Follow along as Force Fitness business owner trains to achieve elite forces fitness standards?
Force Fitness owner Rich has challenged himself to train for a year to meet the entry standards of elite forces. Here’s how month 2 of training with Building The Elite has gone down.
Force Fitness – inspired by military training, for your fitness lifestyle
As a brand, our ethos is all about taking inspiration from the world’s fittest, strongest, and most adventurous people - and make it accessible for everyone. We love learning from the training and selection of the elite forces to see how those men and women push their minds and bodies.
Dad and business owner takes on elite forces-style training for a year
Our founder Rich is constantly challenging himself with different styles of training, epic events, and random ideas that spark his imagination. He’s not a small guy, and that’s all the more reason he likes to take on challenges that (on paper) should favour lighter athletes.
He loves anything that covers lots of different styles of training in the same challenge. That’s why he’s working with Building The Elite. Over the next 12 months (well, 10 now) he’ll train to try and meet the entry standards of the elite forces.
Rich is a husband, a father, a business owner, and he’s fast approaching 40. Can he really train to meet elite forces entry standards? It’s the end of month 2 of his Building The Elite training. Let’s find out how he’s getting on.
How do you train in an elite forces style?
In this year-long challenge, Rich will be training lots of different factors including strength, power, and endurance. He’ll also be working on power endurance, work capacity, and muscular endurance. And that’s alongside family life, running a business, and lots of travelling.
Who are Building the Elite?
Building The Elite coach people in the physical and mental sides of human performance so they can thrive in challenging environments. They’re known for working with special operators and have an impressive success rate in training applicants for elite and special ops selection.
What are the standards Rich is aiming to pass?
We’ll make this clear every month: Force Fitness owner Rich isn’t going to apply for military selection. This challenge is for his own interest, as a lifelong fan of fitness and human performance. He wants to find out what happens when a busy guy approaching 40 does this training. What progress will he make. What will he learn? Ultimately, will he make those standards?
FYI, here are the standards Building The Elite work towards.
Running
Anything under 2 miles - 6 min miles
3-4 miles - 7 min miles
5 miles - 8 min miles
50lb/22kg pack under 15 min miles for 12 miles
Pushups
100 in 1 set
Pull Ups
15 in 1 set
Sit ups
70-80 in 1 set
Swimming
460m under 10 mins
Weights
Barbell deadlift - 1.75 x bodyweight
Trap bar deadlift – 2 x bodyweight
Back squat - 1.75 x bodyweight
Front squat - 1.75 x bodyweight
Weighted pull ups - 45% bodyweight
Elevated split squats - bodyweight for 10 reps
Kettlebell overhead press - 45% bodyweight
Bench press - 1.25x bodyweight
Power endurance
500m row - 1:30
2000m row - 7:00
Power
Broad Jump - 9ft
Vertical jump - 30”
100m Row - 1:20 500m average pace
Month 2: low rep strength and long endurance
Month 1 of Rich’s programme focused on endurance and conditioning. You can read about it here.
This 2nd month has focused on strength training in a lower rep range (25-35 reps in the shortest possible time). Key exercises were front squats, Turkish get ups, and farmers carries (both single and double arm – carrying a total of Rich’s bodyweight – that’s 45kg each arm!)
This month’s work capacity sessions were based around pull ups and push-ups. Rich achieved PRs of 120 pull ups and 240 push-ups in a session. His programme also included some longer push up sessions of 2 x 8 minutes with a 5-minute rest between sets.
The cardio and endurance work has stayed similar to month 1, but Rich’s ruck times have increased to 2.5 hours duration with a 20kg ruckpack.
Rich’s highlights of month 2
During this block of training, Rich entered a half-marathon with no specific run training at all. He got a PB of 1:49.
He also achieved the bench press standard, pull up standard, and kettlebell overhead press standard – all ticked off already.
Next blog: month 3 of Rich’s training with Building The Elite
Next month we’ll catch up with Rich to see how his training is going and what milestones he’s hit. In the meantime, check out Building The Elite to get inspired!
Training Chapters
Month 3: Force Fitness owner training to achieve elite forces fitness standards
Month 4: Force Fitness owner trains for special forces selection criteria
Month 5: Force Fitness owner training for elite forces selection standards
Month 6: Training update as Force Fitness owner trains with Building The Elite
