Ep 197 - Full Breakdown of Jacked Gazelle 3.0 - The Ultimate Hybrid Program

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What's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. Today is going to be a breakdown of my newest hybrid program, Jack Gazelle 3.0, which has been out for approximately one month now, and it's the third program of its kind from TTM. I've got two other hybrid programs, Jack Gazelle and Jack Gazelle and Jack Gazelle 2.0. And I named this one a super original Jack Gazelle 3.0. No, just kidding. I couldn't find a name of an animal that had good [00:00:30] endurance besides Gazelle's that sounded cool. So I just went with it. I was going to name it like strung something with an S or huge something with an H and just couldn't find anything even though I searched for it. So we stuck with Jack Gazelle. And this is the third one, and it is also the best one because I would hope it would be the best one because I have been programming for about four years since I wrote the original Jack Gazelle for lots and lots of different people, [00:01:00] not just these programs, but for clients, for guys in my group coaching T-850, and I would hope I'm a lot better at programming four years later, not the Jack Gazelle original is a bad one, or Jack Gazelle 2, which was probably two years ago or so.

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Our bad programs, they're two of the top sellers that I have in my entire arsenal. And guys get great results. They've gotten great reviews, I get great feedback from them. But this is the best one by far, and hopefully this [00:01:30] episode will kind of give you an idea as to why. I am going to do a general overview of the whole program layout. I'm going to talk a little bit about just general hybrid training principles. I've talked about a lot of those in past episodes, so I won't get too into the weeds with 'em. I will talk about who it's for, who it's not for what you can expect from this program as far as results. And then I'll go through phase by phase and break down what a general training week looks like. If you are watching on video, [00:02:00] you'll see this as I go through.

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I'm actually going to pop up some sample weeks on the screen. This is why I'm moved over to the left. If you notice, not in the exact normal position that I usually am for podcast recording to create room for the popups, but if you are listening, you'll still get a good solid idea of what it looks like. And then if you want, you can go and check out the YouTube clip. I'll have timestamps and show notes and things like that. And speaking of show notes, you can find all [00:02:30] this information I'm about to tell you in the show notes, but with this episode, I am going to do a sale on all of the soft bundle products. So in that bundle is all three Jack Ls, ruck, run lift, SFAS two, and five mile and the soft prep Recovery Guide ebook. Those are all going to be 25% off for the entire week after this episode airs.

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I'm not exactly sure when it's going to air, so I'm not going to give any dates, but you can find all that information. Below [00:03:00] the code is RUNLIFT25, alt one word. So that bundle, by the way, you don't have to buy the entire bundle in order to get it. Each individual item is 25% off, so if you want just one or two or three, you can mix and match and they'll all be marked down for a week. So let's get into some hybrid programming, I guess problems and nuances in general. So a lot of people will send me a big message [00:03:30] with their current training routine, and of course most people that follow my stuff and listen to these shows and pay attention to my content have some sort of hybrid training goal, whether it's to prepare for selection or maybe they're going to selection further into the future and they want to build their general repertoire of strength, endurance some muscle, some general work capacity, some skill, some jumping ability, and they'll send it to me.

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[00:04:00] I call this A-B-Y-O-P, build your own program and usually it's a soup sandwich because it's really difficult to program for hybrid in a way that's actually going to A, give you the results you want. B, not take over your life in that you can't even perform throughout the day because you're just so smoked and beat up all the time for your job or whatever you do for a living or whatever you need to do, whoever you need to show up or wherever you need to show up on a day-to-day basis or it is a little bit [00:04:30] close, maybe it's got a reasonable amount of volume with lifting and running, which is honestly, this is kind of rare. Usually they're volume fests, but the way it's structured is just not ideal. They don't consolidate stressors, they don't have energy systems and training on the same days.

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It's kind of just all spread out. It's almost like taking a run program, taking a lift program, cutting them back a little, which you definitely should. You don't want to be following a 200% program, which I'll get into here in a second, but then just putting 'em in [00:05:00] on random days that don't really have a rhyme or reason for them. It takes a lot of programming knowledge, it takes a lot of physiology knowledge and it takes lots of experience. And also it requires you to look at a lot of different programs and not just hybrid programs, programs in general. Anytime I see someone that I respect or honestly sometimes people I don't not respect, but I know that their programs can be a soup sandwich, I'll buy them and I'll look at them because [00:05:30] you just need to be exposed to this kind of stuff over and over and over again.

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And oh, by the way, you also need to program for other people. Yes, programming for yourself can work, but even if you are a fitness professional, I still recommend outsourcing your program. I personally get way better results when I outsource my training. Right now I have a coach and I get way better results than I do programming for myself. Even though I'm capable of programming for myself, there's going to be some form of bias in there. I'm going to bias the things I like doing [00:06:00] the most and probably skip over or maybe brush up on, but not really focus on things that I don't like doing the most. And oh, by the way, generally what you like the most is also going to be what you're good at. Usually people do things they're good at and they like to do things they're good at, and usually people don't like as much doing things they're not good at.

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So I always recommend regardless of who you are, trying to outsource your programming, whether you hire a full on coach or whether you purchase a program from a reputable individual [00:06:30] that has a proven track record of solid programming. Because here's the deal, honestly, the easiest thing to program is for hypertrophy and even hypertrophy programs are all ate up most of the time. You really don't have to program anything objective, so you're not trying to gain a certain amount of strength like you would with a strength program or a power lifting program. You're not trying to gain a certain amount of time on your run times or anything like that. You're just trying to gain muscle. If you look at the Mr Olympia stage, [00:07:00] all these guys are the best bodybuilders in the world, the most jacked, shredded individuals on the planet, and they probably all follow different programs.

