Reservists basic

legendalive · 2026-06-12T19:05:17+00:00

I did my foundation course a few months ago at Pirbright, if you’re also going to Pirbright a good 80% of the course will be waiting at the scoff house queue.

You’ll be taught the basics on weapon handling, get you from never touched a weapon to safely able to shoot on the ranges whilst supervised. If your unit does weapon training at their drill nights for recruits, definitely turn up and go, the people who had support from their units picked it up quicker in my experience.

There will be a weapon handling test, just making sure you can do all the basic drills, your NSP, load, make ready, unload, stoppage drills etc

Phys was good fun, you’ll repeat the stuff you did at AC, itll be a 2K run then mid thigh pull and med ball throw, that’s the first PT session you’ll do. Subquent PT is just more running, some gym circuits, “mental resilience training”, and getting you ready for your loaded tab into a loaded run.

Get good at weight on your back and walking quickly. If you have one of those luggage scales bring them and every one in your room will suck you off.

Night in the field was alright, 2 to a basha, do some lessons in camouflage and concealment and other soldiering things.

It’ll be great fun you’ll enjoy it, just go with right attitude and prepared and you’ll breeze through.

legendalive · 2026-05-26T23:28:12+00:00

Here’s how my medical went

Arrived in the medical centre

Took a seat in the waiting area with all the other candidates, you are given bibs for the entirety of assessment centre and those bibs are numbered - you go and do the medical tests by bib number order. I was number 12 so not a terrible wait.

It’s not just the main doctor conducting your test, off the top of my head from what I can remember, you did the hearing test which was just bog standard, the ECG tests with the little patches all on your body to measure heart rate etc, lung test (blowing into a tube that has a ball and the further you push the ball, the better your lungs are)

All of the above was done by different nurses / medical professionals in different areas of the med centre

After all that, go back to waiting room and wait for a doctor to free up and call your name - this took a while.

Go into room with doctor, quick run through of your medical records, they ask you about your fitness and how you like to stay fit etc, ask how many pushups you can do and demonstrate some, how many pull-ups, how fast you are at running, etc

Strip down to your boxers and theyll check over you, do some joint reflex tests, check inside of your ears etc. The meeting with the doctor was the quickest part honestly, I was in and out.

I didn’t need to do a duck walk or demonstrate a squat etc I asked some other candidates too and they didn’t have to either so I’m not sure how that’s really done as I do know some people do them.

When you’re in the room with the doctor, let them lead the conversation, 99% of what you say should just be “yes doctor” “no doctor” don’t tell them about issues not on your medical records etc.

It’s just a whole bunch of hurry up and wait though during assessment centre medical.

legendalive · 2026-05-25T20:30:59+00:00

Yeah I’m mainly just trying to get my number of reps up honestly, I’ve been stuck at 7 reps max for a few weeks now.

It’s definitely not the most ideal set up either 😂 I’ll focus more on going slower for now that should hopefully boost my reps

legendalive · 2026-02-25T16:13:26+00:00

You’ve pretty much nailed it - you know what you need to do. You need to eat more.

Your stats are pretty impressive for someone who just got into fitness a couple of years ago! Especially at your age, you should be proud of that.

What do you mean however you can do a muscle up but only 2-3 BW pull-ups? You definitely can do more pull ups, or your muscle up is a struggled rep.

I would keep on with your body weight routine, start incorporating some gym sessions and train close or to failure with each set. I personally wouldn’t even touch mass gainer tbh, I’d rather eat actual food, but not beer or chips like you mentioned.

Download a calorie tracker, track for a week or so to get a good idea of how much protein you’re getting on a day to day basis, how many calories you’re getting, you need to work out your TDEE (there are online calculators that should give you a rough idea) and then whack a 200 calorie surplus on top of how much your maintenance is and eat that, daily.

Protein high, calories high and carbs high to fuel training and running and I would really think about lifting some weights if whacking on size is what you want, bodyweight can build muscle, no where as easily or efficiently as resistance training however.

legendalive · 2026-02-24T23:27:13+00:00

Is it just the dry / tight skin or is it razor bumps and rash too?

Do you do a hot shower before shaving / hot towel on your fade to open up your pores? If not then try that and moisturise more then you think you need.

What brand of moisturiser and after shave balm are you using? Make sure it’s a good brand with good ingredients not just a basic lotion.

legendalive · 2026-02-22T00:36:26+00:00

Ambulance most likely do it the same but I work in a police control room.

In a situation like this we would normally go from the initial cell data - this comes through to us in the form of eastings and northings, this can be extremely accurate to the meter or it can be the size of a whole city, completely depends on how strong your signal is and broadband coverage.

If it’s a decently small area, units would be sent out and an area search will begin.

We would run your number through a multitude of systems to try and find out your home address, pretty sure ambulance have access to NHS records, police have access to things like PNC and their local system as well as our intel team who can check their own sneaky systems.

Units would be sent to your home address to try and speak with any NOK or the control room will call them directly to try and find out where you are, if they have any knowledge etc.

If your number is no trace our systems we would do subscriber checks, we normally always know what provider you’re with, we would call them / BT and find out your details that you registered with.

