Greetings. I've been lurking on this forum for a couple years now (after reading Major Long's Army Weak article) before deciding to register for an account and participating.

I am an officer in the US Army, an engineer by trade and firmly agree strength training is needed in the military (this T-Nation article was another profound insight, as well as having to carry the M240B and associated kit during my initial Army training) and the challenges that integrating strength training in military fitness entails (i.e. running and calisthenics based programming).


I started with CrossFit in 2009-2010 before my interest in increased strength and power led me into getting into the Greyskull Linear Progression in the July of 2011 through to December of 2011. I started to get a little beat up towards December since I had to balance GSLP thrice weekly with mandatory staff PT. In January I switched to Power to the People and found that program four times a week to be a much more workable alternative (I use the military versus the side press paired off with the conventional deadlift). I'm a big fan of the Power to the People 'load waving', which recently has had me press my current max for two good reps.

My max lifts for a 5'7", 165 lbs male are as follows:

Bench: 215 lbs
Squat: 260 lbs
Deadlift: 385 lbs
Press: 135 lbs

I'm currently reading Easy Strength by Dan John and find it to be of interest and may well integrate some of it's programming concepts into my training at a later date.

Looking forward to participating in some good discussions on this forum.