The ‘Roman Soldier Drill’ for Brute Strength and Physical Resilience
Many years ago, when I was living in a far-off land known as Israel, my parents and brother made the trek out to visit me in ‘The Land’ (as it’s known colloquially) for the first time.
One of the fun things about that trip is that they had planned out gobs of cool stuff to see — including an old Knights Templar fort in Akko (known in English as Acre) and ruins of various old Roman forts from 2000 years ago when they conquered Judea, and so on.
And even though the Ancient Romans are despised by many in Israel to this day for the hell they put the Jews through (destroying the Second Temple and what have you), when you look at how they trained it’s easy to understand why they were so insanely successful at barging in anywhere they pleased and basically taking over:
They marched like crazy.
The Roman legions were exceptionally good at marching, and they used to do it sometimes 20–25 miles a day in full gear, which consisted of 45 lbs of equipment, 40 lbs worth of sword and shield, plus 20 lbs of rations, for over 100 lbs total. Not bad for guys who weighed 145 lbs on average. Oh yeah, and when they arrived at their destination they would fight and kill stuff.
In addition to having a superior military to anyone else in the known world (most of which they conquered), their individual soldiers also had superior strength, conditioning, and resilience — most of which was wrought largely by their incessant marching.
Now, you don’t need to go to your nearest military recruitment center to build up to that level of unreal strength, and you certainly don’t have to load up your body that heavy (not yet, anyway).
But in my correct opinion, you DO have to march if you want to build a powerful, lean, and well-conditioned body that can dish out as much punishment as it takes. Some of the benefits of marching include:
1. Improves full body strength in real time.
Marching requires you to move your entire body together — from your hands to your feet and everything in between — so it teaches your body’s various parts to move together in unison as a solid, cohesive unit rather than a random collection of body parts. This means you get to recruit more muscle for each move you do, making it possible to get more work done in a fraction of the time. This makes it a great exercise from exercises as varied as squatting, pressing, swinging, and so on, and it’s not uncommon to keep producing loads of power and strength even as you get fatigued (for the reason why, see #5)
2. Incinerates unsightly body flab.
Even if fat loss isn’t a big goal of yours, you’ll like seeing how much leaner marching will help you get, particularly when paired with other gait pattern movements like crawling or with traditional strength exercises. It’s intense enough to get your heart rate up but gentle enough to be done daily or near daily and for a considerable amount of overall work. Plus, since it recruits your entire body, no stone will be left unturned; you’ll feel it everywhere.
3. Increases your work capacity.
All too often as strength fanatics we forget the importance of having good work capacity — the ability to perform a lot of work. The poorer your work capacity, the longer it takes you to recover from your training, which means less training overall. Not cool, man. A simple way to fix this is by improving your work capacity, and since marching is gentle on the nervous system, you are not likely to burn yourself out, even if you go hard every day.
4. Bulletproofs your joints and teaches you to be light on your feet.
When it’s real-world fitness we’re after, being fast on your feet is among the top of the list of must-haves. Whether it’s a wayward bicyclist or car swerving into your path, or a falling object that you notice at the last second, marching will teach you that split-second timing to help you leap out of the way and toward safety. Better yet, it also conditions the feet, ankles, knees, and hips and conditions your tissues for the rigors of athletic performance.
5. Ties your ‘X’ together.
Your body’s connective tissues form one big X — from the tips of your left fingers to the tips of your right toes, and vice versa. The stronger these are held together and function together, the stronger and more resilient you become. Your body is made to move contra-laterally — not just standing in place and lifting weights or doing calisthenics, as we often rely on for our fitness. The more you move the way you were meant to move, the more your body will give you “soft armor” — a sort of resilience that toughens you and protects you against tweaks, setbacks, and injuries in every corner of your body while still leaving you supple and highly mobile, so you can move young and athletically no matter your age.
6. Opens up your posture and builds reflexive stability.
Posture and reflexive stability are often overlooked elements of a good training program — things you know you should be working on but aren’t “sexy enough”. Because posture is a reflex and reflexive stability (your body’s ability to anticipate and react to movement before it happens) is the foundation of your strength and athletic abilities, skipping these two elements will mean you’ll leave a lot of results on the table, whereas ensuring that you maintain it will give you a base from which you’ll be able to build a lifetime of performance and health.
7. Gives you youthful exuberance.
As famed strength coach Dan John has said, “Glutes are the muscles of youth”. A strong set of glutes has a big impact on the rest of your body, and marching teaches you how to use them in real time. Moreover, marching is meant to be done at a brisk, speedy pace, which can help keep your fast twitch muscle fibers (the muscles that help you move explosively) well developed. According to strength coach Mark Riefkind, this is critical, as these are the muscle fibers that deteriorate the most as we age.
The list could go on and on, but instead, let’s take a look at a few quick workouts you can do that integrate marching into your routine and accelerate your strength, muscle building, leanness, and athleticism:
Workout #1: Fast on your feet
* 10 dead-stop swings (replace the bell on the ground after each rep to work on explosive speed)
* 20 marches in place
Rest and repeat for 10–15 minutes
Workout #2: strength and speed
* 5 clean and presses + 5 squats
* March 20 paces around the room
Rest and repeat for 10–15 minutes
Workout #3: The good soldier
* March 20 paces forward
* Drop to the ground and commando crawl 20 paces forward
Rest as little as possible but as much as necessary for 10–15 minutes. If you can do this without stop for that amount of time while keeping up a good pace with your marches, you will be well on your way to becoming unstoppable.
Like the way you feel from adding marching into your training?
Then you’ll probably love my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge.
It consists of some simple, easy-to-learn movements that I can almost guarantee you’ve NEVER done (including marching, loaded carries, etc) and as the name implies, it only takes 9 minutes to do.
Not only does it fit neatly at the end of whatever other routine you’re currently doing anyway (so no need to put your regular training on hold), but many people have found that it actually enhances their workouts.
Have a look-see at what a gent named Deo had to say when he added my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge into his current kettlebell program:
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“Simple on paper but surprisingly challenging in an unusually pleasant way. With a focus on the gait pattern, I can tell I’m working things in my body that aren’t being directly challenged otherwise, strengthening foundational elements. I finish feeling refreshed and not beat down, but still knowing I did quality work for my body.”
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Check it out for yourself at www.9MinuteChallenge.com
Have fun and happy training!
Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin
