jerrybrown5081
Level 1 Valued Member
So, for those of you looking into the military or in it. This is something I put together based on my own experiences from being enlisted, thing's I've needed, and ways I've found to address them. I included a routine at the end as well that I'm using to prepare for special operations combat control. I posted the routine previously when I first conceived it but have altered it based on what I've seen work and not work so well. Hope this helps some guys out! And if any of the guys have more experience and have some advice on how to address the issues we face in the military I'd love to hear them!
Tasks of a military athlete
-Carry heavy things, on back, shoulders and in hands
Carrying and working under a continued load is a huge aspect of military life. You carry your vest, helmet, ruck, ammo cans, weapons, and whatever other devilish “required equipment” is thrown at you. Learning to operate under a continuous load and being able to carry objects is essential
-Traveling long distances, running, rucking or swimming
An aerobic base is crucial, there are many times you’ll march or swim several miles to an insert point. And I’ve definitely needed to run my a#@ long distances to objectives when s*** isn’t going as planned. And things never go as planned.
-Support weapons firing positions
Moving while holding a heavy a#@ rifle in an accurate firing position for extended periods of time is a crucial skill of the military athlete.
-Climbing and crawling through and over obstacles
You need to be able to pull yourself over things, drag yourself and gear low to the ground, push over walls, jump and maneuver all sorts of obstacles.
-Picking up and carrying personnel
If I get shot my teammates had better be able to pick my a#@ up and carry me the f*** out.
-Sprinting, running swimming and rucking
During a fire fight you need to be able to move between cover fast, you may have your ruck you may not. In the military you never know when you’ll need speed.
-Fighting and combatives
Hand to hand is a important aspect of the military requiring strong core, rotational strength, upper body strength, grip, neck and conditioning.
-Hiking and running steep inclines, negotiating hills and mountains
Key terrain is always up the hills, and significantly harder to get to then anything else. Running up a steep incline will smoke you like you wouldn’t believe.
Addressing the concerns
The first concern with a military athlete is carrying things. This requires great strength and endurance mostly in the shoulders and back, while moving with it there’s significant stress on the legs as well. In addition, being forced to carry objects works the grip intensely.
Concern two, aerobic base. The military athlete must be able to swim, run and ruck long distances without burning themselves out.
Three, weapon firing positions. This requires immense core and shoulder stability. Tactical get ups from prone positions are crucial as well.
Climbing and crawling through obstacles is important. In addition to working on basic movement fundamentals, the military athlete needs pulling and pushing strength to maneuver obstacles, all the way through the fingers. A strong one rep max is important and being able to perform while exhausted is crucial.
Picking someone up while requires a mixture of deadlifting and squatting personnel, then traveling for distance with them on your back which smokes your legs and shoulders! Heavy emphasis on squatting and deadlifting strength as well as lower body endurance.
Short distance and high intensity running and swimming is crucial. Sprints and high intensity runs/swims for shorter distances.
Hand to hand requires massive strength and muscular endurance. Rotational power and pressing is crucial for throwing a punch, grip, pulling and neck strength for wrestling. Abdominals are the glue that brings it all together.
Steep inclines are a must, with gear preferably as well.
Training necessities
From this, we see a few different things.
Grip, abdominal and shoulder strength, stability and endurance are hugely overlooked and absolutely crucial for the military athlete.
A solid base of cardio in swimming, running and rucking is necessary, this needs to include a solid aerobic base.
Leg strength is important, however the majority of leg-focused work is endurance based from rucking, steep inclines and swimming with fins.
Strength for pulling and pressing, as well as hip hinge and squatting is necessary.
Movements to accomplish this
As with anything, the more minimal a program is the better, it will give us more energy to focus on the core aspects. However military athletes are very diverse and need a lot of capabilities. Fortunately there are some great movements that address these.
To start with, the shoulders. Obviously stability and strength are going to be crucial. Strength in the shoulders is best maintained by the clean and press. The power variation of this is the clean and jerk. In addition, two other movements provide a lot of stimulus, specifically to stabilizing and holding static positions. The snatch press and Turkish get up. While we’re talking about shoulders, its important to note that these are mainly pressing exercises. There are two other pressing exercises that we’ll mention here that aren’t as huge of a focus on shoulders (They’ll still help though!) These are the pushup and the dip. The dip is a crucial element mainly for maneuvering obstacles, punching strength and just making a well rounded athlete. Pushups are great for whole body stabilization, endurance, and are testable in the military.
