Deleted member 5559
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I have reached a new chapter in my life and, along with it, revised training. This will be the third significant shift in my training in the last five years.
Prologue
Military SOF training for close to 15 years - good and bad. Random pursuits and highly capable without much thought and consideration to training. Many programs, short and long duration, endurance and strength focused. Just lots of physically demanding activities, hobbies, and some injuries.
Chapter One: Pursuit of My Happiness
During this period of about two years, I was working in a corporate setting. I had previously been working in a military setting with pretty significant physical requirements and abilities. During this chapter, I didn't have a need for fitness at all other than for the enjoyment - and for some mountain hunting. I went through a lot of different programs (some generic, some custom) from some good outfits. Some of the programs I followed were:
Chapter Two: Pursuit of Ability
During this period of about two years, I made a significant change to the trajectory my life was on. I decided to pursue a new job more aligned with my old self that had a requirement for fitness. I started to program for myself by assessing my needs/wants. I started to shift my training toward the way experts in strength or endurance would train and treated them as separate programs run concurrently. I started to read more programs oriented toward strength only and more programs oriented toward endurance only and trying to dissect the elements that had high return on investment. Some of the programs and concepts I pulled from were:
Chapter Three: Operation Unicorn
That all brings me to where I'm at currently: a professional. I have spent more time and given more thought to identifying my actual needs than ever before. The needs analysis considers more than the outcome but also a significant portion to the inputs available too. I have been able to use all the programs and training from the past to better identify what has created certain adaptations and the side effects associate to them. The big influences to this period are rooted in:
Strength
Mostly barbell training with 5 sets per lift. I want absolute upper body strength including hypertrophy and am focusing on 5s for the upper body. However, I have a large lower body that makes things more difficult and do not want the hypertrophy so will limit the reps to 3s. Pulls are to develop maximum power and the reps limited to 2s. The overall progression I'm working on will be based on S&S and will be replacing one set every 4 weeks with a heavier weight. I don't quite know what weight increment will be possible yet and it will likely be different for lower and upper body lifts.
Conditioning
I need to develop my anaerobic and aerobic power more so than capacity. I want to be able to go from 0 to 100 repeatedly and 0 to 95 for a couple minutes. I think Q&D and A+A fits this well. I think there is also a need for longer VO2 max intervals and threshold tempos as well. What there won't be is LISS running. I just have not seen much improvement in my needs from LISS running. Any LISS will be out of boredom or for some recovery on off days but will be limited to low impact tools like the skierg or swimming.
Prologue
Military SOF training for close to 15 years - good and bad. Random pursuits and highly capable without much thought and consideration to training. Many programs, short and long duration, endurance and strength focused. Just lots of physically demanding activities, hobbies, and some injuries.
Chapter One: Pursuit of My Happiness
During this period of about two years, I was working in a corporate setting. I had previously been working in a military setting with pretty significant physical requirements and abilities. During this chapter, I didn't have a need for fitness at all other than for the enjoyment - and for some mountain hunting. I went through a lot of different programs (some generic, some custom) from some good outfits. Some of the programs I followed were:
- Mark Twight programs from Gym Jones
- Rob MacDonald programs from Gym Jones
- Matt Owen programs from Project Deliverance
- Rob Shaul programs from Mountain Tactical
- S&S
Chapter Two: Pursuit of Ability
During this period of about two years, I made a significant change to the trajectory my life was on. I decided to pursue a new job more aligned with my old self that had a requirement for fitness. I started to program for myself by assessing my needs/wants. I started to shift my training toward the way experts in strength or endurance would train and treated them as separate programs run concurrently. I started to read more programs oriented toward strength only and more programs oriented toward endurance only and trying to dissect the elements that had high return on investment. Some of the programs and concepts I pulled from were:
- Starting Strength
- 5/3/1
- Mountain Tactical - Liked the focus but started to be difficult to recover from
- Training for the New Alpinism
- Jack Daniels Running Formula
- Matt Wenning (Westside Barbell) - Had good results many years ago running similar programming
Chapter Three: Operation Unicorn
That all brings me to where I'm at currently: a professional. I have spent more time and given more thought to identifying my actual needs than ever before. The needs analysis considers more than the outcome but also a significant portion to the inputs available too. I have been able to use all the programs and training from the past to better identify what has created certain adaptations and the side effects associate to them. The big influences to this period are rooted in:
- Periodization Training for Sports (reps/duration to target specific adaptations)
- S&S (step cycle progression for strength)
- Q&D (conditioning volume and work:rest ratios)
- A+A (conditioning volume and work:rest ratios)
- Jack Daniels Running Formula (Running paces, VO2 max and threshold volume and work:rest ratios)
Mon: Strength
Tue: Conditioning (front load the back-to-back training day to prepare for schedule shifts later in the week if necessary)
Wed: Off
Thur: Strength
Fri: Off
Sat: Conditioning (weekend days offer opportunities for longer training sessions with very long rests if necessary)
Sun: Off
Strength
Mostly barbell training with 5 sets per lift. I want absolute upper body strength including hypertrophy and am focusing on 5s for the upper body. However, I have a large lower body that makes things more difficult and do not want the hypertrophy so will limit the reps to 3s. Pulls are to develop maximum power and the reps limited to 2s. The overall progression I'm working on will be based on S&S and will be replacing one set every 4 weeks with a heavier weight. I don't quite know what weight increment will be possible yet and it will likely be different for lower and upper body lifts.
Conditioning
I need to develop my anaerobic and aerobic power more so than capacity. I want to be able to go from 0 to 100 repeatedly and 0 to 95 for a couple minutes. I think Q&D and A+A fits this well. I think there is also a need for longer VO2 max intervals and threshold tempos as well. What there won't be is LISS running. I just have not seen much improvement in my needs from LISS running. Any LISS will be out of boredom or for some recovery on off days but will be limited to low impact tools like the skierg or swimming.
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