Training & Exercising Pt.

2
Physical Fitness & Mission Planning
 Introduction

This guide is a continuation of our training and exercising guides. If you havent read Part 1, please
do so in front of reading this part.

The main focus of this guide is physical fitness and mission planning. Both are utterly different
skillsrts, with the first one being entirely psychomotor in nature, while the other is an entirely
cognitive skill. Both require a very different emphasis in your training routine and therefore we will
start this guide with a short continuation of our methodics section.

There are various misconceptions on how to train those abilities and after you have read this guide it
may have cleared a few things up and get your training in order.

Have fun reading and dont forget to actually go out and train.

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 Methodics
1.1 Economy of training
Landnav, tactics, physical fitness, communications, mission planning, shooting, fieldcraft... the list
goes on. There is just so much we have to learn to get proefficient in what we want to do.

Training all of this on a regular basis appears almost impossible, even for those that make this stuff
their main profession. And Ill go straight ahead: It is impossible to train all this on a regular basis. So
what we have to do is to apply sober methodics to our training to make it economic.

While most skills are perishable, there are those that perish very fast, while others do it very slow.
Skills that are mostly cognitive in nature are those that perish very slow. You dont have to train
landnav daily, weekly or even monthly. After some intense training this skill should be settled and
only needs to be refreshed from time to time.

On the other hand there are skills like for example shooting and weapons manipulation. Those skills
need time to be built and even settling them requires a lot of repetitions. If you dont dryfire at least
weekly, your skills will perish, same goes for physical fitness.

Your economy of training therefore should be based on two factors:

-Non-perishable skills need an intense but short period to build them
-Perishable skills cant be built on an instant and need to be trained as often as possible

Some skills are in between. For example knots: Despite knowing how to do them, you need to
practice them on a regular basis to get the psychomotor factor into your brain.

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 Methodics
1.2 Applied Training Economy
This means that a training routine can be somewhat sorted. In a perfect world we could train
psychomotor skills almost every day (daily dryfire, daily PT...) and do a one selected largely
cognitive skill once a week.

The best example of this being real is weapons manipulation. It will take you years to forget how an
AR15 operates and how the loading procedures are done. Some people will even never forget it. But
it takes only days to get slower and less accurate in practical weapons manipulation or shooting.

This gets even more apparent when looking at physical fitness. An endurance runner will lose his
endurance pretty slow. A weightlifter, who applies technique and strength will experience a fast
degradation of his motoric capabilities.

Everything that requires your nerves and neurons to „fire fast“ needs to be trained as often as
possible.

The good thing about this is that it creates a natural (and needed) training break. So training your
perishable skills for 5 days a week and having one day for training a random „non-perishable“ skill
will create a beneficial training break.

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 Methodics
1.3 „Jack of all trades, master of none“
I think that this phrase is as overused and stupid as it can get as it sets people up aiming for mediocre
skill levels. Not everyone is able to achieve mastery, but everyone is able to get at least competent in
a skill, being a master of some of those is even better.

So the right phrase should be „Competent in all trades and a master of some“.

As mastery is basically an infinite term, we can never reach mastery. But we can master standards
and requirements and if we explore a skill that we could potentially master we should clearly exploit
those skills and make use of our mastery.

Talking about standards we can divide our skill levels into proefficiency, competency and mastery
-Proefficient: You are able to forfill the standards but struggle sometimes to do so
-Competent: You are able to forfill the standards on demand
-Mastery: You are able to forfill the standards way above the required levels

Exploit talent and aptitude whenever possible. You cant be „to good“ in a certain task in combat.

Competing is the best path to mastery.

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 Physical Fitness
2.1 „The Tactical Athlete“ a misunderstood
concept
When we are looking at self proclaimed „tactical athletes“ we see hulking brutes that are great at
lifting stuff and maybe some cardio. Strength and endurance are focused. There is nothing wrong
about speed and endurance, but lets look at the real needs in the field:

-Being able to be very fast on demand (Sprinting, jumping)

-A high amount of muscular endurance (carrying heavy objects over very long distances)
-Excellent reactions and motorics (Shooting, obstacle courses, combatives...)

All those traits are more in line with what we see with martial artists, football players, soccer players
and so on. There is nothing wrong about having a nice deadlift max, but what is it worth when you
cant even throw a ball (throw a grenade) jump high (over an obstacle) or your big muscles suddently
getting sour when you are climbing or hiking with a heavy pack.

Furthermore your fitness needs to be sustainable and being a hulking, 120kg brute may be almost as
far off the charts as being obese. Same goes for nutrition, when you have to eat thousands of extra
calories to stay in shape your conditioning is everything but tactical.

So what should we aim for?

-Mobility
-Speed
-Motorics
-Explosive Strength
-Endurance (in both, strength and cardio)

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 Physical Fitness
2.2 Finding your strengths & weaknesses
If you are already exercising a bit you may know some of your strengths and weaknesses. The traits
„motorics, speed, strength and endurance“ are subjectively measurable by what you excel in and what you
arent good at. As those traits are also closely associated with the composition of our muscular fibers and our
nervous system they often restrict each other.