We’ll now focus on the opposite of this, pulling. Being able to climb, low crawl, drag personnel, fight, these are all huge with pulling strength and endurance. The main movement we’ll focus on for pulling is the pull-up. Mainly we’ll use weight for this. There are several variations, but the main one we’ll use is with the palms facing out. This will help create a very strong back for supporting heavy loads in addition to the shoulder work as well! In addition to these, towel pull ups or rope climbs if available are going to be worked in.
The next area to address is the lower spectrum of the combat chassis, the legs. Leg endurance is a must, however, its crucial to know there is no endurance without strength first! Unfortunately though, the legs are more prone to overtraining than anything else due to the large volume of running, fin swimming and rucking, so a careful balance must be maintained. The movement of choice is simple, the squat. This could be weighted squats or the pistol squat, both are important and effective choices. Lunges are important as well but are addressed in the Turkish get up. The burpee is great for anaerobic and power work as well and should have a place, besides, it’s a cadre favorite!
Hip hinges are the jelly to the squats peanut butter. A strong spine and hips are going to be the core of carrying weight for so damn long! Like squats, we need strength and endurance. There are a few staples with this, one is the deadlift. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will build raw strength like the deadlift. In addition to the deadlift the kettlebell swing is incredible. It will sculpt a powerful spine that can endure a beating. Working bridges in is a good idea as well.
The core is the glue, it’s what ties all of them together and the most important of them all! Fortunately, all of the above exercises tend to put a lot of work on the core! Oh the benefits of training practical movements! However, we need the strongest core around, and some extra work is needed! There are several isometric movements we will work with. At the lower level there are planks, dead bugs etc. At the higher end are L sits, Planche, front and back levers. These will help with the cores primary job, stability! In addition, the core needs to be able to move and move strongly! Hanging leg raises will provide a tremendous core workout. Situps aren’t great but testable so don’t forget them. Dragon flags do a great job of working movement and stability at the same time and are an excellent exercise.
The lateral and rotational aspects of the core must be worked as well. Human flags do a great job, as well as isometric holds with exercise bands. Other than that, Russian twists and lateral tosses are phenomenal.
The neck, if you’ve worn a Kevlar helmet for long periods or wrestled, you know how important that is. Use wrestling bridges to strengthen it.
Grip, one of the most overlooked aspects of a good program. Fingertip pushups, hanging from a bar, crush grips and heavy carries! Heavy carries are going to smoke your entire body and are possibly the most important thing you’ll do! Firemans carries, farmers carries and sometimes overhead carries, learn to love em!
With the strength side addressed, the next largest concern is the bodies energy systems. The military athlete must be able to swim with fins and gear, run, and ruck for long distances and short distances. To start, the athlete must build a large aerobic base. You must be able to perform activities for long distance without taxing the body too much.
After aerobic capacity, anaerobic work is crucial. This is high intensity and fast paced, anything from running a couple clicks to short 10 second sprints, you need to be good at it!
Here is my routine I'm following to prepare for Combat Control. To add onto this, simply add more aerobic energy sessions, either running, swimming or rucking depending on what you're weak on. Play it by ear and make sure you're recovering properly, this isn't designed for a beginner, it has a large amount of volume that most beginners couldn't handle.
Military Performance
Monday-Saturday Morning
15 minutes
Deep Squat Breathing 10 breaths
Belly Lift 5 breaths
Lunge w/ recip 3 per leg
Left Crawl Breathing 5 breaths
Bear Crawl
Abdominal Isometrics (L sit, Planche, Front and Back Lever, Headstand, Palloff Iso)
Grip work
Neck work
Every Night
30 minutes
Relax Into Stretch
Meditation
Grease the Groove
Monday-Friday
Push-ups 40%-50% of max 5 times a day
Pull-ups 40%-50% of max 5 times a day
Belly lift 5 breaths 5 times a day
Water Confidence
Perform during lunch for training days, can be done extra or for active recovery
Under waters
Mask and snorkel recovery
Bobbing and flips
Float and travel
Buddy breathing
10 ups
Monday
ENDURANCE
AM Swimming
Warm up drills
200m of
Close fist drill, kickboard, catch up, pull only
2x200m freestyle, rest 25s per 200m
4x100m freestyle, rest 20s per 100m
4x50m freestyle, rest 15s per 50m
2x200m finning, rest 25s per 200m
4x100m finning, rest 20s per 100m
4x50m finning, rest 15s per 50m
Treading water 10-20 minutes
STRENGTH
PM
A1 Kettlebell Clean and Press 5x5
A2 Weighted Pull-ups 5x5
B1 Pistol Squats 5 sets
C1 Kettlebell Snatch 5x5
C2 Hanging Leg Raise 5 sets
D1 Human Flags 2 per side
E1 Farmers Walk 2 sets
Finish with 10, 10 second sprints with tire or up hill
Tuesday
ENDURANCE
Running
Interval run; 6-12 400-800m runs at about 1:30 per ¼ mile, rest 2-3 minutes between runs
Wednesday
ENDURANCE
AM Swimming
Warm up drills
200m of
Close fist drill, kickboard, catch up, pull only
Interval swims, either 8x250, 4x500, 2-3 minutes rest between swims.