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Some of 'em probably did insane amounts of volume. Some guys probably just trained with high intensity, a little bit less volume. Some guys kind of right in the middle. There are many, many different paths to get onto that Olympia stage or whatever level we're talking about, any body building stage. So hypertrophy program is honestly pretty easy to make strength program [00:07:30] more difficult because you actually have to objectively get the person stronger throughout that program. So if you write a strength program and someone doesn't gain strength on it, or if they hurt themselves like week two or whatever, that wasn't a very good program running or conditioning program, very similar. It takes a lot more skill to put that together in a way that's going to give the person the run gains that they want, the progress that they want without running themselves into the ground and so on and so forth.

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So when you have to combine [00:08:00] all of them together, you can kind of see where the water gets muddied. It's definitely a highly nuanced thing to program for and to think that somebody without any sort of credentials, any sort of certifications, any sort of coaching experience, any sort of learning this stuff, minus reading somet Nation articles or some random articles, fitness online to think that you can just put together a really solid program for yourself. Not really. It [00:08:30] would be like me trying to go into a restaurant and just have all the information like, here are the ingredients for this big beautiful meal that the chef usually cooks, by the way, a chef who knows how to do this stuff. Here are the ingredients, go ahead and cook it. It would be a complete soup sandwich. If it was like a steak or something like that, I'd be all right, but if it was a more elaborate meal, I wouldn't be able to do it.

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I would be clueless. Or maybe I would make a meal that's edible, but it wouldn't be anywhere close to on the same wavelength as [00:09:00] the chef's meal because that's kind of the difference between BYOP, building your own random program, using all the little tidbits of knowledge you have versus actually having someone who's an expert do it and really, really get down into the details. The nuances set everything up in a way that's going to a result in you achieving the performance gains that you want, and B, also feeling good and not beating yourself up and being able to function in life. Oh, by the way, most people aren't [00:09:30] just living to train, eat and sleep. Ideally that would be awesome and you could recover from a lot more, but that's not reality for most people. And on that note, oftentimes big time hybrid athlete influencers who are, oh by the way, not also coaches, I talked about this recently in a podcast episode, they'll also make hybrid programs and sell them to the masses.

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Oftentimes they're what they do for training and if you have good enough genetics and you're jacked and strong [00:10:00] and run fast and you're good looking or you're charismatic or you just make really cool content to such an extent that you are able to attract hundreds of thousands, millions of people to buy your programs and you're having all those people trained the same way that you do the genetic 0.1%, maybe a lot of them are on peds, which by the way, I don't care. That's great if you want to do that. But expecting people to get great results on that program is just, or people [00:10:30] using that program expecting to get great results is just kind of a pipe dream. You're probably just going to run yourself into the ground and you're probably going to overdo it and you're probably not going to hit the performance gains that you want even though you're going to work your ass off because like I said, most of these programs are volume fests.

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So all this to say, it's very important to make sure that you're purchasing your program from someone who is more on the trustworthy side, who has a proven track record of coaching first, as well as making programs that lots [00:11:00] and lots of people benefit from rather than someone who makes the coolest content and looks the most jacked and is the most shredded and runs the most fast all at the same time, which is super cool, really impressive. I'm all about it. I personally right now am not that great of a hybrid athlete. I have been on this health journey recently that does not involve a lot of endurance, but eventually I'll get back into it and I've done some cool hybrid feats in the past, but either way, I am really focused on right now programming and [00:11:30] making sure that with every single program I write, it's better than the last one.

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I will continue doing that to 2026 will be a higher volume program, TTM program release frequency than they have been in the past. So you can expect that. Alright, so let's get into this versus my other programs. So this program is again, the third of its kind. One of the questions I got. I'll get into all the FAQs here at the end, but one of the questions I got was what's the difference between this [00:12:00] and Jack is L two and Jack is L one. Well, I kind of just went over it a little bit. The wave tops, I'm just way better at programming right now, so it's a higher quality program, but honestly, the only things that are the same are they involve running, they involve lifting, and they're generally hybrid programs. There are different lifts in this program. There's different splits. The phases are broken down differently.

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Phase one and two are going to be more so hypertrophy bias, similar to Jackel 2.0, phase three and [00:12:30] four are going to be more strength biased with percentages. Everyone's favorite, like Jack Gazelle one, the og. There are different running structures. There are different weekly run breakdowns, there are different plyometric exercises, jumps, throws, there's different strongman work, there's different metcons. So pretty much almost everything's different other than the end goal, you're still going to improve your running, you're still going to get stronger, you're still going to get more jacked and more athletic just to answer that question upfront because a lot of [00:13:00] people have asked it and the rest of this episode should help drive that answer home. By the way, I also have an episode that goes over three of my other very popular programs, Jack Gazelle, Jack Gazelle 2.0 and two and five Mile, as well as kind of breezes over the rest of my programs.

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That's going to be linked below. And then my more recent program prior to Jack Gazelle, Ruck | Run | Lift, I also have a full episode where I break down just that program that is the selection prep program. It's more [00:13:30] of a broad spectrum selection prep program that multiple different people going to multiple different soft selections can benefit from. So if you're interested in those, you can check those out and some of that stuff's also included in the bundle. Before getting into some specifics, I just want to thank anyone who has purchased the program, given me the feedback and written reviews. I've already got six reviews. The program's only been out for about a month, so I think that's the most reviews we've ever gotten in the first month of a program, so I really appreciate you. I'm going [00:14:00] to read one of those reviews is from Brian D, and then I'll kind of get into an overview of the program.

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So Brian D says, "absolute gem", that's the header. Thank you. "I'm a huge believer and user of TTM. The products have great information explaining the program conditioning factors and the workouts give true progression throughout the phases. You also don't feel beat up as it's longevity friendly and keeps your consistency going. I've used the first and second JG programs and saw incredible results and my body felt great, not burnt out or feeling broken." [00:14:30] That's the goal. "I've been on this program for five weeks now and I'm feeling great. TTM is a hidden gem, legit results in educational. I am a returning customer and recommend anyone to start off with the JG series." Thank you Brian D, appreciate that. I probably should have blown that up. I can barely see it on my screen, but hopefully I don't look like a bad reader anyway. Who is this program for?

