Transcription
[Music] Well, what is going on guys? Finishing up a property patrol, something that we do twice a day. Getting out, stretching the legs, and checking things out. Activity is good. So today, I want to talk about combat fitness in a real-world context. Okay, I know there's all kinds of super cool Delta programs out there, you know, making people move like CrossFit and all the copers. Not much difference to that besides the fact that they try to include strength training and technical training with high-intensity anaerobic stuff. It's made a major impact on the fitness community because it's gotten a lot more people into it. And I think one reason is the group mentality. You're no longer just going to the gym and hitting the bench and squat and ignoring everybody around you. In most cases, they're actually doing a lot of pretty cool events. Okay, so ridiculous Olympic weightlifting with way too much weight for beginners. Put that aside, and you've got a pretty cool group dynamic. Also, stuff like CrossFit has gotten so many more women into lifting weights. I know it's not, you know, exactly strength training at all, but you know, before 2005, women were still terrified of weight training. So it's good to see the ladies out there getting after it, trying to get strong. And they have finally learned that you don't just automatically get big and bulky. Doesn't work that way for men either. If you want to look like the guys on the magazines, it's going to take some serious drugs, right?
So, what should we do, Randall? What is a basic way to get in shape for this kind of combat fitness world? Well, let's keep it simple, and let's get down to what is actually required from our bodies. Okay, so we're talking about patrolling in many cases, long distances. So there's some endurance to that. We're talking about strength. You've got to load equipment either on trucks or off of trucks. You could possibly have to carry a wounded buddy. Um, you're carrying your gear, whatever it is. So property patrol, I just got a weapon. Um, you know, we've got chest rigs, plate carriers, like your ruck sack, a full-on patrol loadout. I know a lot of veterans like to say, "Oh, we carried 100 lbs of gear." Like as a grunt, you're going to carry some very heavy gear. But the heaviest I've carried was maybe 55, 60 lbs. Now, like mortar guys and people carrying special equipment, yeah, they're going to be loaded down. But the average grunt combat loadout, we're talking about anything from 40 to 50 lbs of gear, right? If you've got your combat gear on and then you throw your ruck on and you're over 60 lbs, well, you just overpacked. And I don't blame you, I blame your leadership, 'cause that is a serious problem. Okay, so you got to be able to carry your loadout, no matter how heavy it is.
Okay, so we need strength and endurance. Um, and in an actual firefight, okay, you're bounding 3 to 5 second rushes, kind of looks like a burp. I'm up, he sees me, I'm down. That gives your enemy a harder time of actually acquiring you and shooting you. Combat is going to be mostly anaerobic. All right, so we're talking about fast sprints. If you're using some concealment, like the bed behind me, that is cover and concealment. All right, if I've got an enemy over here and I am the flanking element, I'm going to use this creek bed. So because I'm concealed and I have cover, if they do happen to shoot this way, I'm not necessarily sprinting, right? I could just be walking through this because I want to be quiet, because we don't want the enemy to hear the flanking element. But if we're trying to get there in a hurry, it's some kind of a light jog. Okay, so there's your endurance, and you've got your anaerobic. Anaerobic is your sprint stuff. Okay, so we need all three components of fitness. But do we need to combine strength and anaerobic and endurance all into one workout? And guys, I hate to hurt some people's feelings, but no, you don't need to combine those all into one workout. And as a matter of fact, if you look at the pure sports data, like not the "trust the science" garbage we've dealt with lately, but people who actually train people who win games and win freaking gold medals and stuff. As a matter of fact, you should not put all of those into the same workout because, as it turns out, you can only train endurance or strength in one workout. The bodybuilders and powerlifters know this. You're either going into the gym to train strength, or you're going out and doing endurance. Combining the two in the same workout hurts your effectiveness of the other workout. Okay, so let's say I'm doing my squats for the day. I want to stay in the 4 to 6 rep range. This is heavy weightlifting. Okay, so if I do my heavy set of squats and then instead of sitting down or walking around and resting for 5 minutes, in some cases 10 minutes, if I start going doing some jumping jacks and running around and burpees and all that, I'm not allowing my central nervous system or my lungs to come down and actually get the rest between the sets. So it's actually stupid and ineffective to ruin and waste my strength training workout by doing all this extra endurance crap. That's why you'll see CrossFitters, the ones who are actually strong, they are not doing CrossFit stuff to get strong. They're doing pure strength training. And then once they show up at the games to compete, it's their strength that allows them to get through the strength component of it. And then all the other stuff is just conditioning, just surviving the running or biking or swimming, whatever silly stuff they're having them do. So that's your first tip. You can totally train strength and endurance separately, and you will still be able to apply them when those situations occur.
