214 - Q&A: Why You're Not Recovering, Ideal RASP Weight, Fat Loss vs Performance + More

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What's up guys? Welcome to another episode of the Terminator Training Show. I'm Kevin Smith. Today is going to be a q and a. It's been quite a while since I have sat down and answered questions, so I'm really looking forward to it. I've got a good variety of fitness questions, nutrition questions, lifestyle questions, even some golf questions that I'm going to get to today, or at least I'm going to try to get to as many as I can, like usual, and it just feels like I have not done a podcast in a while, so should be a good time. I am coming off a weekend [00:00:30] with a bunch of family in town. We had our baby shower on Saturday. It was a pretty hectic weekend. My wife's family likes to go really ham with parties and get togethers and hospitality. So we had I think 40 something, maybe even 50 people total at the house, including 12 kids and some of 'em were infants.

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But anyway, we had a lot of people in the house. We cleared out our entire living room, put the couch and all the seating in my bedroom. We kind of stacked [00:01:00] it up and we rented a bunch of tables and chairs and other party set up items from a company and set up our entire house. We were going to do a lot of it outside, but it was like 97 degrees and 90% humidity the day it occurred. So really the only people who were outside were like the kids and they were out in the pool just splashing around while the adults were inside in the ac and it was a really good time, great time seeing people. I had a lot of family in town. My wife's family was in town and it was higher [00:01:30] stress because it was just a lot of moving pieces and sometimes that kind of stuff is just a little more stressful than it probably needs to be.

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But either way, it was great seeing people played a couple rounds of golf with my dad and my stepmom and that was an awesome time and now I am back on the grind. Upcoming this weekend is Father's Day, so happy Father's Day to any fathers out there that are watching this or fathers to be like myself. I'll be a dad hopefully in the next eight weeks. My wife just hit [00:02:00] 32 weeks yesterday and we had a little growth scan to check the little guy out and he's doing great. He's a little bit on the small side, but still not anything concerning. Kind of surprising. I figured he'd be probably average to above average size, but again, I don't know. This is my first time going through something like this. I've never had a kid before. I've never had a pregnant wife before. I've never really been around pregnant women before.

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Overall, the only people I know who have been pregnant are really, really well are [00:02:30] my sisters and sisters-in-law, and I don't live near any of them. So pretty cool, interesting experience and my wife's crushing it and we are super excited to meet the little guy and he's doing great. The wife's doing great, so hopefully the next couple of months all goes smoothly and we get to meet him soon. So anyway, super pumped for that. And since it's Father's day, we are running a sale this weekend on all TTM products. No code necessary. They're all 25% [00:03:00] off. I believe we have 10 or 11 total products on the site these days, and if you want to get one 25% off or two or however many you're interested in, you can check out the links in the description and they'll take you there and go from there.

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So some of those programs and products I talk about quite often in most of my episodes, I'll probably mention a couple of them today. There are some questions that reflect them or that are related to them. So if you are interested, stay tuned and you can learn a little bit more or you can [00:03:30] check back other episodes. Also, each of those products has a pretty in-depth description on the website. So with that out of the way, let's get into some preta when I did this on Instagram. By the way, if you want your question answered, that's the best way to do it. Give me a follow at Terminator training and look out for my weekly, ask me anything. But this week I did, or last week, this is the last week now, I did a q and a and I think I said Prego ask me something in Spanish and [00:04:00] some people ask me Spanish questions and honestly jokes on you guys.

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I don't really speak a whole lot of Spanish. I do try and I do kind of understand it. My wife is Hispanic and so she talks Spanish in Spanish to her sisters and her mom, especially her mom. And when her mom talks Spanish to me, she slows down and I can understand it, but either way, I don't have a very, very vanilla and basic vocabulary and I say certain words quite often, but I am by no means fluent and most [00:04:30] people who ask me any sort of question other than like Alo Espanol or ales Espanol, I don't really understand what you were saying. So those will not be answered today. I'm going to stick to English, but anyway, that was the format of my q and a this week, and so I just figured I'd mix it up and have a good time. But anyway, first question today is going to be what do you think of fasting while prepping for selection?

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OMA plus the same training volume. Oma for those not aware is [00:05:00] one meal per day, and I think this is one of the worst possible ideas that you could possibly ever conjure up when you're training for selection. Performance is at a premium, so is recovery, so is wellbeing, so is stress management. Fasting for long periods of time is a stressor, and this is even if you're not doing one meal a day fasting, let's say. I would say a common way to fast would be like the 12 eight or what would be 16 eight or people fast, let's say till noon every day and they have a eight hour eating window from noon to 8:00 PM [00:05:30] and then they don't eat until noon the next day and so on and so forth. Even that would not be my preferred technique for prepping. For selection, you absolutely need to be really, really dialed in with your nutrition when you are doing a high stress endeavor like this.

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When you're training lots and lots of hours per week, high volume, high intensity, a mix of a bunch of different types of training, and if you're not feeding yourself for much of the day, in this case it [00:06:00] would be almost the entire day. If you're eating one meal a day, a, most people struggle to get their calories in general and that is eating all day, their calories, their macros, enough protein, enough carbs, enough fat, or not too much fat. In most cases, that's what it is, and most people are way low on carbs. They can't get enough carbs or they don't get enough carbs because they're just not aware or they think that carbs are going to make them fat. If you've been listening for a long time, you know how bullshit I think that is because it actually is bullshit objectively, [00:06:30] but limit that to one single meal and it's even more difficult to get enough calories, enough protein, enough carbs, and even if you can get enough calories, enough protein, enough carbs, which by the way, you should be eating lots and lots and lots of calories, lots and lots of carbs, enough protein, nothing crazy about a gram per pound of body weight, maybe a little bit less than that, but it is very, very rough on the digestion.

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Even if you can eat all that food in one sitting, [00:07:00] which most people can't, but even if you can, if you're used to MAD, you might be able to, but you are just not going to a B properly fueled for your training throughout the day, especially if you're training early when you still have several hours of fasting afterwards. But B, it's also going to not be great on your overall digestive health. And when you're fasting for, let's say maybe you have that meal over a two hour timeframe, so 22 hours a day you are fasting, that is a stressor and it's okay to do once [00:07:30] in a while. However, most people who attend selection are type A. Most people listening to this, watching this are type A. Another way to describe that type of person is naturally their baseline is higher stress than most people.

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Your cortisol is going to be naturally higher than most people. You're going to be in a sympathetic or fight or flight state more often than most people and fasting accentuates that. It makes it even more so [00:08:00] you're in more of a fight or flight state. Your cortisol is even higher, and again, it's okay to do it once in a while, but if you do it every day, your body's just kind running on cortisol, running on sympathetic tone, and when you're too sympathetic and not parasympathetic enough, so the opposite, rest, recover, chill, relax, you will struggle with recovery big time. So I strongly recommend eating at regular intervals as soon as you can possibly eat when you wake up. This is for most people, as soon as you can eat when you wake up, the better. [00:08:30] Yes, if you have some digestive issues, gut health issues, maybe going like 12 and 12 where you don't eat from say 7:00 PM one night to 7:00 AM the next day maybe 14 hours, if you're getting all your calories in and you're really, really dialed in and able to distro your macros properly, get enough food in, recover well, and you feel overall pretty damn good, that's okay too.

