My Training Philosophy

I started this blog as a personal record of my own training, and several months into it I decided to try and make it a place for "tactical athletes" to share some ideas on training to make us better at our jobs.  Over the years I have tried just about every training modality there is, and I've developed what I think is the best program for me to accomplish what I need to do at work.  Everyone is different and I get that, but this works for me and I think it would work for a lot of people in the business, as well as anyone wanting to maximize strength and conditioning without over training and spending too much time in the gym.  

That being said, here is how my workouts generally go.  I do this 4 days a week, and each workout takes about an hour.

• Warm Up:  I usually start with a short "monostructural" activity designed to increase core temperature and blood flow.  It may be a 500m row, a 400m run, or some jump rope work.  I follow that with some dynamic stretching of the joints, and some specific static stretching usually involving the hip flexors.  My warm up takes no more than 10:00 total.
• Strength Work:  I usually do two main lifts and one accessory lift on a push/pull set up.  This means on Mondays and Thursday I do upper and lower body pushing, and on Tuesdays and Fridays I do upper and lower body pulling.  My strength work takes up the bulk of my training hour, and usually lasts 35-40 minutes.
• Conditioning:  This is a 10:00 or shorter interval or circuit that is done as intensely as I can for no more than 10:00.  The movements vary but generally follow the same push/pull set up as the strength work.  I have found that for my purposes, longer than 10:00 of conditioning makes recovery harder and I'm not as fresh for my next workout.  Also, I'd rather ramp up the intensity more and keep the time periods down because I feel I get more out of it.  The average foot chase or fight in police work rarely lasts more than a few minutes and is done at an all out sprint pace, so working long and slow (like a long run or similar) doesn't apply to my job.

Working out this way allows me to get a lot of work in within one hour, and I can always be improving my strength and my conditioning.  You may ask:

• What about stretching?  I don't stretch much after workouts.  I have found that by working in a full range of motion all the time my flexibilty improves.  I can easily touch the floor with straight legs, and I can Olympic Lift without flexibilty limitations, so what I'm doing works for me.  If/when I do feel the need for more mobility work, I do it at night before I go to sleep.  When I do that, I wake up in the morning feeling pretty limber.
• What about longer effort conditioning?  I do go longer (20-30 minutes) every now and again, but the bulk of my training occurs in the realm within which I can expect to have to operate most of the time.  I've also found that working intensely for 10:00 has carry over to my ability to work longer at lower intensity levels as well.  When do I go longer, it is usually doing Strongman training (like the World's Strongest Man events).  I was doing a strongman training day in addition to my 4 regular gym days each week, bit I've temporarily suspended that because I think I was over training a bit causing me to get sick pretty often.  When I feel my recovery ability has improved I will add them back in.

Now that you know my training philosophy, here is what I did today....

Warm Up:

- 500m Row

- Jump Rope Work

- Samson Stretch

Strength Work:

High Bar Back Squats (65%, 75%, and 85% of 395):

Warm Up Sets:  45x6, 135x4, 225x2

Work Sets:

- 257x5

- 297x5

- 336x5

Bench Press (65%, 75%, and 85% of 350):

Warm Up Sets:  45x6, 135x4, 225x2

Work Sets:

- 228x5

- 263x5

- 298x5

Weighted Dips:

- 30 reps @ 50 lbs:  9, 7, 5, 5, 4

Conditioning:

21-15-9 reps or 10:00 of:

- 135 lbs Power Cleans

- Ring Dips

Score:  I finished the round of 21 of each movement, 15 power cleans, and 6 ring dips in 10:00. 

I completely underestimated how much my arms would be shot from the weighted bar dips to then try and do ring dips.  I was doing them in sets of 2-3 and failing.  My personal best for this entire workout is 7:01 (I think) so I was WAY off pace!