Go Ruck Light, Go Ruck Challenge, Go Ruck Selection, Go Ruck Heavy.  Each progress logically

My Army SF buddies from Go Ruck recently asked me how I would train someone for a Go Ruck event.  Since there are several events with differing levels of intensity and time of struggle, it all depends on the event as well as the person’s fitness level for how we get started.  the question is – How do you train for a GUT CHECK?

Mental Toughness – A Must

There is an element of mental toughness that has to be discovered by the participants.  Can you train for this?  It is debatable, but I do think you can train to engage mental toughness.  What you need to do though is be fit enough so you do not injure yourself with some common overuse injury.  If you are very fit your joints will not be “overused” during the training.  They will still hurt – but not get injured due to simply running or rucking.

The Mental Toughness Moment usually arrives several hours into the event when you feel like you cannot move, but you mentally will yourself to take another step, lift another log, or crawl through another frigid puddle.  Your fitness level always plays a hand in your performance.  Your ability to recover from running, then rucking, then lifting, and crawling will be beneficial to how much it personally sucks for you.  It is all relative; relative to how much training you did to prepare for this event.

The secret is that we all have this survival / fight mode in us and you will tap into it at some point and when you do you can learn how to manage it and control yourself.  It makes you realize that your body is ten times stronger than your mind will let it be.  By disengaging the mind (I can’t / I quit / not me phrases), you can realize your full potential.  This is usually the challenge and the moment of self-realization that people seek when they choose Special Ops professions or want to train like Special Ops Warriors.

For this article, we will assume we have someone who works out regularly – maybe a Crossfitter, powerlifter, avid runner, or triathlete.  Basically, someone who is considered fit, but has never rucked before and now needs a plan on how to add a new layer of fitness to their routine and weekly schedule. Someone with roughly an hour a day of fitness on average is what I would consider a solid foundation on which to add a layer of rucking and more running.

Warning – to be honest, there is no one hour workout that truly prepares you enough for a day of Special Ops training.  So you have to put in the time.  An hour a day will not prepare you for a 10-12 hour Go Ruck Challenge or a Selection.  You simply have to put in the extra time or running more, rucking more, or just carrying around an extra 30-40 lbs all day in a back pack.

About the Go Ruck Challenges

Using backpacks with weight as well as any heavy objects in their path, the training cadre will take several individuals and make them a team in a few short hours.  GoRuck design their own military special forces grade back packs. Their rucks are designed and built in the United States, and abused worldwide. All GORUCK gear is tough enough for Special Forces and adheres to the highest standards of functionality, durability, and style.  But GoRuck is obviously much more than a tactical gear company!

Some of the training you should consider doing is what the military calls Ruck Marches.  Also known as “forced marches” or “humps”, these events are basically walking at a fast pace over rough terrain with a weighted backpack. Rucking takes some time to prepare for so progress logically and you will have less chance of getting injured.  If you do not run regularly, do not start rucking immediately.  Build a foundation of running, then start to add weight over several weeks.

Preparing for a Go Ruck Challenge, you need to train the major muscle groups of the body — legs and back to prepare for the rucks and runs. BUT, your upper body (core, shoulders, and arms) comes into play carrying the backpack as well.   You will get most of your exhaustion from the legs and lower back. So, training your legs in running, leg PT, and rucking will build stamina and endurance you need for any type of land navigation training.  Since you are being taught by former Army Special Forces soldiers, it will help you to train as if you are going through Special Ops training programs.  This means lots of upper body PT (pullups, pushups, situps, flutterkicks – and more pushups!!), running, some swimming (getting wet through surf torture), walking lunges, squats, and of course RUCKING!

There are many ways to develop the endurance needed for the GoRuck Challenges. Here are some sample workouts pulled from the  Army Ranger / SF Prep Workout

Shortly after that was the tractor pull. After a quick jaunt up and down the hill, it was off to a couple more short walls and then some mud pits.


Then came the tire flip. I don’t know if it was just that point in the race where we were really starting to feel the effects of all of the obstacles, or if it was because our hands were wet and muddy from the mud pits making it hard to grip the tires or if the tires were just extra heavy, but I saw a lot very fit looking people doing burpees at this obstacle.

Without delay the rope climb followed. I made quick work of this, and for no other reason than the entertainment value of it, I kicked the bell instead of hitting it with my hand.

