Things to Consider About Military Fitness Training Basics

Good questions with answers below ...

1. How Long Should a Workout Be?

It depends on your goals and current fitness level. Thirty minutes is great for a beginner or maintenance plan or high-intensity workout. Sixty-plus minutes is needed for longer events like marathons, triathlons and spec-ops training, but it's fine for a bodybuilding workout. 

Mine are usually 2-3 hours long, full of calisthenics, running and swimming in the summer and shorter with weights and light cardio in the winter. See how.

2. Should Each Workout Be a Full-Body Workout?

Full-body workouts are fine every other day but never back-to-back-to-back days. You need 48 hours for optimal muscle recovery, but that varies, too, with intensity, weight, effort, your age, etc. 

Personally, it is best to work your full body with full-body movements, not a bunch of isolation machines. Unless you are a bodybuilder or rehabbing an injury, there is no need to do a single-joint workout.

It is fine to supplement a few isolation exercises into a full-body workout, though. I add in the bench press, military press and other exercises into workouts where I do hang cleans, push presses, power cleans, etc.

3. Should Workouts Be Just Strength Training or Include Aerobics, Too?

Sure, you can do both, mixed with sets of push-ups, pull-​​ups, jump rope (one minute each), or you can do all your weights/calisthenics first, then do your cardio after. It is up to your goals and current fitness level, and it truly depends on how you like to change it up. 

I never recommend doing the same old split routine for months at a time. Change it up and add some variety to avoid plateaus in strength gain, weight loss, performance, etc. 

It depends on your goals: Weight/​fat loss? Strength gains? Running or swimming faster?

See how the order affects your goals.

4. How Much PT Can You Do Reasonably in a Day?

Once again, it depends on your fitness level. We do five-hour events (a few times a year) where you run four miles, ruck four miles, swim two miles and get in 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 abs, 250 pull-​​ups and 250 dips. By the way, that is too much. I feel this for too long, but some of the younger guys can do this and more.

For some people, walking a mile and doing 50 crunches and 25 push-ups is too much. But if you are training for the military and have a decent fitness foundation, you can do 25-50 pull-​​ups and 100-200 push-ups and sit-​​ups in a workout period, along with a few miles of running and not overdo it.

Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Visit his Fitness eBook store if you're looking to start a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle. Send your fitness questions to stew@stewsmith.com.

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