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Anyone who wants to get stronger, gain some muscle, improve their runtimes specifically. [00:15:00] There's definitely some non run conditioning options in there, but it's definitely more run biased and it's got higher run volume than any of my other hybrid programs. It's probably pretty close to two and five mile as far as run volume is concerned, and that's always a point of contention. Guys will ask, why can't these programs have more run volume? It's because they're not running programs. If it was just a running program, it would have more run volume, but it's a hybrid program. You have finite recovery resources. So if you're trying to recover from full on lifting programs plus full on running programs, [00:15:30] 200% programs, it's just not going to happen for the vast majority of people. So I have to trim the fat behind the scenes. I have to really ask myself, is this run necessary?

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Is this duration or this distance of run necessary? Is putting a run on this day necessary or could I forego that and maybe put some cross training in? Or maybe do we even need conditioning on that day? So that's the main reason why I get that question all the time. Why don't you have more volume in your hybrid programs? It's because it's not a running program. Fair enough. [00:16:00] So should you use it pre-selection? Probably not. I know guys probably are because guys have used my other two before selection and have been successful, even though I've been pretty outspoken about not using non-selection prep programs for selection, this would be a much more ideal program to follow leading into your selection prep. So say you have 6, 7, 8 months before you go to selection following this program or any number of different TTM programs, but this would be one great example [00:16:30] and then following ruck run lift or if you're going to SFAS following SFAS, you can follow ruck run lift for SAS.

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It's kind of just shooter's preference, but that's my best recommendation. Guys are still probably going to do it, but you heard it here first wouldn't be my preferred action. A general overview of the program, so some of the prerequisites, I would strongly recommend that you have at least a little bit of a running base, 150 ish minutes per week of zone two running and also not beat up and not feeling destroyed [00:17:00] all the time. A lot of guys will finish their base phase and they'll get to that one 50 and they'll limp across the finish line. That's not what I am talking about. You want to feel good going into a program like this because it's going to be very high intensity. However, if you don't have a run base, you're in luck. There's a run base built in to the intro and then it's got explanations on how to lift during your run base phase.

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There are multiple different options, so you can read through that. If you don't have that solid run base yet and you want to still follow this program, you can, but put the [00:17:30] time in to build that running base. I strongly recommend it. Otherwise the program's going to be a little bit too, a lot too much for you as far as injuries are concerned. And also you're going to make better run progress if you have a really good robust aerobic base going into speed work and things like that. Ideally at least a year and a half of lifting experience, there's nothing crazy super advanced. But if you have just a basic fundamental understanding of the movement patterns and you are not brand new to lifting, then you should be totally fine following this. [00:18:00] I don't program using exact numbers, like I'm not going to tell you to go bench this exact number and squat this exact number.

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I will use relative numbers. I like to use RPE and RIR reps and reserve rate of perceived exertion for most of it. And then in the last couple of phases, the squat bench deadlift will have percentages and they'll have a range of percentages. I use a range of percentages because everyone's percentage, hundreds of people following the program. Not everyone's 100% is going to be a hundred percent every single day, [00:18:30] especially because the other things in the program cause fatigue. I don't really have control of what you do outside the gym with your sleep, your nutrition, your stress management. Maybe you have a stressful life, in which case honestly if you're life's high stress right now or if you just had a kid or you're just not getting enough sleep for whatever reason or you're in some austere environment and you can't eat enough things like that, maybe push the start of this program a little bit to the right until you're in a little bit better conditions to recover really [00:19:00] well from it because it's a relatively high workload program.

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It kind of has to be. And if you're limited recovery wise, then it may not go very well for you. But anyway, equipment access, ideally you have full gym access, ideally you have access to machines, cables, free weights, barbell pull, a bar, dip bar, et cetera. You don't necessarily have to. There are exercise substitutions for every single lift in the intro and you could just use free weights for all the lifts and [00:19:30] it would not be ideal, but it would still work for you, especially because it's a good way to ensure that you're doing the right conditioning. Most people will have access to all the things that are required for conditioning, all the things required for conditioning. As long as you have some running shoes and a place to run, then you're good. But even if you have to substitute most lifts that are in there as machine lifts with a barbell or a dumbbell lift, not the end of the world, not ideal, not the end of the world.

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I've been pretty outspoken about ensuring if [00:20:00] you really are into fitness and you really want to make it a lifelong thing and you really want to go all in, you're actually all in. You don't just say you're all in investing in a gym membership or at least investing in some more equipment for your home gym if you don't like going to gyms is probably at the top of the list of things that you could possibly invest in and most gym memberships, they're not going to set you back all that much. And even if you have to drive 15 minutes instead of just working out in your home gym with a couple dumbbells, [00:20:30] highly, highly, highly worth it in my opinion. I don't think that's too much of an ask. But anyway, ideally you have full gym access. If you don't, then you can substitute things in, but you want to have a decent amount of free weight equipment at the very least.

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Pull up our dip bar, barbell bench, squat rack, dumbbells, ideally adjustable dumbbells or lots of dumbbells that go up to however much you do dumbbell work with. So that's my recommendation and like I said, a pro recovery lifestyle, nothing crazy going [00:21:00] on in your life right now that would be ideal. The structure of the program, it is 16 weeks long. It's broken into four phases. Phase one and two are three weeks each. Phase three and four are five weeks each, and there are deloads built in and there are also test weeks. So at the beginning you can either do a full on test week where you test different things each day, your run times, your lift, your lift numbers, or you can do a crucible day. This is the first time I've done this in one of my programs where you just have a big day [00:21:30] of a bunch of different hybrid tests, lifting, running, calisthenics, et cetera.

