Newcomer Reporting

[LoneRider]

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.

[tnumrych]

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your service.

[Michael Wolf]

Welcome LoneRider. You may want to consider logging your workouts here as well, probably in the General Training Logs section. Many of us find it useful to have a log online for our own record keeping, as well as the feedback we get from other lifters who look at our logs and comment.

I'm reading Easy Strength as well, having first read Pavel's PttP a few years ago. Though I have the luxury of the time to do SS and the TM, many people I train do not; or they have conflicting responsibilities (Army PT stuff, in your case) that make recovery from an SS or TM program too difficult. Easy Strength has a lot of similarities with PttP, hopefully you'll find it useful.

[LoneRider]

Wolf, I shall consider keeping a log of my lifting.

I really like the recommended strength program of PttP and the Enter the Kettlebell Program Minimum in two week blocks tied in with the running protocol below (very similar to Romanov's POSE Method of Running):

Russian full-contact karate master Andrey Kochergin cautions: “Run, definitely run! Run, but do not overload the heart, the maximal heart rate—no more that 120 BPM.” One of his protocols calls for running 10K twice a week maintaining the same heart rate at the finish as 10 minutes after the start—ideally, 120 BPM. (This is about two thirds of MHR for a 40-some-year-old Kochergin.) The other is an easy 2K every morning. I view easy running as an exercise in relaxation. Learn to turn into a rag doll on your jogs, and you will see a difference in your speed and sport-specific endurance.

I like the 2 x 10K runs a week tied in with 3 to maybe 4 days worth of fasted walking at the pace of a forced march with a 40 lbs weight vest or backpack (for between 20-90 minutes). Fasted walking can be done nearly every day according to the T-Nation article and does a great job for one's stamina without wrecking a person's hard earned strength and power. Plus on operations one walks a heck of a lot under weight of kit.