Introduction

Day 1, or One Day.

Before we jump right in, I thought it might be helpful to apply a little context for this book. If you are reading this, then there is a fair chance that you got here via Ruck Up or Shut Up: The Comprehensive Guide to Special Forces Assessment and Selection. Welcome back. If you read RUSU then you might understand just how upside-down SFAS can be. If you didn’t read it, then stop now. Go read it and come back. I will use RUSU as a basis for many of my recommendations and I won’t spend much time rehashing the literature or explaining precisely why you need to be stronger than the fastest runner, and faster than the strongest lifter. If you’re headed to SFAS then you are headed for deep water. RUSU tells you just how deep that water is, this book will show you how to swim, so to speak. In this book, we move past establishing my bona fides and we jump right into getting shit done.

If your goal is to successfully complete Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS), then you are in the right place. Today is Day 1. Time to get to work. If you’re just kicking the tires of your next thing or wandering through the marketplace of fitness ideas, then this is perhaps a One Day thing. Maybe you’re not headed to SFAS and you’re simply looking for your next fitness challenge. You’re curious. There is nothing wrong with that. You like the struggle, and for some reason, you seek hardship. You crave an intense fit lifestyle, and you enjoy the results. You don’t have to be headed to the Sandhills of Camp Mackall to be fit. Keep reading and see if this program sounds right for you. You don’t have to be waiting for The Sandman to ambush you in order to feel compelled to work hard. But what better place to be than on the path to elite military fitness? The sort of fitness that our Nation’s most capable special operators require. That’s what this book is truly designed for.

This book is essentially two parts. The first nine chapters of this book are the explanation part of this process, the science so to speak, for the performance journal. The second part, the performance journal, is where the rubber meets the road. You don’t have to read any of the first nine chapters of explanation. If you’re just looking for a workout regimen that will prepare you for the rigors of SFAS then you can simply skip this part and go right to work. But some folks enjoy a little explanation. As such, we cite no small amount of literature, but this isn’t necessarily a full literature review. We want to give you some information and show you some resources if you want to do some more independent research, but primarily we want to get to the meat of the matter.

The journal itself is that meat, The Program. Day by day, lift by lift, and step by step. You can find other perfectly fine journals on the market, but most are essentially just blank books; there is no programming. You are free to (or, worryingly, left to) find your own program. But you might run the risk of your journal not accommodating the specifics of your program. Not so here. In Shut Up and Ruck the journal is the program. In this journal you are prescribed exactly what to do every single day. I (we actually, you’ll meet the team soon) will tell you what exercises to do, the number of reps, what mileage and pace, and what to do for building mobility, assembling skills, and engaging in deliberate recovery. We even give you a reading list (finally, IYKYK), mental prep exercises, and guided mindfulness sessions. We go so far as to tell you how to sleep. We are taking out every excuse that we can. So you can read the first nine chapters to get deeply related to the knowledge behind the program, or you could jump right in and start executing. Choose your own adventure.

250 Hard

You have likely heard of 75 Hard, the transformative mental toughness program promoted by Andy Frisella. It’s a simple concept with often revolutionary results and that is exactly why it enjoys so much popularity across such a broad cross-section of enthusiasts. It is excellent, but it is challenge for challenge’s sake. Shut Up and Ruck is different. This is 250 Hard. This is challenge for Selection’s sake, the ultimate goal. Eight months of specifically programmed prep across physical, cognitive, and interpersonal domains with a specific SFAS focus. No alterations, no compromise, no excuses. Work your ass off, do the program, and you will put yourself in a position to be measured against the highest standards in the harshest environment you could imagine. SFAS is different, so this program reflects that reality.

There are a few terms and phrases that I will use repeatedly, almost nauseatingly so, in this manuscript. This is not from lack of creativity or difficulty with language, vulgar or otherwise. I suffer from neither of these fucking maladies as anyone who has sat with me for a cocktail can attest. I am a world-class storyteller and a native-speaking shit-talker. Rather, I will use these terms and phrases repeatedly because they are important. I want you to focus on them. They deserve to be committed to memory. You will also find that these repeated mantras will often seem simplistic. Sometimes overly so, and this is also deliberate. Simple, not easy. That’s one of those phrases. Remember it.