Treading water 10-20 minutes
STRENGTH
PM
A1 Deadlift 4x5
B1 Weighted Dips 5x5
B2 Weighted pull ups 5x5
C1 Front Squat 4x5
D1 Get ups 5x3 per side
D2 Rotational Toss 10 per side
E1 Farmers Walk 2 sets
Thursday
ENDURANCE
PM Running
4-8 mile fartlek run; heart rate below 155, sprint at 85% intensity for 10-30 seconds every 3-5 minutes
Friday
ENDURANCE
AM Running
High intensity run, 1.5 to 4 miles at 95% intensity
STRENGTH
PM
A1 Kettlebell Single Arm Clean and Jerk 10 minutes
B1 Hanging Leg Raises 5 sets
C1 Pull-ups 100 reps
C2 Burpees 20 reps every time you stop doing pull-ups
D1 Kettlebell Swings, sets of 10 with 100yd jog in between sets for recovery, push it out!
E1 Fireman’s Carry 2 sets
Saturday
ENDURANCE
PM Swimming
Warm up drills
200m of
Close fist drill, kickboard, catch up, pull only
2000-3000m of freestyle or finning
Treading water 10-20 minutes
PM Rucking
4-8 mile ruck, 30-60 lbs. between 135-150 heart rate
Sunday
ACTIVE RECOVERY
Water confidence, light tire drags, hike, play sports etc. 30-60 minutes
DON’T OVERTRAIN, GET YOUR SLEEP, EAT HEALTHY
Tasks of a military athlete
-Carry heavy things, on back, shoulders and in hands
Carrying and working under a continued load is a huge aspect of military life. You carry your vest, helmet, ruck, ammo cans, weapons, and whatever other devilish “required equipment” is thrown at you. Learning to operate under a continuous load and being able to carry objects is essential
-Traveling long distances, running, rucking or swimming
An aerobic base is crucial, there are many times you’ll march or swim several miles to an insert point. And I’ve definitely needed to run my a#@ long distances to objectives when s*** isn’t going as planned. And things never go as planned.
-Support weapons firing positions
Moving while holding a heavy a#@ rifle in an accurate firing position for extended periods of time is a crucial skill of the military athlete.
-Climbing and crawling through and over obstacles
You need to be able to pull yourself over things, drag yourself and gear low to the ground, push over walls, jump and maneuver all sorts of obstacles.
-Picking up and carrying personnel
If I get shot my teammates had better be able to pick my a#@ up and carry me the f*** out.
-Sprinting, running swimming and rucking
During a fire fight you need to be able to move between cover fast, you may have your ruck you may not. In the military you never know when you’ll need speed.
-Fighting and combatives
Hand to hand is a important aspect of the military requiring strong core, rotational strength, upper body strength, grip, neck and conditioning.
-Hiking and running steep inclines, negotiating hills and mountains
Key terrain is always up the hills, and significantly harder to get to then anything else. Running up a steep incline will smoke you like you wouldn’t believe.
Addressing the concerns
The first concern with a military athlete is carrying things. This requires great strength and endurance mostly in the shoulders and back, while moving with it there’s significant stress on the legs as well. In addition, being forced to carry objects works the grip intensely.
Concern two, aerobic base. The military athlete must be able to swim, run and ruck long distances without burning themselves out.
Three, weapon firing positions. This requires immense core and shoulder stability. Tactical get ups from prone positions are crucial as well.
