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I’ll be going into the national guard infantry as a 11c. Any suggestions on what plans I should take to help me operate with a major load?
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I severely sprained my ankle working in the Winds July 21st. I limp hiked 22 miles over several days to get out. The doc says that may have set me back a little bit so I am unsure of my injury recovery timeline. He is thinking I can return to instructing/guiding (work as a mountaineering, backpack, and sea kayak instructor/guide) in some capacity mid Octoberish. 4
Guiding/instructing mountaineering/backpacking is up in the air. I am currently not getting scheduled on any trips or NOLS courses until I get cleared, which means I get passed up for work. I just got permission to go on a 1 mile flat trail stroll around one of our lakes. Woohoo!
October is when work slows down significantly so I am resigning myself mentally to being done for the season in that realm, focus on staying fit/healing, and looking forward to/prepping for the backcountry ski season (work and play). I figure if I prep for that and wind up working something different I should still be good…most people move slow and aren’t used to altitude. My 70-80% is usually their 110% (not trying to sound cocky).
I am currently on week 3 of the lower leg injury program. It’s going well. I am trying to plan ahead a bit. I will finish the lower leg injury program Sept 22nd and will be out of town (no gym access) Sept. 23rd-October 14th. What do you suggest I do during this time and when I return to prepare for the winter ski season?
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Best bet would be to start knocking out the Post Rehab Training Program once you’re cleared and pain-free . This will condition the bad ankle back into action without overdoing it. After that, I’d recommend our Backcountry Ski Pre-Season Training Program.
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I’ve had a subscription for a few months and have experimented with a few plans as I figured out where my best ‘starting point’ was and what fit my schedule best. I have failed to fully commit to one, but have at least a decent base to train hard off from.
My department announced today that they are processing again for our tactical team, so I had a few questions about what plan would be best to prepare to do well on the fitness test, as well as prepare for the selection course. I see several plans that would likely work, but wondered what you would think to be best.
The fitness test is:
Run 1.5 miles (min 13:18)
Run 300 Meters (min 57.9 sec)
Sit Ups (37/min)
Push Ups (40/min)
Bench (1 rep at 1.25 Body Weight)
Leg Press (1 rep at 2.24 Body Weight)
As you can see, the minimum standards are rather low, however I work for a larger department and these slots are very competitive, so it is important to far exceed the minimums…
The department is very quiet about how the selection process works, but my understanding is this:
Applicants will attend selection based on –
Fitness Test Scores
Resume
Oral Interview
Mental Screening
“Phobia” Testing (heights, water, small spaces, etc)
Selected applicants will complete a 2-3 week selection course and from that, they will determine who gets to proceed into the training. I’m not sure how much time I will have to prepare for either, but expect approx. 4 weeks to get ready for the PT test. The selection course could run anytime from a few weeks to a few months later…
My current numbers are:
1.5 mile run: 11 Min
300m sprint: Unknown
Sit Ups: 50 – 1 min
Push Ups: 60 – 1 min
Bench: 205# 1RM
Leg Press: Unknown
Weight: 190
I’m mainly concerned with increasing my bench and preparing for the leg press, as I know I’m cutting it close with the bench and have no way to test my leg press. I also know that my sprint times aren’t likely to be as strong as I’d like.
I know the selection course consists of significant amounts of running on extremely steep hills, carrying weight, sometimes as a group (poles, breaching equip, etc), calisthenics for days, etc. There are some pool sessions, however, I expect those to be pass/fail. I’m not the strongest swimmer, but I’m comfortable in the water and have done (I expect) similar water tests in the military.
For equipment, I have access to a power/squat rack, a plywood box and lots of good hills/running trails. As I live in the middle of nowhere, I don’t have access to a public track and the gym does not have a leg press machine. I can measure out 300m with a tape on a road. I can build/improvise other needed equipment.
I appreciate any workout plan you can recommend. I work midnights, so proper sleep/recovery is always a struggle that I know I need to focus on. Also, should my diet focus primarily on weight loss to lower the amount I need for the bench/leg press and run faster? Or should I just focus on eating clean and taking in higher amounts of protein? I’ve had very good luck with Keto in the past, and can drop 10lbs fairly easily, but feel weak when I lift on restricted calorie diets.
Thank you in advance!
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Do you have any recommendations for running the DEVGRU Selection packet but adjusting from “garbage reps” to your more modern gym-based endurance philosophy?
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We’re constantly revising plans to reflect our news methods, but haven’t gotten to the DEVGRU plan yet. Apologies.
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Hoping you can point me to some work you have already done on this topic. I wasn’t unable to find anything when looking at your knowledgebase online.
What is your philosophy on training when sore and I’m not talking about minor soreness? I see two thoughts with one having muscle soreness that is such that it impacts movement (like you struggle to walk normally which is a good outcome of leg blasters/quadzilla complex, etc..) and then ultimately joint soreness.
For the first and I guess the last I have always had the power through it attitude. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve had times where I push and I react well during training and end up able to perform better latter after a recovery taper. I didn’t lose much performance during training and made incremental steps forward. Other times performance has declined and the end result suffered by pushing through. Partly due to getting older I suppose.
Any general thoughts? Again I’m nearing 43 and ready to admit that I’m not 23 anymore. However I still want to train at an intensity that keeps me functional for skiing, running, chasing kids, etc….
