Marines with U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, patrol through a village during a pre-deployment exercise at the National Training Center, Fort. May 15, 2014. When Pavel asked me to make a contribution for an article, I was honored. His request was made in a forum post discussing the preparation of a combat unit for the mountains of Afghanistan. As military deployment prep is more or less what I do professionally, I thought I would provide an overview of my.

I am convinced that well over half the people commenting in this subreddit are Rob Shaul; 6 of the 11 posts (as of 3JAN14) mention or plug MilitaryAthlete. While this is a great resource, it isn't the only one out there. In light of this, I decided to post some of the programs and resources that I have used in the past and some feedback for each. The first thing you need to ask yourself when you decide to start a new program is what am I training for/what are my goals? This seems pretty straight forward, but there are a lot of people out there that have little or no experience with fitness that don't realize this. Are you training for a deployment? Are you attending a selection course?

Are you just trying to have a decent level of GPP? Find a program that will put you on the right track towards your goal(s). In no particular order: - Ranger Athlete Warrior. Great resource for overall tactical GPP. The programming is easily modified to keep from getting stale. I really like this program, as it is one of the few that has a manual and explains a lot of the theory behind it.

- A good explanation can be found. Also look for the premade spreadsheets.

Great strength program, with a few variations. I followed this when I quit doing Crossfit and I busted through my plateau very quickly. Don't forget to run a few days a week (seriously). Korg Triton Le Boje Download Adobe. - The most popular functional fitness program.

I am not a fan of it, mainly because the workouts are timed and olympic lifts are really not good to do 100 times in a workout. Once form breaks down, injuries follow. I have followed mainsite Crossfit in the past, for roughly three years.

I quit doing it after I plateaued hard. The bodyweight WODs are nice for going to the field, but otherwise I can do without. - I haven't followed their stuff in a few years, but I liked it when I did. The inclusion of swimming and rucking broke up a lot of the monotony of mainsite Crossfit. - Was free once upon a time ago.

It has more volume that a lot of programs, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone new to functional fitness. Mark Twight did a program for the National Guard, found. I can't say if it is good or not, as I have not used it - but it is free, so that's nice. Also check out their program. I did it for a few months, results were fairly good. - I tried it several years ago, the volume is way too much.

I consider myself to be a good athlete, but I suffered a lot of overuse injuries during the time I was doing their programming. I include it here, but don't recommend it to anyone. - It has been referenced ad nauseam here, but still worth inclusion.