Climbing and crawling through obstacles is important. In addition to working on basic movement fundamentals, the military athlete needs pulling and pushing strength to maneuver obstacles, all the way through the fingers. A strong one rep max is important and being able to perform while exhausted is crucial.
Picking someone up while requires a mixture of deadlifting and squatting personnel, then traveling for distance with them on your back which smokes your legs and shoulders! Heavy emphasis on squatting and deadlifting strength as well as lower body endurance.
Short distance and high intensity running and swimming is crucial. Sprints and high intensity runs/swims for shorter distances.
Hand to hand requires massive strength and muscular endurance. Rotational power and pressing is crucial for throwing a punch, grip, pulling and neck strength for wrestling. Abdominals are the glue that brings it all together.
Steep inclines are a must, with gear preferably as well.
Training necessities
From this, we see a few different things.
Grip, abdominal and shoulder strength, stability and endurance are hugely overlooked and absolutely crucial for the military athlete.
A solid base of cardio in swimming, running and rucking is necessary, this needs to include a solid aerobic base.
Leg strength is important, however the majority of leg-focused work is endurance based from rucking, steep inclines and swimming with fins.
Strength for pulling and pressing, as well as hip hinge and squatting is necessary.
Movements to accomplish this
As with anything, the more minimal a program is the better, it will give us more energy to focus on the core aspects. However military athletes are very diverse and need a lot of capabilities. Fortunately there are some great movements that address these.
To start with, the shoulders. Obviously stability and strength are going to be crucial. Strength in the shoulders is best maintained by the clean and press. The power variation of this is the clean and jerk. In addition, two other movements provide a lot of stimulus, specifically to stabilizing and holding static positions. The snatch press and Turkish get up. While we’re talking about shoulders, its important to note that these are mainly pressing exercises. There are two other pressing exercises that we’ll mention here that aren’t as huge of a focus on shoulders (They’ll still help though!) These are the pushup and the dip. The dip is a crucial element mainly for maneuvering obstacles, punching strength and just making a well rounded athlete. Pushups are great for whole body stabilization, endurance, and are testable in the military.
We’ll now focus on the opposite of this, pulling. Being able to climb, low crawl, drag personnel, fight, these are all huge with pulling strength and endurance. The main movement we’ll focus on for pulling is the pull-up. Mainly we’ll use weight for this. There are several variations, but the main one we’ll use is with the palms facing out. This will help create a very strong back for supporting heavy loads in addition to the shoulder work as well! In addition to these, towel pull ups or rope climbs if available are going to be worked in.
The next area to address is the lower spectrum of the combat chassis, the legs. Leg endurance is a must, however, its crucial to know there is no endurance without strength first! Unfortunately though, the legs are more prone to overtraining than anything else due to the large volume of running, fin swimming and rucking, so a careful balance must be maintained. The movement of choice is simple, the squat. This could be weighted squats or the pistol squat, both are important and effective choices. Lunges are important as well but are addressed in the Turkish get up. The burpee is great for anaerobic and power work as well and should have a place, besides, it’s a cadre favorite!
Hip hinges are the jelly to the squats peanut butter. A strong spine and hips are going to be the core of carrying weight for so damn long! Like squats, we need strength and endurance. There are a few staples with this, one is the deadlift. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will build raw strength like the deadlift. In addition to the deadlift the kettlebell swing is incredible. It will sculpt a powerful spine that can endure a beating. Working bridges in is a good idea as well.
The core is the glue, it’s what ties all of them together and the most important of them all! Fortunately, all of the above exercises tend to put a lot of work on the core! Oh the benefits of training practical movements! However, we need the strongest core around, and some extra work is needed! There are several isometric movements we will work with. At the lower level there are planks, dead bugs etc. At the higher end are L sits, Planche, front and back levers. These will help with the cores primary job, stability! In addition, the core needs to be able to move and move strongly! Hanging leg raises will provide a tremendous core workout. Situps aren’t great but testable so don’t forget them. Dragon flags do a great job of working movement and stability at the same time and are an excellent exercise.
The lateral and rotational aspects of the core must be worked as well. Human flags do a great job, as well as isometric holds with exercise bands. Other than that, Russian twists and lateral tosses are phenomenal.
The neck, if you’ve worn a Kevlar helmet for long periods or wrestled, you know how important that is. Use wrestling bridges to strengthen it.