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But one meal a day or anything longer than I would say a 16 hour fast, and I would say even that is kind of pushing the limit would [00:09:00] be a terrible idea. You don't perform better in general. This is a general statement, but it's pretty accurate. You're not going to perform better by eating less often, just especially if you're eating so infrequently that it's literally just once per day. So I wouldn't recommend Oma to almost anybody, but certainly not if your main goal is to maximize performance and it should be if you want to maximize your selection preparedness, and in order to do that other than training, [00:09:30] you need to sleep well and you also need to get all your calories in and I would strongly recommend eating at relatively regular intervals every three hours, every four hours, four or five, six times per day, and that doesn't mean they all have to be meals.

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You could have three meals and then a pre-workout and a post-workout calorie intake, whether you call that a snack or a pre-workout post-workout meal or whatever it is. You could have four even spaced out meals and something around your training. You could have five similar sized meals. You could have [00:10:00] three meals and then maybe add a little bit later in the day if you're following short on your calories, but for the most part, you're going to probably want to time some of those calories around your training. So this would be a really, really bad idea. I would strongly recommend against it if you want to show up as prepared as you possibly can and also remain healthy and low stress as possible throughout this just inherently stressful time, so strongly recommend taking that very, very seriously. [00:10:30] Next question, how will you balance work and social life with the FIFA World Cup upon us?

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So for me personally, I don't care at all about the FIFA World Cup. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to care about it. I just don't care about watching soccer players that I don't even know who they are, play I couldn't even name probably, I don't know, other than Messi and Ronaldo, I don't even know if Ronaldo's still playing and I'm not even sure if Messi's still playing, but I don't think I can name a single soccer player, so I don't really pay [00:11:00] attention to it. So that's kind of how I'm going to handle it. How should you handle it? Determine which one is your biggest priority. If that happens to be watching people play soccer, then I guess that can move into the top position. If it is to work and make money and feel productive and fulfilled and bring income to your family, which I would say probably would be a more sensible, higher priority than watching soccer, then maybe move that to the top social life.

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I think that's even more important than soccer too. Maybe you could, [00:11:30] if your friends like soccer or football, whatever you want to call it, you could invite them over to watch it or you could meet up with them to watch it and kind of blend the two. But also you got to remember your fitness and your nutrition and getting sleep and things like that. I don't know what time of day these soccer games are. They're probably a mix. I think it's in the United States this year, and forgive me if this is super common knowledge, I just don't follow this stuff. I think it's in the United States, so the game should be at reasonable hours. But yeah, I don't really have much for you. I am very, very excited to watch the [00:12:00] US open this weekend. I usually for the US Open watch the highlights of Thursday, Friday because I work those days, so I'll watch the next day.

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I'll watch the highlights on YouTube. They usually have a 15 minute clip on the PGA tour YouTube channel, and then usually on Saturday I'll watch maybe half the coverage of the last round and then Sunday I watch most of it, most of the majors, I do that not every tournament, but the majors only occur four times a year, and I am a huge fan of watching us open, especially because the courses [00:12:30] are almost always very, very difficult. I wouldn't be surprised if the winner this year of the US Open is somewhere around par. He might even be over par. I think last year JJ Spawn at Oakmont won and he was maybe even or won under par, and these are golfers For those who are not aware, most regular tournaments, the winners will be in the 17 to 25 under range, so that should show you how difficult [00:13:00] they make the US Open courses.

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Shinnecock Hills is one of the most difficult courses in the world as far as I know, and they always make it longer and more difficult for majors. I know the wind is crazy there as well, so it should be a good time. But for fifa, I'm not a huge fan, but for you it's just coming down to what your priorities are and adjusting your life accordingly. Next question, is being skinny fat a concern while prepping or is it an underlying problem? I'm not addressing? Thank you. Being skinny fat in [00:13:30] general is not the best a look B thing for your health, C thing for your performance. So oftentimes being skinny fat, there's a genetic component for sure. Some people are just, that's their natural state if they don't do anything about their fitness, so if they don't train consistently and effectively and they don't eat well, they just become skinny fat.

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To be honest, if I didn't train and I didn't really care about my nutrition genetically, I would be skinny fat. I would have very skinny limbs, skinny ankles, [00:14:00] skinny calves, skinny forearms, skinny arms, and all of my fat would be stored in my gut, so I would look skinny in clothing, but if I took my clothing off, I would look like a melted candle or if I was shirtless, I'd look like a melted candle and that is not the best look. It's also not great for your health, so you're really skinny, but you have higher body fat percentage than most people who are your size and in general, it is a combination of training properly, strength training, [00:14:30] especially getting a good solid strength training program in sending a signal to your body to build muscle, to build strength, not overdoing it but also underdoing it.

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It's also a big nutrition. Nutrition is a huge factor in this as well as sleep stress management, but training, nutrition, those are the main things that you should focus on to counteract being skinny fat. For most people, if they're skinny fat, the first thing I recommend to them is to cut, get leaner. Even though you're going to be really skinny, skinny [00:15:00] when you first cut and you're probably not going to like the way you look in the mirror, that is your best bet at eventually putting that muscle mass on without getting fatter and fatter and fatter. If you're skinny fat and you go straight into a bulk and try and get big for some people, if your training has been terrible and you switch to a very effective training program and you improve your macro distribution, you eat the right amount of protein, you up your carb, usually up your carbs, drop your fat a little bit, kind of get your metabolism, [00:15:30] your metabolic health back to where it should be.

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Sometimes you can kind of recomp if you're skinny fat, and I've helped guys do that in the past myself, but oftentimes guys will be like 18, 19, 20% body fat, but they won't have much muscle, so they look skinny, but like I said, they kind of look like melted candles and if you go straight into a bulk to try and gain when you're already 17, 18, 19, 20% body fat, you're not insulin sensitive, so it's going to be very difficult for you [00:16:00] to get gain muscle without gaining a bunch of fat, so you're more likely to just become fat, fat, skinny fat to fat, fat, and so I like a little bit of a calorie deficit at first for most people or kind of targeting maintenance and cleaning up their training. As far as during selection prep, I would strongly recommend sorting this out before you get into your specific selection prep when you're a couple months out, ideally you have a bunch of time so that you can [00:16:30] maybe for the next three, four or five months do your body, whether that's what I just said, go into a cut first, then go into a little bit of a masking phase or try and recomp a little bit by eating around maintenance and fixing your training and then go into your actual selection prep at a body composition and a general bill of health that is more conducive to performance.

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You don't have to worry about eating at a deficit. You worry about eating at [00:17:00] maintenance, which is generally the best way to eat preferred performance, and so you're not also trying to cut while you're also trying to improve your performance for selection. Those don't really go hand in hand. Yes, you can definitely go into selection in a cut, but it's not ideal if you have the time to sort yourself out. So if this is you and you have a while, I would definitely address that skinny fatness first. It might take a little while, but there are absolutely ways to do it in a relatively short period of time depending [00:17:30] on how far gone you are, how skinny fat you are, how you've been training, how you've been eating, your overall health wellbeing, your lifestyle habits, et cetera. Or it could take a little bit longer, but either way, I would give yourself that time and then when you're a few months out from selection, ideally you're at the body composition you want to be and then you can just focus on eating at maintenance, going into selection and crushing your performance, crushing your recovery, and show it up prepared to smash it.

