SFRE TRAINING PLAN
“I just completed the Best Warrior for the state of Arkansas utilizing your SFRE program. I won the competition and after the last event within 10mins felt like I could complete another event if I had to! Thanks to you guys for the program!”
RANGER SCHOOL TRAINING PLAN
“I just graduated Ranger School after 62 days and I would like to take a moment to thank both you and your team for helping to make that happen. I have been using your programs since December, 2016. Following a knee surgery in May, I used the post rehab leg injury training, Valor, Resilience, Gratitude, and finally the Ranger School plan to get me in the physical shape necessary to finish at the top of my class in IBOLC and spend the least amount of time in Ranger School. Specifically, I felt that the heavy focus on Chassis Integrity and durability work helped me move through without issue while many of my peers complained about their knees and backs. I look forward to starting your Afghanistan pre-deployment plan in preparation for my unit’s upcoming rotation overseas, as well as more of the school-specific plans as I progress in my career. Thank you again!”
RUCK BASED SELECTION TRAINING PLAN
“I want to start off by saying thank you. Your Ruck Based Selection Program is an excellent training regimen. I attended SFAS last month and was selected! Your Ruck Based Selection Program helped immensely. I felt more than adequately prepared for the rigors of SFAS.
I know the MTI team is always modifying their training programs and looking for ways to improve. I am by no means an expert in physical fitness but I do have a few layman’s comments that may help out in future versions of the Ruck Based Selection Program.
1. After the first two weeks of the program I cut out the IBA runs altogether. I personally felt that I needed more recovery time during the program and to my knowledge there are no IBA runs during selection itself. I am sure you have good reasons for including loaded runs during the program, but I felt better prepared to conduct the rucks and unloaded runs after cutting out the IBA runs. After going through selection I feel like this was the right call in my case.
2. Prior to SFAS I felt like I was not getting enough APFT and distance running work. This fear turned out to be unfounded as I ended up scoring 300 on the SFAS APFT and ran the fastest 2-mile of my career!
3. The sandbag-based work capacity events were absolutely perfect training for Team Week at SFAS. In hindsight I would even consider progressively ramping up the weight of the sandbag from 60 to 100ish pounds. Candidates carry enormous amounts of weight on their backs during team week and I feel that the sandbag-based strength workouts correspond very well to those events.
4. The long rucks on Saturdays can seem extreme during the program but they are the most critical events to prepare for SFAS. I would encourage anyone preparing for SFAS to not cut these rucks short, because they will be rucking even further during selection.
Thanks again for developing this program. I hope the comments help out!”
GREEK HERO PACKET
“I have been dabbling in the Greek Hero Fitness Plans for about a year now. I completed Hector, Perseus, and Achilles and then randomly gave myself an APFT plus an UBRR and an 18 mile Ruck in the course of about a week. I scored a 296, crushed the minimums of UBRR, and a 4:51:00 on 18 mile with @ 60lbs (Finish not Win pace). It should be noted that I suffered a Grade 3 ACJ in 2013 non surgical and that when I found out about you guys. I started with your bodyweight plan to get back on my feet. I know all of your plans work. Diet has been key. No Alcohol. I am 34. Thanks for what you do and I will be buying the rest of the Greek Hero plans. I just have to go do this “thing” first. They are the best blend of running, rucking, lifting, and explosive bodyweight exercises I have ever done. My friends that suffer through Thor 3 watch in envy. Some of the exercises go easy and I was able to add to them. For example, 6 rounds power clean followed by rope climbs is an awesome concept. It crushed me at first. Then I started doing 3rounds with a 25#vest 3 rounds bodyweight. Then that turned into the whole thing with vest. Then that turned into sliding 2x 5 lbs plated in my vest with plates in already. Then that turned into adding 6 pull-ups with vest after the rope before rest(which I would extend by 30sec) and then the next power clean. I learned that I was pushing it as I started to get major fatigue in my forearms so I backed off for a while and then move on to different plan. That plan also had power clean rope climbs (Yes!) I went back to splitting reps half vest half bodyweight and I highly recommend adding the change no pullups… I can sweep up the rope now like a 90lbs Pacific Islander and I am around 200 with an X frame and can’t dance. I say all this to give feedback. Help the plans evolve. Help you guys stay competitive. The Greek Hero plans have it all. Everyone comments on what I do. I don’t do it because of that. I do it because it’s not standing in front of a mirror curling or working cable tri’s meanwhile having a gut. Far too much of the warrior community are peacocks. They take the easy road by shaping muscle, by looking strong, not performing, hoping to deter aggressors. That is sheepdog mentality. They want to make a big display on the perimeter of their courage. That’s not for me anymore. I desire to live out past the perimeter now. I digress. If you asked what could be added I would say I am at a point where I need more emphasis on stretching rolling soft tissue stuff and your programming will knot you up fast. I have blended Thor 3, Some Squat University stuff, and your warmups and cools downs and it seems to be helping prevent injury. Over the last year the most common tight spots or pain areas were the arch of the foot tightness, calf’s, hamstring lower back. Thanks for what you do. Hope this helps.”
SAPPER LEADERS COURSE TRAINING PLAN
“Back at the end of 2016 I reached out to you asking for program advise prior to attending Sapper school. At the time I was deployed in Iraq and you recommended Big24 followed by the Greeks prior to the 8 week Sapper specific program. Let me tell you, that Sapper program was no joke and the Saturday mini events kicked my ass. I was in the best endurance shape of my life.
