Month 4: Force Fitness owner trains for special forces selection criteria

August 29, 2024 4 min read

Force Fitness owner Rich is a busy guy – he’s a husband, Dad, and business owner. But he loves a challenge. He’s given himself a 12-month limit to achieve the selection criteria standards for the special forces. In this blog series, we find out how he’s getting on. Spoiler alert: he’s over 80% of the way there with 8 months left to go!

Force Fitness – inspired by the world’s fittest and toughest

As a brand, Force Fitness has always wanted to bring elite-level training to everyday men and women. We take our inspiration from adventurers, the military, and the special forces. And that’s the ethos that underpins Rich’s challenge. Can a relatively ordinary guy (albeit one who’s been training most of his life) get in “special forces selection” shape whilst running a business, travelling, and being a dedicated family man?

Dad and business owner aims to meet special forces selection criteria

Rich used to be a bodybuilder, and then he did a complete 180 and challenged himself to get into endurance events (including an Ironman triathlon). It was around this time that he got interested in special forces training. These elite operatives can do it all – strength, endurance, capacity work. What can we learn from them?

Rich reached out to Building The Elite, who specialise in special ops forces selection training. He’s now four months into a year-long training relationship with BTE. The goal is meeting the entry standards of the special forces.

What is it like to train like the elite forces?

Rich isn’t actually going to apply for special forces selection. This training challenge is an N=1 experiment to see whether a civilian fitness fan can meet the standards. He’s training with Building The Elite who have an impressive success rate in training applicants for special ops selection.

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 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 4: first round of testing

Month 3 of Rich’s BTE programme focused on heavy loaded carries and endurance cardio (including a 5.5km sea swim). You can read about it here.

In month 4, Rich was set some benchmark tests by BTE to assess where he’s at. And the results are in:

Strength 88/100

Work capacity 84/100

Conditioning 93/100

Not bad considering he’s not even halfway through!

In his strength tests, Rich scored 91/100 in the upper body tests (single arm overhead press and weighted pull ups) and 84/100 in the lower body tests (back squat and trap bar deadlift).

A reminder of the standards he’s aiming for in terms of 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

The conditioning tests were an 8 mile ruck (which Rich did in 1 hr 58), a 1.5 mile run (10:03), a 5 mile run (39:31) and a 400m run (01:10).

Work capacity was tested via max push ups (Rich got 61), pull ups (he got 23), and a max weighted hang (02:04). This means he’s already smashed the pull ups and hang but needs to add 19 more push ups to his score.

Rich’s highlights of month 4

Rich enjoyed this testing month, and is really pleased to be over 80% of the way there with so long left to go. He ran a 05:58 mile (he needs to run 2 miles at 6 m/m pace) and surprised himself by discovering a new love for track sessions.

“Track running is so much fun!” he said. “I used to hate it at school, it’s funny how you can enjoy things as an adult if you give it another go. I did a 01:10 400m on the track which puts me at ‘intermediate club runner’ level for my age. Not bad for a 90kg guy!”

Next blog: month 5 of Rich’s training with Building The Elite

Rich is travelling a lot over the next month, spending time with his family in Spain and then heading to Canada. He’s built up a decent buffer but doesn’t want to slack off with his training challenge. We’ll catch up with him in a month to see how he coped with training whilst travelling (and in a hotter climate). In the meantime, check out Building The Elite to get inspired!