We are talking about the following factors:

-Endurance: Cardiovascular and muscular endurance, running long distances and executing many repetitions
-Strength: The ability to slowly lift heavy objects in a controlled movement
-Speed: Running fast and lifting objects in movements that include the whole body
-Motorics: Hand/feet/eye coordination, replicating complex movements and having a good mobility

Examples on restriction:
-People who are good sprinters (explosive strength/speed) are often bad endurance runners but have excellent
motorics.
-People who are good endurance runners can also build a good amount of strength. What they lack is good
motorics and explosive strength (speed)

The upper example has a low amount of endurance and strength but is great in performing short, well
cordinated bursts of motion. He should train endurance first and foremost while maintaining his strength.
The lower example is the exact opposite, he is strong and enduring but struggles when sprinting fast paced or
simply running an obstacle course. He should sacrifice some of his strength and endurance training for
building speed and coordination.

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 Physical Fitness
2.3 Adressing strengths and weaknesses
There are a lot of takes to adress your weaknesses, most of them work by simply doing in what you arent good at.

Endurance:
-Endurance Running
-Calisthenics with a high rep count
-Free weight exercises with a rep count above 12
-Cycling
-Swimming

Strength:
-Free weight training with a rep count from six to eight
-Underarm/Grip strength trainers
-Heavy deadlifts and squats slowly executed

Strength and endurance are easily enhanced and dont contradict each other.

Speed and Motorics

-Sprinting
-Team Sports (Soccer/Football)
-Striking Martial Arts
-Athletics
-Olympic weighlifting
-Free weight training, with a few reps, heavy weights and fast execution

Speed and motorics are the hardest to train and often contradict endurance and maximum strength. They are the hardest
to build. If you have massive issues with speed and motorics consult a personal trainer.

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 Physical Fitness
2.4 Basic Physical Fitness Assesment
The BPFA is an assesment and not a training exercise. It assesses if you are capable of the basic requirements for a
military aged male or female. Its not some kind of hardcore selection training, but if you are running a group everyone
should be capable of completing it.

Required equipment:
1xStop Watch
1xChalk
6x approx 1m high stakes or twigs
1x roll of wire or barbed wire
1xHurdle 1m high or box (1x1x1m)
1x4kg Shot (Olympic style)
1xRuck 50kg

Exercise:
-All attendees run 10km in under 70 minutes
-5 minutes break for rehydration
-Sprint 100m in sub 16 seconds
-Be able to crawl below a set of 50cm high wire obstacles (3 obstacles, 30m)
-jump 2m far from standing (start and release marked with chalk)
-jump 1m high from running
-Throw a 4kg shot at least 7 meters far
-1x pick up 50kg ruck and run 400m

This exercise can be repeated in full kit. If you have difficulties achieving those standards your definetely
need to work out.

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 Physical Fitness
2.5 A Sustainable Training Split
On this page you find a sustainable 6 day training split for a well rounded individual. Each day will get an added emphasis on one of the primary
traits. If you want to focus more on a trait, just remove one you are already good at and add the one you are lacking at.

Every day starts with 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups immediately after waking up. You can pause between the repetitions if you dont manage to do
them.

Day Exercise Emphasis

1 Benchpress 8Rx4S (75% max weight) Strength
Squat 8Rx4S (75% max weight)
Deadlift 8Rx4S (75% max weight)
4x25 Push Ups
4x50 Crunches
2 Break Recovery
3 Run 4km as fast as possible, 4x50 crunches, 4x max pull ups Endurance
4 Session of Martial Arts, Team Sports or Athletics Motorics/Speed
5 Kettlebell Swings 12Rx4S Speed/Strength
Clean and Jerk 3Rx5S (80% max weight)
Kettlebell One Arm Clean 5Rx5S (50% max weight)
Squats/deadlifts 1Rx5S, max weight
6 Run 4km as fast as possible, 4x50 crunches, 4x max pull ups Endurance
7 Session of Martial Arts, Team Sports or Athletics Motorics/Speed

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 Physical Fitness
2.6 Martial Arts
Ist pretty interesting that a lot of responsible civilians and military members dont train any
style of martial arts. Despite hand to hand combat being rare in situations where both sides are
armed, the benefits of martial arts training for speed and motorics are on hand.

Another point is mindset, sparring builds a competitive and aggressive mindset. This is not
replicable by field training exercises, no matter how realistic they are.

When chosing a martial art make the following considerations:

-It should be a competitive martial art, not a self defense or „tactical“ system.
-It should be a martial art focused on striking, while grappling is very effective you want to
learn how to strike and kick first.
-Go for martial arts that are well represented in the UFC and comparable competitions, dont
go for a niche thing like „Ninjutsu“ or something else, there is a reason why we dont see those
in competitions and its not their efficiency.