Ultimately the work paid off and I received my tab as a first time go. I wasn’t the strongest or the fastest but I was overall one of the most rounded. One piece of feedback would be to adjust the end of the programming. Sapper always has a report date that falls on a Thursday with the initial PT test hitting at 0500 on Friday and the Ruck march Saturday at 0200. Both of these events are prereqs to classing up. Adjusting the rest days to account for this schedule would help.
Hope this is helpful and thanks again for being so receptive to user questions.”
RANGER SCHOOL TRAINING PLAN
“First and foremost, I’m in the National Guard so I required RTAC before Ranger school. So, my experience is a bit different than most (IBOLC, Ranger Regiment, MCCC, etc). Prior to the Ranger training program, I already had completed the Valor program which gave me a nice base of fitness due to the 3 mile interval rucks and added running. I started the Ranger School training program 9 weeks before the start of the school (this was when the program was only 7 weeks). I doubled up on Week 4 and Week 5 since I had a little extra time. During Week 7, I did a lot of “active recovery” with walking and swimming. I believe this week was the most important..I also upped my diet so I could gain some “healthy” fat.
I initially tested at the following numbers:
PU: 57 (these are to “Ranger standard”…arms completely locked out, chest tapping the ground, back up at the pace of a metronome. Slow and methodical.)
SU: 64 (also performed at perfect standard)
2 mile: 31:20
Pull-Ups: 10 (perfect, all the way down…even disengaging my lats so I knew they were to standard)
12 mile: 2:25
After the assessment I was pretty wiped out due to the 12 mile ruck. It’s definitely normal because rucking sucks ass anyway.
I finished the program at the following numbers:
PU: 72 (this is without stopping during the 2 minutes, slow and steady)
SU: 80
2 mile: 30:15
Pull-Ups: 18
12 mile: 1:55 (I was at an airborne shuffle the entire time)
I reported to RTAC in January 2018 and graduated Ranger school in April. There were a couple of things that the RTAC cadre loved that wasn’t in the Ranger programming:
1. Mountain Climbers
– We did these more than push-ups
2. Hill Sprints
– The infamous “tab runs” in RTAC were you run down a large hill, touch a Ranger tab and spring back up the hill.
3. Flutter Kicks
– You do have these in the programming but I strongly suggest if you can go over the prescribed # in the Ranger program do it because you do a shit load of them.
I had 2 days between RTAC and Ranger. Not much time recover but I definitely lived it up with food and some active recovery. As for RAP week I had no issues. I completed the ruck march in 2:28 and received a Major Plus for finishing before 2:30. A tip is to have 1 duffel bag filled with all of your clothes and use it to prop up your feet with the 1-2 hours of sleep you get each night prior to the ruck. It’ll help a lot.
I want to touch on a few things that I loved during the programming and a couple of things that I changed:
1. Mountain climbers during the Work Capacity
– RTAC and Darby cadre preferred these
2. 2 mile intervals
– After about 4 weeks of the interval training, I started to remove them and used that time for rucking.
3. Mobility work
– The program does a wonderful job of hitting this. But, it’s definitely worth stressing.
Other than that, I suggest the program to any and every one. Just a reminder, I did the v1, not v2, so I’m not sure what has changed.
Thanks for everything!”
RANGER SCHOOL TRAINING PACKET
“Just a quick note to tell you that I have been doing the Ranger Packet starting with Fortitude and am now in Valor. Yesterday I did a 12 mile ruck for the OML to go to Ranger. My time was 2:32 with the standard 45 pounds over a hilly course here at Ft. Carson, with less than 12 hours notice prior to the event. Just another testament to your programming, to have an athlete able to complete such a taxing event on a moments notice and able to come in at the top of the pack.”
HUMILITY
“I found this program to be fantastic! I thought I had a decent work capacity but this program definitely showed me some humility. I dropped about 4 pounds over the course of the 7 weeks. I felt great after each of the training sessions and had many looks of awe in the gym. I have recommended MTI to several people that asked what I was doing. The only thing that I didn’t like was 30% Burpees but I think that had more to do with me than the program. I was diagnosed with a lung disorder while deployed and it can make it hard to breath and recover during HIIT training. This is one that I will come back to multiple times. Keep up the good work!”
RUCK BASED SELECTION PACKET
“Just wanted to thank you for your ruck based selection packet. I followed it from humility to the actual selection training plan (Was only able to complete 5 weeks of the selection plan due to timing issues). I recently returned from SFAS and was selected and a large part of that was due to your programming. I was prepared physically and mentally for all events. I’ll spend a week or so recovering then I’ll start your airborne school training plan followed by your q course plan. It’s comforting to know that I won’t have to go digging for fitness plans for the rest of my career as long as you guys keep pumping out solid results. Thanks again!”
Military On-Ramp Plan
“I completed the on ramp program last week. It covered all aspects of fitness and I found it very balanced. The progression was excellent as was the testing and the calculators. Every workout felt like it was right at the edge of my physical limit. 10/10. The exercise library was a big help, also. I could tell that a lot of thought was put into the exercise choice – they were all effective and easy to learn.”