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Next question is 1 55 or 1 62 [00:18:00] light for rasp? Yes, 1 61 is the minimum weight that you can go to rasp at, so you're going to have to gain at least if you're one 60, you're going to have to gain one pound. If you're 1 55 right now, you're going to have to gain six pounds and then you'll be good to go for rasp, nothing else matters as long as you weigh 1 61 or higher. Just kidding, your body weight is just a proxy for your overall body composition. Depending on your height, your body composition, your potential performance, [00:18:30] your strengths and weaknesses, it has really nothing to do with whether you're going to be ready for rasp or not. It has minimal to do. Guys who are one 50 might go and crush rasp. If you're shorter and leaner and you're just decently strong, but maybe you run fast, maybe you're a good rucker, maybe you're just a general all around good athlete, you just don't have a ton of muscle mass.

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You absolutely have a great chance of going in crushing rasp if you're one 60, if you're one 70, if you're 180 and you can show up and you can perform, you're strong enough, you are [00:19:00] fast enough, running wise, fast enough, rucking wise, you're a good enough dude, you can go crush guys from at least in sf. I don't have personal experience with rasp, but I'm almost positive it's the same thing. I know a lot of really good Green Berets that are 150 pounds. I know a lot of really good Green Berets that are 245 pounds. Obviously the guys who are bigger are usually taller. The guys who are lighter are usually shorter, but not always. Some guys are really skinny, like tall and skinny and they still crush. [00:19:30] I was pretty tall and skinny when I went to SAS. I was 168 pounds, but I'm six foot one, so not a lot of muscle mass and relatively not super strong compared to what I am now or what I was later in my career, but I was strong enough at the right things and I was a beast at running and rucking and I was a good enough dude, so I made it through so I wouldn't get too caught up in your body weight, body composition is a lot more of a factor, and of course performance is the biggest factor, but your body composition has [00:20:00] a little bit more to do with your potential performance.

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It's a better proxy for performance than just your body weight. Next question, how would you train to tolerate getting smoked or to continue when fatigued? Thanks. Alright, so one mistake that a lot of people make is they try and smoke themselves in their own training to become mentally tougher and more able to withstand suck fests or gut checks, whatever you want to call 'em. Getting smoked is the military term, and that is a mistake because [00:20:30] when you're getting smoked or when you do this voluntarily in your own training, you smoke yourself to kind of prepare for that. You are usually just training to get fatigued and tired and sore and improve your mental capacity to withstand it, which there's a time and place for. However, when you do that, your main goal is fatigue and getting sweaty and getting sore. You are most likely not doing anything [00:21:00] that's going to improve your overall fitness.

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You're most likely not training to progress from your last training session and the training session before that. You're not on a progressive training program. So inserting gut checks every so often, once every three months, once every two months, one workout, not one week or anything like that, but one workout, not a huge deal as long as it's somewhat reasonable, but I don't think it's necessary. Ideally, you train to get extremely fit, physically capable [00:21:30] of withstanding really whatever is thrown at you, even if it's something that's crazy excessive, like you're getting smoke for hours and hours and hours. If you're physically capable, you've done the physical prep beforehand and you are mentally tough and you have some grit and some fortitude to withstand the mental suckiness of it, you're going to be good to go. You don't have to develop that mental fortitude via smoking yourself in training.

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You can develop your [00:22:00] mental fortitude elsewhere outside of training, ideally with things that assist your fitness. So doing hard things that make you uncomfortable on a regular basis is a great way to build fortitude. And the world in 2026 offers lots and lots and lots of different options. So you can do things like go to bed and wake up at the same time every single day, including weekends. You can never press snooze. You can go and have a conversation with [00:22:30] a stranger every day, something that strikes fear in you and that you have to overcome that discomfort and awkwardness. You can stick to a certain habit that is very unlike what you're doing right now. Ideally, it's a good habit. So something like planning out your week every single week and sticking to that plan, spending almost no time or very, very little time scrolling or watching YouTube or binge watching things on Netflix, quitting drinking, dialing back your caffeine or cutting out your caffeine, maybe quitting your nicotine.

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[00:23:00] All these things don't seem like they are anywhere near on the same level as withstanding getting smoked. However, if they were easy, everyone would do them because they're all very, very beneficial things and that is not how it plays out in the real world. Most people don't do these things because they are difficult and they're uncomfortable and they're unlike what they normally do. They require sacrifice, they require discipline, they require effort. They require overcoming a likely difficult startup cost or [00:23:30] resistance, which is what Steven Pressfield in the Art of War. I think it's the art of war, the war of art and turning pro great great books by the way. He calls it the resistance. Basically the resistance is when you know need to do something but everything in your body and your mind is telling you, I don't want to do this. This is going to be hard.

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I want to do something immediately pleasurable and comfortable. That is the resistance. Overcoming that resistance is a great way to develop mental fortitude as well as to push you forward in [00:24:00] life. All these things are going to support your fitness and your health and your wellbeing, your fulfillment and your productivity, your potential success. So develop mental fortitude outside of training. Use your training to get as physically robust and physically fit and physically resilient as possible by training on a structured, progressive, reasonable training program that allows you to make progress and when these times when these bridges come up, you cross that bridge when you get there. That is really all it comes down to. [00:24:30] You're probably going to experience it depending on the route you take in the military. You're going to experience it several times and you just got to hang on and withstand it, and if you can't, if you're not mentally tough enough to do that, then it's probably just not the right job for you.

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It's not the right job for everyone and there are plenty of other jobs for people who can't withstand these things that are mentally difficult and probably physically difficult, but you don't practice doing that. I strongly recommend against practicing doing that, at least for the most part, maybe occasionally putting [00:25:00] yourself through a gut check, but even that's not required and it's probably not overall beneficial, but it is an option if you think you need to practice it once in a while. I just don't think that I know for a fact that doing it on a regular basis in training to prepare for it is not a good idea whatsoever. Next question. I'm getting about 350 to 400 grams of carbs at 180 to 180 5 body weight, however, only at about 2.8 to 3000 calories. Any tips? It depends on how many calories and [00:25:30] how many carbs you need.

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If you need to go higher in calories and your eating sufficient protein and sufficient fat, I would increase your carbs generally unless you're in a calorie deficit, if you're in the 0.3 ish, 0.35 grams of fat, honestly, you could go even lower than that if you've got maintenance or in a surplus, you could go down to 0.25 grams of fat per pound of body weight for a long period of time and be totally fine, but give or take about 3.3 if you are around 0.8 grams per pound of body weight of protein, maybe a little higher, [00:26:00] maybe a tad lower. If you're in a calorie surplus, then you're good and then you should fill in the rest of the carbs if you care about performance. So if you need more overall calories, and again, those other two macros are in place, then I would increase your carbs, eat more carbohydrates, you're going to feel better, recover better, perform better, and it's going to be wins across the board.

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If you aren't eating enough fat, which is super difficult to do and almost no one does, then you can bump your fat up a little bit, but I would say that's most likely not an issue for you. [00:26:30] It's probably just comes down to increasing your carbs. That is, again, assuming you need more overall calories and going from there. Next question, do glasses disqualify you from going sf? Absolutely not. There are plenty of guys at A NSF that they wear contacts now and some guys wear glasses, but they will have you wear most likely the birth control glasses, the really, really ugly glasses that they give you in basic training. I'm not sure exactly [00:27:00] what the regulations are for SFAS, but they're probably going to be pretty ugly glasses, not the glasses you wear on a regular basis, but I don't think unless something's changed, you're not allowed to wear contacts while you're at SAS.