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You can choose either one. What I would recommend is if whatever you do in the first before the program starts, also do that same one afterwards. That way you can see how much you progressed. I mean, it's not the end of the world if you want to switch it up, but ideally you are doing the same one so you can just kind of see how far you've come throughout the program. Additionally, in the middle of the program, there's a midweek test week. This is one that I would really strongly recommend doing. You don't necessarily have to do the pre and post program test weeks. [00:22:00] You absolutely can, but you don't have to. What I would strongly recommend is doing the middle one because in the last two phases you're going to need to use your percentages for your one rep max and otherwise you're just kind of shot in the dark type thing.

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And you also want to know, I mean ideally you do both. You do the pre-program and the mid program because in the first phase you're also going to use your runtimes to pace yourself for certain runs. But if nothing else, I would strongly recommend doing the mid program and there's a deload [00:22:30] kind of built around that before we get into the third phase, which is pretty hot and heavy. It's definitely a higher workload phase. And then phase four is even more so. Alright, so going over each of the phases, I'm just going to go through each day. I'm not going to get down into nitty gritty sets, reps, rest intervals or anything like that. That would just take forever and I will at this time move over a little bit on the screen so that I can, when I go back through and edit this, put a screenshot of one [00:23:00] sample day from phase two and I'm going to do one sample day from phase four.

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They look a little bit different. I'm going to talk about the phase structures here, but just so you guys can see what a sample week looks like. Did I say sample day? I think I might've said sample day. I'm going to put a sample week up so you can actually see the entire week. So phase one is going to be Monday pull plus one quad exercise. And by the way, these splits are a little different than what you've probably seen in the past. They're a little different from what I've done, not all of them. There are some that are basic full body and push-pull legs and things like that, but [00:23:30] this split is a newer one in TTM programs. So Monday is going to be pull that includes a deadlift variation that also includes upper body pull mostly and it's going to have one squat movement plus that day is also going to have speed work throughout phase one.

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One of the weeks will be hills. The other two weeks will be 200 meter repeats. Tuesday is going to be push plus an easy aerobic session. Wednesday is going to be fart L in the first two weeks and then it'll have an easier run with pickups in the third week. [00:24:00] I don't like doing speed work and fart ls and tempos every single week. So you'll notice most weeks have them, but some weeks are like dial back for run intensity weeks, Thursday, lower quads and hamstrings with a metcon or a strongman. I recommend just choosing one. I know people are going to do both, but I would strongly recommend choosing one based on your goals. Upper push pull on Friday and an easy run or cross training. And then on weekends this is going to be kind of the same throughout. However, there will be some nuances towards the end for the weekend [00:24:30] day, but it's going to be a long run or ruck or cross-training kind of whatever you fancy.

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So that's basic layout of phase one, phase two, and by the way, phase one and phase two are not percentage based, they're more hypertrophy based. They will have variations of the lifts that you're going to be doing with percentages in phase three and four, but they will be RPE and RIR based and then RIR will be used throughout the program for the accessories. The non main lifts, the non main squat bench deadlift, [00:25:00] but it's no percentages in phase one. Honestly the lifting in phases one and two look pretty similar to Jack Azel two and the lifting in phases three and four look more similar to Jack Azel, og. So pretty cool little mix of the two programs. So in phase two it's going to be full body, but each day is going to have a bias. So Monday's going to be a squat bias full body day along with easy run strides.

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Tuesday will be speed work, again hills one week and two hundreds on the other two weeks. [00:25:30] Wednesday will be a bench bias. Full body day Thursday will be a tempo bias day. It's going to have tempo intervals for this phase and then deadlift bias full body day on Friday and then it'll have optional metcons and strongman as well. And then weekend long run, pretty simple or ruck or cross-training. And by the way, the cross-training options are going to be a little bit longer than the running and rucking options and people have asked me in the past, why is there more cross-training duration wise than running and rucking? [00:26:00] It's because cross-training is not going to beat you up as much. It has nothing to do with anything else. There's a reason why pro cyclists train way, way, way more volume and more hours per week than pro runners.

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It's not because they're more dedicated, it's because running B two up more and cycling B two up less. So that's literally the only reason, just a consideration to answer a frequently asked question. Alright, so again, mid program testing after those first two phases to get your one RMS and your time trial [00:26:30] pacing for the following two phases. Phase three, a little bit less lifting volume overall, but it's going to be more strength biased, so it'll be higher intensity and it'll have more conditioning volume than phases one and two, especially for speed work and long run days. So it's definitely a higher workload than the first couple of phases. Phase three, you're definitely going to want to take the deload really seriously in the middle of the program as well as make sure that after the test week you're feeling good and ready [00:27:00] to roll even if you have to delay it a day or two days.

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I would say doing that is probably better than just jumping into phase three if you're kind of smoked from the test week leading into it. So the strength framework is going to be a 5, 3, 1 on one week and then it's going to be clusters on the next week. It's going to alternate back and forth and again, it's going to use percentages and the percentages are going to slightly build on each other. And the cluster work is also going to slightly build in percentages. I think I mentioned this earlier, but I like to use percentage [00:27:30] ranges because if you're feeling a little bit smoked or banged up one day and you see just one percentage number, most guys who are type A, they're going to do it no matter what. Whereas if you see a range of three, which is usually what I use, so for example like 88 to 90%, you can choose 88% if you're feeling banged up, if you feel fricking great and your warmups are flying and you're well rested, well fueled, well hydrated and super focused, then you can choose 90% if you're kind of right in the middle of those, choose [00:28:00] 89%.

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The difference honestly is almost nothing other than the fact that if you choose the right percentage, then you're going to live to see another day and you're going to be able to recover from that session or you will choose the right percentage that you're capable of that day and even if it's not quite what you wanted, you'll at least have gotten that work in rather than overshooting it and either hitting failure too soon or hurting yourself or you're just in this big recovery hole for the rest of the week [00:28:30] and then into the next week and you find yourself kind of behind the power curve so strongly recommend, really listen to your body as far as choosing percentages, knowing that not every single week you're going to be perfectly prepared because life happens and fatigue happens and you're training a bunch of different things all at once and preparedness is just going to fluctuate.

