This Special Forces Workout Tests Every Single Muscle
One of the truisms of training is that variety is an essential spice. For lasting gains, you need to mix high-, medium- and low-intensity workouts. “Especially at the start of a new programme or type of training, begin with a lot of relatively easy practice,” orders Mark Lauren, former US military physical training specialist, US Air Force Special Operations Combat Controller and decorated Muay Thai kickboxer turned author of You Are Your Own Gym and creator of Mark Lauren On Demand. “That allows your joints to adapt while you become proficient with the movements.”
Lauren first deployed ladders in 2002 while preparing Spec Ops trainees for the “suck-fest” that was the US Army’s Special Forces Dive School in Key West, Florida. (Despite pre-selecting candidates from the elite of the Army and Air Force – Green Berets, Rangers, Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers – the attrition rate was still 50 per cent.)
The Workout
For each of the following exercises, set a timer for seven minutes, perform one rep, then rest for as long as that took. (Use your breaths as a timer.) Follow with two reps and equivalent rest; three reps, rest equivalently; and so on. You can keep going up as long as you stop before you hit muscle failure, but Lauren suggests a cap of four reps to keep things simple, and the intensity low. Descend the same way then start another ladder.
“It’s a great high-volume, low-intensity method for building proficiency,” says Lauren. He also says, “Hooya!” – a Native American war cry meaning, “Give me more!” Even if you progress to ten-minute ladders, this full-body workout will still only take you half an hour.
Let me ups
Lie on your back with your chest under anything stable enough to hold your weight: a desk, a table, a barbell racked at that height, a broom handle between two chairs. Grab it with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width and make your body a straight line. Pull your chest up to the support, squeezing your shoulder blades together, then lower. Make it easier by bending your knees; make it harder by pausing at the top for two seconds.
Assisted pistol squats
Stand in front of a chair or object of similar height with your feet hip-width, arms out in front. Lift your right leg slightly and push your hips back to gently sit – imagine there’s a carton of eggs under you – while keeping your chest up. Then drive up to standing. Holding a light counterweight out in front of you actually makes it easier; pause for two seconds at the bottom and sit onto progressively lower objects as you become more of a gun.
Press-ups
Lie facedown on the ground with your feet together and hands under your shoulders. Press yourself up. We all know the basics, as Lauren says. His key pointers: all the way up to full arm extension, all the way down to full lying position, body “straight, straight, straight” throughout. To make it easier, elevate your hands on a sturdy surface; to make it harder, elevate your feet or add a two-second pause at the bottom – chest off the ground.
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