QUESTION
I need a hand choosing a plan. I have come to a conclusion in life that I have 2 primal jobs protecting and providing for my family. I think there is a really important physical aspect to that. I think you catch my drift here.
I’m pretty new to training but know I need to incorporate it into my daily life. I really need to improve in all areas because I haven’t done any form of formal fitness for 10 + years. Do you have any suggestions on a pipeline of programs that might fit my needs?
ANSWER
Because you haven’t been training for 10+ years I’m concerned that all of our current programming may be too intense for you starting out. What I’d recommend from our current programming is the
Bodyweight Foundation Training Plan.
Go to the link and click “Sample Training” to see the entire first week of programming. I’d recommend you try it and see how you recover. If you can handle the first week, start with the full programming.
– Rob
QUESTION
I was just wondering, what workout plan would work best for functional fitness that you guys offer?
ANSWER
If you’re a soldier or in the military, start with
Hector.
If you’re a civilian – I’d recommend
Johnny.
Both are multi-modal training plans which concurrently train strength, work capacity, endurance and chassis integrity (core). Hector includes rucking and tactical agility.
– Rob
QUESTION
Good morning I’m writing in regards to after prep. I was to enter October. But I got crushed with covid. Out of it for about 7 weeks pneumonia fever etc. this week has been my first full week of weight lifting. However I wanted to start up your SFRE prep. I realize it is only 7 weeks. Im preparing to go in for SFRE in April which gives me almost 17 weeks. What should I do I read your over view and it’s scheduled to enter SFRE after the final week. Also I don’t have a rubber ducky. So should I add 8-10 lb to my ruck? I live in NYC and it’s pretty liberal her so I don’t think the neighbors or pd would appreciate full battle rattle.
ANSWER
Start now with
Humility. Repeat weeks 5 + 6 of the plan to stretch it to 9 weeks. Then take a full week rest, then start the SFRE Training Plan the 7 weeks directly before your SFRE.
Ducky? Use a 10# dumbbell or sledge hammer.
– Rob
QUESTION
I am a special agent with a 3 letter agency. I am a skinny runner ( skinny fat). I’ve always been skinny, I am looking to move away from distance running, which I do every day, and move to a program where I can build muscle. I am on an SRT team as well. I want to build core and hip strength. I have access to a gym at my office, with a full rack, a few dumbbells, a treadmill and air assault bike. What program do you suggest? My cardio is good as well.
ANSWER
Start with
Gladiator. Gladiator is a focused strength plan build around MTI’s Barbell Complex. It’s a brutally simple way to build total body strength and add some functional mass.
Follow it up with
Ruger, which is the first plan in our
Gun Maker Packet for full time SWAT and SRT. Gladiator is a multi-modal plan which concurrently trains strength, work capacity, short endurance, chassis integrity (functional core) and tactical agility.
– Rob
QUESTION
I had a question about possibly combining the Marine OCS Plan and Running improvement plan. I recently competed the Marine PFT plan and can not say enough great things about the results from it. I am currently training for Marine OCS and was wondering if it would hurt to do an AM/PM workout doing both the Marine OCS plan, and running improvement together. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
ANSWER
Bad idea. The USMC OCS Training Plan already includes running. You could add in a moderate-paced, 6-10 mile run on Saturdays, if you want, but not the full programming from the Running Improvement Plan.
– Rob
QUESTION
I’m on week 5 of the 8 week ruck based selection. I am scheduled for selection in 4 weeks.
For the week 4 for APFT assessment I score +4PU, -5SU, +0 Pull ups and 10s faster on the 2mile. Biggest concern moving forward is getting faster on the run and trying to get +2 Pull up.
I believe the SU and PLUP results are from the Saturday session ruck and still being pretty sore
Any recommendations? Should I add an extra set of whatever cardio is on a training day? Take a longer break? Shorter break? Same with pull-ups ?
