Hey, everybody, it’s Michaela, and welcome back to my channel. So I wanted to do this because a lot of you guys have been reaching out to me on my instagram with a lot of questions about preparing for BMT. So I wanted to do this video to kind of go more indepth on how to actually prepare instead of just explaining what it’s like.
So the first thing you want to do to prepare and what I did was run. Fun. All right, so when you’re at BMT, you’re going to be running three days a week for 30 minutes without stopping. So you’re not in a full sprint for 30 minutes. You can honestly go at your own pace.
So I call it like the BMT shuffle because there’s a point where you’re just completely exhausted and you’re barely jogging, but you’re also not walking. So it’s like a fast walk jog. But what I recommend is start running three days a week. Run three days a week for 30 minutes. Do not focus on your time, necessarily, just build that endurance.
Because if you build your endurance, your PT scores for the mile and a half run are going to be dramatically better. So don’t so much focus on just running a mile and a half because you’ll be fine. You have three opportunities to test in basic training for the mile and a half run. The minute of pushups and a minute of sit ups. So those first two PT tests are really just determining your baseline.
And the third one and final one is what determines if you graduate BMT, and that is your official PT score. So you have a lot of opportunities to work your way up. So do not focus on the mile and a half run. Focus on running for 30 minutes. And that’s probably going to be about 3 miles, roughly.
If you’re doing about a ten minute mile, which is relatively slow, that’s a pretty solid run. Like, it’s not going to be super easy, but it’s not super hard either. So run three days a week for 30 minutes. Don’t focus on the time it takes for you to run. Just run for 30 minutes.
All right. The next thing is body weight exercises. So for me, I was doing a lot of training in the gym, specifically weight training, which was great. Weightlifting is awesome, I love it. But it didn’t really help me at all with the body weight exercises because they are very different, specifically push ups.
So you really do want to practice push ups because while they will teach you and you do have a lot of opportunities to improve, you also don’t want to get there not knowing how to do shit. So you want to be pretty solid on running, and you want to be pretty solid on your push ups and sit ups. So start working on that. If you can’t even do one push up right now, it’s completely fine. When I started training, I could not do a single push up, but I was squatting 150 pounds, right?
I just did not really have that upper body strength at all, but I definitely was in shape. So even if you’re in shape, don’t just assume that you will be good at pushups. Definitely start practicing, and if you can’t do one, it’s fine. Start on your knees, work your way up. There’s a lot of videos on YouTube on how to do a perfect pushup and how to work your way up on doing a lot of them a lot easier.
So definitely check some of those out because they really did help me. Another thing you’re going to want to do to prepare is pre stamp your envelopes and write out the mailing addresses. So start off with bringing like 15, I think is a pretty good starting point, depending on how much you plan to write and how many people you plan to send letters to. But prestamping them and pre writing out the mailing address in the recipient’s name is going to save you so much time. You do get time to write letters, and you do get downtime, but you don’t get a lot of it.
So it’s nice to soak up every second that you can. So definitely prepare by pre stamping those envelopes and bringing them with you. The next thing is buying a Casio watch on Amazon, so you can buy this once you get to BMT, but it’s nice to just be prepared and show up with it. If I would have known about it, I would have done it. So this watch, to this day, three years later, I’ve never had to change the batteries.
It is the best watch ever, and it’s $20 like you need it. You can set timers on it, you can set an alarm on it, which really helped me. And it’s just nice to know the time because you don’t have your phone with you and there’s not a lot of clocks everywhere. So it’s nice to just have that concept of time on you. So what I did, which you’re not really supposed to do, I’m pretty sure you can get in trouble.
But I set my timer to wake up 30 minutes early, so my alarm would go off at 530 on my watch. And I would get up and I would brush my hair and brush my teeth and then get back in bed so that when our mtis came to wake us up and revely played to wake us up, I only had to change my clothes and make my bed and then I was good to go and it was nice because I got the bathroom to myself. So if you can figure out a system to get up earlier and be more efficient without getting caught, I would recommend doing that. But you didn’t hear it from me, right? Another thing is, don’t stress about having to wake up early.
Like before BMT, you don’t need to start a schedule of getting up early. I promise you, you will wake up just fine. Before basic, I literally woke up at like 1011 in the morning, right? It was so hard for me to wake up. I would be late to school all the time.