Another 100 meters of running and I was at the spear throw. For those who make the throw, it makes for a good 15 second rest break. Unfortunately for most it just means 30 burpees.

Immediately after that was the traverse wall. Once again a good time to catch your breath if you can make it across. Otherwise 30 more burpees.

Next up: a barbed wire crawl for the history books. It wasn’t the longest crawl we’ve ever had or the rockiest. But it was by far the steepest. There would be no rolling up this hill. The last 50 or so feet even had ropes you could hold onto to help yourself up it. The crawl was especially difficult for those who had just done multiple sets of burpees at the previous obstacles. The wire was high enough that you were able to crawl on your hands and knees. While this was easier, it also beat up my knees more than any other crawl has.

As soon as you were looking for a break, up came the monkey bars. Now normally monkey bars are fairly easy for most people, but when they and your hands are wet and muddy, everything changes. When everything’s dry, I’ll skip bars and get across in a matter of a few seconds. When slippery, I’ll put both hands on each bar, spend 3 times as much energy, and need nearly twice the grip strength to get across.

Now normally a 100’ long hill is no big deal even if it is a 80% grade, but this late in the race, I’m betting no more than 20 people managed to actually run up this last hill before we made our way across and then down to the finish line.
If you’re afraid of heights, this next obstacle was for you. The cargo net: Straight up, straight down. I roll over this the same way I do the 8’ walls. I’m just waiting for that to go bad.

Next up: Slippery wall. Though it can be more challenging than it looks, most people do get through this with a little help.

With only 30 burpees the fire jump and gladiators between you and the finish line, you’re almost there. (ha ha just kidding) But the log hop is deceiving much like the monkey bars. When they’re muddy and not set real firmly in the ground, they are more difficult than they look. I always worry about the log hop when they’re slippery. I’d say probably only 30% get through this obstacle without burpees.

Fire jump and a couple good hits from the gladiators, and you can call yourself a Spartan.
Just another day at the office.

http://www.youtube.com/user/7777frosty?feature=watch

• (15) 2X6’s
• (8) 2X4’s
• (100+-) 2 ½ inch screws
• (4) 1 ½ inch screws. These are to screw into the metal poles so they won’t spin
• (2) 1 ¼ inch Galvanized Rigid Steel Conduit (10’ each) (Don’t use light weight conduit or chain link fence posts, they will bend
• 20 Metal Connector Plates (optional)

• Height- 7’6” –You can build it taller of course, but I use the wall primarily for my upper body, and didn’t want to use my legs too much jumping to grab the top of the wall
• Width- 7’ –I cut the 2X6′s down to 7′ because I wanted the metal poles to stick out 3′
• The “crawl space” is 15”
• The bottom metal bar (muscle-up trainer) is 5’6”
• The top metal bar is just below the top 2X6 (the 2X6 helps hold the bar in place).
• The “trusses” that hold the wall up, are 8’ long and just over 5’ tall. I built them to go just under the muscle-up bar so if/when I decide to raise that bar higher, they won’t be in the way.
• Also, I put the trusses together with metal connector plates. It was a little more expensive and time consuming, but made a more durable/cleaner looking truss. A quicker and simpler way to put them together would be to do as you see in the two bottom left had pictures.

Meal replacement drink:
—20 oz. water
—30 to 40 grams carbohydrates. I prefer raw honey. Agave, maple syrup, or any other natural sweetener will work fine also.
—20 grams of your favorite protein powder. I personally use Nytroplex from prosource.net. I recommend using a protein blend where you have fast acting proteins mixed with slower digesting proteins. This will help provide a steady stream of amino acids to your muscles.
—1 Tbsp. Wheat Grass powder. This will boost the vitamins/minerals/phytonutrients/fiber of your drink. I highly recommend getting your wheat grass from Pines International (wheatgrass.com). They’re the best. Or if you are inclined to, you can grow your own outdoors in natural sunlight.
—1 to 2 tsp. Organic extra virgin olive oil. Flax and hempseed oil are also great.
—1 to 2 Tbsp. Chia seeds. These are great for almost everything. They have lots of fiber, protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. I personally get mine from Nutiva.com. They are organic, high quality, and very well priced.
—This is how I usually make my meal replacement drink, but you can mix it up and add even more stuff to it. My brother likes to use coconut water instead of regular water, honey and agave, Nytroplex and hempseed protein, flax and hempseed oil, then he’ll add a couple of raw eggs into it also. This makes for one very potent drink, but that’s how he likes it. Once you have the basics down, play around with it, and come up with what works for you.
—The best way to keep this drink fresh if you’re not going to be drinking it right away is with a thermos. My favorite is this one from Thermos. I put 4 ice cubes in it, then pour my drink in it, and it will stay fresh and cold all day, so you can drink it whenever you want.