This book is a bit of a coup in the fitness environment. It is antimarketing. Our advertising budget is zero dollars. The team of experts that have guided me have received no compensation. There are no subscriptions. You buy the book once, you own the whole program, and the rest is entirely up to you. The fitness industry (and make no mistake that it is indeed an industry) is one of the most competitive and crowded spaces to navigate. It can also be incredibly lucrative. Americans spend around $800 billion (depending on your source) every year on their never-ending quest for washboard abs, barrel chested pecs, and chiseled physiques. A quick look around at your fellow Americans reveals how elusive this can be. So this industry finds itself in the desirable position of being both the fox and the lion (see Machiavelli). To this end, the fitness space remains clouded in hype, misinformation, proprietary formulas, and no small amount of snake oil. Lots of guarantees, quick fixes, and scams. Take this pill or rub this cream or eat this seed. That stuff doesn’t work and there are no free lunches in nature.

The disheartening thing about this environment is that if you just want accurate, reliable, and valid fitness advice you must navigate through all of the bullshit to find it. And the really disheartening thing about this environment is that the answers are shockingly simple. Simple, not easy. There are no secret formulas and there is no real mystery to solve. If you want to lose weight, then you have to burn more calories than you consume. If you want to get stronger, then you have to progressively overload your muscles. And if you want to build up your cardio base, then you have to put in the time slowly increasing your aerobic threshold. So this book and this program is anti-marketing. No secrets. No hacks. No proprietary formula. We have posted our “secret formula” all over social media.

Here it is, you may acknowledge this as exceedingly simple and a bit of no-duh.

The Formula

• Lift Weights- 3 days a week - Bench, Squats, Deadlift, Row, Shrugs, Overhead Press.

• Run- 3 days a week - 90 minutes per session in Zone 2 without stopping.

• Eat clean.

• Stop drinking booze.

• Rest and sleep like your life depends on it.

That’s it. That’s the formula. But that’s just generalized fitness. The sort of fitness that might see you live a long and relatively healthy life. The sort of generalized fitness that keeps you out of a nursing home should you slip and fall in your advanced years. The sort of fitness that keeps you from an endless bevy of “life-sustaining” pharmaceuticals. Normal stuff. In this case, we are talking about Operational Fitness. The sort of fitness that Operators need, not to put too fine a point on it. And this sort of fitness can be clouded in even more mystery. Not so normal stuff. You have to contend with Obstacle Courses and Rucking. So, we will add to the Formula:

• Rucking- Field based progressive load carriage, usually 2-3 times a week, focused on short intense sessions.

You must prepare for building and carrying insanely heavy apparatus. The Combat Fitness Test (formerly known as the Combat Readiness Assessment) is waiting for you. There is relentless and continuous high demand work…day after day after day. This is the kind of stuff that you need to be successful at SFAS. Abnormal fitness. This is the “secret.” The hack. The proprietary formula, if you will. Not the work, but the environment in which that work must be performed. If you do not understand SFAS then you cannot program for SFAS prep. You can understand generalized fitness, but SFAS is just different.

I won’t spend any time critiquing other programs other than to say that I find them lacking, particularly in ruck programming. Since we have well-established in RUSU just how important rucking is for SFAS success, the fact that other programs get this critical component so miserably wrong is grounds enough for dismissal. There are great coaches, decent programs, and lots of good intentions. But I don’t think that they offer a complete package, and you can’t afford to go to SFAS on a half-assed plan. Choose your experts wisely. Choose your programs like your success at SFAS depends on it.

The Team

I chose my experts wisely in preparing this program. There is so much information that went into building this that I would have been overwhelmed without expert counsel. I had no shortage of very smart folks that wanted to collaborate, and I had to be a bit miserly in sharing my time. So the folks that I am presenting here are the cream of the crop. As awareness of our efforts grows, we will introduce many other team members. We want to build a network of like-minded trainers, coaches, and performance specialists that can be available to you. We are not gatekeepers; we are tour guides on your path to elite fitness.

