Month 7 of Force Fitness owner training with Building The Elite
It’s been more than half a year since our boss, Force Fitness owner Rich, set himself a year-long challenge: to pass the selection criteria standards for the special forces. Alongside work, business, family, and travel, Rich has been working with Building The Elite to get himself fit and strong enough to meet those standards. It’s now month 7 – how is he getting on?
Force Fitness – inspired by the fittest and strongest
Force Fitness exists to bring a little of that elite-forces style of training to the everyday person. We can’t all train like the military, but we can put on a weighted ruck and get outside to push our own boundaries.
Rich has always been fascinated by how members of the military can be at peak fitness, strength, and endurance at the same time. That’s what sparked the idea of this challenge. He wanted to train like the special forces (or as close as a civilian can) to see if a Dad and business owner can pass the standards.
Can a civilian train like the special forces?
Years ago, Rich was a bodybuilder. He then got into endurance events – distance running and Ironman triathlon. But he’s always been interested in people who train to master all modalities – fitness, strength, endurance, capacity work.
He started working with Building The Elite, who specialise in special ops forces selection training, on a year-long programme that will culminate with those entry standards tests.
Rich isn’t actually going to apply for selection. This challenge is just to see whether a civilian can meet the standards.
What are the standards?
Running -
Under 2 miles - 6 min miles
3-4 miles - 7 min miles
5 miles - 8 min miles
Rucking -
50lb 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
Strength training – see below
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 7: weighted carries and AMRAP circuits
Month 6 of Rich’s BTE programme was high-volume circuit style weights, plus long (2-3 hour) rucks and some very long weekend workouts. You can read about it on our blog.
Month 7 training block featured a lot of long weighted carries, often 30 minutes unbroken farmers or single arm farmers walks.
He was also programmed lots of timed circuit-style weights sessions, with the goal of going as heavy as possible and getting as many reps done in the time. Here’s what a couple of those sessions looked like:
- Box jumps
- Single arm dumbbell press
- Bent over kettlebell rows
- Standing kettlebell shoulder press
And
- Hex bar deadlift
- Bent over rows
- Seated kettlebell Z press
- Deep breathing squats
Rich also chose to add more trail running into his programme, something he’ll be continuing next month whilst travelling around Canada.
“I skipped one of the long weekend workouts in favour of a long trail run with a friend,” he said. “It’s not often that someone is nuts enough to want to get up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday to run 17 miles of the Cotswold way with me so I took the opportunity. I’ve got the bug for trail running now and have since done a few more including a half marathon.”
It’s not all been plain sailing. Rich picked up a minor back injury when he chose to do RDLs in place of squats to avoid a knee niggle, but he’s back on track after a few days of lighter sessions.
Next blog: month 8 of Rich’s training with Building The Elite
Rich is currently out in Canada with his family so we’ll catch up with him in a few weeks to see how that affected his training. Not long now until those benchmark tests! In the meantime, check out Building The Elite to get inspired!
