Posted: 3/12/2011 8:09:18 PM EDT
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My plan is to enlist as a 13F or 11B with Option 40 some time soon, basically a contract to go either forward observer or infantry along with airborne, RASP, and hopefully assignment to a Ranger Battalion afterward. My workout routines have been based around being physically prepared for this, not just scoring 300 on the APFT. I've done lots of compound lifts along with Crossfit style metcons and have seen very good progress with this. This is my old program:
Monday: Press 3x5, weekly linear progression, along with several push accessory movements as needed. End with a Crossfit style metcon. Wednesday: Deadlift (sets and reps changed a lot, typically 3x3 or 5x3), weekly linear progression along with several pull accessory movements as needed. End with a Crossfit style metcon. Friday: Squat 3x5, weekly linear progression, end with a Crossfit style metcon. This was my basic schedule, from here I would evaluate how my body felt and throw in extra APFT training or conditioning on days in between as needed. I initially did bench before giving up on all the douchebag bro spotters, then switched to press. My bench 3x5 went from 155 to 180, deadlift 5x3 went from 240 or so to 280, squat 3x5 went from 175 to 240. Metcon times all went down, things like sit ups, pull ups, and dips got noticeably easier, and I went from being unable to run a mile to running 3.2. Good progress all the way around, not as fast in strength as a dedicated lifting program but for hitting the major compound lifts only once a week I was happy that the progress lasted this long. However, I've plateaued and started to go backwards. For example, one Friday I squatted 240 3x5. Next Friday I did 245, and got 3, and then 0. I chalked it up to being tired, went back next Friday and got 4, 3, 3. Okay, maybe next friday I'll get all sets. Nope, next Friday was 3,2,2. Similar thing happened with my press and deadlift. Considering I've been following this program for a while, I figured I needed to change it up, so I'm taking a week off then diving back it into it. As I said, my program needs to be based around being fit for what I need to do, not just scoring 300 on the APFT (though I won't deny a perfect APFT score, I'd rather score something like a 275 and still be moderately big and strong than score a 300 and be a twig). I need some sort of set weekly schedule for the big compound lifts, or else I don't make strength progress I've realized, so simply following the main page Crossfit WODs won't work, not to mention the fact that I can't always use the proper equipment or the substitutes. I'm thinking of something as follows: Monday: Several pulling movements (pull ups, chins, cleans, rows, shrugs, curls), Crossfit style metcon. Tuesday: Squat (??? rep range), linear progression, Crossfit style metcon. Wednesday: OFF. Thursday: Several pushing movements (bench press, press, dips, all those variants), Crossfit style metcon. Friday: Deadlift (??? rep range), linear progression, Crossfit style metcon. This seems to cover all the basics... compound lifts, metcons, linear progression, and a good basic program to follow but one I can still modify as needed. However, I'm worried about potentially overtraining, and not sure what rep ranges to do for squat and deadlift. Any help/tips/advice at all for my situation? Sorry about the wall of text, please no TLDR. 
EDIT: Oh, I'm 6 foot 180lbs. I plan to bump this up to 190-200lbs range. |
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A solid week off will not hurt at all. Gives your body a nice rest and a chance to rebuild. People that miss a week and complain of being weaker are actually having a lack of mental focus.
Change up is always good. Have you tried front squats? Might be a nice change from the back-squats. Anything that is more of a functional movement will be of greater benefit to you than a fixed strength movement, i.e. benching is good for benching and making your chest stronger but the motion involved in dips is the like the one you'd use to push yourself up between two tree branches or a couple of rocks. Try walking lunges. Back or front squat with a push press. Learn to do power cleans. Power clean into a front squat to a push press. Weird circuits of 3 or 4 exercise can be fun to do, don't take a lot of time, keep you functionally fit, and get you warmed up for doing squats or power cleans. I do a "warm-up" routine where I do a circuit of deadlifts with a shrug, drop to doing push-up, then a squat jump up to grab a pull up bar for a pull up. The last one is squat-jump-pullup-drop to squat=1 rep. The whole thing hits a lot of muscle groups and is fun. I'm walking myself across a block to do the push-ups and hanging a chain around my neck when I do the jumping pull-ups now. Might try a small medicine ball next. Try dumbbell bench. Or do do one arm DB bench, which will work your core too. Basic rep range for anything is: 5 reps and under=strength, 6 to 10 reps=general fitness, 12 reps and over= endurance. This is a real general guide line as other factors can influence it, and other people may give different rep numbers and category. IMO some of the exercises dictate the number of reps you do. When I get to my working weight in squats I'm usually doing 3-5 reps, but when doing walking lunges its always 8 to 12 per leg. I think that giving yourself an extra day between your squats and deadlifts will be a big help. |
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Quoted:
A solid week off will not hurt at all. Gives your body a nice rest and a chance to rebuild. People that miss a week and complain of being weaker are actually having a lack of mental focus. Every couple of months I take a week off. It does wonders to prevent injury. Pain is what you feel when it is too late, not when something is developing. As for your workout, do a long run once a week. I don't run other than that ( I box/eliptical/bike/jump rope/etc) and I do just fine on the APFT. |
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First, congratulations on your decision to enlist and serve your country.
