Starting the first Monday of December (although I may not post because of a Heavy at the end of that week… We’ll see), this is the new gameplan:
As I’m sitting here super sore and getting my mind amped up to go on a run, I figured I’d detail the workout rotation that will be the new norm for IMT Mondays in Davidson. In addition to this, I’ll be filming the proper standard to the movements that some of these things require since many of them are unfamiliar movements for people (bear crawls, duck walks, manmakers, etc), or so you’d think from how people do them at events… As always, proper form is more important than time or number of repetitions.
Our first Monday of each month will be Chutes and Ladders. This one is thanks to Winnebago, who took my original idea for this style of workout and made it better. You will not wear a ruck, and five devices of demon exorcising will be placed in a straight line over the course of 30ish yards. At each device, you will do a specific lift, examples are ruck squats, sandbag presses, kettlebell swings, deadlifts, bent over rows, so on and so forth. At the top of the ladder you get to slide back to the start, but the slide will be made of something along the lines of bear crawls with a sandbag, or low crawls, lunges, duck walk, etc back to the start. This will continue for the duration of the workout. There is no end, or number of times you do the ladder, you just keep going for as many times as you can.
Second Monday will be the Devil’s Mile. Your first two exercises are the most critical. They are a 1/4 mile bear crawl followed by a 1/4 mile of walking lunges. These should both be done while wearing a ruck, with a weight that you can perform the full movement with. As time progresses, you should be upping your dry weight to as much as 60 lbs. Any more than that and it becomes somewhat useless as you should never have a ruck that weighs that much at an event save for Selection (with a wet ruck). The second half can be two different 1/4 miles of any of these following movements:
- Burpee broad jumps
- Overhead ruck carry (You may rest with ruck on head, but you may not move unless the ruck is in the air)
- Farmers carry with two rucks/sandbags. Ideally 40 lbs in each hand.
- Buddy carry
- Tire flips (if that is an option)
The third Monday of each month will be I <3 Suicides. Pick out a quarter mile stretch and 7ish points in between to do suicides to. Wear a ruck at all times. I’m big on not ruck running, but sometimes it must be done, so your goal is to be as gentle on the knees as possible and scale your ruck weight appropriately. DO NOT GO HEAVY ON RUCK RUNNING UNLESS YOU ARE WELL TRAINED AND ADJUSTED TO THE WEIGHT. At the end of each one of these ruck suicides, you will do a prescribed lift or PT movement. You continue until the time runs out.
The fourth Monday will be a simple run (no ruck) and lift combo day. There will be 3-5 resistance movements picked for a specific number of reps. You complete those and then run 1/2 mile AFAP. Repeat the process for as many times as you can. A good warmup for this is a brief 1/2 mile ruck run. Keep the pace down, listen to your joints, don’t hurt yourself.
The ideal lifts for training for GORUCK events and their associated PT are as follows:
- Flutter kicks
- Rucked pushups
- Overhead ruck/sandbag presses
- overhead ruck squats
- sandbag squats (pick heavier weights and lower reps. The stronger you are the better. Low weight high reps does not make you stronger long term)
- sandbag deadlifts
- sandbag/ruck getups
- pike presses
- rucked+sandbag step ups (24 inches or more if you have access)
- manmakers
- burpees
- 8 count body builders
- weighted situps
- monkey fuckers
- bent over rows
- overhead ruck tricep dips
- kettlebell swings
- Rucked plank (elbows and toes)
These lifts are nearly all of the solo movements that I have personally performed at 9 different events. If you have done others at an event that you’d like to add, do so. By no means is this a comprehensive list and it definitely can be added to.
I wanted to post this so that should something happen and I don’t post (injury, hit the snooze button, etc) the others who are there can lead based on these concepts.