What is Tactical Fitness?

Fitness fad or something you should be incorporating into your training?

I’ll start with an anecdote.

One day, on a hot, sunny afternoon in eastern Afghanistan, our tiny, remote base started taking indirect fire. Three or four rounds landed just outside our base in quick succession. Lately, this had become annoyingly common. We suspected there was a small group that would lob a few rounds, most of them inaccurate, quickly pack up their mortar tube, and move on before we had a chance to mount a response. We’d do a post-blast analysis to determine the general direction and distance where they were firing from, but it was usually several kilometers away and impractical for us to chase them down through the mountains.

This particular day, though, our analysis showed that they might be as close as one or two kilometers away. So, a few of us threw our kit on and moved out at a brisk jog to see if we could chase them down. Our gamble worked. We caught them totally by surprise, sauntering down a mountain trail, 81mm mortar tube strapped to the back of a donkey. Problem solved. We didn’t take any mortar fire for almost 2 months after that.

I had always been a decent runner, consistently completing my 2-mile Army physical fitness test under 12 minutes. But many of my bigger (ie, slower) teammates dismissed running as irrelevant. “You’ll never run two straight miles in combat.” Strength is far more important, they always said. That particular day proved otherwise. We ran 3 kilometers in under 15 minutes before reaching the ridgeline where we spotted the mortar team. That proves them wrong, I thought. To be fair, that would be the longest run I ever performed in a combat situation.

What about strength? Ok, one more anecdote.

On a different day that same deployment I found myself carrying a 250-pound teammate in full kit after an IED blast. At a depleted 170 pounds myself after months of harsh deployment conditions, it took every ounce of my energy. I had to carry, and then drag him over 50 meters before sprinting back to get another teammate (much smaller and lighter, thankfully). I got it done, but for me, it was a far bigger challenge than a 3 km run in kit. Maybe they’re right, too, I thought. Of course, I’d never actually admit that to them.

In reality, we were both right. Running, speed, and endurance are important. Strength is important. So is power. So is balance, agility, and accuracy. So is stamina. So is intelligence, creativity, and decisiveness. So is persistence and mental toughness. So is a great tan and thick, flowing hair that blows in the wind.

Ok, the last one only applies if you’re a Navy SEAL.

The point is that the sheer volume, diversity, and unpredictability of tasks a soldier might face in combat make training a challenge because training has trade-offs. Training to run a marathon makes it difficult to maintain strength and muscle mass. Training for a heavy back squat requires putting on mass that can slow you down on long endurance events. With demands like this, where should you focus your training efforts?

This is where the concept of tactical fitness training emerges: from a need to prepare for a diverse range of challenges — known, unknown, and unknowable. Many of the methods developed for tactical fitness training have made their way into mainstream fitness as well. Most gyms have a section with ropes, tires, and other non-traditional equipment; local YMCA’s have TRX classes; weekend warriors train for GoRuck competitions modeled after Special Forces’ selection events.

Is this all just the latest fad in an industry looking to make some quick money? Or are there real benefits for regular people to adopting some of the training methods used by the world’s most elite military units? First, I’d like to try to arrive at a definition of tactical fitness.

Stew Smith, a tactical fitness instructor (and former SEAL himself) who helps people prepare for and pass elite selection courses like BUD/S, defines tactical fitness as “the ability to perform military, police, fire fighting and other personal survival-related skills, such as running, rucking, swimming, buddy rescue, climbing, jumping, and equipment carry, which require full-body strength, muscle coordination, stamina, speed, agility, and cardiovascular conditioning.” That’s a lot more than just strength or endurance. In fact, it’s more than just running 3 km in kit and carrying your 250-pound teammate. In fitness circles, that type of well-rounded fitness development is referred to as “general physical preparedness”, or GPP.

CrossFit has done a lot to study GPP over the last 15 years and defines GPP as “work capacity across broad time and modal domains.” Putting that in the context of Stew Smith’s definition above — running, rucking, and swimming are different modal domains. Doing any of those for a two-minute sprint, or for 2 hours, would constitute performance across different time domains. Now, the question arises: is there anything different between GPP and tactical fitness? Whether differences exist or not, there is certainly a lot of overlap, and that explains at least part of the reason tactical fitness training has become popular in mainstream fitness. It is an effective tool to develop strength, power, speed, stamina, and endurance — all important components of GPP for anyone, military or otherwise.

In that sense, tactical fitness constitutes a valuable upgrade from the bodybuilding-dominated routines of the ’90s and early 2000s. It’s less focused on aesthetics and more focused on function. Training methods usually incorporate a variety of multi-joint movements without machines, often referred to as “functional movements.” Squats, deadlifts, presses, pull-ups, cleans, snatches, kettlebell movements, climbing, running, biking, and swimming, to name a few. To clarify further, the adaptations produced by these functional movements are readily transferable to tasks outside the gym: tasks like carrying your 250-pound teammate for 50 meters; or carrying groceries in one hand and a baby in the other while walking up stairs.

So, a definition of tactical fitness? I’ll give it a shot and try to modify slightly the definition provided by Stew. Tactical fitness is a state of high GPP for a variety of unknown challenges complemented by the capacity to perform a variety of mission-related tasks such as rucking, running, climbing, swimming, and equipment and buddy carries. Tactical fitness is performance-oriented, focused on building foundational physical skills and capacity to execute mission-related tasks well.

GPP is an important component of tactical fitness and lays the foundation for tactical-specific training. As former Gym Jones trainer Mark Twight observed, GPP is a ready-state from which more advanced or sport-specific training becomes very efficient. So, tactical fitness might also be described as an enhanced state of GPP with some specifics layered on: work capacity across broad time and modal domains, with the ability to ruck, run, swim, climb, jump, and carry things.

Given the performance-orientation and functional nature of tactical fitness, it’s bound to be here for a while. At least until the AI takes over and renders our physical capacity irrelevant.

Note: This article is focused on an understanding and definition of tactical fitness. Like any training goal, the methodologies to reach that goal are varied. I’ll write more next time on some things to look for, and look out for, in a tactical fitness training program.