The 5 Stages To Training for Special Operations

Training for special operations is no easy feat. Attrition rates are upwards of 70%, and that’s for those who met the standards and actually signed the contract. But for every candidate who made it to day 1, there were hundreds who wanted to be in their place but fell short and failed to get there.

This means the greatest attrition does not happen at selection. The crucible starts right now-in your training as a civilian. I’ve coached well over 100 hundred candidates for special operations. Today, I will give you the mental tools and a 5-stage blueprint to organize your training, including sample routines, so that you reach day 1 healthy, confident in your abilities, and prepared to dominate the selection.

The Goal of Training

Firstly, let’s be crystal clear – the key attributes it takes to become a Green Beret, Pararescueman, or Navy SEAL are

• Mental Resilience
• Aerobic Capacity
• Physical Strength, 
• Durability

The good news is each of these traits is trainable.

First 3 Crucial Steps when Training for Selection

This brings me to your first three steps when training for selection-each of which is focused on the mind first. This is important because your mind is always first to quit-the physical follows the mental. 

Step 1: Your Baseline doesn’t matter

Step 1 is to recognize your training baseline does not matter-because everyone has to improve to some extent. What really matters is putting in the work to level up your attributes and ultimately cross the finish line-getting selected.

Of course, there are physical freaks. The national champion wrestler or powerlifting track star starts selection prep closer to the finish line than anyone else. You would be a fool to ignore that.

Step 2: Acknowledge your Deficiencies

This brings me to the second step-which is to acknowledge your deficiencies and where you are today but don’t fixate. 

Comparing your baseline to your training partner’s or anyone else does not move the ball forward. So, take a moment and recognize a deficiency in your fitness-being overweight, poor cardio, or being rail thin. No amount of overthinking or regret will fix this. So, acknowledge it and move on.

Step3: Where Guys Go Wrong

But unfortunately, this is where many guys go wrong. So many fixate and feel apologetic or sorry about their current state of fitness. It’s a frequent occurrence when I first work with an athlete and they apologetically share their first timed run performance. My response is always just to acknowledge where you are today

Step 3 – Stop feeling sorry for yourself – and get to work. You are the author of your own story, and every day you have the opportunity to decide what you will do next.

5 Seasons of Your Training

Now that you’re in the right state of mind, let’s discuss the five distinct stages of your training;

• Exploring
• Developing
• Refining
• Peaking
• Maintaining

Many of you may dismiss thinking about these stages as a waste of time. However, you are more likely to quit prior to earning a contract than in selection. So, it follows that having a mental framework to break your pre-selection training up into achievable pieces is just as-if not more-important as any research you’re doing about selection

This practice of breaking a large task into component pieces is called segmentation-and that’s what all high-performance athletes do.

So, rather than thinking about 9-months or a year of hard training to transform yourself from weak, slow, and skinny to strong, fast, and muscular, you can think about your training in terms of seasons in which you are continuously leveling up-but focusing on different aspects of fitness to avoid burnout. 

Exploring

The first stage is exploring, where you’re thinking about the idea of enlisting, but you haven’t committed yet. Most guys reach this stage and jump into an unsustainably rigorous training program and crash and burn. Their intentions are noble-they think doing more training will yield better results.  

That’s why I want you to spend a minimum of two to three weeks in this phase. Use this time to get a realistic gauge of your fitness. Go to the gym, get in your easy jogs, and be consistent. This is not the time to waste your money or time researching and buying fins, boots, or a rucksack. Your $20 gym membership and running shoes are sufficient.

The purpose of this phase is to acclimate your body to simple training and get you into a routine. What’s nice about this exploratory phase is it can last as long as you’d like. If you’re a college freshman thinking about enlisting after graduation, you have time-you could spend the entire year doing relatively lax, moderate-intensity training and still make progress.

If you’re looking for a sample routine during this phase, try this one.

Developing

Once you’re ready to take that next step and fully commit yourself to training, it’s time to enter the development stage, which has two goals:

1. Achieve a favorable body composition of (20% body fat or less) and second is 
2. Building a base of strength and endurance

Let me explain body composition. First, it matters because leaner candidates get selected at higher rates. At SFAS, the leanest candidates had a 51% selection rate, while the fattest had a 13% selection rate. At BUD/S the data was similar. The leanest group was twice as likely to complete Hell Week as the fattest.

