Training Program to Prep for Special Forces

[RobInKuwait]

Alright, I'm not sure if I'm going to do this, but if I decide to do it, I want to make sure I'm ready. I'm thinking about doing Special Forces. I know physically I'm going to need to do long roadmarches with heavy ass rucks on, long runs, and be able to control my bodyweight. I'm also going to have to teach my body to do more with less food and sleep. I will not be able to use any anabolic support or supplementation doing the Q course, so if I do this, I'll ween myself off supplements and stop altogether with the anabolics until after the course .

I'm thinking I'll keep lifting heavy, but start to integrate endurance exercise into my training program and focus on bodyweight exercises more. Maybe something like this:

Mon- Push (emphasizing bodyweight movements such as dips/push ups)
Tues- HIIT or roadmarch with ruck
Wed- Pull (emphasizing pull ups and chin ups)
Thurs- Low Intensity Cardio
Fri- Legs
Sat- Rest
Sun- HIIT or roadmarch with ruck

Anybody have any input. I'm especially interested input from people who have done SF or navy seals or some other elite training program. Thanks!

[Beelzebub]

good luck bro. the lighter you are, the easier it'll be.

[RobInKuwait]

good luck bro. the lighter you are, the easier it'll be.

Lighter as in the less fat, or the less muscle and fat? Cause that seems kind of silly to try and cut muscle before going........I'm sure as hell going to lose enough there.

[fightercowboy]

Most guys in spec ops arent that big. They are basically effecient machines! I would maybe add some plyometrics in there as well to get your agility and balance in check. you will need that especially for the Q course. Do some swimming as well. Get very comfortable with water. I'm just guessing with SF that they use the pool for indoc and such. I am really familiar with the Air Force Spec Ops programs and being comfortable in water is a huge part of their training. I wouldn't cut muscle at all if I were you, just condition yourself well for the whole damn hell of a time. Good luck and definitely do it if you can.

[natedogg]

You're in the Army right? What kind of SF? Rangers? What kind of training we talking about here? When do you plan on doing this? I'm sure you know this, but you really need to build up your endurance. Running and swimming are going to be your best friends at this point. Beezlebub is right, the lighter you are the better. I was one of the bigger guys in my unit and I had are hard time keeping up on runs and humps (my back and knees always got the best of me on humps and forced marches.). I attribute this to my heavier weight and lack of endurance. If you're really serious about this, just know you're going to have to sacrifice. The reason I didn't didn't do the endoc for my unit's Scout/Sniper Platoon were for those reasons.

[ironviking]

Have you gone through SFAS yet, kinda soon to be thinking about the Q-school if you haven't gone through selection yet. I went through SFAS and didnt make it I blew my knee out pretty bad. Anyway the best way to train is to stay light in BW and throw a ruck on with much weight in it and all your TA-50 gear on and ruck it out. I went on many 20mile rucks before I left for SFAS. When youre in SFAS stay motivated as hell at all times, one night we were out all freakin night doing what I cant really remember due to no sleep but they had us do PT before we put our gear up and could sleep for a couple of hours. It wasnt really to do PT it was just to see who was motivated enough to go all out at PT after a horrendous night. GOOD TIMES

Either way GOOD LUCK BRO.

[RobInKuwait]

Have you gone through SFAS yet, kinda soon to be thinking about the Q-school if you haven't gone through selection yet. I went through SFAS and didnt make it I blew my knee out pretty bad. Anyway the best way to train is to stay light in BW and throw a ruck on with much weight in it and all your TA-50 gear on and ruck it out. I went on many 20mile rucks before I left for SFAS. When youre in SFAS stay motivated as hell at all times, one night we were out all freakin night doing what I cant really remember due to no sleep but they had us do PT before we put our gear up and could sleep for a couple of hours. It wasnt really to do PT it was just to see who was motivated enough to go all out at PT after a horrendous night. GOOD TIMES

Either way GOOD LUCK BRO.

No, I haven't done SFAS yet, thats what I'm looking into doing. I still have to interview and do the language test and all that **** too. BTW, did you make it through?

[RobInKuwait]

You're in the Army right? What kind of SF? Rangers? What kind of training we talking about here? When do you plan on doing this? I'm sure you know this, but you really need to build up your endurance. Running and swimming are going to be your best friends at this point.

Yeah, I'm in the Army, it'd be the SF Q course, and from what I understand it'd be about 6 months from now in all likelihood.

[ironviking]

The Q-course is after SFAS. Q-course is where you train for your specialty. Its more a mind game than physical though, they are wanting to see how much you can endure and still stay focused its not like the movies where all they do is run and shoot cool weapons, ALOT is field navigation skills, map reading and azimuth shooting, much ruck marching.

We had about half the people drop before the end, I made it to the last week before my knee gave out. I was limping along on a ruck march and one of the instructors came by and told me to get in the back of the truck I told him to **** off Im finishing. Lets just say that didnt go too well and I didnt finish. Not sure if I would have been selected they just told me to get my knee fixed and come back.

I would say just make sure you can ruck about 20miles with full gear on and still carry on with the rest of the day with limited amount of food. That should be enough to prepare you physically.