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First, off I’d like to thank you for the excellent information you give out for free every week. I always am sure to save your emails so that I can reference them in the future. Second, I recently just subscribed to the athlete program this month and have a question as to which program to begin once my training is complete. I will be finishing Infantry Officer training for the Marine Corps at the end of the month and want to be as prepared as possible for any future fight we may encounter. I’ve been looking at the Busy Operator II, the Daily Operator Sessions, the Urban Conflict Pre-Deployment Training, and the Afghanistan Pre-Deployment Training Plans. I’d say my fitness level is relatively high, but while at school most of my training has been surviving as opposed to improving physically. I personally want to improve my strength levels without gaining much size. I’ve also realized at this school how important stamina and endurance are to maintain tempo and continuous operations. Any advice would be very much appreciate. Please let me know if you need clarification on anything or if you have questions. Thank you for your time Rob.
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Good afternoon sir, would there be an equvlant, “rookie training packet” for the law enforcement side?
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I’ve heard great things about mountain athlete, but until now have never checked it out myself. I’m wondering if you can recommend which of your programs I should choose based on the following situation:
I injured my wrist last week when I crashed on a motorcycle, and have been told that it will be immobilized for 8-12 weeks. It’s my dominant hand. I primarily define myself as a whitewater kayaker, and prior to this injury, I had a really good base of paddling fitness. I also work as a ski guide at Silverton mountain part time in the winters. I’m a recreational trail/mountain runner and have run the Moab trail marathon the past 2 years. I also aspire to do the elk mtns grand traverse this year, depending on a few factors. I also might go to South America to paddle in January. I usually don’t spend any time in the gym, and I’m not great at self-guided workouts aside from jogging, and I can’t do that every single day because I keep getting IT band tendinitis. I just got a gym membership. I’d like to come out of this as fit and healthy as possible, as ready as I can be for a paddling trip, ski season, and maybe run the Moab trail marathon again. I don’t have a whole lot else to do besides train and go to work at this point.
I can’t figure out specifically how much upper body work is involved in the various training programs.I don’t want to pay for something where I’m going to have to skip a significant number of the workouts. Can you help to point me in the right direction? Thank you so much!
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I’m not taking the CPAT until February, so roughly six months from now. I noticed the CPAT training plan is only four weeks long. Is there anther plan you would recommend to work through before starting the CPAT plan? Thanks!
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I graduated from West Point in 2016, branched infantry but went straight to graduate school at MIT after graduation from West Point. I am in the process of trying to secure an inter-service transfer to the air force and will be going to the combat rescue officer selection course in late October. I was in great endurance shape at West Point (competed on the marathon team, did a few half iron-mans as well) and ended up finishing 2nd in my class physically out of over 1000 cadets. Since I have a lighter frame (normally 155 lbs) absolute strength has not been one of my best “strengths” although I do occasionally do cross-fit and have group through cycles of olympic weight lifting.
I’m wondering what you would suggest strength training wise to prepare for CRO-selection in about 2 months. I currently do a lot of exercises with kettlebells, sandbags, and a weighted vest similar to what you plan in your programs but I’ve found the only true way I gain strength and some more muscle mass is through the more traditional lifts (squat, dead lift, bench, military press). However, given my intense schedule of running and swimming, and heavy strength sets I do (i.e. 5×5 squats or DLs) leave me with Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) that lasts after least a day and sometimes more. From experience, I know I can get rid of DOMS in strength training if I prioritize the main lifts by squatting 2-3x/week, DL 1x/week, etc. but again, this cuts in to my recovery and time I can spend training running, swimming, rucking, and other calestinics based exercises (pushups, pull-ups, sit ups, body weight squats/lunges, etc.) which is know is what these types of selection courses prioritize.
Thanks in advance for any help,
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Hi I’m currently doing the law enforcement, SWAT/SRT Gun Maker series program. Could you possible tell me a way to add in sit-ups to my daily program because I’m not very good at doing sit-ups with my feet not being held down and for my fitness test I need to do 45 in 60sec. Could you maybe educate me on a way to implement this in my program to be able to do that?
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Could you make a training plan recommendation after foundations? I am over 45 years old, have sedentary job and a newbie barbell lifter (1+years, squat, bench, deadlift). I am really enjoying barbell lifting and would like to continue in that direction with cardio intervals. Primarily training for general fitness (strength/mass) and tennis/golf season. I noticed the SF45 Packet, but the barbell skills are beyond my skill level. Thanks for your time.
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Can the Hypertrophy For Skinny Guys program be done with some a run cardio program?
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I’ve been away from Mountain Tactile for a while focusing on Olympic lifting. Right now, I checked bak at the site and you have some awesome programs I haven’t checked out yet. My question is this: I want to play rec soccer this fall (as an adult) so feel like my work capacity needs to improve a bit just so I don’t feel like I’m dying when I’m playing. Running 800s on my own doesn’t seem to cut it. However, I also want to maintain/perhaps slightly improve my strength in the snatch and clean and jerk (at least maintain). I know most of your programs don’t involved snatching, but is there any particular program you’d recommend to at least hit the work capacity AND strength? If I was coming up with something on my own, ideally I’d say just lifting 1-2x a week vs 3-4 (which is what I’m doing now) would be good for me at this point (also rehabbing a shoulder so can’t go crazy overhead with heavy jerks/snatches anyways).
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