Month 3: Force Fitness owner training to achieve elite forces fitness standards

July 27, 2024 4 min read

Force Fitness Director Rich is taking on a year-long challenge based on the Force ethos – to learn from the world’s elite special forces, and apply it to his own training. Here’s how month 3 of training with Building The Elite has gone.

Force Fitness – inspired by elite special forces training standards

As a brand, Force takes inspiration from the world’s fittest, strongest, and most adventurous people – including the elite forces. We love learning from their training and selection and seeing how every day fitness fans can apply those lessons to their own training. That’s what underpins this year-long challenge!

Dad and business owner takes on elite forces-style training for 12 months

Our Director Rich is constantly challenging himself with one-off events, new styles of training, and crazy adventures around the world. He first got interested in special forces training when – as a former bodybuilder – he was training for an Ironman. He realised that the fitness world is split into strength athletes (who shy away from too much cardio), and endurance athletes (who fear putting on too much muscle).

Rich really wanted to find out if non-elites can “do it all”. How can we train in a way that gets us strong, fast, and with amazing endurance? He reached out to Building The Elite, who specialise in special ops forces selection training. And for a year, he committed to training with BTE to try and meet the entry standards of the elite forces.

Rich is a husband, father, business owner, keen traveller – oh and he’s fast approaching 40. Can he really train to meet elite forces entry standards? Here’s his round up at the end of month 3 of Building The Elite training.

What is it like to train like the elite forces?

We want to make it very clear that Rich isn’t doing this to apply for military selection. This year-long training challenge is almost like an experiment on himself, to find out how far a “regular guy” can push himself and what he can achieve.

Over the course of the year, Rich will train strength, power, work capacity, and endurance – including power endurance and muscular endurance. All whilst running a business, being a husband and Dad, and travelling most months!

Who are Building the Elite?

Building The Elite are renowned for working with special forces operators and have an impressive success rate in training applicants for elite and special ops selection. They coach people to thrive in challenging environments by focusing on all the physical and mental sides of human performance.

What are the standards Rich is aiming to pass?

Running

Anything 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

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 3: heavy loaded carries & cardio endurance

Month 2 of Rich’s BTE programme focused on low rep strength and long endurance pieces. You can read about it here.

Month 3 was a switch to heavy carries and long run or swim pieces, with bodyweight and calisthenics work, plus some kettlebell workouts, for strength. Using the new Force sand kettlebells of course!

Rich’s rucking weight and distance increased, and he used the Force sand kettlebells for extra ruck weight inside his 20kg ruckpack too. Also on the programme were farmers walks of 1 mile+ using a heavy sandbag.

Rich’s highlights of month 3

Rich was out in Greece for most of this month, so took the opportunity to challenge his sea swimming cardio with a 5K sea swim event. This was well outside his comfort zone (he only learned to swim a couple of years ago).

As Rich says, the challenges he takes on aren’t about athleticism, they’re about building mental strength. And having a positive mindset is a key part of special forces training!

The 5,500m swim took Rich 2:25:11, with strong currents at the end of the swim adding a fair amount of extra distance and taking Rich close to the cut off – but he made it.