QUESTION
So at the beginning of the year I built a home gym in my basement. Im currently on your eccentric strength program, due to my low ceilings i can’t do box jumps or step ups. What would you recommend to do to supplement these?
ANSWER
Any reason you can do step ups outside?
Box Jumps? If they are part of a work cap effort, you can haul equipment outside. If part of a strength circuit … Do a Broad Jump.
Be resourceful.
– Rob
QUESTION
Right now really the only place I will have to work out for the next month will be in my house/room depending on where I am located. I will have no equipment available to me. Please let me know if there is a plan you would recommend. Thank you for you time.
ANSWER
– Rob
QUESTION
I am looking for suggestions for a few plans based on the equipment that I have. I have the following equipment:
Pull-up bar
Dip stand
Rings
Sandbag (50 lbs)
Adjustable dumbbells (10-75lbs)
70 lbs KB
53 lbs KB
2 – 35 lbs KBs
Weight belt (for dips and pull-ups)
Concept2 Rower
Jump Rope
IBA vest (20 lbs)
Adjustable bench
I am 33 years old and in law enforcement. I am in above average shape for my age and would like to train 5-6 days a week. I am looking for suggestions for a few of your plans where I can workout at home with the above equipment since I can rely on a gym at this time. Even some suggestions on plans where I could substitute exercises or equipment required for the plan (barbells, different weighted sandbags, etc) would be helpful.
Thank you for your help and for everything you guys do!
ANSWER
3 Suggestions – all plans are 6-7 weeks long, 5 days/week –
– Rob
QUESTION
My Appalachian Trail hike of the White Mountains is not happening this year and the trails nearby (Shenandoah National Park) are closed. I’m working from home full time now, 55 years old, and am looking for a plan or two specifically to address:
– Increasing lung capacity (the nurses in my family say we’re all going to get COVID-19 so I want a fighting chance against it).
– Whole body fitness focused on agility to keep from losing muscle tone
– Core strength (sitting at a computer and on calls all day is killing my back)
– Stretching (to support general flexibility)
– Agility / flexibility specific to tactical shooting.
– Able to do at/from home with home type equipment (running/ rucking, pull-ups, dumbbells, kettlebell , hanging leg lifts, etc.)
Guess you could call it the “COVID Killer Plan”.
I’ve been doing the SF45 series and had planned on the Peak Bagger next, but things have changed.
What do you recommend?
ANSWER
Options:
– Rob
QUESTION
I just started the Ranger School Prep program, with all the pools closed for COVID, do you have a recommendation for what I can substitute on the swimming days?
ANSWER
60-90 minute run, easy pace. Easy = you can speak in full sentences while moving.
– Rob
QUESTION
In the Hinge Lift video with the below email “Training Common Mistakes”, (https://mtntactical.com/knowledge/common-mistakes/) he is using a mixed grip. In the exercise video on the MTI website (https://mtntactical.com/exercises/mnt1493-hinge-lift/) he is using an overhand grip. Question: does it matter?
ANSWER
Nope. Mixed grip only matters if the bar is so heavy and you can’t hold on to it. In that case, the mixed grip is better.
– Rob
QUESTION
Thanks for all that you do. Quick Q: I’m stuck at home, but starting your Gym Closure Workout. I don’t have a high platform for my sandbag keg lift. Can you suggest a modified lift technique, or alternative exercise? Maybe kneeling and lifting the sandbag to a lower platform?
Thanks again for helping us through these tough times.
ANSWER
– Rob
QUESTION
Rob, I have been researching your website and watching a lot of the YouTube videos. I really like what I see. I had a couple questions based on my specific information. I am a retired FBI HRT operator. I am 55 and had a hip replacement 6 months ago. Recovery is going really well, But my surgeon does not want me to run due to the wear and tear. When we aren’t shut down, I still travel a lot and I worry about the program working out at hotel type gyms. Also right now, and even when we aren’t shut down, I tend to work out at home(pullup bar,jungle gym(poor mans trx), 53# and 38# kettlebells, 50 # dumbbell, medicine balls, rowing machine, weight vest, sandbags on order). I read about your sf 45 series, and other programs, and wondered (especially with the no running and travel) if you thought it still made sense for me.
Any thoughts are appreciated and please respond only at your convenience.
ANSWER
I’d recommend starting with the
Gym Closure Training Plan, and walking with a 45# pack for the endurance days. The strength work is all bodyweight …. and is a good place to start building back.
– Rob
QUESTION
Thank you for your essays on quiet professionals, your book recommendations, and your douchebag gravity article.
I have adopted some of the teachings into my own life, morals, code of ethics, and used them as a guideline to improve myself and my life immensely.
I have a question relating to quiet professionalism and getting the job done.
I am in the Navy (Australian) on a smaller boat where there is just myself and my supervisor in our department. Because I have just been doing the work as it comes up, I have experienced an increase workload over the last 6 months that has resulted in my mental and emotional well being taking a hit.
The workload has not been spread evenly in the department.
How would you suggest I approach this situation with the attitude of “if you see that a job need doing, do it and don’t say ‘thats not my job” when that frame of mind has resulted in me taking on work that is above my pay grade and outside my scope of training. I have succeeded with it because of help from other departments/SME’s but if this keeps up I will be burnt out within a few months.
Any thoughts or suggestions on steps to take would be greatly appreciated.
ANSWER
I don’t know your individual situation, but it sounds similar to what I experienced during my own military time. Hard-working grinders are “rewarded” with more work because they’ll get stuff done.