All right, I know it sounds crazy. You know, this dumb old grunt doesn't know stuff. You know, I could tell you about all my background and everything I know about this, but it's not going to matter. You're either going to want to listen or you're not. I would suggest you go research all this stuff on your own. How can we implement a basic pro and cover these components? Well, it's simple, guys. If you could only do one workout for the rest of your life and you just had to choose one, and that's all you have time for, or it's all you're interested in, guess what? You should try to get stronger. Being strong makes you an asset. You're harder to kill. And you will still get the fitness benefit and conditioning out of getting strong. Take a guy who could deadlift 400 lbs, and as long as he's not super overweight, if he is just big and strong, he is going to be able to perform those patrols because that 40, 50 lb gear loadout is going to be light to him. Definitely lighter than, you know, the 120 lb runner dude who can't squat or deadlift at all. But again, it's got to be the big strong guy, not the big fat guy. Okay, and let's be honest here, guys. All the military branches do silly running programs and silly endurance tests. In the Army, it's 2 miles. And the Marines, it's 3 miles. All my combat buddies, put it down there in the comments, how many times were you in a firefight downrange where you had to run 2 to 3 miles in shorts and tennis shoes? Never happened. Not once. The only time I was in contact in shorts and actually flip-flops was when I was at a combat outpost and we would get attacked. But I wasn't running 2 to 3 miles in that stuff. It was more like, get up, run in my flip-flops to where my bunk was, throw my gear on real quick, and get out to a shooting position. Right? The farthest I would move would be maybe 20 meters. Okay, but none of us were running around, you know, doing 2 to 3 miles in shorts and tennis shoes. And again, if you can only do one program, get stronger. That will benefit you more than anything else. You could try and fail, or people try one workout and then they give up after a couple weeks and go try this workout. Just go to the gym and try to get strong. I would find a strength coach that can teach you how to do the proper low bar squat, uh, the proper deadlift, and you might need coaches on the press, okay? So an outstanding program for this is Starting Strength, Mark Rippetoe. Outstanding, tested, science-backed strength training program. If you follow that program to the letter, you will get strong. So try a program like that and do it right, and you will see strength gains consistently for, yeah, 6 to 9 months to over a year. You will feel the effects within a couple weeks. You will already feel better, you will feel stronger, you will feel more useful. You know, and stronger people, there are so many benefits to being strong in your life. Another good program is Bigger Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews. He focuses on the 4 to 6 rep range. Um, and he splits his workouts up in the week. Okay, so some people do like the body part split. I like the Starting Strength method where I could go to the gym two to three times a week, and I'm doing three sets of five reps. That's it, and then I'm freaking done. And you know, guys, go look into that program. You can knock out your squats, deadlifts, and presses. You can do all of that heavy strength training, and you can be done with your complete workout in less than an hour, as long as you're not going to the gym screwing around, foam rolling, stretching, doing all this other silliness. Use the movement as your warm-up, as an example. You start your squats with the empty bar and you slowly ramp up to your working sets. And then once you're getting comfortable with the heavier weights, you knock out your first set of five. You only got two left, guys. And as long as those five reps are as heavy as you can go, okay, the heaviest weight you can possibly do for five reps, that's the key. That is strength training. Okay, 8 to 12 reps is pretty good for women, but it's silly for dudes. That's not strength training, that's your bodybuilding hypertrophy crap. 10 to 15 reps, that's getting out of control because you're not overloading your central nervous system to the effect of actually forcing it to get stronger. Okay, so guys who are into bodybuilding and they like the pump and everything, fine. It's better than nothing, it's cool. Well, Randall, I, I did 10 to 15 reps, you know, and I got stronger. Okay, how long did you do it for? Oh, you did it for 4 months. That's your new gains. Here's another thing about workout programs, newbie gains. If you go from doing nothing to doing literally anything, any kind of workout, any kind of diet, if you do anything consistently for four to six months, these are what we call newbie gains. It could be the most ridiculous freaking strength program, the most ridiculous running program, all this flopping around on the ground