Below are some of the projects we’re working on, athletes’s we’re working with, and initiatives and evolution in programming theory we’re working on here at Strong Fit Durable.
- I’m working with four female Military Athletes, three in Army with goals of attending Ranger School in the Spring, and another in the Marines with a goal of finishing IOC on some specific programming. Neither service is changing school standards for women, and from a fitness perspective, we need to build the combat chassis strength in 120-130 pound frames to ruck and move with 80-100 pound packs, as well as build upper body pulling and pressing strength.
- I’m working with two young Boulder-based alpinists hoping to climb Patagonia’s Fitz Roy in January. What’s so interesting about this programming is I’m applying some of the theory and lessons learned from designing programming for military selections to this mountain athlete-inspired event. I began programming for mountain athletes, and soon our work was followed by military athletes – and then I began programming for them specifically and pulled much from my work on the mountain side. Now its come full circle.
- Next week we will published a fourth Prep Strength Plan – this one a strength and plyometric program specifically designed for young female athletes (we’re naming it “Athena”). ACL and other knee injuries are all to common amongst young women for many reasons. Strength, and simply learning proper jumping and landing techniques (plyos) can help prevent injury. We’ve worked with middle and high school athletes here in Wyoming for 5 years now, and have learned a lot along the way. The program design behind Athena deploys much of our most recent theory and includes some of our most advanced theories about progression.
- I’m my own Lab Rat for our coming Strength and Fitness 45 (SF45) programming designed for athletes 45+ in age. It’s been quite a humbling experience realizing that some of the high impact training I’ve done as an Operator Sessions Lab Rat for seven or so years probably wasn’t the best thing for me. I realized I need to lose some muscle, move more toward endurance, and explore some exciting new areas of physicality. We hope to start publishing these sessions next week or the week after.
- Nearly 200 full time Law Enforcement officers and personal emailed for our free LE Athlete Fitness Assessment Training Plan. Several indicated they planned on using the plan not only for themselves, but also their team. The Law Enforcement community doesn’t have the tradition of fitness or the fitness culture like the military, and we realized long ago we’d need to turn that ship one officer at a time. If you’d like to receive the plan, pls email katie@leathlete.com from your government email address.
- Like LE, the Fire/Rescue community lacks a culture of fitness, and for the past 3 weeks I’ve been working with athletes in the field on developing a Fire/Rescue Athlete Fitness Assessment Training Plan. I developed the plan last week and tested it on Lab Rats this week – and I think we’re ready to publish. I hope to have it out next week, and like the LE plan, we’ll give it away to interested F/R athletes.
- I build sport-specific pre-season training plans for Wildland Firefighters a couple years ago, and have recently been contacted by a Hotshot team in Colorado about developing an offseason training plan. Some more exciting programming for us to embark on.
- I’m working with an elite alpinist with plans to climb “double 8’s” in the Himalaya next spring – Cho Oyu and Everest, in a 4-week time frame, new routes on each. Already an accomplished and experienced alpinist, it will be interesting to see how this mountain veteran response to the intensity of training I’ll design. There is no tradition of planned, focused training for alpine events in the mountain sports world – something we’ve worked to change for nearly 10 years now. This is an exciting opportunity for both of us.
- Next week will the the last of our sport specific cycles for our FreeSki and Ice Climbing Teams. Our FreeSki Team will finish 23 weeks of training. Our Ice Climbers will finish week 7. These last 7 weeks have been intense for both sets of athletes, and we’re almost as sick of them as they are of us!
- On the programming side, we’re moving a little more toward endurance on the Military side, toward more sport-specificity on the Mountain side, and looking at some exciting new areas for our general fitness Strong Fast Durable (SSD) sessions. Because SSD has general fitness and not an outside performance focus, we can be a little more creative. I hope actually to get our lab rats in the swimming pool. We’ll see.
-Rob Shaul