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That's how physiology works. Anyway, on Monday it's going to be a squat bias, lower body day plus speed work and these [00:29:00] distances for speed are going to be in the 200 to 800 meter range for this entire phase. On Tuesday it's going to be a ruck or a Zoom two cross training session. Wednesday's going to be a bench bias upper body day and an easy run or cross training kind of up to you. Thursday's going to be tempo work or fart lift work. Friday is going to be a deadlift bias full body day plus a strongman or a Metcon and that's only on weeks that don't have quality runs on weekends. So one thing I didn't mention every other week throughout this phase [00:29:30] on the weekend, it's going to have quality components in the long run. So instead of doing speed work plus tempo work plus an easy long run, it might be speed work plus no tempo work, maybe an easy run with pickups or something like that or strides.

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And then on the weekend you'll get your quality, your tempo bouts in. It's all written in there structured. I will do my best to share a sample week that has a quality long run on the weekends. So that's another difference between most of my programs in this one. Additionally, later in this phase there will be an option [00:30:00] to do a ruck run brick where you do a ruck and then you drop ruck and you go for a run afterwards with intensity parameters and all that kind of stuff explained. And again, that's just an option. You don't have to do it, but if you're training for something that involves running and rucking, it can be a good thing to do once in a while and you'll only see this I think twice in the entire program once in phase three and once in phase four, so that's phase three.

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In phase four still percentages for squat, bench and deadlift, it will be wave loading. So it's going to start with triples [00:30:30] and work all the way down to singles and then it'll have backoff sets of I think two to four reps. I could be wrong on that, but I believe it's two to four reps on the backoff offset. Again, all that stuff will have percentages, intensity guidelines on how to choose your percentages and so on and so forth. Everything else will be R-P-E-R-I-R. That's kind of the same throughout anything, not squat, bench or deadlift. In phase three and four specifically, we'll have R-I-R-R-P-E. And if you don't know what these terms mean or if you don't know how to calculate them, don't worry. The intro as [00:31:00] always in my program, explains everything in great detail. Honestly, if you just read the intros of my programs, you can learn quite a bit about general programming and just general good solid training knowledge to have as far as how to gauge your intensity, how to warm up for stuff.

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There's quite a bit of info in there and I take a lot of time and put a lot of effort into the intros even though I know not everyone reads them. You'll get better results if you do and you won't have as many questions as you go through the program if you read the intro. So phase four, deadlift bias, lower [00:31:30] body day on Monday, basically flip flopped from phase three to phase four where deadlift is going to be. Monday squats going to be Friday, whereas in phase three it's the opposite. Deadlift plus easy run with strides. Tuesday's got its own repeat workday, so it's going to be up to mile repeats. It's also going to have four hundreds and eight hundreds. Wednesday's going to be bench just like phase three with just strongman this phase because this phase is a much higher intensity phase. I have taken the Metcon out because metcons [00:32:00] usually are just a little bit nonspecific to most people's goals and they are also very high fatigue.

(32:08):

If you go hard on a Metcon, which I know everyone who follow the program is going to go hard on the Metcon, so I've taken it completely out. It's not even an option in phase four, and that is for a reason on Thursday, one week it'll be Rucker cross training. The next week it'll be a tempo or fart run in phase four because like I said, on the weekends there's going to [00:32:30] be some long runs with quality bouts in them. So generally doing three speed sessions a week or three higher intensity runs a week is too much. So it'll alternate back and forth between Thursday higher intensity tempo, threshold work, easy run on the weekends and vice versa. So just expect that. And as far as rucking and cross training, if you have some sort of ruck event coming up, I would recommend on those days choosing ruck and you're feeling good, you're not feeling super banged up and you don't need to do some cross-training, which could [00:33:00] be a very possible thing for people, in which case I would do.

(33:03):

But if you want to get better at rucking, you can ruck up to twice a week in phases two and three or three and four in this program and you'll get plenty of ruck exposure and it's a great way to kind lead into a selection prep Friday. Again, squat bias, full body day and Friday is also going to have some fun stuff in there. I have put in an optional arm farm. So there's a bunch of different arm farm arm exercises, upper body exercises that you go through. And then [00:33:30] if you are prepping for some sort of A CFT or pt, whatever, a FT, whatever they call it these days, you can do some hand release pushup and pullup work. Or if you're not in the army, you can just translate that to regular pushups, regular pullups, or if you are not, but you want to get some extra pushup pullup volume, you can do it that day.

(33:49):

It's all written in there in the conditioning box. There's no conditioning that day. So this is all written into the conditioning box, and I'll share an example of this on the screen, but that will be a [00:34:00] good way to finish up the week and go into the weekend with a weekend long arm pump. You're literally just going to have a pump the entire weekend. You have to do arm farm on Friday no matter what. That way you just have a perma pump for the next 48 hours. Not really how it works, but I know a lot of guys do that. I used to do that and then along aerobic session to finish off the week, and like I said, some of the runs will be quality, some of them won't be, but it's not just running. There are also options to rock. There are also options for cross-training to finish the week off.

(34:30):

[00:34:30] So that's it for expected outcomes, muscle and strength gains, conditioning gains, really good GPP, general physical preparedness, really, really solid baseline for pre-selection prep. But also if you're in the Q course or if you're active duty soft or if you just want to train for hybrid goals and you want a program that's going to support those and you're not in the military or anything like that, it's definitely not military specific. This is a great program for you. So as far as [00:35:00] deltas in your gains, it's so impossible to predict because everyone's so different. Everyone's starting from a different place. Generally speaking though, the stronger you already are, the smaller the delta in gains you're going to see the weaker you already are, the bigger the delta in gains you're going to see. And the same goes for running. The faster you are, it's harder to make progress when you're already really fast, the slower you are, it's easy to make massive progress.