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I think you can wear them throughout the Q course, at least most parts of it, but you can definitely wear them once you get to group, but there are plenty, plenty of guys in SF that are absolute studs and beasts that need glasses or wear contacts and yeah, it's absolutely not a disqualifier. [00:27:30] Next question, would ruck run lift be overkill for SUT? It is a little bit overkill if you follow exactly how it's written out, but you could make some adjustments and it would be for most people a great option. Really the main difference between SUT and selection as far as rucking is UT's rucks are heavier, but you won't have to ruck really, really fast. You won't have to do time trials for SUT unless something is crazy has changed, but I don't think you have to, so [00:28:00] you'll have a heavier ruck on, but you'll be moving slower.

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So what does that mean? I would strongly recommend on the weekend rucks not doing the ruck running portions. I would just stick to walking the entire time. You can go a little bit heavier towards the end of the program as you're getting close to SUT, make sure you give yourself some time off in between when you go to SUT and when you finish the program, probably ideally follow the taper week so you're fresh, but you can get up to a 75 80 pound ruck every so often. I would say maybe do that every two weeks and for a total [00:28:30] of three or four times before you go, just so you get that experience of a heavier ruck, your ruck will most likely be a little bit heavier, maybe a lot heavier if you're going in the winter than that, but training with that exact weight is kind of overkill and it's not really worth the squeeze because it's just rough on the body.

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That's another thing just like getting smoked, it's a bridge you cross when you get there, but overall you should be totally fine on ruck run lift. You might not have to do all of the specific calisthenics. I'm not sure what they have for a PT test before SUT. I think you do [00:29:00] some sort of, I can't remember what they call it, but it is like a gate week type thing before you get into SUT. I don't know for sure if that's right before SUT. It was for a little while, but they're always changing it up. So honestly, ruck run lift will really help you prepare for that and if you're doing that before you go to SUT, what I said about not ruck running, you can actually incorporate the ruck running because you're going to have to do a 12 miler and you're going to want to do really well in that.

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Hopefully you want to do really well in that. I don't know why you wouldn't want to do really well on that. [00:29:30] So if that's the case for you, then just follow rec run lift basically as is and listen to your body. Make sure if you're overdoing it or you feel like you're overdoing it under recovering, then dial things back, take extra rest days, cut off some volume, cut off some intensity, but for the most part should be totally fine and if you're going straight into SUT, again, just don't do those running portions and you'll be good to go. Next question, best program of yours for someone who is good at running but needs to be stronger. So it depends on if you want to continue to do a little [00:30:00] bit of running maintenance or if you just want to get strong and you don't really care much about maintaining your running, I would guess you probably want to maintain your running in some sense.

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So any of the three, Jack Elles, I would give the nod to Jack Zel 3.0. It is the most recent program. I was just better at programming when I wrote that than I was in the other two. Jack is L two is great too, but it is more hypertrophy biased, a little bit less strength biased, and then Jack is L one is definitely more strength biased, but it doesn't have quite as much, it's not quite [00:30:30] as good of a program. Ideally you get better at programming over time and I was, it's still one of my all time highest selling programs and I get great feedback from it, but I would say if I were to go back and reprogram that, I would dial back the lifting volume a little bit and change up the structure of the conditioning just a little. Not that it won't work, but it's just I've learned things along the way and I program a little differently now.

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But Jack Zel one would be fine. Honestly, if you want to go and [00:31:00] get strong, that is a great option and it'll help you maintain your running, but I would give the nod slightly to Jack Zel 3.0, that would be your best bet or T eight 50, you'd get great results on T eight 50 as well and you'd be able to maintain your conditioning on T eight 50. It's a subscription based program, so every six weeks I make updates to it. I make a new block. I actually update it every week, but a new block begins every six weeks. Actually Monday the, I believe 22nd, a new block begins on T eight [00:31:30] 50, so if you're interested in testing that out, that now would be a good time. And I say testing that out because the first week is free, so you get to try it out for a week.

(00:31:37):

If you like it, stay on it. If not, you don't pay anything. So any of those programs would be awesome, definitely help you get strong and maintain your running. If you have no interest in maintaining your running then and you're like a little bit more of a beginner lifter, I would say Kickstart would be your best option. If you are a little more advanced than hypertrophy would be a really good option and soon [00:32:00] likely sometime in July, ideally before my kid's born, I will have a new hypertrophy program out and that program will have a little bit of conditioning in it. It's not a hybrid program, but it'll have a little bit just to maintain your health and wellbeing and overall cardiovascular fitness, but it'll be mostly hypertrophy biased and I'm working on that right now and I love programming for that stuff, even if it's a little bit less demand just with my followership, I still love working on it and some people have reached out and asked when [00:32:30] I was going to make another one, so the demand is at least there and yeah, stay tuned for that, but any of those should give you a good solid, deliberate.

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Next question. Question is strength training full body one set per muscle group to failure two times a week beneficial? It's more beneficial than not training at all for sure. Is it going to maximize your strength or your muscle growth? No. Is it enough to maintain if you're truly going to failure and honestly, your exercise selection matters a lot here. If you're training a failure, certain [00:33:00] lifts are just not good ideas to take to failure. Pretty much anything with a barbell and honestly, most free weight exercises are not usually great to take to failure for most people unless you're super duper advanced. But machine lifts or other lifts that you're more stable and locked in and again, you're very, very dialed in with your form, your technique and you train to failure, not necessarily pass failure with a bunch of extra body English using extra muscles, using muscles that [00:33:30] are not the actual target muscles.

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Your form just completely breaks down. Then taking those lists of failure is totally fine, and if you're only going to do two sets per muscle group per week and you want to actually get the most out of it, I would say mostly machines and taking them yes to failure, pretty much every set, every lift is your best bet. Will you gain much doing that? Probably not. Will you maintain? Yes, you probably will maintain your muscle and maybe [00:34:00] your strength depending on what your goals are, depending on your rep range and whatnot, but it's still not ideal. But like your question said, is it beneficial? Yes, but relative to doing some more sets and a little bit less intense, it's not quite as beneficial, but it's great if you are limited on time and you just want kind of a minimalist program and you want to just maintain, then that would be a great option.

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Just make sure you are again, locked in with your form and you're not doing anything crazy and you have the right exercise selected [00:34:30] and go from there. Next question, can you recommend some favorite golf courses in Central North Carolina? So Central North Carolina, I am just going to stick to the Pinehurst and Raleigh area. I was asked another question, what are your go-to courses in the Pinehurst area? So that's what we're going to stick to. I think this is probably, this is an old client who's asking this question, so I know he's at Prague right now, so I'm assuming he's referencing that area. [00:35:00] But anyway, we'll start local near my house, so within probably 30 minutes of me, some of my top courses, I'll go more affordable and then a little bit more of a splurge, so more affordable places. Highland is probably the best bang for Buck around.

(00:35:16):

It's one of the few that's still under a hundred bucks and they have amazing greens year round. The course is really, really pretty. Is it super difficult and really fancy or snazzy? Not necessarily, but [00:35:30] it is a very playable course. Great greens and fantastic. I play Highland a couple times a month easily and I love it. Other places around here, let's see, whispering Pines Country Club. Only one of their courses is open right now. They're renovating one of their courses That's going to be super sick once it's done, but I think it's closed until September. That one's also under a hundred, isn't my favorite course. Not necessarily, but it's pretty solid and it's really, really close to my house. Quail [00:36:00] Ridge up in Sanford is a solid spot. Seven lakes out in seven Lakes is a solid spot. These again, are under a hundred or close to a hundred bayonet out in Rayford is another great bang for buck.

