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StrongFirst for Army Fitness

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jroberts1187

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I will be taking 2x Army Combat Fitness Tests in the next couple of weeks that will act as my baselines for my training moving forward. I will not change the previous year-long periodization plan that I have put together for myself while on deployment to peak for the next ACFT down the line. It will just happen when it happens, and I will hopefully be able to judge the effectiveness of some popular StrongFirst programs for myself. Limiting factor for StrongFirst is the KB selection. I have access to only 40lb bells, and my doubles form is very limited though I may simply have to learn. My SF experience is Plan Strong and All Terrain Conditioning seminars after completing Simple and Sinister (Simple) and the Quick and the Dead both 033C and 044. The periodization is as follows:

Conditioning- I will do a mix on something Derek Toshner gave me for my 5-Mile Run at the seminar which was: 80-100m Sprints 3x a week with 2min rest between sprints working up to 30 at a time and LSS Running 3x a week. My variation is throwing the Sprints on the Front Squat + Power Clean Days (or on the heavy lower body days after Plan Strong is over) which will likewise be waved intra-week, and adding various modes for the LSS running like Rowing, Assault Bike, Elliptical, Step-ups, etc on the other days, but will specialize more in running toward the endurance phase of the periodization cycle. Also adding light OTM BB Snatch here 2x a week on days between Sprint days as more light volume/active recovery and form practice than actual lift volume. Conditioning will always be after lifting, S+S, Q+D, etc. for the day because I'm not an endurance athlete and my ability to generate tension will be much lower if I do the lifting after. I'm deployed so time is not a factor and sessions will typically be 1:40-2:00 in length 5-6 days a week. I have no problem autoregulating here and there if I have recovery problems

The 1st 6 months will limit and nearly eliminate accessory lifts to focus primarily on building the strength/hypertrophy focus of the main lifts without allowing creep into the workouts. Also acts to prevent overtraining as a serious amount of conditioning work is also present. I'm already 3 weeks into Month 1.

Previous All-time Bests at various times line life: FSQ-275x3, Bench- 315, OHP- 175, Back Squat-385, Deadlift-375, Weighted Dip- BW+155, Weighted Pullup- BW+135, TGU-14x each side in 15mins with 32KG

Starting Maxes for this Periodized Cycle (Estimates based on TRM): FSQ- 245, Power Clean- 245, Barbell Standing Press- 165, Weighted Dips- BW + 105, Weighted Pullups- BW+90, 5-Mile- 45:16, TGU- unknown but wayyy lower

Strength Macrocycle
Month 1:
PS 70 cycle 1 / Lifts- Front Squat, Power Clean, Barbell Standing Press, Weighted Dips, Weighted Pullups
Work Schedule: (2 on 1 off) Day 1- FSQ, PC, OHP / Day 2- Dips, Pullups, OTM BB Snatch / Day 3- Off then repeat
Conditioning: Sprints on Day 1s / LSS on Day 2 beginning at 30mins and working to 1hr.
Month 2: PS 70 cycle 2 same lifts and conditioning
Work Schedule: (3 on 1 off, 2 on 1 off) Day 1,3,5- FSQ, PC, OHP / Day 2,6- Dips, Pullups, OTM BB Snatch / Day 4,7- Off
Conditioning: Sprints on Day 1,3,5s Finish Sprints and complete the hour with LSS / LSS on Day 2,6 beginning at 40mins and working to 1hr. Ex: if Sprints takes 30 mins, LSS will be 20mins.
Month 3-3.5 (6 week): Adjusted Comp-month to Taper / I will also introduce various lifts here for the following hypertrophy cycle at a low volume G2G type fashion just to train the movements and prep the tendons and remove the Weighted Dips and Weighted Pullups to account for this volume.
Work Schedule (3 on 1 off) Day 1, 3, 6- Lifts and Sprints w/ LSS Finisher / Day 2,5,7- A+A w/ LSS / Day 4,8- Off
Conditioning: Limit Sprints to 50x/week, keep LSS work. Introduce A+A swings (and probably sprinkle in other lifts for variety) with the double 18kg on LSS days for total of up to two hours increasing time linearly from 1:10:00 to 2:00:00 over the course of the 6-week mesocycle. Ex: if A+A takes 20 mins, LSS will be 50mins.