(35:26):

So just consider that. Honestly, a lot of people don't [00:35:30] remember that or they overlook it. That's just how physiology works. Unfortunately, like high level athletes make fractional fractional fractional gains compared to what they were making when they were younger. Just gain slow down and you need a lot more attention to detail as you get more and more fit. That's kind of how it works. So Q and as, let's get into a few of the Q and as that I got from my Instagram. Ask me anything about Jack Gazelle. First one [00:36:00] is good idea to cycle between two and five mile and JG three until a few months out from SFRE. I think as long as you mean do one than the other and not go back and forth between two and five mile and jg, then yes, absolutely be a great pre SFRE or SFAS prep program.

(36:17):

Honestly, you could probably follow this right into S-F-R-E-S. FRE is not the same beast as SFAS for those not aware. This is for National Guard to see if they're capable of going to SFAS because it's so [00:36:30] much shorter. You probably can follow JG three right into it. You don't have to. You can maybe follow this and then switch to SVS and maybe follow half of SFAS or maybe half of ruck run lift, but this should be enough as long as you choose the rucking options on the ruck days. Next question. Deadlift in every week, there should be some form of deadlift every single week other than maybe the deload weeks, other than the tests, no, honestly, I think there's deadlift every week. It's not always barbell deadlift like from the floor. Really, really high intensity. [00:37:00] The first couple phases, I think the strong recommendation is to use a hex bar.

(37:03):

You don't have to, but I recommend using a hex bar for those phases. I don't really like doing deadlift with a straight bar for 16 straight weeks with really, really high intensity for most people. But the last couple phases, yep, deadlift every week and they'll be heavy lower reps, percentage based, and you should make pretty spectacular deadlift gains and squat gains and bench gains. Next question, will it be ideal for 1.55 [00:37:30] and 20 mile preparation all in one? Not necessarily. If you're training for a 20 miler, it's not going to be enough run volume. So if you are interested in crushing a one and a half, a five and a 20 miler ruck run lift would be a better option, but this will still get you most of the way there. I don't know if you're 20 miles a ruck or a run, but unfortunately, and I know this seems like duh, but I get questions like this all the time, highly specific.

(37:58):

Can I train for this exact [00:38:00] thing, this exact thing, this exact thing. Is it a perfect program for it? Or as this guy said is an ideal program for it. When you're making a program for the masses, a hybrid program, you can't just make it for everyone's individual goal. So there's overlap. Certain aspects of this program will cover you for what you're trying to do, but it's not like this perfect thing where it's like I just made it for one single person and then I sell it to a bunch of different people. So there's got to be a little bit of generalness to it. [00:38:30] I dunno if that's a word, generalness, but generality to it. It can't just be specific to every single goal. However, I would say you probably get most of the way there with this. It just might be a little bit low run volume for the 20 mile.

(38:43):

Next question, what equipment will be necessary working out of a garage gym without machines? Yeah, so I kind of went over this earlier, but ideally you get a gym membership that way you don't have to worry about it. Get a gym membership with gyms that have a bunch of machines and ideally nice ones, but even not all [00:39:00] locations throughout America have access to really nice gyms. But having some machine access, not just for this program, but in general, you're just going to see way better longevity if you have a access to a multitude of different equipment using a barbell for everything or a straight bar for everything for pull-ups, dips, barbell presses, barbell squats, barbell overhead presses, et cetera, is not a longevity friendly way to train. It's a great way to kind of start out. It's a great thing to do for periods of time, and I know everyone has put [00:39:30] the barbell on a pedestal, especially the squat bench deadlift.

(39:33):

It's just there's so many better options out there to maybe not replace the barbell lifts with, but to supplement the barbell lifts with in an effort to allow your joints a break from holding that bar in a fixed position all the time. So whether you use this program and make the substitutions using the substitution list with what you got right now or not, I would strongly recommend [00:40:00] considering a gym membership or another fine option. This is more of an overtime thing because I doubt you're going to go spend like 20 K on equipment all at once, which I don't blame you at all. But over time you start dripping more equipment into your home gym. That way you have more access as you get older, more banged up, more weathered. You're going to be thanking me in the future. A lot of people who listen to this are not old enough yet they haven't lifted enough times yet they have not been through enough of [00:40:30] life's adventures that result in wear and tear, such as spending a bunch of time in soft to appreciate the recommendation to maybe not use the dumbbell and straight bars for everything, but ideally you allow this to plant a seed in you and you think about it as you go throughout your lifting journey and looking back, you'll hopefully be able to say Thank you, Kevin, rather than, oh, Kevin was right.

(40:55):

I am super messed up because I just stuck to a barbell for everything and now my [00:41:00] joints are all jacked up and I have to make all these crazy lift substitutions. You're going to need to eventually, if you just keep using a barbell, you're going to need to have access to multiple different machines and types of equipment because you just won't be able to continue grinding through barbell lifts or either that or you just quit lifting. So a little bit of a tangent there, but very important. Next question, Swiss Bar or Cadillac bar, which is better for the program. So a Swiss bar is these are both neutral grip bars. The Cadillac bar has a chamber [00:41:30] to it, so it kind of looks like a pitcher's mound and therefore it allows more range of motion. I personally would say for the first two phases, if you have access to a Cadillac bar, by the way, these are pretty rare.

(41:40):

You don't see them in a lot of gyms. They're pretty expensive. They're made by Kabuki strength who has amazing pieces of equipment, but they're not cheap. They're very premium. But if you have access to it, I would say use a Cadillac bar in the first couple phases. Basically it's the same thing other than the fact that you can get another inch and a half, two inches of range of motion at the bottom position. [00:42:00] So it's going to enhance mobility more than with a straight bar with a regular Swiss bar, and also it's going to be a little more hypertrophy promoting. You won't be able to use as much weight because of that extra range of motion at the bottom when your chest is honestly in its weakest position, but it's still a highly worthwhile thing, and if you have access, I would use it. And also on that note, even if you don't have access to the Cadillac bar, but you do have access to a Swiss bar, just the non Cered neutral Grip bar, I would strongly recommend [00:42:30] using that at least for phase two before you get into phase three, which is straight bar benching.

