QUESTION
I stumbled across your website while searching for workouts to better prepare me for the Georgia Smoke Divers class. I am very impressed with how each of your training plans are geared towards a certain discipline or an athletes needs. I’ve been a fireman for 7 years and consider myself to be in decent shape. I workout and maintain a healthy diet. But as you know training for something as intense as smoke divers requires a new level of commitment and training. I am interested in your program but I’m curious about a few things. The first is the timing….the Georgia Smoke Divers class that I’m attempting to qualify for is being held in November this year. Signups will open this week more than likely and the qualification test will be held sometime in September. So given the amount of time until the qualification and then the class, when would you recommend beginning this plan? And what to do leading up to this?
For about the past month or so I’ve been doing the workouts that they suggest on their website. Mainly running and calisthenics with a few gym days.
Thanks for any advice that you can provide and thank you for putting together the training programs that are tailored to these specifics needs.
ANSWER
I’d recommend doing the
Smoke Diver Plan now, then dropping in to the plans/order in the
Big Cat Series, then re-completing the Smoke Diver Plan directly before your course in November.
– Rob
QUESTION
My wife is seriously considering the Navy’s Aviation Search and Rescue pipeline and I was wondering which package would be the most benificial to her. Thanks for your help
ANSWER
It somewhat depends how far away she is from the course ….
If, after basic, she has the time and liberty, re-completing the Rescue Swimmer plan directly before her course.
– Rob
QUESTION
Hey so I have a question which I assume is fairly common. My unit does fairly heavy PT however I want to prepare for a SOF selection and out PT doesn’t really translate to that. How could I incorporate your programs into my already fairly rigorous PT program? Thank you!
ANSWER
No good answer for this. Best would be to ask your unit to give you the liberty to train on our own for selection and skip PT. If not, you’ll have to do 2-a-days and manage the best you can. You can look for redundancy in your Unit PT and our programming, and avoid it as you go along.
– Rob
QUESTION
I have 11 weeks until my 50k Trail Run on September 5th. Would you recommend I start at week one of the 50k training plan and just move my taper week up or should I start on week two?
ANSWER
Start at week 1, and skip week 11, finishing week 12 the week before your race.
Good luck!
– Rob
QUESTION
I had few questions about the single limb strength routine. Are the kettlebell swings alternating sides or 1 side at a time? What’s a good substitute for the rope climb as I don’t have a rope to climb. Thanks,
ANSWER
The swings are 2 hands.
– Rob
QUESTION
I’m looking forward to training the law enforcement training plans however I’m unsure where to start with all the options. Any advice would be helpful. I’m currently an officer. My current fitness needs improvement. I’ll follow a plan for a bit but it wanes pretty quickly. I’ve built a full home gym and have access to pretty much everything but a rower.
ANSWER
Then move to the plans/order in the
Spirits Packet of plans which are designed as day to day training for full time LE Patrol/Detectives. These plans concurrently train strength, work capacity, short endurance, chassis integrity (core), upper body hypertrophy (mass), and tactical agility. Start with
Whiskey.
– Rob
QUESTION
Your day to day programming whether it’s the country singer packet, big cat, or greek hero series is amazing. But I’m curious about something. When following your day to day programming (whichever one) how would you add hiking 14ers into that? The programming can be intense and the rest days are needed so I’m curious on if you would replace a day with a 14er hike..or what exactly you’d do. I’ve been thinking about summiting all 58 colorado 14ers.
ANSWER
In general, fitness training should not interfere with mountain missions/objectives. What that means is when you start knocking out 14ers, being rested for and recovering from these objectives take precedence over gym-based fitness.
My guess given snow melt, is you’ll be able to start hammering out the 14’s at the end of July.
Now I’d recommend you drop out of Base programming and complete the
Alpine Running Training Plan. This plan will sport-specifically prepare you for your 14ers.
When you start your 14ers, assuming you’re doing these on weekends, I’d recommend taking Fridays and Monday’s off as total rest. Friday so your rested for your climb. Monday so you can recover.
T/W/Th? – Tue + Thur – short gym-based sessions that focus on chassis integrity and strength. Look at the Monday/Wednesday sessions from “Leather” under the daily operator sessions. These are perfect.
Wednesday – I’d recommend a 5-8 mile, easy paced trail run.
So here would be your weekly schedule:
Mon – Rest
Tues – Gym Strength/Chassis Integrity (40 minute session)
Wed – Easy Trail Run
Thur – Tues – Gym Strength/Chassis Integrity (40 minute session)
Fri – Rest
Sat/Sun – 14’ers.
– Rob
QUESTION
Hello my ultimate goal is to be able to become a ranger, however i’m honestly in shitty physical condition i was wondering if i should start with apft training and then move onto rasp 1 and 2. Should i even do apft training plan or increase my running times and pushups and situps rep. currently im able to do 35 pushups and about 60 situps however my running is complete shit. Should i come back to this program once i’m able to do it and what reps and what time would you recommend that i would be able to run before i start apft. Thank you very much
ANSWER
The run program in the APFT automatically scales to your incoming fitness – so no need to wait. I’d recommend starting with the
APFT Training Plan.
– Rob
QUESTION
I’ve just started the body weight foundation program and it’s working fine,
I just commissioned as a 2lt in the army and looking for ways to stay fit during this pandemic/quarantine.
My question is, after this six week program, what other program would you recommend?
I’m getting ready for Chemical Basic Officer Leaders Course and Airborne school.
ANSWER
Humility – it requires a 60# sandbag, 25# weight vest or your IBA, and a pair of 25# dumbbells.
– Rob
QUESTION
What’s your hardest bodyweight program? To get really good at push ups, flutter kicks, Pull ups, smokings that will happen in selections such as ASFAB or RASP.
ANSWER
If you want to do a bodyweight plan, I’d recommend
Bodyweight Foundation – replace the EOs in the plan with flutter kicks if you expect to face those at your course.
– Rob
QUESTION
I am wondering if I can incorporate APFT strength endurance sessions into the Big 24 program. I will leave for basic training around august and I need to boost my pushups and situps. Should I just wait and add more APFT work as I get closer to shipping or can I add some in addition to max strength work? Thanks for your programming so far. I dropped 2 minutes off my 2 mile time (11:21), increased my bench so far to 180, and feel like an overall stronger and more capable athlete.
ANSWER
Not into Big 24 and make your progressions. Big 24 is too intense.
Best would be to drop out of Big 24 and drop into a multi-modal military plan that uses bodyweight for it’s strength programming. I’d recommend
Achilles.
– Rob
QUESTION
I started with military on ramp because that’s what I know being prior service but I was curious if there was a better program to get a base general level of fitness to progress into a stronger leaner form. Also, what would you recommend as a year-long plan of plans to get to a stronger leaner form?
ANSWER
“Stronger leaner form” – are two things. Strength is different than lean. You can get really strong and still be fat.
Military OnRamp is a great place to start any MTI programming. First two weeks are bodyweight – then you’ll move to lifting.
After Military OnRamp I’d recommend our
Country Singer Packet of plans which concurrently train strength, work capacity, endurance and chassis integrity (core). Start with
Johnny.
If you’re interested just in looks and not concerned with work capacity and endurance, I’d recommend the
Ultimate Meathead Cycle after Military OnRamp – which trains upper body hypertrophy (mass) and lower body strength.
– Rob
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