Second, while I'm sure that this workout plan will get you in great shape, it won't meet the requirement you've laid out, which is to prepare for the tasks you'll have to execute as a 13F or 11B. Strength training is important, you've got that. Cardiovascular strength is important, the Crossfit metcons will help. But what you are seriously lacking is physical training to improve your cardiovascular endurance and your body's overall endurance. You need to train to move long distances, with heavy loads, while fatigued and then execute other physically demanding tasks (i.e., muscular strength). As either an 11B or a 13F, your ass will be humping. You need to be able to ruck march. You should start now by preparing your body to carry a heavy load for a long distance. You may feel strong now, but rucking requires you to train your body in a whole new way and the only way to do it is to ruck. I would suggest that you start out easy, with a 20-30 lb ruck (with a frame and hip belt) and a moderate distance, say 4 miles. Road march once a week. Increase either distance or load a little bit each week. Say a mile or 10 lbs. This is probably the most critical physical conditioning you can do to rpepare as a combat arms soldier. Try to work up to a 12 mile ruckmarch wioth a 60-75 lb load. Do not get warpped up around the EIB standard of 12 miles in under 3 hours. That's a standard for a specific training event. The Army standard is/was 20 km with a combat load in 4 hours. That's about 12 miles in 4 hours. That's still a fast pace. You should strive to move quickly, but without running. You also need to run longer distance at least once per week to train your body to sustain a certain pace over a long distance. back in my day, one of the pre-requesites for Ranger School during zero week was to run 5 miles in under 40 minutes. BTW, my basis for providing this advice is form experience agined as an Army officer for 10 years, 4 of those years in the Infantry. |
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I would just follow the Crossfit mainpage wods a cycle or two back and add in 5x3 and 5x5 strength days on the days with lighter metcon or another strength component, and one day of CFE. Something like this
Day 1- Mainpage with 5x5 or 5x3 day 2- Mainpage with CFE workout Day 3- longer WOD (Murph, eva, other long hero, any WOD that would take more than a half hour to complete) Day 4––- Rest Day 5- Mainpage WOD with 5x5 Day 6. Mainpage WOD AND CFE workout/Rucking or longer CF WOD or LSD run. Day 7. Rest This sort of cycle is very draining, so make sure you are eating right, getting enough sleep, and resting. A long CF WOD is something that would take an elite Crossfitter (Someone who competes at the regional or higher level Crossfit Games) 20+ minutes to complete on average. This includes workouts like Murph, Eva, "the 7's", Filthy Fifty, and other longer hero Workouts. I would recommend taking a look at the Sealfit wods as well. And, you need to ruck as well. |
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Quoted:
First, congratulations on your decision to enlist and serve your country. Second, while I'm sure that this workout plan will get you in great shape, it won't meet the requirement you've laid out, which is to prepare for the tasks you'll have to execute as a 13F or 11B. Strength training is important, you've got that. Cardiovascular strength is important, the Crossfit metcons will help. But what you are seriously lacking is physical training to improve your cardiovascular endurance and your body's overall endurance. You need to train to move long distances, with heavy loads, while fatigued and then execute other physically demanding tasks (i.e., muscular strength). As either an 11B or a 13F, your ass will be humping. You need to be able to ruck march. You should start now by preparing your body to carry a heavy load for a long distance. You may feel strong now, but rucking requires you to train your body in a whole new way and the only way to do it is to ruck. I would suggest that you start out easy, with a 20-30 lb ruck (with a frame and hip belt) and a moderate distance, say 4 miles. Road march once a week. Increase either distance or load a little bit each week. Say a mile or 10 lbs. This is probably the most critical physical conditioning you can do to rpepare as a combat arms soldier. Try to work up to a 12 mile ruckmarch wioth a 60-75 lb load. Do not get warpped up around the EIB standard of 12 miles in under 3 hours. That's a standard for a specific training event. The Army standard is/was 20 km with a combat load in 4 hours. That's about 12 miles in 4 hours. That's still a fast pace. You should strive to move quickly, but without running. You also need to run longer distance at least once per week to train your body to sustain a certain pace over a long distance. back in my day, one of the pre-requesites for Ranger School during zero week was to run 5 miles in under 40 minutes. BTW, my basis for providing this advice is form experience agined as an Army officer for 10 years, 4 of those years in the Infantry. Thanks for the tips. I should mention that when I say Crossfit style metcon, I mean more of just a metcon in general. While most of them are/will be Crossfit style, I do plan to throw in rucking/long slow runs every now and then. I don't have any equipment to do ruck marching with so I'll have to look in to getting some, though my current plan is to sub a metcon every week or two with a long distance run or a long ruck march. I'm going to try to be cautious about it, since I've read too many stories of 25 year old infantrymen who have the knees and back of a 65 year old because they did too much ruck marching while serving. I'll train hard, but I'll try to be smart about it too. |