(42:35):

And by the way, if you want to, if it feels better on you, you can absolutely use either of these bars throughout the entire program if benching jacks your shoulders up, but these bars feel good on you, which is the case for a lot of people. Nothing wrong with using it for the entire program. You're going to be a little weaker relative to your bench press with a Swiss bar generally because your grip's a little closer and you're not quite in the same powerful position, but it's [00:43:00] oftentimes much better on people's shoulders and elbows, and it can be a great thing to have in your arsenal, have access to and the Cadillac bar's even better if you have access to that, send it. Next question, can I do a calorie deficit early in the program as the training volume is low, you can do a calorie deficit the whole time if you want.

(43:19):

Although it's not ideal. When you're in a calorie deficit and you're training for performance, your recovery is going to be a little bit limited, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. It's not like you're not going to recover at all. [00:43:30] You're just going to have to be mindful of you might not make the same gains. You could make really solid running gains if you're getting smaller because it's easier to run when you're smaller. But strength-wise, you just got to consider that it's not ideal to do a pretty high workload program when you're in a calorie deficit compared to being at maintenance. So I would say this is a great option, but also don't feel like if you have a long way to go, don't feel like you have to go into maintenance or go into a surplus towards the end. But [00:44:00] if you get to your target weight or target body composition halfway through or after the first couple of phases and you want to really push the strength gains in phases three and four, then going back to maintenance, at least maybe in a surplus probably around maintenance would be smart.

(44:16):

Next question, ruck run lift or JG three. If I'm going to rasp, April, may five, milers 35 and can ruck 13 minutes per mile. So for right now, it's January. You could do either one. I mean, if [00:44:30] you start ruck run lift right around now, you should be totally fine. You're not going to get the same type of strength gains from Ruck run Lift, but then again, you're going to rasp and rasp, although you have to be decently strong. It's still a highly endurance and even more so running biased event. So sacrificing a little bit of the potential strength gain you'd get from Jack is L three for falling Ruck Run Lift, which is a lot more appropriate and specific for selection Prep would probably be your best bet if you end up having [00:45:00] a little bit more time, maybe six months, seven months, hopping on JG three for a few, a couple months, maybe not the entire program until you're about four months out and going into R Run Lift would be a solid option, but for now, if you're listening to this around when it comes out, you're probably about four months out.

(45:16):

So R Run Lift would be a slightly better program for you. But that being said, you could follow this and still probably be totally fine as long as you're aware of the slight modifications you might have to make for the PT test. [00:45:30] The PT assessment, they're going to have you do. I'm not exactly sure what they have you do at RASP right now, but aside from that, I mean it still will get you better at running and it'll get you better at Rucking. It'll get you stronger, but it's just a little more strength bias than what I would consider optimal for rasp prep. Next question, could I train two times a day or is that too much? Yeah, so I've talked about this recently in an episode. I've talked about it quite a bit, but the number of times you train per day or per week or per month or whatever is just not that relevant.

(46:00):

[00:46:00] You could train five times a day every single day and under train if you're not doing the right things. You could train one time every three days or one time every four days, and overtrain if you're just hammering yourself. So although there are definitely benefits to training multiple times a day, sometimes there are situations where maybe I wouldn't train twice a day. Maybe your schedule doesn't allow it, but [00:46:30] it's just not that relevant. The thing that matters, the things that matter are all the things you do in those training sessions and what you do away from training that allows you to recover from that training session, whether that be once a day, every other day, twice a day, twice a day, some days once a day, other days they can all work. It just depends on how you split it up in your programming overall.

(46:52):

That being said, in this program, there are definitely cases where it would be more optimal to train twice to do [00:47:00] two sessions separately, but at the same time, there's nothing wrong with if there's two different, like a strength session plus a conditioning session, if you have to just go back to back, maybe bring some intra-workout carbohydrates to sip on and electrolytes and water so that you're decently fueled for that conditioning session after, that's fine too. I would recommend for the most part, doing the lift first and then the conditioning session, unless you're splitting them up. In the case of splitting them up, you can do the conditioning session, say in the morning, have several meals, [00:47:30] several hours in between, and then do the lift at night. But if you're doing back to back, usually I recommend doing the lift followed by conditioning for a multitude of reasons I've gotten into in the past, but I won't really go down that rabbit hole.

(47:41):

So that's my answer for your twice a day training request. Next question, is it a Ranger school prep? Not specifically, but can it work? Absolutely. It's honestly probably more than what you need for Ranger school. Talked about this a lot recently, so I won't beat this dead horse, but just following a general well-structured plan that has some [00:48:00] running, has some rucking, has some calisthenics, has some strength work in it and is well programmed, which, oh, by the way, this program is, should be enough for you to go crush ranger school. You should be able to crush ranger school on the drop of a dime. In my opinion and in my experience, most guys who I would consider generally fit, capable, tactical athletes that I've ever known could be told to go to ranger school tomorrow, and they would go crush it because you should always be ready for something like that.

(48:27):

The physical requirements are really not all [00:48:30] that much to ask. There really aren't. Also, you only get tested on physical stuff for the first four days after that. It's just walking with a ruck on which, yes, of course that's physical, but you don't have some sort of performance metric. As long as you're not falling out, you shouldn't be falling out because the patrols are really, really slow, as patrolling should be. But a lot of people think they need this crazy robust fitness arsenal for ranger school and you really don't. So yes, it can be a great option for pre ranger school. [00:49:00] Next question on optional easy conditioning days, would I be able to do a zone two 30 minute run? If it says run in there as an option, then absolutely you can do runs if you're adding runs in or if it's a specific non-impact day, I put that in there for a reason.

