CONSTRAINTS ON THE MILITARY ATHLETE
By Jack Kuenzle
A military athlete faces a highly variable and irregular schedule. This places significant constraints on the military athlete in implementing effective fitness training. For athletes, consistency is absolutely key. An erratic and random approach to training will be ineffective. Improvements in, especially, the aerobic system require frequent and regular stimulus—at least four workouts per week, week after week. Regular, but less frequent, once weekly stimulus is needed to build muscular endurance. If one is deployed or on an ever-changing work schedule, getting on a consistent schedule can be near impossible.
To that end, try to project out into the future busy and quieter times. While it is not always the case, sometimes one can utilize these busier stretches as deload periods and use the calmer times to strategically overreach. When strategically overreaching, an athlete makes a calculated move to conduct training at an unsustainable level during a short time period (not to exceed a week). When paired with a sufficient recovery/deload period, this can be an effective strategy to improve. This strategy should only be utilized occasionally and is only effective when paired with a heavy work regimen. Remember, just because one is not working out doesn’t mean one is recovering. If you attempt this strategy, make sure you are able to effectively eat and rest during the lower-load training periods.
Workouts that require speed, power, or high-intensity endurance should not be attempted when tired. The quality will be badly compromised. If you have a big work day, try to get these completed in the morning when still fresh
Low-intensity aerobic running and rucking can be done with a low level of fatigue. On a normal work day, going for a Zone 2 run in the evening when a bit tired will not compromise that training effect very much.
Poor Access to Facilities
A further constraint on the military athlete is the requirement to relocate frequently, sometimes to places where exercising is near impossible or extremely unpleasant for months at a time. A poor training environment—an ill-equipped gym, a region with hazardous air quality or extreme heat—can further compromise training quality, increasing burnout and mental fatigue.
The Muscular Endurance Progressive workout described late in this article can be very effective using only body weight or the addition of body armor if extra resistance is needed. https://evokeendurance.com/muscular-endurance-all-you-need-to-know/
Compromised Recovery: Poor Sleep and Poor Diet
Another overlooked but important constraint on the military athlete is compromised recovery. Recovery from heavy work loads is absolutely essential to improvement. Without proper recovery, training will be ineffectual, and fitness will plateau or decline. Insufficient rest will be detrimental to an athlete’s physical capability. Tactical athletes face a host of factors that compromise their recovery and undermine physical development.
First among these is poor sleep. Many selection pipelines restrict candidate access to sleep, the most famous being Hell Week during BUD/S. During Hell Week, BUD/S candidates take two one-hour naps between Sunday night and Friday morning. And issues related to sleep don’t stop at selection: career tactical athletes often have extremely rigorous schedules that involve long days, both on deployment and at home. Sleep, when it can be found, is often in vehicles, in noisy communal environments, or in other compromised locations and can have little semblance to a traditional diurnal circadian rhythm.
Sleep, especially deep sleep, is when your body does all its repairs and healing and also when the adaptions to training occur. That’s when the anabolic hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone are at their highest levels. You do not get fitter during training. You get fitter during the recovery periods AFTER training. And the most important time for recovery is during REM sleep.
When it comes to sleep, athletes need to think not only about quantity but also about quality, and they need to actively engage in tactics to maximize their rest. Strategies like attempting to develop a consistent sleep schedule, reducing physical activity and screen time before bedtime, wearing earplugs and a sleep mask, and reducing alcohol and caffeine consumption are all extremely effective. Remember, stimulants like caffeine will help one feel more alert and rested but will have no effect on recovery. Under no circumstances should an athlete engage in sleep deprivation training in order to prepare for compromised rest in the future. There are more effective strategies to build mental toughness that don’t involve sabotaging the rest of one’s training.
An additional factor is a poor diet. Like sleep, a restricted diet is often part of training. US Army Ranger School, for example, is infamous for giving candidates small amounts of food and little time to consume it. Even post-selection, tactical athletes will often have to engage in job training that restricts access to food or provides access to food that is poor quality (low in protein and micronutrients). Food is medicine, fuel, and the building blocks for repairing our soft tissues. Lack of food will increase mental fatigue, decrease energy levels, and increase the risk of injury.
For success in a selection pipeline where calories are restricted, or workloads exceed what can be consumed, athletes should begin with extra fat. This fat will slow the athlete down during timed runs and assessments but will provide critical fuel during long days and warmth during cold evolutions. I personally started BUD/S at 215 pounds (I’m six-foot-two). I had more muscle mass than I needed, but I also had a decent amount of adipose fat. I estimate my body fat percentage was about 18 percent. While other candidates were leaner and lighter at the start, their bodies had nothing to consume but muscle. Although I feel I ate more than many of my classmates during training, seven weeks later, at the end of Hell Week, I weighed 198 pounds. Those 17 pounds of fat represented more than 60,000 calories I was able to burn during training while other candidates were cannibalizing their muscles.
