psmith
Level 5 Valued Member
All,
I'm interested in ideas you might have for training sessions for groups with a wide variety of different abilities. Think PE class or small military unit. 10-20 people, endurance focus, minimal equipment.
The specific context is a wildland fire crew--hiking with a pack and aggressive landscaping are ultimately what we're training for. Training gets interrupted all the time, so a detailed multi-week training cycle progressing towards a peak is probably off the table--we need to not get people hurt, not burn them out mentally, and hopefully increase fitness over time albeit with a good deal of variation around the central trendline. I'd rather just have people train on their own but a lot of the guys aren't very self-motivated or will do dumb bodybuilding stuff given the opportunity, and we get paid time to PT anyway.
Current session formats include:
-out-and-back runs or loops. We usually get pretty strung out, but the fast guys circle back to pick up the stragglers.
-runs with random calisthenics every lap/5:00/10:00. Not super happy with these so far, tend to devolve into random beatdowns rather than focused training, but maybe there's a better way to set it up.
-"bump runs"--stay together in single file passing a football or similar back through the line, 10-20 pushups or burpees or whatever if someone drops it. when it gets to the end of the line, last man sprints it up to the front. I hadn't been exposed to this before I started working with these guys, but I actually quite like it as a way to keep everyone together on runs without blowing out the slow guys and while letting the fast guys sprint every so often.
-hikes--usually up a hill to a specific destination with gear. again, the fast guys usually circle back to pick up the stragglers, or carry some extra stuff.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
I'm interested in ideas you might have for training sessions for groups with a wide variety of different abilities. Think PE class or small military unit. 10-20 people, endurance focus, minimal equipment.
The specific context is a wildland fire crew--hiking with a pack and aggressive landscaping are ultimately what we're training for. Training gets interrupted all the time, so a detailed multi-week training cycle progressing towards a peak is probably off the table--we need to not get people hurt, not burn them out mentally, and hopefully increase fitness over time albeit with a good deal of variation around the central trendline. I'd rather just have people train on their own but a lot of the guys aren't very self-motivated or will do dumb bodybuilding stuff given the opportunity, and we get paid time to PT anyway.
Current session formats include:
-out-and-back runs or loops. We usually get pretty strung out, but the fast guys circle back to pick up the stragglers.
-runs with random calisthenics every lap/5:00/10:00. Not super happy with these so far, tend to devolve into random beatdowns rather than focused training, but maybe there's a better way to set it up.
-"bump runs"--stay together in single file passing a football or similar back through the line, 10-20 pushups or burpees or whatever if someone drops it. when it gets to the end of the line, last man sprints it up to the front. I hadn't been exposed to this before I started working with these guys, but I actually quite like it as a way to keep everyone together on runs without blowing out the slow guys and while letting the fast guys sprint every so often.
-hikes--usually up a hill to a specific destination with gear. again, the fast guys usually circle back to pick up the stragglers, or carry some extra stuff.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
