Q&A 9.28.24

by Mintra Mattison

QUESTION

First off, I love your programing. I have used a variety of your strength, rucking, school prep, work capacity, and endurance programs (currently finishing up the 50 mile ultra program for my first ultra marathon) over the last decade. In my opinion, they are ideal for building and maintaining well rounded military athletes.
I’d like to take some time this fall/winter to train towards a long duration, multi-day movement (probably with somewhere between 50 and 60lbs). Really, I’d like to move 50 miles, take a day to rest/refit, and move a another 50 miles. I live in the Shenandoah Valley so most of the movement would be on small hiking trails/off trail in George Washington National Forest.
I have two questions. First, which program do you recommend? Second, do you know of any research on nutrition for that type of movement?
Thanks!

ANSWER

SFOD-D Selection Training Plan first, then move to weeks 1-17 of the  100-Mile Ultra Plan and ruck instead of run for the back to back attempts.
I’d recommend doing 50 miles first. Recovering and learning from it, then working toward the back to back.
The issue here will be training time. You’ll need to put in the mileage, and rucking will take much longer than running.
Nutrition – In our own research and what I’ve been able to find, there’s nothing different for movement nutrition that we’ve discovered between loaded and unloaded movement. Most important is finding what you can stomach for 24+ hours and using gels/mixes periodically – every 45 minutes or so. You may also want to drink a protein shake – but I’m not sure it will help. One of the issues with nutrition is that your body can only process so much – and sometimes you burn it faster than you can process it.
– Rob

QUESTION

I’m new to the military and have recently finished up bootcamp and am now on an Army base for A-school. The DFAC on base has little to no lean protein options and I’m trying to follow the MTI “diet” do you have any suggestions? On what to do- currently can’t have a car (for the 6months duration of school) or leave base for a good 8-10weeks.

ANSWER

Certainly the DFAC serves protein with every meal, right? I’m not sure what you mean by “lean” protein, but if you’re referring to grass-fed beef and low fat percentage hamburger, skin-free chicken thighs, etc. you can get in a Whole Foods, there’s nothing in our dietary recommendations that require these.
Goal is to eat as “clean” as possible – and avoid bad carbs (bread, rice, potatoes, cereal, – processed wheat/flower) and sugar, limit fruit, don’t drink sugar, and prioritize protein at meals.
It could be that you simply don’t get served enough protein at your meals – and the easiest way to supplement that is with low carb, whey protein shakes. You can order low carb weight protein and a shaker from amazon.
– Rob

 

FOLLOW UP
Heard, thank you. What I was meaning is that most of the food we are served is fried or breaded unfortunately. For example: Friday our options were: hotdog, cheeseburger, grilled cheese or fried chicken wings.

ANSWER

Do what you can do …. if possible on Friday, 2-3 hamburger paddies with lettuce/tomato, etc. and don’t eat the bun, or the chicken wings.

QUESTION

I’ve been reading through four of the programs for skiing and I have a few questions regarding them. My ultimate goal is to have a year plan for skiing and I’m hoping to potentially use the four programs I’ve listed below to build that.

  • 4 week 30 Minutes per Day Dryland Ski Training Ski
  • 7 week Dryland Skiing Training
  • 4 week Monster Factory Strength: Summer Dryland Ski Prep
  • 12 week In Season Skiing Maintenance Training

Obviously, the 12 week in season maintenance program will be used during January-April. Do you have a suggestion on how to order the other programs May-September for the off-season? Then October through December for pre-season?

Also, how far out from ski season do you suggest completing the 4 week monster factory strength program for optimal results going into ski season?

Are these programs meant to be used as a year around plan by lining them up one after another, or by simply repeating them back to back? Or are optimal results achieved by completing  just one or two of these programs in the time leading into ski season?

I appreciate your time in reading through my questions and I look forward to your response. Thank you.

ANSWER

Let’s start with answers below:

Q: Obviously, the 12 week in season maintenance program will be used during January-April. Do you have a suggestion on how to order the other programs May-September for the off-season? Then October through December for pre-season?

You can’t train specifically for skiing year round …. you’ll plateau and become vulnerable to overuse injuries. I worked with many US Ski Team members in the off season they all trained general strength and fitness – at an intense level – in the off season including heavy strength. However, US Ski Team members athletes were unique – most never got too far from their skiis including summer trips to Mount Hood and/or New Zealand/South America with the Ski Team for on-snow off-season ski technical training. Most of the mountain athletes I worked with were multi-sport, mountain athletes, who changed sports with he season …. Skiing to MTB or Kayaking, to Rock or Alpine Climbing, to backcountry hunting, to Dryland Ski Pre-Season, back to skiing.

