Prep for SFAS at 34

[0699]

Right now I’m just building a base of endurance and fitness. The 30 minute run will increase to 60 minutes. Same with the kettlebell ballistics- I’ll increase that to 60 minutes as well. I’m not in the Marines anymore so I’m not having to test myself for PFT standards. After 6-12 months I’ll do more specialized SF training like pushups, pull-ups, sprints, loaded carries etc.

I'm just full of stupid questions this week; must be the coronavirus.

Why are you waiting 6-12 months to do "pushups, pull-ups, sprints, loaded carries"? Why not just start doing them today? They don't seem like "specialized SF training" to me. It doesn't seem like they'd take away from running or humping. In the past three days I've done chest, biceps, ran, and humped and not felt that any one of those detracted from the other. I'm not SF, but I'd imagine you probably need to do all those events in one day anyway.

 

[TYW27]

I'm just full of stupid questions this week; must be the coronavirus.

Why are you waiting 6-12 months to do "pushups, pull-ups, sprints, loaded carries"? Why not just start doing them today? They don't seem like "specialized SF training" to me. It doesn't seem like they'd take away from running or humping. In the past three days I've done chest, biceps, ran, and humped and not felt that any one of those detracted from the other. I'm not SF, but I'd imagine you probably need to do all those events in one day anyway.

Like I said. It’s a little unorthodox. But it works for me. I’m not SOF either but I have Recon Marine, Army SOF, Army Ranger and Navy EOD guys all saying this works well for them. The founder has trained other SOF units and has had a few SEALs and Marines subscribe to their methodology. It makes sense to me not to wear yourself out if you don’t have to.

If you look at it like a professional sport you have your seasonal training and then you have an off season. It doesn’t make sense to constantly do peak training all the time which would be more sport specific because then you would burn out or not hit the other aspects of training. So you have your off season where you build a base of endurance and strength that you can easily do any day of the week. Then when it’s time to ramp up for the season then you are ready for whatever specific season you are training for.

 

[0699]

Like I said. It’s a little unorthodox. But it works for me.

Doesn't make sense to me. But like you said, if it works for you.

Good luck.

 

[BloodStripe]

Like I said. It’s a little unorthodox. But it works for me. I’m not SOF either but I have Recon Marine, Army SOF, Army Ranger and Navy EOD guys all saying this works well for them. The founder has trained other SOF units and has had a few SEALs and Marines subscribe to their methodology. It makes sense to me not to wear yourself out if you don’t have to.

If you look at it like a professional sport you have your seasonal training and then you have an off season. It doesn’t make sense to constantly do peak training all the time which would be more sport specific because then you would burn out or not hit the other aspects of training. So you have your off season where you build a base of endurance and strength that you can easily do any day of the week. Then when it’s time to ramp up for the season then you are ready for whatever specific season you are training for.

What sport are you talking about? Also, sports have seasons. While you may know your deployment cycle once on a team, there is no 100% that you'll never play ball outside of that cycle.

Also, typically players lose strength during a season because they do not have the time during the season to work out and recover like they do during the off season. Sports have come a long way with kinesiology and other advancements in sports medicine.

 

[TYW27]

I was talking mainly about football but other sports apply as well. Fair point about not knowing when your team punches back out and not having the same set cycle of seasons like the sports analogy. From my personal experience in the military we had a high op-tempo as tactical Signals support that we would split our battalion up by company just to cover our supported units. I could easily have come back from one deployment just to jump to another company going back out with almost no turnaround time. However, what I'm saying is that it's a bad idea to be continuously training at 100% all the time. You need to build in an off-season somewhere otherwise you'll burn out with overtraining. That's where my philosophy comes from, and the StrongFirst organization backs that up with SOF personnel who are in the mix everyday.

 

[RabidMongrel]

I just combed through this forum (Special Operations Selection Preparation) and didn't see what I was looking for, however I may have missed something. It looks like my shot to SFAS is through an 18x contract. The Army recruiter is telling me the process will take about 2 months for me to be accepted by the Army and then start the pipeline from there. Even though I have been thinking about getting back in the military it's been an on and off battle with either recruiters or getting my wife on board. Now everything is lining up and I'm not prepared physically. My biggest fear is adding too much volume too soon and breaking before getting to OSUT. I've been doing some basic weight training on weekdays and Spartan training all out on Saturdays. I finally found a good pair of shoes to run in and I'm slowly getting back into running. When I was in the Marine Corps I went to BRC (phase I 2x, Patrol phase 2x) and was able to pass all the physical requirements then (2011). Mentally I can push myself, but I want to make sure my mind doesn't break my body before getting to SFAS.

If I can crush the APFT and Ruck a fast 12 miler will that be enough for getting me through physically? I'm not asking about minimums, but I feel like this is the best I can do in the short time period it looks like I have.

Or should I delay my join date until I'm physically prepared (whatever that means) and then go?

Here is my current plan that I'll be starting tomorrow. My base so far has been strength train 3x week and Saturday go all out with CrossFit type workout.

Monday
Functional Fitness
Kettlebell Swings

Tuesday
Run 1:2 (20 minutes)
Lift

Wednesday
Functional Fitness (sprint)
Kettlebell Swings

Thursday
Functional Fitness
Lift

Friday
Run 3:1 30 minutes
Recover

Saturday
Spartan training
Recover/Yoga

Sunday
Recover/Yoga


Functional Fitness training is:
row 1000meters to warmup, mobility work, core work, deadlift 3x5, sled work 4x25m, squat 2x12,
AMRAP I 5 minutes: pushups 5, pullups 3, kettlebell swings 10
AMRAP II 8 minutes: pushups 10, pullups 5, swings 10
AMRAP III 10 minutes: pushups 12, pullups 10, swings 15
Stretch

OR

Sprints 200, 300, 400, 500 or some combination of the above

Spartan training is just more high cardio intensive and strength intensive AMRAPs
An example would be rowing machine and 400m carry 80lb sandbag, assault bike and clean a 50lb sandbag 5x each shoulder, do box jumps pull 80lb sandbag on a hoist and run on the treadmill.

Lifting is Easy Strength by Dan John (bench 2x5, lat pulldown 2x5, deadlift 2x5, ab work 2x5, carry heavy weight)

Running is run/walk ratio at an easy pace for 20 or 30 minutes. Work up to running 60 nonstop minutes easy.

Goal is to start adding a ruck march on Friday or after the Spartan workout on Saturday. Probably start with a 5 miler at 25lbs, then add 5lbs or 2 miles each week.

Is this your own program, or something else? I like what you are doing.

I've been doing Stew Smith. It's good, VERY high volume and long workouts.

 

[TYW27]

Is this your own program, or something else? I like what you are doing.

I've been doing Stew Smith. It's good, VERY high volume and long workouts.

The functional fitness and Spartan programming is from a Spartan coach. The Swings and runs are from StrongFirst.

I realized that my base fitness wasn’t at that level yet so I’m doing Swings and Runs for 30 minutes throwing in an APFT every two weeks for now.