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That's well under a hundred bucks. That is honestly, their greens are great too. Their course is always in immaculate shape. They should charge two times what they charge maybe even more, and I would still pay it. I sometimes drive out there, it's like 40 minutes from my house and I still sometimes drive out there and play it because it's a great, great track. [00:36:30] Other courses, let's see. Woodlake Country Club. It's a little more expensive, but that's a really good one out in va. Southern Pines Country Club. I played that the other day with my dad. That is definitely more of a splurge. I think it's like 2 35 right now, but once in a while. Great to play Mid Pines, pine needles, those are definitely splurges. Those are probably the two most expensive courses in town, but pine Needles is one of the best courses probably in the state, maybe in the region.

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They had the US women's [00:37:00] open there, I want to say like three years ago. So it is a very, very top tier course. Any of the Pine Hearst courses, they're kind of hard to get on, but they are public and they range significantly in price. Like Pinehurst number two is crazy, crazy expensive. If you want to pay 4 50, 500 for a round, then you can do Pinehurst number two. I personally haven't played it. I've played pretty much all the other Pinehurst courses. I played 10. I got hooked up by an employee that I'm friends with, the husband of the employee last week and got hooked up with [00:37:30] that. It was basically 60, 70% off what they would charge most people, but even members can't play it. Number 10, it's only for guests and employees right now at least, but that was an amazing track branching out a little bit.

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Another splurge would be Tobacco Road up in Sanford. That one is fantastic. Definitely not something that I would play on a regular basis, mainly because it's like 300 bucks, but also it's [00:38:00] a cool course to experience once or twice or every so often. I probably play it once every season now that I've started playing again and it's great, but not necessarily a make or break one. It is very, very unique. Mike Strand design and on that note, Mike Strand, who's well known for his extravagant, crazy golf course designs, he has a hidden gem up in Troy, North Carolina, middle of nowhere called Todd Hill Farm, and I played that with my dad last week and that course is frigging amazing. [00:38:30] It's one of my favorites. Very, very unique. Lots of elevation changes, lots of visual. He kind of messes with you visually and the first time you play that you're probably not going to have a great round, but the more you play it, the better you get just because the course better.

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Going up to the Raleigh area, all three of the main colleges in the Raleigh area, so NC State, UNC and Duke have spectacular golf courses. Out of those three, I personally like UNC the most and UNC [00:39:00] is actually the cheapest, at least in the past it has been the cheapest. I haven't played up there in a bit, but UNC is great. Duke is great. I haven't played NC State in quite a while, but Lonnie Poole I believe is the golf course name and it's fantastic. Other than that, those are kind of the main courses that I frequent or somewhat frequent just courses I play on a semi-regular basis and you can't really go wrong with any of those. I'm probably missing [00:39:30] a big one that I play often and I just didn't talk about it. Carolina Trace out in Sanford, they've got two courses, the lake course is better, but the Creek course is always completely empty.

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That's one of my go-to spots. If I just want to get a quick round in with no one around, I'm playing by myself. The Creek course is always wide open, so I'll play there and it's very challenging. The lake course is a little more pretty views and the holes are more extravagant and more exciting I guess, but those are both [00:40:00] great options and yeah, you can't really go wrong with anything I just mentioned. Hopefully you can try one of those courses out and you are blessed to be living. If you like golf, you're blessed to be living in probably the best place to play golf per square mile in the United States, at least on the East Coast if not the entire United States. So you're in a good spot, enjoy. Next question. Any tips for starting zone two? It's mainly walking for me, so if this is something my views have changed on over time, I used to say [00:40:30] no matter what, if you're going above zone two, make sure you keep walking.

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And I have come a long way as far as my education as well as my experience coaching people, and the fact is if you're just getting started with zone two, you are not, hopefully if you're doing things somewhat right, you're not doing anywhere in near enough volume to where if you go up into zone three a little bit AKA, you don't walk as much, you do a little more running. Even if your heart rate goes a little higher, you're still probably going to be totally fine. Of course, running form, technique, [00:41:00] progression, mileage, those all matter too. But as far as intensity is concerned, I would recommend going out for your zone two runs and not really thinking it as zone two. Just think of it as an easy run and you very well may need to walk for portions of it and that is totally fine.

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When I get back into, anytime I take time off and get back into running, if I'm going uphill and I'm trying to stay at an easier pace and not get super out of breath, super winded, my heart rate really skyrockets, I'll walk uphill and [00:41:30] I'm okay with that, it's totally fine. It's a little hit to the ego, but I really don't care and I just go with it and eventually I can get to where I run. But if you have to walk periodically, great. But if you want to do zone two, if the main goal, your end goal right now is to be good at running, you have to at least practice some running. So if you're just going out for zone two walks all the time, it's not useless, it's still healthy, it's still good for your cardiovascular health. Eventually you'll get to where you can run more.

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[00:42:00] But even so if you want to ultimately improve your running ability and that's why you're doing these base building runs, these zone two runs these easy runs, then at least doing a little bit more running, even if it puts you a little higher than zone two is totally fine. I like to just use a combination of a couple of different things. Yes, you can use your heart rate, you can use a watch, but for most people they just get way too wrapped around the axle on it and they're not running enough to where it really matters all that much if they go up into zone three. For [00:42:30] the vast majority, I'm a bigger fan of RPE, so RPE about five. If you think about a 10 RPE, that would be like the last 400 meters of a one mile time trial. So absolutely hellacious, A one RPE would be walking to your fridge right in between there is a good solid RPE and if it's four RPE, six RPE, no big deal.

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It's always going to be subjective anyway, but it's a good idea to kind of get more in tune with your body and your subjective intensity feeling what it feels [00:43:00] like to just run easy regardless of what your heart rate is. If you're a little bit more new and you don't really understand RPE, that's totally fine. You can do a talk test, some sort of 12 ish word sentence if you can, and I would think of the sentence beforehand, not think of it as you're saying it, but a 12 ish word sentence. Make sure not all the words are just like one syllable, but just a general sentence. If you can say that without having to stop for a breath or without having to really recover your breath after, then you're probably good. A conversational [00:43:30] pace, usually you're going to be totally fine there. Nasal breathing, the ability to nasal breathe is another not my favorite because you can get to where you can nasal breathe well past your aerobic, what I would consider to be an easy aerobic intensity, but at first, if you're just not used to doing any sort of training, most likely if you can nasal breathe throughout, you're probably at the right intensity.

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So again, is that going to be walking, is it going to be running, is it going to be both? It's probably going to be both, but you don't need to necessarily [00:44:00] limit yourself to only walking or almost all walking just because your heart rate goes past some sort of arbitrary zone, you're still getting the benefits of it and again, you're probably not doing enough running to where if you go higher than that, it's going to throw you over your recovery limit. Next question. Using your programs, how would you go from zero to hero generalist, not selection prep? Alright, love this. So essentially what he's asking is how would you use TTM programs to improve your overall fitness [00:44:30] if you are not a selection candidate at some point? So I'm guessing this person wants to be well conditioned, strong, muscular, and feel athletic and feel good all the time, which is awesome.

