Why You're an Athlete

Why you're an Athlete. 

Most people don't consider themselves athletes but I consider everyone at the gym athletes.

Every person at the gym has taken it upon yourselves to no longer just work out but to train. Whether or not you knew it you/we train. We train by cycling exercises, cycling through seasons and working toward goals. People that just "work out" never cycle exercises or really train toward goals. From my experience formerly working at typical gyms most people that work out at regular gyms usually(not always) do the same exercise and same weights day in and day out and really never see progress. 

Therefore if Athletes train, and you train, you're an athlete.  If you don't think of yourself as an athlete then start. Treat yourself as an athlete, eat healthy foods, do recovery work, get proper rest and take care off yourself. 

Like I said most people at the gym don't think of themselves as athletes but you're not alone. Through my Army career surprisingly other soldiers didn't think of themselves as athletes either. It was my first Squad Leader a badass and great leader SSG Gaul who told our squad "you are paid to run, jump, carry and shoot so you are a semi-pro athlete". In the same category as military members I put Police, Medical First Responders and Fire Fighters. To be honest most of those professions have a tough time getting there own colleagues to believe they are athletes too.

Because I wanted Tactical athletes(TA's) to start training like athletes, I started putting together my training thoughts, guidelines and programs for Tactical athletes into what I hope one day will be a book. Here's a little bit from the start of my training thoughts. 

Why wouldn't you want to be STRONGER. FASTER and more POWERFUL. I created this book because I see major flaws in how tactical athletes train or how they don't train at all. Tactical athletes are professional athletes you are expected and PAID to run, jump, carry, lift and possibly shoot a weapon. So why don't tactical athlete train like athletes? It's not always because they don't want to, it's because they might not know how to train like athletes. In this book I hope to maximizes your physical genetic potential through proper exercise selection, lifting, running, job specific training, proper nutrition at home or in austere environments and joint and muscular flexibility and mobility.

The beginning, if you want to be an athlete you must train like an athlete.
During my years in the Army our PT program consisted of running 4 times a week, ruck marching one time a week and doing body weight exercises( pull ups, push ups etc).(Does that sound like what an Athlete trains like)There was no rhyme or reason to the training it just depended on what your squad leader wanted to do that morning. I like many others would go to the gym as much as I could during PT hours. Without any guidance or knowledge my training guides came from Muscle Fitness magazine. Where I would do bodybuilding programs designed for 275lb monsters that can't run around the block without getting out of breath, these body building programs contained lots of Bicep curls and tricep extensions(does this sound like a training program for athlete who's life and other lives might depend on to run, jump and carry and shoot.
While doing something is better then nothing my training could have been much better. I tell you this because you might be in the same spot I was and sometimes it takes a lot of failures to finally get it right.

So how do we train like an athlete? First off we use training cycles. Sport athletes have season and schedules while tactical athletes don't have seasons. But TA's do have annual PT tests, deployments, and physical evaluations. While a tactical athlete must maintain a constant state of physical readiness your training must be planned out and cyclical. You need to structure your training. While random, constantly varied workouts are beneficial they also must be planned into a larger structured program. 

Take most professional athletes, they have a Off-season, pre-season, in-season, post season cycles of physical training. The basic reason for training cycles is to build up your training to peak at the right time. Your body needs time to recover and adapt to the training stimulus you are applying to it . Now I know most TA's don't have a specific season to peak for and as a Tactical athlete you need to be in a almost constant state of physical preparedness. This is where a base level of physical fitness is an absolute necessity. With your base level of physical fitness you can now start structuring and cycle your physical training.

Once again as a TA your season can be any event, deployment overseas, PT test, a school or pipeline you are attending, physical evaluation or field training. Whatever it is you need to have a target and you need to structure your training for that target event. 

In the book I'm going to give you several PT cycles along with exercise explanations and demos, flexibility/mobility work and nutritional principles. Your job is to pick a goal or target and start training before we get into the nuts and bolts of the training cycles we need to find out where your base level of physical fitness stands. We do this through a Physical Training Test..........

Here's a sample of a week of training.  Key aspects of training are Olympic lifts for power, strength development through multi joint strength exercises, metabolic conditioning, endurance training, interval training, job specific training, swimming and the secret sauce combatives training. Combatives training is important, it builds confidence and safety. Everyone should have the ability to defend themselves especially those who protect us. 

Week 1: Day 1

Strength

·        Back Squat  - 3 x 5 @ 75%
·        Push Press - 3 x 5 @ 75%
·        Back extension - 3 x 10
·        Strict Pull up - 3 x 8 (weighted if you can 8 easily)

Conditioning:

 5 rounds for time

8 Clean and Jerk 135

3 Rope Climb

100m Buddy carry

Week 1: Day 2

Endurnace

Run 3miles for time

then.....

Combatives Training 

With partner grapple 3 x 3 min rounds - 3min rest between rounds

No partner: 3 rounds of boxing

30sec off hand jab

30sec rest 

30sec strong hand straight

30 sec rest 

30 sec off hand Hook

30sec rest 

30 sec strong hand hook or upper cut

30 sec rest

Week 1: Day 3

Strength

·        Back Squat  - 3 x 5 @ 65%
·        Bench Press - 3 x 5 @ 82%
·        Deadlift - 3 x 5 @ 78%
·        Weighted Decline Sit up 3 x 10

Conditing

20min AMRAP

3-6-9-12.........

Push up 

KB swing 55lb

Week 1: Day 4

Rest or Job Specific Training

Job Specific training:

Military:

Ruck March in full kit(helmet,Vest and Weapon(rubber duckie) 4mile ruck march 45lbs

Police:

 5 x 400m sprints in Tactical gear or daily patrol load. With 1:1 Work to rest Ratio

Fire:

15min AMRAP - In full gear w/ SCBA on air

6 Tire Flips

9 Sledge strikes on each side

12 Weighted Box Step ups on each leg w/25lb Dumbbells

EMT/Paramedic:

Odd object carry and lifts, For time:

30 Sand bag Ground to Shoulder + Squat @ 100lbs

Week 1: Day 5

Strength

·        Back Squat 2 x 5 @ 80%
·        Barbell row 3 x 8
·        Romanian Deadlift 3 x 5 @ 60% of DL 5RM
·        Dips 3 x 8 (weighted if you can do 8 easily)

Conditioning

5 Rounds for time

250m row

20 box step ups 24in

15 Ring Rows

Week 1 Day 6

If you did the Job Specific training on Day 4 then don't do it today, just do the Smoke Session. If you didn't do it yet do it all today.

Job Specific training:

Military:

Ruck March in full kit(helmet,Vest and Weapon(rubber duckie) 4mile ruck march 45lbs

Police:

 5 x 400m sprints in Tactical gear or daily patrol load. With 1:1 Work to rest Ratio

Fire:

15min AMRAP - In full gear w/ SCBA on air

6 Tire Flips

9 Sledge strikes on each side

12 Weighted Box Step ups on each leg w/25lb Dumbbells

EMT/Paramedic:

Odd object carry and lifts, For time:

30 Sand bag Ground to Shoulder + Squat

Smoke Session:

3 rounds for time

200yd Swim

30 Squats

100yd Swim

30 Four Count Flutter kicks

50yd Swim

30 Push ups 

Week 1 Day 7

Rest