Tactical-Olympic Training Program [TOP V1]

The Tactical-Olympic Training Program (designated TOP VI) is a physical training program designed to achieve the near-olympic level of physical fitness — including cardio, calisthenics, major power-lifting and weight-lifting movements — required for special forces selection.

(Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, health-care professional, or your mother. Don’t get me wrong, this training regimen and diet is elite. However, I am not responsible for any injuries, illness, or accidents that may occur. Especially if you are going to train stupid. Use common sense. progress gradually. Listen to your body. Stay safe. And absolutely adapt everything to the needs of your body, culture, and religion — especially diet.)

Contents

• Introduction
  • My Specs
  • Longevity
  • Special Forces Benchmarks
• The Theoretical Foundation

Introduction

For all of you training body-building style workouts — in my estimation, driven almost entirely by ego and vanity, non-athletes who have never competed at the highest level and don’t know what it takes, who don’t have any real understanding of sport science, informed by a social media culture that I want to part of — your training program is gay.

Sorry.

(Respect to all the real bodybuilders out there, however. What you do is an art. Especially when you do it without gear. However, gear or no-gear, those true pros, who achieved the physique and longevity over decades, you guys are legends. With that being said…)

When you want to be true athlete, size does not matter — in fact, it often hurts. It literally decreases your performance significantly at a certain point, no matter what sport you are playing. I have reached a high-level of skill and competition in every sport I have played (specifically basketball, lacrosse, and football) and I can tell you one thing: size is the least important metric.

What you really need is:

• Elite Cardio —
• Power & Explosiveness —
• Bodyweight Mastery —
• Strength Endurance —
• High Strength-to-Weight Ratio —
• Kinesthetic Awareness & Reaction Time —
• Skills —
• Flexibility & Balance —
• Mentality, Mental Toughness, Drive, —

These are the non-negotiables, and the founding principles of the Tactical-Olympic Training Program.

My Specs

Currently, I weigh just over 200 lbs. I am relatively lean — but not truly lean because in my experience endurance, performance, and protecting your body during training requires some fat. Performance is superior most of the year to sub-10% bodyfat.

The main issue is that I do not want to (cannot) exceed 200 lbs. Ideally I want to maintain about 195lbs. I have maintained a 215-230 lbs body built with METCONS of my design, with a balanced running, cycling, calisthenics, powerlifting, olympic-lifting, mma, and yoga regimen. I also competed in basketball, football, and lacrosse at a high-level for 15 years. I noticed a significant impact on joints, knees, bones in my feet, on top of a reduction in cardiovascular performance.

My conclusion:

The heavier that you are for your frame, the more it negatively impacts your athletic performance. Period. You are less dangerous, dominant, and skilled as an athlete when your muscle-mass is too heavy for your frame. All true athletes who have performed and competed at the highest level know this.

If you want to be able to run fast and jump high, find your ideal weight and maintain it. Focus on Strength-Weight Ratio and Maintenance Calories and Relative Strength. Michael Jordan had a specific playing weight — 215 lbs — which he maintained through his career for optimal performance.

Longevity

I have also designed this program with longevity in mind. You need plenty of rest. Especially if you want to function at a high intellectual capacity at the same time. Meaning you have to be mindful of concepts like Central Nervous System (CNS) Fatigue, Overtraining, Injury Prevention, Mobility, and Recovery.

I almost never get injured (in spite of a fairly ridiculous and consistent 2-4 hour daily training regiment). My program is designed to protect me. I want to sustain this for years, to develop the skills at the highest level.

You can attain a lot in 6 months, but if you have no mental framework for understanding what you can achieve in 6 years, then you probably not really good at anything.

The Ideal Metrics

For military as an infanteer — especially if you want to make special forces as an operator — you need to have incredible cardio. Period. You have to be able to perform a Half Iron Man at a competitive (near-elite) pace, while also approaching 2x bodyweight in all major lifts.

At the same time that you need cardio, you need significant explosiveness, power, and strength — functional strength over size. You need high-level calisthenics, as well as the ability to ruck 80lbs over 13km at (ideally) a sub-2-hour pace. As such, a major intent of the TOP training is to maximize strength-to-weight ratio.