After a few years you can visit some self defense related classes to do some things that fall
into the category „nice to have done it once“ like for example knife defense or arrest
techniques.

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 Physical Fitness
2.7 RBT Combat Fitness Assesment
This guide wouldnt be complete without our combat fitness assesment.

While the basic physical fitness assesment covers the bare minimums of fitness and is a bit more wholesome,
the CFA is more focused on isolated skills and is harder to achieve in general.

However, every healthy indivdual is able to forfill it.

Exercises dont have to be conducted in a row, they can be done whenever you want. You just have to check
all boxes

-Run 5km in under 25 minutes

-Do more than 49 push-ups in a row
-Do more than 11 pull-ups in a row
-Benchpress your own bodyweight 12 times
-Deadlift 2x your own bodyweight two times in a row
-Sprint 100m in less than 15 seconds
-Jump 2,30m far from standing
-Pick up your bodyweight from the ground and lift it over your head
-Do more than 69 sit-ups in a row

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 Physical Fitness
2.7 Running and Rucking
You may have missed a lot of running and rucking in our training split. There is a reason for
this. Running builds muscle fibers that contract slow and therefore reduce your speed and
according to some studies also your coordination. Those fibers are hard to replace with
„fast“ fibers again.

So if you are good at rucking and running, stick to the plan, do a 10k once a week if you like
to. Do our ruck run from part 1 of the guide every few months. You can add some emphasis
on running if you feel like your skills are degrading.

If you are bad at running, do a 10k every week and do some short and fast paced runs twice a
week. Starting your day with a relaxed run also wont hurt.

Good runners are usually good at rucking, adding some extra strength training for your legs
and bag may help.

Do rucking only when necessary. Its not a workout.

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 Planning Exercises & TDGs
3.1 The 5 Paragraph Order Challenge
This exercise requires at least one other person attending (in person or via internet) both of
you prepare a situation which is described on a map. Enemy, own forces and intent.

After that all attendees pick one scenario and from there on get 30 minutes time to create a
full OPORD according to OSMEAC.

Once this is done in a written format, each attendee tries to present his plan using a map,
markers and his own words in a fluid fashion.

After each attendees presentation the order receives a so called „murder debriefing“ with all
attendees showing all criticism that can be applied to the order. The person that issued this
order may not respond immediately but hast to take notes and address his shortcomings in a
fluid fashion.

After that the next attendee has to issue his order. After all attendees are done the next
scenario gets picked.

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 Planning Exercises & TDGs
3.2 Terrain Sketch
This is a form of training with the goal to create a detailed first person and birds view terrain
sketch. It can be conducted alone or in a group.

Go out and find n interesting spot in the terrain.

Now you start with a first peson sketch. Dont turn it into an artwork, but keep it detailed.
Name terrain accordingly. Distances to named landmarks and objects need tob e guessed, use
no technical assistance while doing so.

Use a compass and a map to include:

Direction
Altitude
Grid Coordinates

After you are done you control the distances using a laser range finder or other devices.

Continue with the birds eye sketch and try to create a scale

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 Planning Exercises & TDGs
3.3 Surfaces & Gaps
This is a form of TDG in which one player takes the role of the defender and another the role
of the attacker

Use satellite footage (Google Maps, Caltopo…) of a approx 1000x1000m area.

Assign assets in form of squads, machineguns and barbed wire to the defender
Assign assets in form of squads tot he attacker. Keep a realistic balance

Example:
Defender: 3 squads, 4 machineguns, 400m of barbed wire.
Attacker: 6 squads

Now the defender sets up a point and perimeter defense on the map.

After this is done the defender shows his plans to the attacker and the attacker is tasked with
finding two gaps (weakest spots) in the defense and present his plan of attack.

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 Planning Exercises & TDGs
3.5 Notice to move 10
This exercise will test your preparedness when it comes to your kit.

Set up a packing list for a 5 day patrol, including Uniform, Load Bearing System and
Backpack.

Empty all your kit and store everything in a shelf as you usually store it.

You now have 10 minutes to pack your kit, put on your cammies and your load bearing.

After you are done, empty your kit and control it according to the packing list.

If everything is fine you can repeat the same in a 9 minute time limit.

This exercise will also be a test of your storage system.

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 Planning Exercises & TDGs
3.6 No BS Bugout
This exercise is assuming that all you want to do in case of a natural disaster or foreign
invasion is leaving your country.

Situation: You heard that an unspecified natural disaster or foreign invasion is hitting your
country in about an hour.

Task: Find the quickest route out of your country! This can include vehicle, train, bus and
plane! Your only limitations are your finances and your equipment/ vehicle park.

Once you have found a route assure to find your nations closest embassy in the country you
picked, make sure to have funds for a hotel or BnB for at least a night.

Note phone numbers, routes, points of contact and amount of finances spent. Dont forget your
family and luggage!

Conducting this exercise will let you look at preparedness from a whole new perspective.

You can further make this exercise more difficult by restricting directions of travel (e.g. only
southwards)

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