Here’s a few images of what various body fat levels look like:

No doubt, 20% may sound high, but it’s actually pretty lean, as you can tell from the pictures. Achieving 20% or lower will improve your run, ruck, and calisthenics scores and essentially reveal your true fitness level, which is masked by the additional fat you’re carrying. 

This is why I always say, if you’re overweight, you’re fitter than you think-because if you’re carrying an additional 20 lbs of fat, you’re doing everything with a 20lb weight vest.

Now at the same time you’re achieving a favorable body composition, you need to be on a regimented program to achieve a base of strength and endurance. 

This means you’re no longer winging it in the gym. You must have a plan for every session with target weights and paces to hit, and execute every movement and run with intention. Your target for this stage should be to hit at least;

• 135lb OHP
• 245lb Squat
• 285lb Deadlift
• 6:30 minute mile or faster

In terms of frequency, you want to be training at least 4 days per week with a minimum of two strength sessions and three cardio sessions. Here’s the sample routine.

Refining

Once you’ve achieved those strength and endurance metrics and are shipping or heading to selection six months or sooner, it’s time to start sharpening your sword. What I mean is to pivot from the more general strength and endurance work which is basic strength and run movements and begin incorporating selection-style activities-like focused grip work, carries, rucking, and metabolic conditioning.

The reason why we wait to do these activities is because a base of strength and endurance are necessary to achieve the requisite volume and benefit from the exercises. For instance, for this session, someone who runs a 6-minute mile and is strong at calisthenics will accumulate a lot more volume than someone who is untrained.

Do as many rounds of the following as possible in 16 minutes

• Max Effort – 400 Meter Run
• Max Distance – 75lb DB Farmer Carry
• 25 DB Rear Lateral Raises
• 25 Air Squats

During this time, it’s also important to proactively address your weaknesses. If you have a bad shoulder, knee, or shin splint, this is the time to ensure you’re doing the rehab work to reach 100%. Here is a post on how to avoid injuries.

Peaking

Three months out from selection or shipping, it is time to start peaking. It’s during this stage your volume and intensity will pick up drastically. No longer is the focus on improving run, ruck times, or strength metrics-although you may improve.

Instead, the goal is acclimating your body to and mimic the high-volumes and activities of selection. Your prime selection muscle groups like the back, legs, grip, and shoulders will all be hammered in this phase, alongside metabolic conditioning work, running, and heavy rucking.

For endurance work, the primary tool I use is prefatigue. So, the long runs and rucks you did in the previous stages, you’ll start entering those sessions with circuits that attack your lower back, legs, and grip. So, by the time you get to selection, you’re comfortably performing in a compromised state.

This high-volume, high-intensity training will reach a peak about ten days out from your selection or ship date. It’s during this time, you back off the volume and intensity and allow your body time to recover. It’s important you let off the gas here because the effect we’re shooting for is called overreaching with performance super-compensation.

In simple terms, we temporarily increase the volume beyond what you can recover from. After a period of rest and recovery, your new fitness will surpass what it was previously. 

Recovery

The final stage is recovery. During those final ten days leading up to selection, you want to focus on 

1. Sleep
2. Hydration
3. Nutrition

It’s normal during the 10-day de-load to feel rusty, or out of practice because you’ve been doing so much volume. But trust me, you will bounce back-feel light on your feet and your performance will be better for it.

While what this 10-day de-load looks like will depend on the volume you achieved in the prior 12 weeks alongside your recovery and feelings day-to-day, here’s a sample template.

Bonus Tip

My bonus tip is on the importance of consistency. A poll of this audience found that what holds your training back most is consistency. Here’s the solution;

Stop creating the training schedule for the athlete you want to become, and create a training schedule for the athlete you are today.

I would much rather see you hit 100% of your 5 workouts per week than hit 60% of your 10 workouts per week. Start at level 1 and build up.

Conclusion

If you’d like to learn the 6 best exercises for training for selection check out this article here, and if you’d like 1-on-1 coaching tailored to your needs, submit an application here.