Concerning “burn out” … just keep grinding and turn the dread to a challenge. You’ll be surprised and learn a lot about yourself by your actual work capacity. The workload won’t be overwhelming when you are able to release some of the resentment.
Concerning resentment …. see below from the Quiet Professionalism essay, on being a happy grinder. It seems you may be at the first step to being a “happy grinder ” – Expectation. Aim to move to the last step … craft.
2) Hard Work with a full heart.
Quiet professionals are “happy grinders.”
There’s an understanding that huge leaps forward are few and fleeting, and most advancement is evolutionary. Keep grinding, keep improving, keep learning, have patience, and improvement is steady. Daily small steps forward lead to big gains over time. Stop looking for shortcuts and get to work on becoming a true craftsman.
There is a three-step path for “grinders.”
First is expectation.
You are supposed to work hard. Organizational culture, family, or peers, expect it.
You do the work, but it’s not an internalized ethic. You resent it some, and the expectation that pushes you relentlessly forward, is also a weighty burden on your shoulders. You look around at others who don’t work as hard, still get rewarded/acknowledged, and feel injustice. But you bite your tongue and keep grinding.
Next comes pride.
Resentment is gone and you’ve come to be identified as a “hard worker.” This makes you proud and you grind with tenacity … push, push, push … to meet your own expectations and fulfill your hard-working reputation. Production is great, but there’s an edge to it. You work hard out of pride. It’s about you, not the work.
Finally … craft.
Every occupation has potential for craftsmanship, and once you make this transition in yours, the work blossoms in richness and fulfillment and unending learning.
Tiny details, small tasks – no longer annoyances, but gifts. With each comes the opportunity for small improvement and a smile-inducing success for the craft of it alone. You pursue perfection knowing you’ll never reach it, and happy about that.
Reaching perfection would stop the journey, and the journey is everything. You don’t want the learning to end.
You used to resent those who didn’t work as hard. Now you ache for them – because of what they are missing.
They work with gritted teeth. You work with a full heart.
QUESTION
Love the programming and have been using it for three years now. I am looking to join the DEA (preferably one of the tactical teams) and the process starts this September. What selections of plans do you recommend? For background, I just finished your TLU program. Thanks for the advice!
ANSWER
Then, the 9 weeks directly before selection, repeat the DEA FAST Selection Training Plan.
– Rob
QUESTION
Due to this unfortunate crisis, I still want to train for selection. What would you recommend for training for SFAS, while under quarantine? Thank you and god bless.
ANSWER
The
Ruck Based Selection Training Plan is a limited equipment training plan. Might as well do that now … and you can repeat it again the 8 weeks directly before selection.
I’m assuming you can still run/ruck outside.
– Rob
QUESTION
So we just got a notification from our command that starting tomorrow, whether or not we live on post or off-post, in uniform or out of uniform, if we are within 6 feet of another individual, we will be required to wear a mask. So basically, once I leave my home, I need to be wearing a mask anywhere public to include even if I go for a run or ruck outside. I don’t regularly run with any sort of mask on nor do I like to while running; rucking isn’t so much of a big deal. I have a row machine and an assault bike. What do you recommend for replacements/equivalents on rowing machine and/or assault bike to keep same cardio level for running? Do you do it by calories, time, equal distance? Thank you for your insight.
ANSWER
I’m not sure I agree with you that you can’t find a place outside somewhere open enough to remain 6 feet from other people. Get up earlier, or train at night? Drive to a lonely country road?
But if not, use time to transfer to the other exercises …. but know there is not a direct transfer. In other words, rowing won’t transfer to running or rucking. In short order, you’ll only get better at rowing.
– Rob
QUESTION
I am 20 years old and getting ready for coast guard boot camp. I can not run 1/2 a mile. Do 50 sit ups or even 30 pushups.
If I go to boot in the shape im in its gonna be Absolutely terrible.
I need you’re help. What should i do to get ready?
ANSWER
– Rob
QUESTION
Just finished BWF, feeling pretty good. My knee is still not ready to run on. Probably have another month maybe two until the knee will be ready. I have been doing some good mileage on the bike and rower. Legs are getting stronger and numbers are fairly decent I think considering my overall condition, knee etc.
Squat: 52
HR Push: 44
Bar heel pull: 27
Lunge: 62
Pull Up: 39
EOs: 52
Dips: 45
Back Ext: 80
I don’t think I do those EOs properly 100% but I count getting my ass off the ground and shoulders moving. So that number May be a little off.
I have
-Bench/Squat Rack – Full set of rubber weights
– 35 and 45lb kettle bell
– 10-90lb powerblocks, dumbbells
– Pull up bar
– Sand bag up to 85lbs
– weight vest up to 30lbs
– battle rope
– Bike
– concept 2 Rower
– Jump Rope
– 24” Box
– Bosu ball
Please let me know where you think we should proceed to. Thank you for
ANSWER
For the 40-foot shuttles, do 10 rounds of 30 sec row, 30 sec rest.
For the running, row 1,500m for every 1 mile of running.
– Rob
QUESTION
I appreciate all you do. You wrote a great piece on quiet professionalism and COVID 19. As a Healthcare provider (anesthesiologist), I have spent a large amount of my time at the hospital. My shifts has been three 24 hour calls a week. During the downtime to stay refreshed I have been exercising using TRX in our call room. However, I have no program to work with. Would you mind posting a regimen for those with TRX? Thanks.
ANSWER
– Rob
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