I chose four experts across multiple domains – endurance, performance nutrition, cognitive performance, strength, mobility, injury prevention, and skills development to name a few. One of the things that you will note is that this operational fitness stuff is very crossfunctional. It’s impossible to be an endurance expert and not have a good understanding of mental resilience. It’s improbable to be a strength specialist and not understand mobility and flexibility. And it is intolerable to be an athletic performance specialist and not understand the interconnectedness of performance nutrition. So, while I may sophomorically list them as singular domain experts, they are cross-functional, multi-domain experts by nature. This is one of the reasons why I chose them to coach me and why I want them to coach you too.

I label Mr. Dave Hsu as my endurance coach, but he is so much more. First, he is a retired Green Beret officer, and we all know that retired Green Beret officers are as elite as they come. Dave commanded the Special Forces Underwater Operations School (SFUWO) at Key West. The cornerstone of SFUWO is the Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC) which has a hard-earned reputation as being the most physically demanding course in the Army. I am biased, but the best ODAs are Combat Dive Teams, and the best Green Berets are Combat Divers. Dave spent his career at the tip of the operational fitness spear. When Dave retired, he started a second career in Counter Threat Finance positions at Combatant Commands and at the Pentagon in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security. He has been coaching triathletes, marathoners, and cyclists professionally since 2010. He is currently the head run coach for the Naval Special Warfare Preparation Course in Coronado, CA which prepares SEAL and Special Warfare Combatant Craftsman Candidates for their respective selections. Yes, the SEALs need the expertise of a Green Beret to prepare for the rigors of the maritime environment. It is what it is. Coach Dave has his B.S. in Exercise Science, he is a National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, an American College of Sports Medicine Certified Exercise Physiologist, a USA Track & Field Certified Coach, a USA Triathlon Certified Coach, and Road Runners Club of America Certified Coach Level 2.

Coach Dave is a certified and credentialed expert, but he is also a practitioner. He understands this endurance stuff like no other because he lives it every day. I like to think of myself as a rucking enthusiast, but Dave is an endurance freak. As I write this, the last two times that I talked to Dave he was in the midst of punishing himself. Once, he was just finishing up a full distance triathlon. He wasn’t coaching it; he was running it himself. Which he won. This is something that he does regularly. He’s retired and he chooses to do this stuff. The other time I talked to him he was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…swimming between the Hawaiian Islands…for fun.

“Hey Dave, how are you doing?”

“Good, I’m just swimming.”

“Oh, cool. Glad that I caught you poolside then.”

“Oh no, I’m on a boat.”

“…So, I guess that you’re doing an open water swim today?”

“Yeah, were doing a relay swim between the Islands…”

“…umm, like, off the California coast?”

“...WHOA! We just had another whale breach the surface right next to us!”

“ …A WHALE....wait, ANOTHER whale!?! Where are you?”

“…We’re doing a relay between the Hawaiian Islands and I’m taking my rest on the support boat. We have a pod of whales that’s been keeping us company all night,” he said way too casually. I thought to myself, “I don’t think they’re keeping you company, brother. I think they’re hunting you. When you enter the water, you enter the food chain.” But what I said was, “Well, good luck then. Send me a note when you get feet dry.” He was swimming in the ocean, at night, with the dangerous marine fauna. FOR FUN! So when you see the endurance progression and the exquisitely planned runs, that’s Dave pushing you. The guy that runs full distance triathlons in his “retirement” and swims with whales. You had better keep up, because he isn’t slowing down. And neither is SFAS.