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So a few different options. One, you could hop on T eight 50 indefinitely that will cover all of the things that you're looking for, a little bit of conditioning, a little bit of strength, a little bit of muscle building, a little bit of power agility, et cetera. And you can hop [00:45:00] on, hop off that whenever you want. Subscription based, like I said, I update that every six weeks. So you're going to get good solid phase to face to phase training if you want to go the PDF route, something that'll take care of a year and a half to two years or so. You could do something like the two and five mile program, which has plenty of lifting to still gain strength, but it's a little more running biased, but it also has a base phase. And if you don't have a base, I would start with a program that has a base, which the only two programs I have that [00:45:30] have bases are I believe it is two and five mile and Jack is L 3.0.

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But I would start with two and five mile and then I'd go into something like Jack is L one, then two, then three. If you want to bias running a little bit more somewhere along the way, anytime after the two and five mile, you could either do it right after or you could do it sprinkled in between two of the jacket Ls. You could do run advanced and that would give you two plus years of programming. So that would be a pretty solid menu of programs [00:46:00] to choose from. And again, those programs are 25% off, so if you don't have any of them, then now's the time to hop on and see for yourself the potential gains that you could be making. Next question, where were your clinical rotations for the 18 Delta course? I went to Tampa General, which I'm not even sure if they still send guys to Tampa General.

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I would assume they do, but when I went through there were only three locations, Tampa General and then Bayside or either Bayside or Bayfront, [00:46:30] which was also in Tampa, just a smaller hospital down there and Richmond, Virginia. Those are the three options. Now I know they have one in Flint, Michigan and I think they have other ones as well. This is during socom, not necessarily the 18 Delta SFMS. The rotations for that is like two guys per location and there's a lot more of them and it's a little bit different to a lot different, but for Soum, I think they have at least four or five different places that they send guys and I'm [00:47:00] not sure if Tampa General is still one of them, but Tampa General was freaking awesome. It was definitely the best of the three as far as what you get to experience there.

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I think everyone in my small group, which is like six guys, got to do a chest tube in the very first week we were there and a lot of times, at least at the time, one or two guys per entire group that went to each location, if they got a chest tube, that was a big win. So everyone in my small group, which was a third of the guys guys that were at Tampa general [00:47:30] got to do one, which was pretty cool. And we did a lot of other fun stuff too, helped deliver babies, a lot of trauma medicine, lots of ultrasound IVs, some minor surgeries, sutures, things like that and things. A lot of crazy things happen in Tampa. We saw some absolutely wild stuff. So if that's still an option, I strongly recommend. I don't think you really have any say in it, but if you happen to get that, you're probably going to have a good time.

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If it's not an option, don't really have [00:48:00] much for you. I'm sure the other places definitely provide some awesome experiences, but either way the clinical rotation is super cool. When I went, we had one day off the entire time. We went down for 30 days and literally had one day off and we went crazy on that one day off as far as partying, but I don't know how it works these days. It's a long, long days and lots of days, not a lot of days off, but highly valuable and always a good time. Next question, I'm 2 0 5, 14% body fat. [00:48:30] My two mile PR is 1330, but I'm looking to get faster. Should I cut body fat or dial in training? So it depends on lots of different things. I would recommend if you're 14% body fat, by the way, most people who think they're 14% body fat are closer to 18, 19, 20%.

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I always say guys who claim they're 10% body fat are usually closer to 20% body fat than 10%. So if you're actually 14% or if you're a little fatter than that, you still could get a little bit leaner [00:49:00] and it would probably help getting down to the 10 to 12% range. 10 for some people is a little bit too lean to feel good and perform well and have healthy hormones and things like that. Other people can absolutely maintain it. Some people can maintain 9%, 8%. Getting down into the mid single digits is for most people for a long period of time, not a great idea just performance wise and health wise, unless you're not natural. Even if you are natural, you're still not, it's tough lifestyle wise. It's also tough to just kind of maintain that unless you're like a fitness professional [00:49:30] that makes their money off of being lean all the time, that's one thing.

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But if you care about performance and wellbeing and health and you're not naty or you are natty, I think being in that single digit for too long is not a great idea. But 10 to 12 is usually a pretty good range and if you drop some body fat over a couple months period, maybe even, I mean for you if you're actually 14%, getting down to 12 should be pretty quick. You get down very reasonably in a month and you might see that you are [00:50:00] a little more efficient with your running and you might feel better. But as far as dial in training, I would dial in your training regardless. Like if your training is all over the map and your PR is 1330 and you fix your training AKA, you could consider hopping on the two and five mile, in which case you would absolutely drop.

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Even if you don't get leaner, you would absolutely drop time off your two mile a considerable amount of time, especially if you've been training all over the place. So dialing in training would be a great idea [00:50:30] regardless of what route you take. And also dialing in training, depending on, I'm guessing you probably have other goals besides running faster two mile. It would also help you in regard too if you dial in your training instead of just doing random stuff. So it depends on what route you want to take, but I don't think getting leaner is a bad idea. And I also think that dialing in your training is 100% always a good idea. Regardless of what your body fat is or what your prs are or really anything. Why would you not want to dial in your training? It doesn't make [00:51:00] sense to me why you wouldn't.

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Next question, how often do you change your running shoes? I've had mine for a year in averaging 12 to 18 miles per week. Generally the advice is, I think it's between 350 and 500 miles is the general advice for most people to change their running shoes out. However, there's definitely some nuances to it. Most runners, this advice about changing running shoes is targeted towards the average runner. And if you think about the average runner, usually they're pretty skinny, [00:51:30] not a lot of muscle mass. They are usually pretty damn skilled at running, so they run well and the better you're running mechanics, the less you're going to wear out the bottom of your shoes. If you're a ground stomper or an over strider, which most people are, or if you're just a bigger individual who oh by the way wants to run, even if you're not a runner runner, but you are a tactical athlete that needs to run well and you just happen to be bigger, then you're probably going to wear your running shoes out faster than the average 145 pound highly [00:52:00] skilled runner.

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So that's another consideration. However, I have gone periods of time in my life, not recently, but way back when I didn't really know any better or I didn't really just care about it. I've gone way, way, way longer than 500 miles between switching my running shoes out. I've run on some completely worn down raggedy shoes. Is this a good idea? Not necessarily. However, if you are a fit runner and you take skill seriously, running skill, which by the way running is a skill, most people don't treat it that way, but [00:52:30] you should if you want to run better and be less injury prone. If you do that, then you might be able to get away with not changing your shoes quite as often. But for you, I'm not really good at math, but if you were running 10 miles a week for a year, that'd be 520 miles and so you'd be over it and you say that you're running 12 to 18 miles per week, so you're definitely well over 500 miles and it's probably a good idea to change them out.

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Is it make or break? I'm not sure, but you [00:53:00] are probably a little bit more safe and it's a better insurance policy to get some new shoes and the way I like to do it, unless you don't like your current running shoes, my advice to most people who again are not super serious runners but they want to run well is to just get the updated version of the shoes that they just had. So for example, I've had the Brooks glycerin seventeens, nineteens 20 ones and now I have the 20 threes. They're [00:53:30] just the updated version every time they come out. Basically I get them and I don't think they have even number of glycerins because I haven't seen them. So I think it's probably like every two years or so, maybe every year they come out with a new one. But that's usually what I do and that's what I recommend.