Overall, MTI has two types of programing – “Base” fitness and “Event/Sport-specific” fitness. The Dryland Ski programs are “Sport-specific” fitness designed to be completed in the weeks directly before the ski season. These programs are not general fitness – but are laser focused on intensly training for the specific fitness demands of alpine skiing. The details of MTI’s “Base Fitness” programming depends on the athlete type. All of our Base Fitness programs include strength training, work capacity, chassis integrity (functional core) and some type of endurance – the but details and emphasis depends on the athlete type. For example, the Base Fitness programming for military athletes includes lots of rucking. That for general mountain athletes includes training for rock climbing, and has a slight emphasis on mountain endurance including uphill climbing under load.

We have two options for Mountain Athlete base fitness programming: (1) Greek Heroine plans; (2) Daily Mountain Elite Programming stream

For most skiers and moutnain athletes, I recommend our Mountain base fitness programming for the between-the-season periods. In general, the closer you get to the season, the more sport-specific your programming should be. So … for most all around mountain athletes, I recommend they drop out of our mountain base fitness programming 7 or so weeks out from the ski area opening day or their anticipated first bc ski trip of the year and complete one of our drlyland plans – either the 7-Week Dryland Plan or the Backcountry Skiing Pre-season training plan.

Q: Also, how far out from ski season do you suggest completing the 4 week monster factory strength program for optimal results going into ski season?

15 weeks out from the ski area opening day. Weeks 1-4: Monster Factory, Week 5 – total rest; Weeks 6-12 – Dryland Ski Presason Training Plan (7 weeks directly before opening day)

Q; Are these programs meant to be used as a year around plan by lining them up one after another, or by simply repeating them back to back? Or are optimal results achieved by completing  just one or two of these programs in the time leading into ski season?

See answer above.

More questions?
– Rob

QUESTION

I am a student in a special operations training pipeline. I love running and lifting but I feel like I’ve been overtraining lately. I have recently committed to the big24 program – it sucks not being able to run but I wanna see if my strength gains will improve without the added endurance training.

Are there any other strength or bodyweight programs I can do alongside big24 that will not hinder my strength gains? I am willing to put more time in than the program prescribes, but I’m not sure if this will be counterproductive.

ANSWER

No…. Big 24 is the most intense gym training I’ve ever done – including work capacity. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to puking in the gym.
You don’t increase fitness with more training. You increase fitness by resting after hard training.
Trust the programming.
– Rob

QUESTION

I’m a woefully out of shape 50 y.o. M detective that is going back onto patrol as a sergeant. Is there a plan out there for older and out of shape guys that will not break them and eventually move them into one of the established fitness plans?

ANSWER

We do. Check out our LE On Ramp.

QUESTION

I was wondering if you have plans that are strength based with some capacity built in that are doable at home with a 12-80lbs dumbbell set?

ANSWER

Check out our Three Stooges packet. Made for just KB/DB’s.

QUESTION

What is a workout program that you have that would increase my operator ugly fitness assessment scores?

ANSWER

We have a plan specifically for that purpose: https://mtntactical.com/shop/operator-ugly-train-up/

QUESTION

I’ve been doing the daily SRT/SWAT plan for a few months now and it has been great. Unlike your train up plans, there aren’t weeks of full rest built in. Is this something I could incorporate once I start to feel beat up, or would you suggest something else? Also, with winter approaching, what would you suggest in lieu of sprints/shuttles? The loaded shuttles this past month have been great, so I’m hoping to somehow keep some loaded exercises in while stuck indoors. Is it worth doing on a treadmill? Thanks.

ANSWER

Glad you’re enjoying it. We try to integrate a short deload on the final week of the cycle, but if you’re feeling beat up, add a few more days of total rest or very light aerobic work.

Loaded runs can definitely be done on a treadmill, but we’ve found it depends on the age/quality of machinery. Sometimes the older ones don’t like the extra weight, especially if you’re a bigger guy.

QUESTION

I am trying to get stronger and faster, and I’ve found Olympic lifts keep me engaged when I work out, so I would prefer to target specifically Olympic lifts.

ANSWER

Check out ‘Waylon‘. The strength work is focused on Power Cleans, Box Squats, and Push Press and the endurance work is focused on interval work based on a 1.5 mile run assessment. We don’t program Snatch’s any longer… we’ve found the technical aspect is too complicated for the needs of our athletes with similiar power-based strength gains coming from simpler movements like Power Cleans and it’s many variations.

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