ANSWER
Running – don’t add any extra work. The volume in this plan is significant, and adding work will hurt your recovery and therefore, fitness improvement. Rather, read POSE Running or Chi running and work on your running form. This may help a lot.
Pull Ups … do 10 sets of 50% of your latest max reps every day … spread throughout the day – except for the days when you do the pull up programming from the plan.
– Rob
QUESTION
I am attending the Civil Affairs Qualification Course in February and plan to being the CAQC training packet in January. In the specific assessments sections it notes that the APFT will be tested multiple times and that the APFT is listed as a specific gate the training is geared towards. I am not sure whether the APFT or the ACFT will be administered at the course – is there anything you would recommend differently in preparation for one or the other while executing this training plan?
ANSWER
We’ve received no indication that it would be the ACFT, and in the new Defense Authorization Bill is a provision that the ACFT not be administered anymore until an independent study can be conducted …. All that being said, If you get word that it may be administered, adding Dead Lifts (8 rounds of 3 reps – increasing rapidly each round until 3 is hard, but doable) to Monday’s and replacing the prescribed sit ups with leg tucks is what I’d recommend.
– Rob
QUESTION
34, male, 200 want to go back down 15 lbs
Martial arts /airborne ops lyfe style
Would rate current level 2 of 4
Still able to move moderately well
Strength took a dip last year and cardio is minimal.
I’ve been doing 531 religiously and rucking once a week 30 40 mins out and back for about a 10 months now as coming off previous injuries from service.
I’m looking to incorporate my range into fitness course work and do something tactically 3 x times a week
Like t th s
And do something like traditional lifts on m w f
However I know my weakness is the cardio portion and want to bring my overall level of health together and be more focused on training now.
ANSWER
– Rob
QUESTION
I have already purchased The Ultimate Meathead Cycle plan for the winter bulk phase for some bodybuilding. However, I’m probably missing it, I do not see a dedicated “cutting” phase plan. Do y’all have a dedicated cutting plan or an equivalent plan? Perhaps it’s called something else?
ANSWER
My guess is diet would be 90% of cutting.
– Rob
QUESTION
I am attending MARSOC A&S in April of 2021. I am planning to purchase the Greek Hero Package to develop my base fitness. What would be the best training plan or recommendation from the Greek Hero Package, to use before I lead into sport specific training (A&S Training Packet)?
Also, depending on what base fitness training plan I am on, can I concurrently use your 4-Week Swim Improvement Plan to maintain my swimming proficiency?
Any guidance and advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
ANSWER
By my count, you have 15 weeks until April 1, and the
MARSOC A&S Plan is 9 weeks long.
Now I’d recommend
Barbossa – which is the first plan in our Pirates Packet for full-time SOF with water-based mission sets. This plan includes swimming – so you won’t need to double up.
– Rob
QUESTION
I have done your plans before and am considering coming back. I’ve Altered my training and am looking for a plan to help me prepare for “police fit”.
I will be representing my police detachment next summer. It is a competition much like the one done by firefighters but with a police spin. Do you have any plans that would be able to help?
This page shows each step of the competition
I’m looking to be able to do this while still maintaining my running
ANSWER
It’s not perfect, and it’s overkill for this event … but it’s the closest we have.
– Rob
QUESTION
The reason I am reaching out is because I have an athlete that I am coaching that is going to climb Everest in May. I wanted to pick your brain and expertise about the periodization, bio-motor, and body composition qualities that are going to be necessary for him to be successful. We don’t plan or organize their training per say but we try to create the best eco-system to support the level of training necessary for climbing Everest. It is important for me to try to understand the periodization from what recovery strategies to use, what skills to amplify, and how to pulse in the correct nutrition/supplementation. Any help you could assist with would be greatly appreciated! I look forward to hearing back from you!