garbage. We see it's going to work for you because you went from doing nothing to doing something. But I'll tell you what, guys, after that four to six month range, it's going to stop working for you, and you're going to have to find a new program. But to be honest, how many of the beginners are actually sticking with something consistently for six months? It's pretty rare. Okay, so if you're one of the bodybuilder types and you think, oh, you know, 10 to 15 reps works for me, okay, well, eventually you're going to get stuck, and you're going to have to force your body to get stronger. And 15 squats is not going to do that. That is an anaerobic event. It's not a bad conditioning workout. So if you want to do two to three sets of 20 squats as heavy as you can go, that is an outstanding freaking conditioning test. If you can survive that without puking, that's pretty badass. And it might be a good test for you to perform, you know, every couple weeks to a month, just for the hell of it, just to see where you're at. But a workout like that is not going to get you strong. What gets you strong? The central nervous system response of being overloaded with heavier weights. For guys, that's anywhere from the four to six rep range. Okay, so we've got strength covered. And that actually does cover some of your conditioning because, as it turns out, doing three times five squats or deadlifts with very heavy weight, that will freaking, it will condition you, guys. Believe me. You don't have to do all the crazy burpees and box jumps and Olympic weightlifting and all this silly stuff. Try to get strong, and you will see an insane response all across your body.
Well, Rand, what about endurance? You admit that endurance is important. Okay, yeah. What do we need endurance for? Well, as I said, slow kind of cardio, doing a flanking maneuver, a full day of patrolling. Go put your basic combat loadout on, you know, 30 to 40 lbs, and just go climb the hills, do some patrolling. 8 hours of that is an absolute smoker. And so what the military does is they take the endurance component of patrolling and being deployed, and they say, "Oh, well, we need to put on tennis shoes and shorts and go run around for miles." And then we need to test people at 2 or 3 miles. Why again are we patrolling in freaking shorts and tennis shoes? No, but you know, the military's kind of slow. We're very slow. We think endurance means running around in shorts and tennis shoes. What else could we do that would benefit us a hell of a lot more that actually translates to patrolling with our gear? Well, I just said it. Patrolling with our actual gear, doing the actual movement that we have to do in combat, that is the training. Okay, so don't put on tennis shoes and shorts and run and expect that's going to help you move around the hills with 40 lbs of gear. The modality does not match the training effect or the end goal that we want. What does? Put the actual gear on and go out and actually do it. The modality will match the effect we want. Okay, so then I've had people say, "Well, you know, I live in the suburbs and we can't walk around all kitted up and stuff without freaking people out." Okay, well, move. Why are you living there? I'm just kidding. You know, that's that's most Americans. Okay, I get it. We, you know, we live around other people. What else can you do, guys? What is the most popular series on my channel? The rucking series. Guys, rucking, not hiking. Because hiking is a mode of transportation. That's just having some stuff on and getting somewhere. Is a way to improve that modality? All right, you're putting your weight on, but you are moving as quickly as you can. And I even tell people, you don't have to run. And I don't think you should run if you're the older type and you have some back issues and stuff. I don't think you should ever run when rucking because you don't have to. It's an unnecessary wear and tear. Start at 20% of your body weight. You don't have to go crazy with it. And just try to cover distance as quickly as possible. What is a good time goal? Well, a good time goal to shoot for is a 15-minute mile. Okay, as an example, you should be able to walk 4 miles in less than an hour without running. That is a key. And guys, that is your aerobic base right there. You are already training exactly what you're going to have to be able to perform when you are patrolling. An extra benefit of that is you will, you will build up your bone density like weight-bearing activities. It's super beneficial all across the board. You know, um, strengthen joints, tendons, ligaments, all that stuff. Improve your bone density. It will toughen you up. Walking around with gear on, especially out in the hills, will toughen you up. Also, I suggest, uh, you know, all the armed prepared citizens, Minute Men, guys have boots. If you like your trail runners, cool. But you know what? They're going to fall apart in a couple weeks in terrain like this. They absolutely will. So boots are recommended because