http://shopthermos.com/detail/TMS+E40600

All right, here’s the deal. I’ve heard hundreds of comments suggesting that I dominate obstacle racing simply because of my running skills. While being an exceptional runner is necessary, I contend that having phenomenal upper body stamina is also very important, and my training reflects that. I train legs 3 days a week and upper body 3 days a week. So, for those of you who think I’m just a skinny runner or anyone else looking to test their upper body stamina, I offer this challenge. Here is a portion of the upper body workout that I do, taken from my “How to train for obstacle course racing” DVD. Anyone who can do this work out, and keep pace with me, I will give $100.

Upper Body Challenge Official Rules:

1. Weight vest must weigh 10 lbs. (Needs to be weighed on scale before you put it on)
2. First round, 10 lb. dumbbells
3. Second round, 15 lb. dumbbells
4. Barbell weighs 55 lbs
5. Challenge starts where I put the weight vest on, and ends where I take the vest off
6. You must do the 1st and last pull-up in each set in a slow controlled manner as I do. As you can see, I don’t do strict dead hang pull-ups, but they definitely aren’t “crossfit” pull-ups either. Your arms must go straight when you go down, and chin above the bar when you go up
7. Generally speaking, you must hold my pace throughout the whole workout. (Meaning that you do the workout as if we were doing it together. No getting more than a few reps ahead or behind)
8. You must video the workout and post it on youtube for me to judge
9. I have the final say on whether you completed the exercises properly or quickly enough. (It’s not my intent to be super strict, but if you’re obviously doing an exercise incorrectly or blatantly cheating, I have the right to reject your submission)
10. This challenge starts on March 20th, 2012 and ends June 20th, 2012
11. If 10 people manage to win the challenge, I have the right to end the challenge at that time to keep me from having to take out a loan to pay off the winnings

For beginners who would like to work into my full workout, I would start with something like this:

• Do my warm-up to the point where I pick up the weights.
• Then go 3 minutes at a comfortable pace (which could just be power walking, walk/jog, or easy running).
• Without a rest break, do 5 lunges, 5 burpees, 5 lunges. (Repeat the running/lunges/burpees/lunges 4 times).
• After you are able to get through the workout without getting sore, do 5 intervals, then 6. Then add 1 minute to each of your intervals, until you get to 6 minutes.
• Then increase your burpees and lunges until you are doing 10 burpees and 100 meters of lunges between each running interval.
• Then before you really begin to push the pace/intensity of the workout, I suggest you work the full warm-up into the routine.
• Once you are able to do the entire workout with the entire warm-up, then you can start to wear a weight vest. I would start with 4 to 6 lbs. and add a pound or 2 each week until you reach your optimal weight.

For those who want to do this workout, but with extra endurance, I would suggest you build up to 12 minutes on the running. If that’s not enough, then I would add a second workout for the same day. Going too long in the same workout will force you to drop the intensity so much that you won’t get as good of results as you will from doing 2 separate workouts.

A lot of people ask, “which muscles; and how intense should I train?” My response is, “all of them, and at the same, or greater intensity as you plan to push in your race.” If you plan to walk much of the race, then pushing your aerobic limits on your upper body exercises is not critical (although still a good idea). But if you want to excel, then you better be able to perform your upper body exercises while aerobically maxed out. The only way to do that is to train that way. A lot of people who have more raw strength than I do, struggle with obstacles that I breeze through simply because of the difference in the way we train.

When it comes to minimum strength requirements, don’t worry, there are plenty of people who are unable to do a single pull-up, and even struggle with push-ups that are getting through these races. There is a lot of teamwork, and if you are still unable to get through an obstacle, you can either skip it, or do the penalty exercise to continue. If you want to excel though, you’ll probably want to make sure you can do at least 10 pull-ups and 30 dive-bomber push-ups with ease.