The benchmark numbers at the pinnacle of fitness are extreme, since these are the top 1% expectation for special forces selection. Everything is based on Relative Strength metrics (calisthenics, and weight numbers relative to bodyweight). When I have included a weight, it is my numbers for my ideal of being below 200lbs, thus they are relative to a 200lb person.

• Calisthenics
  • Pushups: 120+ (continuous*)
  • Sit-ups: 140+ (1min)
  • Pullups: 20+ (continuous)
  • Handstand Pushups: 10+ (continuous)
  • Muscleup: 10+ (continuous)
• Strength
  • Deadlift: 2.5× bodyweight (500+ lbs)
  • Back-Squat: 2× bodyweight (300+ lbs)
• Cardio
  • 2 mile run: <10min
  • 1.5 mile run: <7m50s
  • Ruck (35kg): <2h00m

*Continuous means in 1 single set.

The Theoretical Framework

The whole goal of this program is to build Elite Cardio, Power, Strength Endurance, Flexibility, Skill, and Resilience. For this purpose, we also want to build powerful muscles that each have great endurance. Essentially, we want to build power and explosiveness, by limiting the amount of muscle growth (hypertrophy) as much as possible.

Make no mistake: this program will make you dense with muscle. But in a different way.

For example:

Major Sport Science Concents

• Maximize Strength-Weight Ratio — To maximize strength without increasing weight (which also improves your running, sprinting, swimming, climbing, rucking and cycling ability because you can generate greater force relative to your weight) we must limit sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (fluid build-up in muscles) and maximize myofibrillar hypertrophy (strengthening the nerve fibers themselves).
• AMPK vs mTOR — these are two different signals in the muscles when serve different purposes. Bodybuilding triggers mTOR pathway (the growth signal) and is linked directly with hypertrophy. For tactical and athletic considerations, this needs to be significantly limited, do we place attention on the AMPK pathway. This results in…
• Metabolic Interference / Interference Effect — to limit muscle growth (in order to prioritize power and explosiveness, and maximize the strength-weight ratio). In general, this is done by pairing lifting (especially high-volume lifts) with cardio movements. This also serves the purpose
• Eccentric Loading —
• Flushing Lactic Acid —
• Neural Adaptation (Low-Volume, High-Intensity Protocol) —

Important Considerations

• Intensity Matters — The TOP is designed with specific intensities as part of th programming. Some runs are just for time/distance mean to be completed at a casuual “talking” pace (strictly zone 2). Others are sprints (Zone 1) where you should be attempting a PR. The same is true with lifts, and circuits. Some are continuous circuits, designed as a METCON, while others you should take a break between rounds because.
• Strength vs Weight — A strong, lean athletic who can move faster over distance, with greater power and explosiveness in all movements, and who can move greater weight over longer time, is superior, and more dangerous in SF selection (and all major athletics) than a bulky lifter.
• Endurance Is Key — In every aspect. The ability to run faster, and longer. But also to be able to move a heavy weight for a longer time, which is called muscle endurance versus sheer power or strength. This is an important focus in the training.
• Preventing CNS Fatigue — This program is designed to prevent/mitigate Central Nervous System (CNS) Fatigue. When your central nervous system is tired, you cannot think, process, remember, learn, react, or lift at maximum. The goal here is Maximum Performance in all aspects, thus CNSF is taken into consideration.
• Programmed Recovery — Recovery is essential, both to promote and maintain maximum performance, prevent injury,. There are two Active Recovery days per week. However, recovery is also programmed within each day. Zone 2 cardio after intense lifts flushes recovery is promoted also with diet & nutrition, eating times as well as

The Tactical-Olympic Program

I have designed two 7-day Phases, creating a 14 day rotating schedule. It also requires two training sessions a day. A Morning Training and an Evening Training, simply because that fits my life and goals.

I have designed 3-day, 5-day, and 8-day rotating schedules. Honestly, my preference is an 8-day schedule for minorly technical reasons (i.e. it is easier to program a comprehensive 8-day period for all necessary components and rest). In my experience it is the best.

However, because there is a heavy martial arts, shooting, and hunting component that has to be worked around both a 5 day work-week and class availability (that is most reliably Mon-Fri) this 7-day (Week-based) schedule is superior — or at least necessary.

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

The Workouts

The Diet

Deep-Dive Into The Theories and Science

Getting Stronger Without Getting Heavier

Disclaimer

• JWT
• Physical Training