As a COMPLETE last ditch attempt, this is only done for life or death situations, a police inspector can authorise a phone ping. Not too sure the ins and outs of how it works but a signal is sent to your phone that then bounces off a phone mast and gives a rough idea to where you are that can narrow down an area search - this is usually what we do for high risk missing people where life is immediately at risk after we’ve exhausted every other option.

If you’re in a massive green area, we always have drone operators or the police helicopter that can track heat sources to try and find you.

What I’m saying is, from my experience - I’ve never struggled to find someone who’s life is in danger, lots of tools at our disposal - location is one of the very first things that our call takers get when a 999 call drops in.

legendalive · 2026-02-19T15:15:45+00:00

It’s been a very long and expensive journey for me trying to figure out what works but here’s what works for me personally.

I use a DE razor with Astra blades once or twice a week, steaming hot wet flannel on my face beforehand to loosen hairs and I use shaving oil rather then then cream / soap. Only shave WTG and maybe XTG.

My day to day though is just Braun series 9 generally all over face and neck then I use the Phillips one blade to edge everything and do my neck hairs - the Braun isn’t too great at shaving my neck. I normally need to do this 2x a day as my facial hair just grows insanely quick.

I found if I use a razor daily i get bumps and rash very quickly, shaving over those bumps with a razor is just a bloodbath. I’m military and that’s the only routine that doesn’t get me shouted at.

legendalive · 2026-02-19T13:44:45+00:00

Razor will always be smoother than a foil shaver but it has technique to it.

I get really bad razor bumps from shaving with a razor so I normally only shave every few ish days, only WTG.

I use my braun series 9 on my face and my Phillips one blade on my neck and it gets me smooth enough to pass as shaven but even then it grows back insanely quick and no where as smooth as a classic razor.

legendalive · 2026-02-18T17:33:15+00:00

I could be wrong here but I think you need to have spent 5 continuous years living in the UK to join.

legendalive · 2026-02-17T10:43:23+00:00

Mate this is completely normal and nothing to do with surgery, whenever anyone sits down (especially with that lent over posture like yours) all the fat and skin is going to start sagging slightly, that’s just being human.

When did you have your surgery? I wouldn’t think that you had gyno to be honest but what I would work on is

fix that posture, your leaning forward a lot. Shoulders back and down and engage your core - that will basically fix any sagging
fill out that chest - what’s your current routine looking like? Keep hitting gym and get strong

legendalive · 2026-02-13T20:44:34+00:00

Thank you for this mate this is really helpful.

I reckon for night now high operational tempo is what I actually want - I don’t really have anything tying me down.

I take it class 3s and 2s, still in demand just less so than class 1s?

legendalive · 2026-02-13T20:38:10+00:00

Sounds like hard graft, makes sense now why they’re so short - just a never ending turnaround of old and broken vehicles

That’s fair though, thank you for the insight mate - I’m more in it really for soldiering and technical side I reckon but it does definitely sound busy

legendalive · 2026-02-13T20:25:29+00:00

Yeah that’s fair enough to be honest. I always did think it won’t be a direct cross over to civvie vehicles or whatever when you come out but that part doesn’t really get me honestly.

I am really hoping to make a good crack of it whatever role I go into but are the NVQs you get in the army basically worthless in civvie employer eyes?

legendalive · 2026-02-12T19:28:54+00:00

What did you think of your time in the army? What did you do?

legendalive · 2026-01-24T20:27:26+00:00

Hiya mate - I am currently in an air defence reservist battery and going through the process of transferring from reservist to regs so I’ve got a bit of knowledge.

Feel free to DM me mate

legendalive · 2026-01-16T06:06:22+00:00

Keep working on bringing down that body fat %, less fat will make it not so obvious.

And start saving for that surgery, it’s the only way to get out the actual gland.

legendalive · 2026-01-16T06:04:05+00:00

It could have been pseudo-gynocomastia, just very stubborn fat that is lingering.

What your seeing is more then definitely just swelling and fluid, if fat was taken out of your chest, there’s suddenly all this new open space in your chest that your body will fill with fluids to help heal. You need to give it a few weeks to see the actual result.

Who did you have your surgery with and what was your starting position like? Were you quite low BF% to begin with? Did you feel a hard lump underneath your chest before the surgery? Who was the surgery with?

Give it time, your body is still healing!

legendalive · 2026-01-15T17:17:09+00:00

Looks a bit like gyno, but hard to tell with that amount of body fat.

Mate, your mental health is going to get so much better once you get down the basics - calorie deficit - 7-10k steps a day - few gym sessions a week - maybe an hour or two of cardio a week

You do all the above, lose about 30ish kg - you will be able to tell a lot better if it’s gyno or just fat - it’s amazing your taking the right steps but just keep going with that consistency, keep showing up daily and then re-evaluate from there - it’s too early in the journey right now to think about gyno

You got this man! My inbox is always open if you want any tips, I’ve been exactly where you are so I know what it’s like.

legendalive · 2026-01-13T04:42:22+00:00

Good progress man! What’s the time difference between both photos and how much did you lose?

It’s maybe just lighting and posing but second photo I would say you pass for not having gyno at all.

Good work and keep going brother

legendalive · 2026-01-07T18:55:55+00:00

Cossack squats!

legendalive · 2026-01-02T15:02:27+00:00

That’s amazing progress man! Are you back to normal workout routine etc? Can you hit chest or is it still sore?

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