(49:17):

Kind of going back to what I was talking about earlier about running programs versus hybrid programs, rarely is more than one easy run per week in a hybrid program. Not talking about long runs, I'm talking about [00:49:30] midweek easy runs along with. So you've got your speed work, you've got your tempo or threshold work or fart click work, and then you've got your long run. Sometimes it does make sense to have an easy run in there if it's a little bit more run bias or if the person's just a more competent runner, but it rarely makes sense to put more than one easy run in one extra easy run in per week because it's not a running program. And although 30 minute easy run doesn't sound like a big deal, [00:50:00] in my experience watching people run, especially just mechanics wise, most guys lack running mechanics. So you're just kind of exposing yourself to that extra stress and it's probably that easy run, not going to make any difference in your potential gains, getting that extra 30 minutes in.

(50:16):

So again, if you see it in the program, can either choose non-impact or run and you feel good and you feel like you can run and you're not banged up, then yes, absolutely run. But I would recommend against adding extra easy runs on days that are not supposed to be easy [00:50:30] runs. Next question. Is this program repeatable? Yes, I made it specifically to be repeatable. My other programs are pretty repeatable. Like you could follow them two in a row. This one you could probably follow a couple like three, four times in a row and be fine. Would I do that? I mean not necessarily. I would say rotating back and forth between this and Jack L two or this Jack L one or this jack L one, Jack L two. Just because there's different exercises and you're not quite getting as [00:51:00] repetitive as far as joint stress and whatnot would probably be a better option.

(51:04):

Or maybe you follow T-850 for most of the time and then once in a while you hop off that and follow this. That would probably be a solid option too. So you could do it a few times in a row, totally fine. Probably my best program to follow more than one time in a row because you get a little break after the really hot and heavy last couple phases from doing hot and heavy stuff. But also I would say it's maybe not the most optimal way to approach it, at least for most people in most situations. [00:51:30] Next one, are there any effective substitutes to box jumps? Jump and land on the ground, that's your best substitution. It's not one for one because the main reason for the box, you use it, right? And you actually step down off the box. You don't jump backwards off the box like most people do.

(51:44):

But if you use the box right, the main goal with the box is to reduce impact of landing. So it's not that impact is bad like you will see in this program as well as all my other programs jumps that occur landing on the ground, not just the box, [00:52:00] but that's the main purpose of box jumps is to reduce impact of landing. So anything you would do jumping onto a box, you could do jumping onto the ground and be totally fine. Just consider that impact component. Alright, last two questions. How does the conditioning volume compare to other programs? Higher than most of my other programs minus rec run lift is definitely my highest conditioning volume two and five mile probably has a little bit more running volume as well, but compared to the other three, it's definitely the highest. Next question is a [00:52:30] two part question.

(52:30):

Is this good for dudes in the Q course? Yes, I would consider it a great option for guys in the Q course. And is there more PIOs and or ole lifts than other programs of yours? There are no ole lifts. I have, I think talked about this recently, but just to rehash it, the vast majority of people who train even really fit people, even me, even people I know who are fitter than me, don't really have any business doing ole lifts. So for me to make a for the [00:53:00] masses program that is with the average person in mind, putting lifts in there ole lifts that maybe a fraction of all of those people can do in a competent manner would be disingenuous of me. I do know better. It would either be clueless of me. A lot of people just do it because they just don't know this.

(53:20):

So they put Olympic lifts in their programs for the masses. But I already know this because I've seen lots of people Olympic lift and it's just garbage. It takes a very, very, [00:53:30] very long time to become proficient in Olympic lifts. And that's just like baseline proficiency. It doesn't nothing to do with expertise. So if you are really good at Olympic lifts, they are great exercises and I would never recommend against doing them, but a lot of people think that they're good at Olympic lifts and they're not. And again, it's not going to hurt you in the next two years, three years most likely, but five years, seven years, 10 years down the road when you keep doing cleans with [00:54:00] soup sandwich form or snatches, even worse barbell snatches and you wonder why your shoulders hurt. It could be any number of different things. But Olympic lifts definitely were not out of the question as far as contributors.

(54:12):

So that's why it doesn't have Olympic lifts, just not appropriate for most people. And I want to make my for the masters programs appropriate for most people. By the way, I don't have any of my clients Olympic lift either. That being said, there's definitely different PIOs. There's some cool new plyo options and jumps [00:54:30] and throws. So you'll see some of that in there. Is there more of it? Not necessarily. Because again, you have finite recovery resources. So if you're doing all this different plyo work and all this different lifting and all this running, eventually you're going to run out of recovery resources or recovery reserves, whatever you want to call it. So I am very selective with what I put in, what I don't put in. And I put enough jumping in there to make small, subtle gains [00:55:00] in your jumping ability, your overall power.

(55:02):

But it's not like a power-based program. It's much more so for strength and endurance and some muscle gain and just general well-roundedness, which by the way, if you're in the Q course, those things are more important anyway than your power. Honestly, power is super important. I love it. I just made a post about this. I do power all the time. But if you're doing tons and tons of PIOs and tons of Olympic lifts and banging yourself up or you're just putting [00:55:30] most of your focus in that direction, inherently you're going to have less time and less bandwidth and less physical recovery reserves to focus on the things that matter most, which is by the way, your endurance and your overall general strength, your calisthenic abilities and the things that are going to carry you through the Q course. So no Olympic lifts, plenty of PIOs, but not so much that you're going to put eight inches on your vertical jump if that's what you were wondering.

(55:58):

So yeah, that's it guys. [00:56:00] Thank you very much for tuning in. Hope you got a lot of good information out of that episode. And I definitely, it's high payoff for me because I'm going to be able to answer all these questions that I get. By the way, I try to answer everyone's question, but I just don't have the bandwidth. I'm just one man. So having this all in one spot is one of the main reasons I made it. But if you're interested in this program or again, any of the programs in the soft bundle, don't forget to check out that sale RUNLIFT25. That [00:56:30] sale will be out for one week after this show ends. But anyway, I'll be back soon guys. Thanks for tuning in, thanks for your support and if you got the program, hope you're enjoying it. Love to hear your feedback on it. And if you have any questions by the way on this, drop 'em down below and I will answer them. Alright guys, chat soon. Terminator route.