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Unless of course, like I said, you don't like your current running shoes, then you can go to a different one. Or if you've just never gone through any sort of gate analysis with a professional, oftentimes running stores will have the professional gate analysis guy [00:54:00] that puts you on a treadmill and they analyze your gate, they analyze your running tendencies and they'll recommend a certain either brand or specific shoe for you. So that would be a pretty solid idea. Not all are created equal. Sometimes you're going to get bullshit advice and sometimes they're going to want to just sell you really expensive shoes, but if you go to most running stores, they're kind of on your side and they're looking to help you out. So they should give you some good advice, but any of those are options when it comes to purchasing new shoes. But yeah, for you, I would probably consider [00:54:30] getting some new shoes pretty soon given your total mileage on your current shoes.

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Next question. If you miss a run day, do you try and make up the mileage next week or just wallow? I dunno what you mean by wallow, like wallow and self-pity, but I would not try and make up your running mileage the following week because you basically ran fewer miles last week. It does depend. If you've been up at a higher mileage than what you're at right now and [00:55:00] maybe you dial back and say you missed a run last week, but your body is used to higher mileage, then making up for it is acceptable. Is it my first recommendation, my biggest recommendation to do that? Not necessarily, but it probably won't hurt you if you haven't been up to that mileage and say you miss a run and you run, let's say it was an eight mile run. You ran eight fewer miles last week than you were supposed to run, and then you go into your following week, which was supposed to be a little bit higher mileage than the previous week progression [00:55:30] wise, and then you add that extra eight miles, you are making a big drastic jump between the previous week and the next week by making up that run.

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So that's not a very good idea because your body's just not going to be used to the extra stress. You want to make very, very subtle run progressions over time and a lot of people will progress their mileage every single week on end no matter what, and there's a time and place to run more miles than you ran last week for sure. However, [00:56:00] it should not be this linear forever thing without ever doing either the same amount of miles you ran last week or dialing it back periodically to allow yourself to recover, to allow your joints to be a little bit less under stress from the running, the pounding, maybe doing some more cross training once in a while. That's always going to be a good idea. And for the most part, in your case, trying to make up for the run run the following week is just going to throw a wrench in your overall fitness, your overall recovery.

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Plus you've got to think of your other workouts if [00:56:30] you're doing an extra run, especially if it's a harder run or a longer run that is more recovery all of a sudden that your body's going to have to deal with. So you're better off just wallowing or forgetting about it, getting back on track, doing your scheduled run programming the following week, your scheduled training programming, and you'll be totally fine with one mis run. It is very, very minor. However, it could be major if you overdo it one week by adding it and your body's not used to it or ready for [00:57:00] it. Next question. I'm a new dad of two. Congrats. How do I manage lack of sleep and training for the Q course? By adjusting your training, typically, obviously you want to try and do all you can as far as nutrition and getting as much sleep as you possibly can and managing your stress.

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But the main thing you have control over right now beyond that is your training volume, your training intensity. If you were in perfect conditions, no kids, [00:57:30] no stress, not working, a ton of hours, not obligated by all these different things in the Q course, crushing your nutrition, able to eat as much as you want, exact foods you want and just super dialed in, you'd be able to handle more training volume than if those things weren't in place. And generally in the Q course as well as in group, oftentimes those things aren't all going to be in place. There'll be periods of time where doing the training that you'd normally do in perfect conditions is not a good idea because your body's just not fit to handle that. [00:58:00] And right now that is probably going to be the case for you. So dial back your training.

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What I would consider is generally for strength training volume or sets per muscle group per week is going to be more fatiguing than intensity. So if you train really, really hard but dial back the number of sets per muscle group per week you do, you're usually going to be able to handle that better than maybe doing moderate intensity, somewhat close to failure, but lots and lots and lots of sets, that's going to be a [00:58:30] lot more fatiguing, especially mentally fatiguing, but also physically globally fatiguing. Then lower volume and higher intensity. For conditioning, it's usually opposite. Typically you can run a lot or do a lot of conditioning. That is relatively low intensity, low to moderate intensity zone two. Alright, so my camera just turned off and my video stopped recording. So I was talking about periods of time in which this could be a repeat.

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I'm going to try and edit this, but anyway, there will be periods of time [00:59:00] throughout the Q course as well as your life as well as in group where you can handle a lot more volume and intensity and there will be other times where because of what's going on in your life, whether it's work stuff, family stuff, job stuff, travel, lack of access to nutrition, long work days, really, really high stress where you just can't handle as much and the training is the thing that you have the most control over. Of course, you want to dial in your outside the gym habits and get as much sleep as you can, crush your [00:59:30] nutrition, manage your stress, et cetera. But there's only so much you can do in those areas, but there's always something you can do with your training. And in general, a good heuristic for strength training is higher volume is going to be more fatiguing than higher intensity.

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So if you're doing lots and lots of sets per muscle group per week, that's going to be more fatiguing than doing fewer sets. But training those sets harder and training those sets harder, but doing fewer sets is still very effective and it's less time consuming and it's usually less mentally stressful as well. [01:00:00] That is a good thing to consider as far as adjusting your training, maybe dial back how many sets per week you're doing, but train them a little bit harder for conditioning. It's usually the opposite. Most people can handle a lot of easier to moderate intensity conditioning, lots of hours, lots of volume, whatever you use to track, but intensity, threshold work, speed work sprints, et cetera is usually going to be more stressful and more of a recovery burden. So that is how I would go about adjusting your training and you might have to dial some things back.

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Maybe you, [01:00:30] instead of doing your speed and your threshold work every single week, you do one or the other and then the following week you do the other one that you didn't do the week prior and you sub that in for either a rest day or maybe some easier conditioning for your lifts. Maybe you go through your program and all of the compound lifts, if you see three sets, only do two sets. If you see four sets, only do three sets throughout the next several weeks while you're managing your Q course prep as well as raising your two kids and every other stressor that you have going on in your life. [01:01:00] So that is the one main thing. Training is the one main thing that you have control over in this situation. You don't really have the ability to change a bunch of things in your life and right now you're just not going to be able to handle as much training stress as you otherwise could if conditions were perfect and something to get used to as well because your entire career is going to be full of fluctuations of what you can handle for training.

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Sometimes you're going to be able to train a ton and handle a lot of intensity as well [01:01:30] as volume. You're not going to need as many rest days, you're not going to need to dial anything back or as much things back. You might be able to push a little bit harder for certain periods of time. Other times when you're traveling a lot or you're working really long days or you're at the range for 16 hours a day for a week or something like that. If you do the exact same training as you did the week prior or you try to progress from the week prior, let's say the week prior was pretty chill and then you go into a week where you're at the range for 16 hours a day and you're not sleeping as much and you're not eating as much and you're in the sun and you're [01:02:00] sweating a lot and you're active all day and you don't change your calories, whatever it is that is going to just throw you way over what you're able to handle and recover from and it's going to probably bleed into your day-to-day life, potentially increase your injury risk, it's probably going to just make you feel fatigued and lethargic and it's not a great idea.

(01:02:19):

So being aware of that and understanding that training is one variable that you have control over and not every single week of your life or month of your life or several months of your life [01:02:30] are months where you should push the limit or push the needle and try and hit PRS all the time. And right now for you it's probably not a good idea to do that. Now of course you're training for the Q course, so you have to be fit enough to perform. So I would maybe chat with your wife and work out some sort of deal like, Hey, can you take the baby duties overnight for most nights while I have work the next day or while I'm training the next day and maybe you can make up for it on weekends and give her a girl's day [01:03:00] or a self-care Sunday or something like that where you take care of the kids throughout the day.