Have you looked at which specialty you might want to do. I was gonna go for weapons specialist. Damn I miss those days now I'm married and I have a desk job.

[RobInKuwait]

The Q-course is after SFAS. Q-course is where you train for your specialty. Its more a mind game than physical though, they are wanting to see how much you can endure and still stay focused its not like the movies where all they do is run and shoot cool weapons, ALOT is field navigation skills, map reading and azimuth shooting, much ruck marching.

We had about half the people drop before the end, I made it to the last week before my knee gave out. I was limping along on a ruck march and one of the instructors came by and told me to get in the back of the truck I told him to **** off Im finishing. Lets just say that didnt go too well and I didnt finish. Not sure if I would have been selected they just told me to get my knee fixed and come back.

I would say just make sure you can ruck about 20miles with full gear on and still carry on with the rest of the day with limited amount of food. That should be enough to prepare you physically.

Have you looked at which specialty you might want to do. I was gonna go for weapons specialist. Damn I miss those days now I'm married and I have a desk job.

Wow, that sucks. Too bad they wouldn't let you tough it out on the last week.

I'm definitly going to need to train my body to ruck. I've been in a REMF unit and haven't done anything like that in years. From what you're saying about limited food, I'm also going to need to wean my body off food. I eat about 8 times a day for 5000-6000 calories. Something tells me I'm not going to get that there .

As for the specialty, I don't think I have too many choices as an LT. I think I go after SFAS I go to Infrantry Officer Advanced Course while all the enlisted guys go to their MOS specialty, then we meet up again at the Q course.

[Beelzebub]

5000-6000 cals? that's funny. you'll probably get some crackers and peanut butter if you're lucky. good luck again dude. this **** ain't no joke. kinda like natedogg mentioned, the main reason i didn't even attempt it was due to the endurance training and lack of food. it's mostly a mind game, just like everything that sucks. the rucks are what killed me. ****ing humping 30+ miles through the mountains of camp pendleton at 240lbs was god awful. can't imagine doing it now.

[ironviking]

Most the officers I knew were going for SF-D. Yep Delta Force, from what I heard that was some rough ****. Why dont you look into transferring into a Ranger Unit first, get the Airborne status and Rangers actually kill ****. SF was more like a four man squad going deep into the mountains to do recon on some foreign training camp and maybe sneak inside and silently kill one guy there. Whereas Rangers were go balls to the wall kill everything there and then quietly go home. From what I heard about Delta Force was if you didnt hear about Delta Force did it, it was a you dont know-you dont want to know type thing.

Either way though to physically train for either one ruck, ruck, and ruck some more. Then ruck again When you've worn all the hair off your feet and the bottom part of your calves you still havent rucked enough.

And what was said before sacrifices have to be made but if that is the life you want then its what you want.

[LCSULLA]

I would suggest Specialoperations.com and stewsmith.com. Both have info that would help you get into that kind of shape. And most of the guys are right you need to be light. Your aboutr 6'1 right? I would suggest 190lbs.

[RobInKuwait]

I would suggest Specialoperations.com and stewsmith.com. Both have info that would help you get into that kind of shape. And most of the guys are right you need to be light. Your aboutr 6'1 right? I would suggest 190lbs.

Nah, I'm 6'4.

I appreciate all the advice, but my recruiter gave me some bad news today, telling me I won't be selected for SFAS cause of a black mark on my file from a while back. Kinda sucks, I was really looking forward to the training and really testing myself for the first time.

[RobInKuwait]

Most the officers I knew were going for SF-D. Yep Delta Force, from what I heard that was some rough ****. Why dont you look into transferring into a Ranger Unit first, get the Airborne status and Rangers actually kill ****. SF was more like a four man squad going deep into the mountains to do recon on some foreign training camp and maybe sneak inside and silently kill one guy there. Whereas Rangers were go balls to the wall kill everything there and then quietly go home. From what I heard about Delta Force was if you didnt hear about Delta Force did it, it was a you dont know-you dont want to know type thing.

Either way though to physically train for either one ruck, ruck, and ruck some more. Then ruck again When you've worn all the hair off your feet and the bottom part of your calves you still havent rucked enough.

And what was said before sacrifices have to be made but if that is the life you want then its what you want.

I think what I'm most interested in is the training of native populations and stuff like that. I have the utmost respect for Rangers, but I would never want to be in that type of unit just cause its overflowing with hooah. SF guys rely on their brains more than anything. Thats what made me want to do it.

[ironviking]

Nah, I'm 6'4.

I appreciate all the advice, but my recruiter gave me some bad news today, telling me I won't be selected for SFAS cause of a black mark on my file from a while back. Kinda sucks, I was really looking forward to the training and really testing myself for the first time.

You dont need SF for that you dont even need the military for that. Testing yourself physically is one thing, probably the easiest of all tests. To truly test oneself is to strive to be the best in all things, the best person, the best man, and since your an officer, the best leader you can be.

[RobInKuwait]

You dont need SF for that you dont even need the military for that. Testing yourself physically is one thing, probably the easiest of all tests. To truly test oneself is to strive to be the best in all things, the best person, the best man, and since your an officer, the best leader you can be.

Wise words. I appreciate the encouragement.