at them.