they're going to last more than a couple months. And so the rucking will prepare your feet to do all that movement in your boots. Okay, so now we have strength and we've got endurance covered. There is another way we could cover endurance, and it's actually something that every single freaking person should be doing every single freaking day, regardless of what you're trying to train for. Basic activity, guys. Daily activity. You know, a lot of the women hit the treadmills and do all these light aerobics workouts. But you know, your Zone 2 or steady state cardio, it can also just be covered by your daily activity. Minimum 10,000 steps a day. That's what we call being a human. So we're just coming up to lunchtime. All I've done is some housework and a couple patrolling here and there, and I'm already over 4,000. 10,000 steps, that's a little over 4 miles, depending on your stride. You can break that up during the day. You know, take the stairs when you can, park at the back of the parking lot and freaking walk. Um, if you don't have to drive somewhere, walk. That's basic human activity, guys. We are designed to move, not sit around all day. Your Zone 2 cardio or your endurance, what the military thinks we need to run and shorts and stuff for, that can be covered by walking. Believe it or not, Zone 2 solid steady state cardio. It's just like with your rucking, but walk fast enough to where you're breathing a little bit heavy, but you can still carry on a conversation. So between your rucking, which you should do at least once a week, every week, ruck. And it doesn't have to be a crazy distance. And then getting in your 10,000 steps every single day, we have endurance covered. You don't need to put your shoes and tennis shoes on and go running because it's not going to apply at all to patrolling with gear on. Literally zero application. What applies to walking around with gear on all day? Walking around with gear on, rucking. Right? Actually patrolling. How do we make those loads feel lighter so we can carry them so they don't smoke us climbing up and down the hills? Get strong. Strength training. Okay, so we've got minimum two times per week strength training. So if you're an older dude, I'd say go with the, uh, twice a week, uh, strength training, especially if you're following the Starting Strength model because, uh, presses, squats, and deadlifts, that's going to, that's going to crush you. So you're going to need a little bit more recovery in the week. You know, you could do like a Monday strength training and then a Wednesday or Thursday strength training. So us older guys, your body has plenty of time to recover. So that's your muscles, joints, and your central nervous system. You have to let that relax too. That's part of the recovery. And then throughout that week, you're getting your 10,000 steps in a day. And then maybe Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, you go out and do your ruck. And it doesn't have to be a crazy distance. I tell people to start at 3 miles. And I tell people that you probably don't even need to ruck more than 6 miles ever. Okay, 6 miles by standard, that's an hour and a half. If you can do 6 miles in under an hour and a half with at least 20% of your body weight in boots, you're good to go, man. That's your endurance. That's the toughening up. That's going to prepare you for patrolling. It's going to toughen up your feet in the boots. You don't need to do any more. You don't need to do any longer distance or any of that. So for the younger people or the more advanced people, you should get on to the three times per week strength training. No big deal. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You have 24 hours between each session to let your whole body rest and recover. You've got to recover. So the only thing you should be doing between those strength training days is getting in your daily activity. If we train Friday, we're going to need to take Saturday off so we could do Sunday would be our ruck. And can you do your strength training the day after you're rucking? Sure, because you shouldn't be out there crushing yourself rucking. You should be able to recover from that. Come in, do your strength training. If you're crushed from your Sunday ruck, no problem, man. Take Monday off. That's recovery again. Tuesday, you come back to the strength training. We don't have to revolve everything we do with our bodies off of this 7-day calendar.
Well, there you have it, grunts. Uh, I knew I threw out a lot of information here, and I appreciate y'all's feedback. So I do have a lot of experience and background in this. I've been training people for over 20 years now, okay? So but with that being said, don't just believe everything I say. Go research everything I talked about. Go look it up for yourself. And I'm just trying to simplify it all into one basic program. Okay, so we're eliminating all the silliness and all that stuff. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Ow! All right, southbound.