ANSWER
I’m not sure I understand your question. I’m not a nutritionist and so can’t help with that, and I’m not sure what you mean by bio-motor and body composition or how to “pulse” the correct nutrition/supplementation. I don’t endorse or advocate supplements. In terms of recovery, soreness/fatigue decrease as fitness increases. I’ve never seen any significant improvement from massages, cold therapy, hot therapy, stretching, etc. You can tell I’m pretty old school about all this stuff.
From a fitness perspective, a high alpine climb like this has a significant mountain endurance emphasis – specifically, uphill movement under load. Mountain endurance is the focus of our
Everest Training Plan – which is 23 weeks of progressed programming into the climb. Click the link for details.
Sorry, I can’t be more helpful.
– Rob
QUESTION
I saw in one of your recent Q&A articles that you told someone “After the season starts, depending upon how much skiing you’re doing, either complete the In-Season Ski Maintenance Training Plan, or drop into the SF45 Alpha.”
I was curious if you could expand on that. If I can only get to the slopes one day a week, should I go with the in-season plan or the general fitness plan?
For reference, I’d pick up the Tribes Packet if you suggest general fitness.
ANSWER
The
In-Season Ski Maintenance Training Plan is designed for athletes who have completed our Dryland Ski Training Plan prior to the season, and want to maintain their ski fitness throughout the season. It has ski-specific maintenance training for serious weekend warrior skiers as well as general fitness programming for ski professionals (instructors, ski patrol guides) who are actually skiing 3-5 times/week.
So, it somewhat depends (1) on if you completed the
Dryland Ski Training Plan, and (2) how serious you are about your weekend training. If you completed dryland and are serious, purchase the In-Season plan and do the “weekend warrior” programming.
If you’re like to ski, but want to maintain or build back more rounded fitness during the ski season, go with the general fitness in the Tribe packet, but just be sure to take a full day’s rest before your ski day, and if necessary, another full day rest after skiing before getting back to training again. Follow the sessions in order … don’t skip sessions.
– Rob
QUESTION
I am trying to find a good fitness plan for my spouse. I have used a lot of your ruck and running programming and found it helpful. I want to find a simple and easy program for my wife; she’s a fitness novice and still needs to build a training foundation. For example, she still doesn’t have the upper body strength to do more than a few pushups. She is a moderate runner, and she did a lot of my pre-selection rucks along with me with just a camelback, so she is very capable of putting in mileage.
However, it can be difficult to teach someone that you care about how to physically train. She really enjoys when she is able to do workouts with me, but she struggles with a lot of the strength exercises. I want to help her develop some physical strength and toughness so we can do this together.
What program do you recommend?
ANSWER
If you have dumbbells (15# for her, 25# for you), and a sandbag (40# for her, 60# for you), do
Apache.
You can do either plan together. Both deploy assessments and progressions based on your assessment results – so the plans scale to each athlete.
– Rob
QUESTION
My department is holding its PFT in March. It’s a standard push-up/sit-up/1.5 mile run that mirrors the USAF PFT.
I have a long term goal of hitting the thousand pound club while maintaining a sub 6 Min mile run and have made decent progress towards that goal.
Is there a plan/combination of plans that I could use to maintain my lift development and prepare for the test? Or should I drop lifting for a couple months prior to focus on the PFT?
The current date is unknown, just it will occur in March.
Thanks for your constant research and support for Military and First Responders
ANSWER
Combo Plans? You could cobble Together the Big 3 + 2 Mile Run Training Plan and the USAF PFT Training Plan.
The 2-mile progression in this plan will prepare you for the PFT 1.5 mile run. You could do a push up and sit up assessment on Week 1, Saturday, then follow the USAF PFT progression for those two exercises every Saturday. You wouldn’t want to do bunches of push ups and sit ups earlier in the week as they’ve would negatively impact your ability to make the progressions for the heavy lifts.
Or … you could drop out of all your other training and complete the first 4 weeks of the USAF PFT training Plan directly before your assessment, then drop back into your regular programming.
– Rob
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