Like, I could just not wake up early. But in basic training, your adrenaline fuels you and the fact that your mtis are yelling at you to get up out of bed and a song plays in the morning to also get you up out of bed. So don’t worry, you will not have an opportunity to sleep in or wake up late. Like, no worries about that. You will get up early with no problem, I promise.
Another thing you want to practice for my ladies is putting your hair up fast. So the hair regulations did change. There’s a lot more flexibility on it. I don’t know the exacts, but, like, I’m wearing my hair in a ponytail right now. You can wear it in a braid.
You can wear it in two braids. You can wear it in a bun. Just double check that, Reg. If your hair, if it’s super long, you’re going to have to put it up in a bun. So just check that.
But practice, practice, practice putting it up fast and neat because like I said, you do not have a lot of time to get ready in the morning and at night. So you’re going to want to know how to put your hair up fast without stressing. I got to a point in basic where I didn’t even need a mirror to put up my hair with gel hairspray and all. I was able to put it up fine. So really just practicing that will really help you stay prepared.
Another thing is memorize the airman’s creed. Memorize the airman’s creed. I promise you it will help you tremendously. So if you’re in the debt program, which is the delayed entry program, you’re probably already going to have it memorized. Because your monthly meetups, you do do the airman’s creed, and your recruiter is probably going to tell you to memorize it.
But if you’re not in depth or you don’t do that, whatever, this is your first time hearing about it, memorize the airman’s creed before you go to basic. It will save you time and stress. And on that, also memorize the air force ranks. So memorize airmen. Airmen first class, senior airmen, all the way down the list, as well as officers and the corresponding number of stripes or the officer symbols.
You’re just going to want to know those things because I don’t know. In basic, you do have opportunities to learn them. You’re in class a lot of the day. But personally, for me, it was so much easier to be prepared and already have that knowledge versus tacking on another thing that I had to memorize, another thing I had to learn. Especially when you’re under a lot of stress, it’s easier to already know it versus having to memorize something completely new.
And just a couple of tips, I guess this would go on being prepared. Pack some band aids and Dr. Scholes inserts for your boots. It is a complete lifesaver. So when you get your new boots issued, you’re going to have blisters out the ass, especially if you have small feet.
So I’m a size three in kids, five in women’s, and the boots in basic, and even today, they really don’t fit properly. They don’t really make super small military combat boots. And the ones in basic are very, very standard issue, and they’re heavy and they’re bulky. The ones I have now are lightweight boots, basically like a glorified sneaker. But in basic training, your combat boots are legit combat boots.
So pack some bandaids with you, because you’re not going to want to have to go down to medical waste all that time. Get set back in training just to get some freaking bandaids because you have blisters. So pack some bandaids. And those, Dr. Scholls, pack those, too, because your feet will be hurting.
I actually didn’t even end up using mine for too long, but it was just a nice thing to have. It’s like, what, $20? It’s nice to just pack it in case you do need it. And don’t bring too much cash with you because you do have to literally write the serial number on a piece of paper of each dollar bill you have. So just really don’t bring too much cash.
Bring, like, $20, because I’m pretty sure to buy your squadron sweatshirt and your squadron t shirt. I believe it was cash only. So just bring your debit or credit card, whatever one you use. And another thing to prepare for. Make sure you have your finances squared away.
So make sure that your recurring bills, that you have enough in there so your account doesn’t get overdrafted because you’re not going to be able to check your phone all the time to check your finances and your bills. So make sure that you have enough in your account to pay those bills for those two months while you’re gone. Or give someone that you trust, like a family member, your spouse, whoever, access to that information so that they can pay your bills for you. Just make sure that your finances are squared away so that you don’t get screwed when you get out. So yeah, just make sure your finances are squared away.
And that’s pretty much all I can think of for the major things on how to prepare for basic training. But as always, if you guys have any questions, you can always dm me on my Instagram. I’ve been a lot better at responding to those. I get so many comments on YouTube that I really don’t see all of them. So if you do have questions, it’s really easiest to just reach me on Instagram.
And that’s at Rose underscore Michaela. So thank you guys so much for watching and I hope this was a little helpful.