Thanks for responding! You raise some really good points.close_fox wrote:OneOfManyRobs wrote:Hello!
I'm a 37 year old male, 6'1" and 220 lbs, working in conservation law enforcement. I had a fitness wake-up call earlier this year, when a fast hike up a mountain with a medical bag left me gasping and basically useless when I got to the patient. Since I had trained a bit with kettlebells a few years ago, I started doing Simple & Sinister right afterward. I'm about ready to hit the "Timeless Simple" standard of 10x10 swings and 1x10 Turkish Get Ups with a 32 kg kettlebell. While I like the program, I need something more to get my fitness to where it needs to be. Thus, I started the BB block this week, using the LSS + swings example out of TB II.
My goal is to be able to carry a 60 pound pack for 5 miles, with 3,000 feet of elevation gain, in 40 minutes, AND be useful on arrival (not gasping and about to fall over). Losing weight, gaining strength, and vastly increasing my overall anaerobic/aerobic conditioning are needed to be able to do that.
That is an absolutely wild rucking goal
I've never done any serious barbell work before. While I have the Starting Strength book, being 40 pounds overweight has me concerned with the SS program of eating as much as I can cram down. Further, the single-minded focus on increasing lift numbers at the cost of everything else doesn't match my goals.
6'1" 220lbs is not necessarily 40lbs overweight. Depends on what kind of lbs it is. Eat to fuel performance, let performance dictate your weight, however you want to say it.
After I've completed the BB, my question is whether you think I should do the progressive programs outlined in TB, or a linear progression program like Greyskull LP or Starting Strength? I read this thread (http://tacticalbarbell.com/forum/viewto ... ?f=3&t=422), but a lot of the advice seemed aimed at someone about 15 years younger than I am. If you suggest a linear program, should I swap out the Operator/Fighter template with the LP lifts and keep the Black/Green template?
If ruck conditioning is your #1 goal, I'm not tracking why LP (or Operator) would be in the mix. My .02: Strength first BB, using the lifting sessions as a barbell familiarization. Then live in Fighter+Green with one (maybe two) ruck per week. And cycle in a ruck specific plan 2-3 times per year. Lots of .mil sites have them. MTI's pre-AFG legs & lungs plan is also a good one. I also hope your agency has some resources for you if they are expecting you to do anything close to the 40min feat you describe above.
Thank you for your time!
My rucking goal is admittedly... really ambitious. To put it mildly. I'm having some second thoughts about the likelihood of ever achieving it. I'll weigh the O2 bag and AED we carry, and use that weight + the weight of my normal duty gear for the pack weight. The distance and elevation numbers are based on the furthest and highest peak in my patrol area. I derived the time from the distance / 8 minute miles. I'll revisit the numbers once I'm fit enough to actually jog up a mountain without a pack, without needing an AED for myself.
Based on my physical build, I'm around 40 pounds overweight. "Apple" fat distribution, with a belly and fair amount of fat around the entire upper torso. Losing flab will make everything else easier, especially with a duty belt and ballistic vest on. A couple different sources estimated my lean mass around 180 pounds. I'm not hung up on losing exactly 40 pounds, I just view it as an approximate amount of excess weight I have right now.
I've never done a serious strength program before. Based on the advice of several people here, I'm doing linear progression on the weights during and after the BB block, until I plateau. At that point, I'll switch to the progressive overload plan in TBI. Right now, my 1RM is going to be changing rapidly as my body adapts to barbell training for the first time ever. My overall strength levels are garbage at the moment, so fixing that is a priority. I'll worry about my Strength Endurance once I have a well of strength to endure.
You're right that Green is a better plan for developing rucking endurance, for sure. I arrived at Operator/Black: Professional as I saw my goal as a weighed, relatively short distance run, and tried to pick templates to match that. 8 minute miles are a running pace, and 40 minutes is a comparatively short timeframe to a multi-hour march. I don't foresee a need to professionally carry a pack more than 5 miles at a fast pace. That said, I'm also very new to the whole fitness programming thing, and I'll be evaluating my goals and plan more as I get closer to the end of BB in late January. I'll use the week off between BB and Continuation to finalize my goals and plan for the first 12-week block.