Hypertrophy Macrocycle
Month 4:
BTS6 / Lifts- Zercher Squat, Snatch-Grip Deadlift, Incline Bench, Pendlay Row, Weighted Dips, Weighted Pullups
Conditioning return to normal on Sprints, capping volume if needed for recovery. LSS work will be move to Step-ups and ATC double swings will increase volume as normally dictated in the protocol, but LSS will be much more limited than Strength Cycle
Month 5: Continuation
Month 5.5-7 (6 week): From Built Strong, move into more beach muscle focus with BTS3 Minimalist, Light plan and much accessory lifts with dumbbells, isolation exercises, and unilateral exercises. This should both act to deload CNS from the previous 6 months of high-volume, high-intensity work as well as act to "close the gaps" so to say, or really alleviate the asymmetries that come with primarily bilateral loading. Mix ATC with double swings and snatches, Iron Cardio type flexibility, and introduce 1x weekly glycolytic syssion.

Endurance + Running Phase
Month 7:
High-Rep Muscle Endurance over various exercises keeping heart rate low, but still going for a bit of localized acid to build vascularity in the periphery + S+S (should have heavier KBs by this point)
Conditioning: Limit Sprints to 2x a week, LSS 4x a week (2x ATC snatches, 2x Running)
Month 8: High-Rep Muscle Endurance continued + S+S (probably beyond Simple at this point)
Conditioning: Sprints 1x a week, 4x Running)
Month 9: Q+D + a low volume, high-intensity program with 3x lifts and a couple accessories sprinkled throughout and probably add some double KB work for fun and variety (TBD on specifics until I find my weaknesses from the 1st 6 months)
Conditioning- continued LSS running on non-lift days
Month 10: Continuation
Month 11: Q+D with taper of LSS running
Month 12: Glycolytic Peaking / Primarily GPP and CrossFit style workouts, typical HIIT Sprints like 800m, 400m, etc.

Excited to see what so much Q+D following so much Strength and Aerobic work will produce. Nutrition will be decidedly lacking due to eating Army food 24/7, but hopefully, supplements via Amazon will help me dial it in as much as possible.
 
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1st ACFT numbers for baseline taken after 6 days off working out due to vacation/Pass while deployed: 568
DL- 340x3 (That's the highest the scoring goes) 100pts
Standing Power Throw w/ 10lb Slam Ball - 14.2 (Max is 13.1) 100 pts
Hand Release Pushups in 2 mins - 62 or 100pts (Max is 62, stopped and made it in about 1:30)
Sprint Drag Carry (SDC)- 1:23 (Taken on slick concrete that didn't allow for proper cut and turn-around in the direction changes. Max is 1:30) 100pts
Plank- 2:08 (Terrible. Thought it would be way easier. Need to work on this. Max is 3:30) 74 pts
2Mi Run- 15:02 (Max is 13:30, Done at the end of the test and much harder after the SDC than a normal 2Mi) 94 pts
 
Still 2.5 weeks to go, but this PlanStrong Cycle is turning out much like the previous one where it took multiple sets of 1x and 2x to meet a tough day of 6 reps in the 92% range at the beginning of Month 1 to where I can push through a set of 3x at 96% and still go on to complete all of my 84% and 75% work. I like to take the 2nd month of a PS cycle and increase the weights in one zone by 4-6% along with the Delta 20 increase in Volume, and it really works great. I also found that moving from Squatting and Cleaning 2x a week to 3x a week in the 2nd month really keeps you much fresher although I had to dial down the Sprint work, but I've been able to maintain the LSS work far better than expected to the point that I even upped the work and modified the 1st post for Month 2 to account for that and Month 3 to continue to build on the progress.

Man, I just love Plan Strong, and aesthetically, my back and traps are blowing up with all these cleans and snatches. Wish I had heavier bells to move into an Iron Cardio conditioning cycle along with that Hypertrophy cycle. but I think S+S with double 18kg will have to do.
 
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Plan Strong is incredible, and my number has shot up but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to being done with Power Clean for awhile
 
Took a lighter day at the end of last week with no conditioning, and pushed my Wt Dips, Wt Pullups, and EMOM Snatches heavier to account for it and did a full hour on the Elliptical then took an off day in prep for my last week of PS. Also been carb loading heavy and sleeping plenty. Also, cut out the sprints recently.

Came into this week ready to do my planned lifts, starting lifting and just knew today was a PR day. Went back to the computer to get my Heavy day lifts for everything and went to work even going for heavy PR singles.
PR'd absolutely everything
OHP: Did my PS starting 1RM for 2,1,1
FS: PR'd by 10lbs, then upped again and went for a 20lb PR
PC: PR'd by 10lbs (after PR in Front Squat and OHP)

Still had some in the tank on these PR attempts because I wasn't shooting for true 1RM attempts too!
Then, finished out the regularly programmed heavy day work, and then.... set a PR on the Elliptical at 7 Miles for an average of 8:22/mi with HR never above 152 (I workout from 2am-4am and it's too dark to run outside where I'm at so don't judge)
Absolutely best training session I've had in a long time, and this is before the taper month!!!
 
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