I categorize Dr. Sean Burkhardt as my mobility guy, but that is doing his expertise a real disservice. Dr. Burkhardt holds Board Certifications in Sports Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, and Functional Neurology, with a special focus on brain health, injury rehabilitation, and concussion management. He is also a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner and a triple-certified NSCA Strength and Conditioning Coach. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), a certified Tactical Strength and Conditioning Coach (TSACF), and a certified Special Populations Specialist (CSPS). He is a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES) and certified Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES). Sean is also Functional Movement Systems certified for Functional Movement Screen (FMS), certified Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), certified Fundamental Capacity Screen (FCS), certified Screening and Assessing Breathing: A Multidimensional Approach (FBS), and certified Y-Balance Testing (YBT/MCS). If it seems like I’m trying to overwhelm you with credentials, it’s because I am. Dr. Burkhardt isn’t some CrossFit Level 1 weekend warrior. He’s a board-certified expert who has been trained and qualified to within an inch of his life, so I trust him implicitly.

Beyond all that plebian physical stuff, Sean could really be best described as a Neuro-Performance expert. This is where his skill really shines. In Chapter 7 you will see his work most clearly. It is academically dense material and there is a good chance you will get ‘contact asthma’ from all of the nerdiness, but his grasp of the complex connection between your brain and your physical performance is amazing. By the way, Sean is already researching and writing on the cognition of Close Quarters Battle. He has taken the same attention to detail that he applied to the ARSOF Attributes in Chapter 7 and applied it to CQB. If you’re a tactical athlete or shooter, you just found your new best friend. Listen to what he says about the Attributes to get started and get a spot in his virtual locker room for his CQB cognition insights. You’d better get on his dance card quickly because he is about to lead a whole new trend in maximizing shooter performance.

Dr. Burkhardt runs Boulder F.I.T. Health and Performance along with his wife, Halley. Halley is a biologist with a Master of Science in Nutrition and Human Performance. She also is a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. Her clinical work at Boulder F.I.T. gives her a unique understanding of performance nutrition that perfectly synchronizes with my approach to SFAS prep. No show, all go. She is exceedingly practical and her expertise cuts right through all of the typical nonsense I often associate with the ‘diet industry.’ You aren’t on a diet; you are fueling for performance. Every time I read some nonsense quasi-science loon chirping online about the next food trend, I hear Halley reminding me that we already know what works and what doesn’t. Our job is to get you to execute the plan, not craft some bespoke dysfunctional menu and supplement atrocity. Basics build champions.

Finally, we are lucky enough to have Mr. Nate Toft join the team. Nate has spent the last 10+ years learning and understanding the factors that facilitate peak performance. He completed his graduate work from Miami University, with a concentration in Performance Psychology. He has had the opportunity to work alongside individuals from all walks of life and with a variety of performance contexts (high level executives, amateur and professional athletics, and tactical populations). Nate is a Cognitive Performance Specialist and a Master Resilience Trainer with the US Special Operations Command. Most importantly for us, Nate spent half a decade at the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. That’s right, Nate worked at SWCS where he trained directly with SF Candidates and SFAS Cadre. He understands the Selection environment uniquely, because he coached the Cadre on what to look for and he coached the candidates on what to show them. He has walked Team Week and seen the cognition and resiliency in action. Literally an expert on cognitive performance at SFAS. His expertise and insights are amazing, and he is a skilled teacher. You are going to learn from the best.

So Shut Up and Ruck, guided by these experts, occupies a unique position. This little niche between generalized fitness, bullshit fitness, and abnormal fitness is where this book finds its real value. In the following pages we will take the very simple (not easy) principles of diet and exercise, sleep and recovery, and human performance and human nature and apply to them my unique understanding of SFAS. Some of the protocols that we will follow are not fully endorsed by the credentialed protectorate of the industry. I have no interest in preserving that environment. I am not a fitness, physiology, or psychology expert, but I am an expert. I am an expert in research design. I have taught graduate level research methodology for over a decade. I can whip up a research question, a thesis statement, or a null hypothesis on the fly. I can develop an analytical framework, craft a literature review, and artfully record conclusions and recommendations in short order. Any reasonably smart person can be trained to do this fairly easily, and I have a team of true experts advising me. The research is published, all that you have to do is read it. As such, I have evaluated the evidence and nothing that I recommend herein is even remotely controversial. I am, most decidedly, an expert in SFAS. All that this book will do is take these well-established concepts and apply them in the context of SFAS.

But this context is absolutely going to kick your ass. Ruck up…