(01:03:04):

Something like that. I don't know, I'm not a dad yet. I'm going to have to figure this out when I get there. I'm not training for the Q course, but I will have to change some things in my life, in my training, in my work, in my day-to-day scheduling. I'll have to be more efficient with my time once I have a kid. And that's just the way it is. So being aware of that and being able to adjust on the fly is a huge skill that really anyone should learn. Whether you have kids or not is just always going to be a little bit different what you can handle at any [01:03:30] given time. All right, let's just do a couple more. Next question. Should you finish the SVS program before basic training? No, not a great idea. You should only train for selection when you're about to go to selection.

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And when I say about to go, I don't mean when you're six to eight months out from selection. So I'm assuming you're an X-ray and when you go to basic training, you are still going to be at least six months away from going to probably even [01:04:00] SAP C, let alone selection. So all of that SFAS specific fitness that you built six to eight months prior to going SFAS is not really going to be all that relevant. And the thing about SVS programs or really selection programs in general is that they are not very longevity friendly. So ideally you only follow it one time and it's going into selection right now before basic, you should be focusing on more general fitness. Yes, you want to bias it towards running and rucking and calisthenics. So you go and perform in [01:04:30] the things you need to perform at basic.

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Not that the standards are anything crazy, but you want to be as fit as you possibly can going into basic because when you lose some fitness, which you inevitably will at basic, you'll have a higher starting point afterwards and you'll regain it faster than someone who goes into basic expecting basic training to get them prepared, which it absolutely won't. So that is a good idea, but you want to keep it more general. I would recommend something like Jack Zel 3.0 or two in five Mile if you need a little more running work or if you have just [01:05:00] finished two in five mile, maybe run advance if you need more running work or Jack Zel 2.0, I think I said 3.0 first, Jax all 2.0 would be another good option or hopping on T eight 50 until you go into basic. And then while you're maybe starting airborne going through soy hold, it's always different how much you have control over your training versus how much training they make you do.

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Right now it's pretty intensive. I've got a couple clients and for the most part the conditioning that I give them is very minimal [01:05:30] because they're doing a lot of conditioning in Sosi Hold. They're the summer class, so basically they showed up at the wrong time where they have to wait until late August to go to SSI and then selection in September. So they have a long time and they're doing pretty intensive Rux runs calisthenics, other sort of strongman work with the ssi, the Presi cadre. So will you be able to follow SVS during that time? If that's the case for you, you'll have to make some adjustments to the SVS program. You should definitely [01:06:00] follow the lifting and potentially do some of the conditioning workouts depending on what you're lacking with your required training. But it's really just hit or miss. But I would not necessarily at all recommend doing any sort of selection prep program before you go to basic as an 18 x-ray.

(01:06:16):

It's just way too early and it's arbitrary and you are also missing out on certain aspects of fitness that you want to have most of the time. For example, if you are going to selection, there should be [01:06:30] certain aspects of fitness that you are lacking severely because you want to be as selection specific fit as possible. If you're not going to selection, say you're past selection, you're in the Q course or you're in group, there are certain aspects of selection fitness that don't really matter to you. You don't need to be able to run a fast 12 mile ruck, run a fast 12 mile at all times, and you shouldn't train to be able to ruck run a fast 12 mile at all times because it's not very good for your body. However, when you're about to go to selection, you want to be really good at those things [01:07:00] for selection.

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You don't have to be super strong at gym stuff like basic gym lifts when you're in group and you're operate like going out on missions and actually doing day-to-day ODA things you want to be stronger like gym strength as well as applicable to your job strength than for example, pre-selection. You don't have to have the same type of endurance though as you would pre-selection. So there's certain aspects of fitness that are better to have at all times [01:07:30] that don't apply as much to selection and vice versa. And if you follow a selection prep program, you're missing out on those aspects of fitness that are better to have at any given time, including going into basic, even though basic is still a little bit run and R and calisthenics biased, it's nowhere near the same beast at selection as selection. So you don't have to follow a selection prep program, and I've talked about this a lot in the past.

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I'm guessing you're probably a new follower and that's totally fine, but I think this is important to reiterate because a lot of people will hit me up and be like, Hey, [01:08:00] I just finished your SFAS program. I have seven months till selection. What should I do? You messed up, you followed my SAS program at the wrong time. You should have followed a few other programs that'll get you prepared and build that really good general baseline going into selection prep and then follow a selection prep program going into selection. Next question, we'll make this the last one. I do 25 miles per week in zone two plus one tempo per week plus six strength training sessions need more recovery. What goes, I would strongly recommend not doing six [01:08:30] strength training sessions. That would be the thing I would probably cut in half first, there's no world, even if your only goal was to gain muscle and or strength, definitely not strength.

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Strength train is six times a week for strength is not a very good idea, but let's say it was to get as jacked as possible. I would still say six days is overkill. You'd be better off with five days because you need recovery. Now you are also doing 25 miles of zone two plus a tempo session, so you're [01:09:00] also trying to improve your conditioning and you're struggling to recover. The very likely reason that you are struggling to recover is that you are lifting way too much and I can only imagine what your day-to-day lifting looks like because most people, it's just way too much every single time they train. If you're doing way too much every time you train three days a week, it's not going to be quite as bad. But if you're doing it six days per week, I'm guessing you're probably following a push pull leg split.

(01:09:22):

That's just way overkill. Again, even if you were just lifting. So I would cut back to at the very most four days per week, upper [01:09:30] lower split, but you'd probably even see better results not just with your conditioning and your overall recovery, but also gaining more strength and muscle. If you lifted three days a week full body and it was on some sort of well-structured program for you, I mean you could see benefit from going on Jack L 3.0 or two and five mile if you want to bias us running a little bit more or hopping on T eight 50, that would give you a good solid structure and it's less lifting and a lot more effective [01:10:00] to do it that way. In almost no case would I ever recommend, unless someone's a high level Olympic lifter that needs a lot of skill work and therefore a lot of frequency and is very, very, very diligent with their intensity modulation and their recovery and other things.

(01:10:17):

In almost no case would I recommend lifting more than five days per week. Definitely not six, usually no more than four, but for most people, most humans that have any sort of [01:10:30] strength muscle and definitely any sort of hybrid goal where you're looking to gain strength and muscle at the same time as well as improve your conditioning, most humans would get the best results on three days per week, whether that's three days full body, whether it's an upper biased full body day, a lower biased full body day, and then a balanced full body day or maybe a lower upper full or a full lower upper or an upper lower full, something like that. That is just [01:11:00] going to allow you to get good solid quality training in, but also get enough rest in so that you can actually recover and adapt and allow yourself to get your conditioning in and recover and adapt from that.

(01:11:15):

If you're lifting six days per week and then also doing all that conditioning, you're not doing a crazy amount of conditioning, but given the context that you're also lifting six days per week, you're just doing way too much overall. So what should go, definitely the lifting. And I would also consider [01:11:30] dialing in your outside the gym habits, your sleep, your nutrition. I've yet to meet a single human that is as dialed as they could be to include myself outside the gym for recovery. So if you're struggling with a recovery other than dialing back your training load, I would also dial yourself in outside the gym as best you can. And that's going to do it. Guys, thank you very much for the awesome questions. Thanks for tuning in if you're still here. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and the soon to be dads and I'll be back soon with [01:12:00] another episode. Until then, Terminator out.