Rip At Starting Strength Houston Talking Trap Bars | Starting Strength Clips

[Geoff Bischoff]

ACFT is a boondoggle.

The only upside is that it's caused two noncoms and one officer to approach me for strength training advice. I preached the LP gospel to all of them, and all three are making progress. One of them is even DTP at about a 95% compliance level, nearing the end of LP, and interested in transitioning to Texas Method on completion.

So there's that.

But mostly, boondoggle.

[atw_abn]

ACFT is a boondoggle.

The only upside is that it's caused two noncoms and one officer to approach me for strength training advice. I preached the LP gospel to all of them, and all three are making progress. One of them is even DTP at about a 95% compliance level, nearing the end of LP, and interested in transitioning to Texas Method on completion.

So there's that.

But mostly, boondoggle.

I kind of enjoyed the ACFT.

I think that the "good" aspects of the new test are the gender neutral standards and the tying of minimum scores to specific jobs in the Army. Some of the events are lame, but it's hard to argue that an infantryman should be able to drag something heavy. The trap bar is dumb; but I do like the leg tuck more than situps. And the two mile run is clearly in there so our marathon running generals don't get too embarrassed.

I'm pretty sure everyone here will blow me up, but I have really enjoyed the "tests" that Rob Shaul put together at Military Athlete. I've done all of the ones below and I have to believe if you're able to do well on these tests you can probably do any military task:

Operator Ugly Fitness Test - Mountain Tactical Institute
MTI's Tactical Athlete Work Capacity Assessment - Mountain Tactical Institute

It would be cool to see what Mark et al. would think a good military PFT would consist of.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Are you Strong Enough? An interview with Mark Rippetoe - | @TheRhinoDen | Home Of All Things Military

[atw_abn]

Are you Strong Enough? An interview with Mark Rippetoe - | @TheRhinoDen | Home Of All Things Military

I like it.

[David A. Rowe]

Not a bad test design, at all, for some core requirements. Some units will still need a run, but anything over 2 miles is just histrionics. I don't understand why the "job" part wouldn't just be a ~65# ruck movement with gear and rifle. That's THE job of the basic rifleman besides the other proficiencies that are skills, and they already have the gear. I will say that, so far, going cold turkey from lifting to lifting + conditioning + running was rough, but only for my achilles/calves because of the loading and stressors associated with sustained mid-foot striking. I think anyone considering that transition from the NLP might be well-served to throw in some ancilliary barbell calf raises just to start exposing the tissues to a stresor they have to adapt to before hitting the road.

All-in-all, strength has definitely gotten me 70-80% prepared for conditioning work, running, and rucking in ways I never was when I was a skinny-tall kid with a 115# load, rifle and a M2 barrel.


P.S. Strength training deployed is ridiculously easy, and prefered for remote firebases in our current theaters. Trying to find enough room to run "inside the wire" is damn near impossible, but you can throw a power rack up almost anywhere. I think there may be weight limits on the ISU-90s, but we never really had a problem - if it fits it ships!