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Hello,

I am in need of programming help. I have finished BB, and I am currently doing The Green Progressive SE Template (due to not having a squat rack yet.) My two E's are running and hiking. I am doing the Alpha Circuits and my movements are: hang cleans, floor press, KB swings, and stiff leg deadlift. I am considering the National Guard or Army Reserves after I finish graduate school May 2017. This gives me over nine months of training. My goals are, 77 pushups in two minutes, 85 sit-ups in two minutes, 12 pull-ups, 2 mile run in under 14:00 minutes, and 5 mile run in under 40:00 minutes.

KB mentions that Green Protocol are for athletes who are starting a military contract, or who are heading to bootcamp. With that in mind my original plan was to run Fighter/Bangkok with the Green Protocol. However given my slow running times during my E sessions and my weak MS should I run a block of OP/Black or OP/Black Pro increase my speed and MS, then follow it up with Fighter/Green?

travman wrote:Hello,

I am in need of programming help. I have finished BB, and I am currently doing The Green Progressive SE Template (due to not having a squat rack yet.) My two E's are running and hiking. I am doing the Alpha Circuits and my movements are: hang cleans, floor press, KB swings, and stiff leg deadlift. I am considering the National Guard or Army Reserves after I finish graduate school May 2017. This gives me over nine months of training. My goals are, 77 pushups in two minutes, 85 sit-ups in two minutes, 12 pull-ups, 2 mile run in under 14:00 minutes, and 5 mile run in under 40:00 minutes.

KB mentions that Green Protocol are for athletes who are starting a military contract, or who are heading to bootcamp. With that in mind my original plan was to run Fighter/Bangkok with the Green Protocol. However given my slow running times during my E sessions and my weak MS should I run a block of OP/Black or OP/Black Pro increase my speed and MS, then follow it up with Fighter/Green?

Hi Travman, a few thoughts:

First, what are your current numbers for push-ups/sit-ups/pull-ups/2 + 5 mile?

Right off the bat I see a major deficiency in your training. Namely you don't have SE incorporating the exercises you want to improve.

If it were me, I would stick to Fighter Bangkok. Start off with Alpha circuits and progress to Bravo over a 6 week period. Use the exercises you're trying to improve for your SE cluster.
Stick to Green. Try and make one of your E sessions a Fun-Run every week. Again, use the calisthenics you want to improve in on your Fun-Runs. This gives you extra weekly SE work.

For your MS sessions, you could continue using the movements you're using for your current SE; floor press, deadlift, hang cleans. Personally I would substitute pull-ups (weighted or unweighted depending on current#) for KB swings. Put the KB swings in your SE circuit. Keep the pull-ups there too, so you'd be doing pull-ups in MS fashion as part of your Fighter template, AND SE fashion as part of your circuit. 3 x week of pull-ups is awesome.

Keep your MS cluster simple. 3-4 exercises tops.

In my opinion going Black + Operator would be going in the opposite direction of your goals. For military work in general you need to be decent at a few things:

Running
Rucking
Push-ups/Sit-Ups/Pull-ups

That's pretty much it man. Get good at that and you'll be fine.

Aelian's advice is bang-on. Go with Fighter-BKK.
Keep the max-strength cluster basic: Floor press/Deadlift/Weighted Pull-up and possibly some sort of leg movement. You might want to only DL once a week considering the heavy cardio load of Green.

Make sure you include push-ups/pull-ups/sit-ups in your SE cluster.

Use running, rucking and FunRuns for your E.

Keep it simple, uncluttered and hit it frequently.

Agreeing with everyone else. Stay away from Op Black until you've met your goals.

Train to meet your goals. None of your goals involve MS (could argue pull-ups but that's semantics). Also, you say you're doing a cluster that doesn't involve any of your goal movements.

I agree with the Fighter Bangkok/Green being the best standard option for you. However, I don't even thing that is the best way to meet your goals.

Here's what I'd do if I were you:

Do Green for your conditioning, that's a no brainer. You can implement tempo runs with this to assist your speed. TB3 gives the option for 6 week blocks of SE, in place of MS. I'd skip MS for now and do however many blocks of SE it takes for you to meet your goals. Make sure you include push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups in your exercise selection. Once you've met your goals switch to Fighter Bangkok/Green to maintain the SE, or just keep doing the SE/Green.

The key here is specific training to meet your specific goals.

Travman,

Fighter (Bangkok) plus Green is the way to go. Keep the max strength in the mix, because it supports and helps progress strength-endurance. TB talks about this at great length and it's been supported by studies posted on the sub. You'll hit a point of diminishing returns fairly quickly with SE only.

Green2Blue makes a good point but I would reverse his suggestion. Do Fighter-Bangkok for 6-9 weeks at a time followed by an occasional 3 week SE-Only block.

Strength first...followed by a transition to muscular-endurance. If you go too long without MS, then MS drops. If MS drops, SE will eventually drop as well since SE is derived from MS.

Personally I think Fighter BKK is the perfect conjugate approach. With the occasional 3 week SE block after.

Balaclava wrote:Green2Blue makes a good point but I would reverse his suggestion. Do Fighter-Bangkok for 6-9 weeks at a time followed by an occasional 3 week SE-Only block.

Strength first...followed by a transition to muscular-endurance. If you go too long without MS, then MS drops. If MS drops, SE will eventually drop as well since SE is derived from MS.

Personally I think Fighter BKK is the perfect conjugate approach. With the occasional 3 week SE block after.

I'd find 6 weeks of Fighter Bangkok rotated with 3 weeks of SE to be a very appropriate approach. Ensure that some sort of horizontal press (BP) and vertical pull (WPU) are a part of your MS cluster.

MS and SE are related, but they aren't the same. If your goals are SE in nature, it needs to be a major part of your training. SAID principle

Thanks for the replies and insight.


The reason my current cluster does not have pushups, sit-ups, or pull-ups is because I wanted a break from doing calisthenics, and I just got my barbell and bumpers.

The next two weeks will look something like this, Sun: SE and Hike, Mon: Run, Tues: SE, Wed: Run, Thurs: SE, Fri: Run, Sat: Off. I will finish this three week block of barbell and KB cluster, and then I will run another three week block with Alpha Circuits: (pushups, and sit-ups, KB, and bodyweight squats) with running for conditioning. For example: Sun: SE, Mon: Run, Tues: SE, Wed: Run, Thurs: SE, Fri: Run, Sat: Off. Prior to beginning the three week bodyweight cluster, I will test my 2-minute pushups, sit-ups, and two-mile run. I do not think I have ever ran five-miles in my life so that is a secondary goal, and I do not have access to a pull-up bar.

The reason for running a three week SE cluster back-to-back is because I currently do not have a squat rack. When I do get my squat rack I will run Fighter BKK/Green. My cluster will be: SQ, BP, and regular pull-ups. My conditioning will be running and fun-runs. The routine would be something like this; Sun: Fighter, Mon: Fun-run (pushups and sit-ups), Tues: run/recovery, Wed: Fighter, Thurs: SE/BKK (pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and KB swings) Fri: Run.

To me the next two blocks of training seem more inline with my goals. What are your guys thoughts?

I think it's already been said, but this is what I would do:

Fighter BKK + Green x 6 weeks
SE x 3 weeks
Rest/Transition x 1 week

Keep pull-ups in your max strength AND SE cluster. Use Fun-Runs and do calisthenics like push-ups and sit-ups with them. You'll have more than enough specificity doing that. Keep your E sessions simple. The bulk should be running and Fun-Runs, followed by rucking.
Keep MS simple and bare-bones. A press, weighted or bodyweight pull-ups, and a leg movement. Possibly DL once a week.