Grip, one of the most overlooked aspects of a good program. Fingertip pushups, hanging from a bar, crush grips and heavy carries! Heavy carries are going to smoke your entire body and are possibly the most important thing you’ll do! Firemans carries, farmers carries and sometimes overhead carries, learn to love em!
With the strength side addressed, the next largest concern is the bodies energy systems. The military athlete must be able to swim with fins and gear, run, and ruck for long distances and short distances. To start, the athlete must build a large aerobic base. You must be able to perform activities for long distance without taxing the body too much.
After aerobic capacity, anaerobic work is crucial. This is high intensity and fast paced, anything from running a couple clicks to short 10 second sprints, you need to be good at it!
Here is my routine I'm following to prepare for Combat Control. To add onto this, simply add more aerobic energy sessions, either running, swimming or rucking depending on what you're weak on. Play it by ear and make sure you're recovering properly, this isn't designed for a beginner, it has a large amount of volume that most beginners couldn't handle.
Military Performance
Monday-Saturday Morning
15 minutes
Deep Squat Breathing 10 breaths
Belly Lift 5 breaths
Lunge w/ recip 3 per leg
Left Crawl Breathing 5 breaths
Bear Crawl
Abdominal Isometrics (L sit, Planche, Front and Back Lever, Headstand, Palloff Iso)
Grip work
Neck work
Every Night
30 minutes
Relax Into Stretch
Meditation
Grease the Groove
Monday-Friday
Push-ups 40%-50% of max 5 times a day
Pull-ups 40%-50% of max 5 times a day
Belly lift 5 breaths 5 times a day
Water Confidence
Perform during lunch for training days, can be done extra or for active recovery
Under waters
Mask and snorkel recovery
Bobbing and flips
Float and travel
Buddy breathing
10 ups
Monday
ENDURANCE
AM Swimming
Warm up drills
200m of
Close fist drill, kickboard, catch up, pull only
2x200m freestyle, rest 25s per 200m
4x100m freestyle, rest 20s per 100m
4x50m freestyle, rest 15s per 50m
2x200m finning, rest 25s per 200m
4x100m finning, rest 20s per 100m
4x50m finning, rest 15s per 50m
Treading water 10-20 minutes
STRENGTH
PM
A1 Kettlebell Clean and Press 5x5
A2 Weighted Pull-ups 5x5
B1 Pistol Squats 5 sets
C1 Kettlebell Snatch 5x5
C2 Hanging Leg Raise 5 sets
D1 Human Flags 2 per side
E1 Farmers Walk 2 sets
Finish with 10, 10 second sprints with tire or up hill
Tuesday
ENDURANCE
Running
Interval run; 6-12 400-800m runs at about 1:30 per ¼ mile, rest 2-3 minutes between runs
Wednesday
ENDURANCE
AM Swimming
Warm up drills
200m of
Close fist drill, kickboard, catch up, pull only
Interval swims, either 8x250, 4x500, 2-3 minutes rest between swims.
Treading water 10-20 minutes
STRENGTH
PM
A1 Deadlift 4x5
B1 Weighted Dips 5x5
B2 Weighted pull ups 5x5
C1 Front Squat 4x5
D1 Get ups 5x3 per side
D2 Rotational Toss 10 per side
E1 Farmers Walk 2 sets
Thursday
ENDURANCE
PM Running
4-8 mile fartlek run; heart rate below 155, sprint at 85% intensity for 10-30 seconds every 3-5 minutes
Friday
ENDURANCE
AM Running
High intensity run, 1.5 to 4 miles at 95% intensity
STRENGTH
PM
A1 Kettlebell Single Arm Clean and Jerk 10 minutes
B1 Hanging Leg Raises 5 sets
C1 Pull-ups 100 reps
C2 Burpees 20 reps every time you stop doing pull-ups
D1 Kettlebell Swings, sets of 10 with 100yd jog in between sets for recovery, push it out!
E1 Fireman’s Carry 2 sets
Saturday
ENDURANCE
PM Swimming
Warm up drills
200m of
Close fist drill, kickboard, catch up, pull only
2000-3000m of freestyle or finning
Treading water 10-20 minutes
PM Rucking
4-8 mile ruck, 30-60 lbs. between 135-150 heart rate
Sunday
ACTIVE RECOVERY
Water confidence, light tire drags, hike, play sports etc. 30-60 minutes
DON’T OVERTRAIN, GET YOUR SLEEP, EAT HEALTHY
