TACFIT Survival Manual

The Intelligent Solution for Extreme Bodyweight Exercise Strength and Conditioning

master your

Movement master your !

Power RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

by Alberto Gallazzi, RMAX European Director TACFIT Division Chief World Survival Jiujitsu Champion, Dignitary Protection Agent Secret Police and Special Operations Tactical Fitness and Combatives Consultant for GIS and Reg. Tuscania Carabinieri Airborne Commando ! RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2012 – RMAX.tv Productions. All rights are reserved. You may not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. TACFIT® is a registered trademark of Sconik International, LLC

Disclaimer None of the information contained in this manual is intended to be taken as medical advice. Consult your physician before beginning this program as you would with any exercise and nutrition program. Albeit the information and advice in this manual are believed to be accurate, neither RMAX.tv Productions and its officers and employees, nor any members, assistants, volunteers, assigns, or agents of any type whatsoever acting on or in behalf of the aforementioned entity and persons will be held liable for any injury, damages, losses, claims, actions, proceedings, expenses, or costs (including legal) that result from using instructions, advice or exercises in the manual.

WARNING: This eBook is for your personal use only. You may NOT Give Away, Share Or Resell This Intellectual Property In Any Way

QUICK START GUIDE!

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How to Use your Survival Field Manual BEFORE YOU’VE MASTERED THE BASICS, ANY IDEA YOU CAN IMAGINE HAS BEEN TRIED, TESTED AND FOUND WANTING OR HAS BEEN INCORPORATED ALREADY.

Read the entire manual top to bottom: even if you’ve walked the TACFIT path before, many new layers and features have been embedded. Read it over again in the weeks to come. This book serves as your field manual, so you need to be totally familiar with it. There are 3 Missions included in TACFIT Survival: • Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. • Download the “Beginner” instructional videos. Study the movements carefully. • Download the follow-along videos. • Print out your choice of 4x7 or 7x4 schedule. It will guide you for the next 28 days. • Upon successful completion of: • Level 1 or (“Beginner”) level, repeat these same steps with • Level 2 or (“Intermediate”), • Level 3 or (“Advanced”) It couldn’t be simpler. Everything has been laid out for you day by day. All you need to do is fill in the blanks... and sweat, of course.

! RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

THE KEY TO CORE STRENGTH IS ANTI-ROTATION!

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Much of my training throughout different countries in the world concentrated upon core strength. I studied what we currently understood in science as to why core strength holds such a pivotal key to tactical fitness. The key concept underpinning this regards a neurological blueprint from how we develop as infants to adults, called the “Proximal-Distal, Cephalo-Caudal Trend.” We develop from the spine down and from the belly out to our fingers and toes. Neurologically, your core is grand central station for all of the engines you put on track to perform. But it goes much deeper than this. Though we see the incredible dexterity with which the core allows the spine to move with strength, twisting, bending, arching through space, the core is designed uniquely to protect the spine, because it’s primary function is to allow us to maintain anti-gravitational function. The core evolved to allow us to have mobility without being harmed by movement. In other words, the core musculature evolved to resist rotation. In my travels and study, in particular in Russia, and studying Nikolay Bernstein’s application of aeronautic mechanics to the movements of the human body, I learned that the body moves in

rolling right/left and yawing clockwise/ counterclockwise.

greater complexity than merely three dimensions.

of bodybuilding and powerlifting into the three dimensional world, tactical fitness aims to introduce the 3 elements of rotation into your exercise.

Three dimensional movement only travels across three planes. Tri-planar movement involves passing through the plane cutting you in halves: top/bottom, right/left, front/back. But the human body, in its elegant virtuosity, moves not merely in “translation” (through the 3 planes), but in rotation. Called the “Six Degrees of Freedom” to represent that the body moves through 3 elements of translation (the standard triplanar movement surging forward/ backward, heaving upward/ downward, and swaying right/left) and 3 elements of rotation: pitching forward/backward,

Where functional strength training sought to bring the one- and two-dimensional movements

The exercise selection within TACFIT Survival, and all of the TACFIT fleet of courses, progresses from gross to fine, general to specific, simple to complex movements in order to elicit the maximal fitness benefits from your exercise.

Pitch: Bending Forward/Backward

In particular, TACFIT Survival concentrates on creating the Hollow Body position spoken of throughout martial art, yoga and gymnastics training. The Hollow Body can be thought of as core activation which resists all three elements of rotation.

Roll: Bending Right/Left

When performing TACFIT Survival, the movements create the need for the Hollow Body position in order to perform the repetitions. Since this Hollow Body position resists all three elements of rotation (pitching, rolling and yawing), you maximize your core activation. And since the core is grand central station for all of the engines in your body, you gain the greatest fitness benefits from these specific movements.

Yaw: Twisting Clockwise/Counter

!

RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

BUILDING YOUR POWER CHAMBER! The part of the chamber that many have trouble lies with the pelvic tilt and leg drive. The pelvis has a small range of motion. Relax and lay down flat on the floor with arms extended above head. See the body naturally form an arch in the lower back. While laying on your back, place one hand under your lower back. Notice your hand go right under your lower back as if going through a tunnel. The key aspect of the Power Chamber is to press the lower back to the floor so that "tunnel" goes away. In order to do this you must be able to tilt the pelvis, while driving both hips forward into one line, as depicted in the photo to the left, and second photo down on the right. With the pelvic tilt, you must also contract the pelvic wall upward, as you have exhaled to contract the intercostals inward, the diaphragm downward. This muscular lock “crushes the can” of the power chamber, creates a systemic knot of strength.

One of the most important positions that a martial artist, clubbell swinger, football lineman, yogi, kettlebell lifter, wrestler or gymnast learns is the “Power Chamber.” Masters have taught this primal position for thousands of years in yoga such as in mayurasana, in gymnastics is called the “hollow body”, by World War II CloseQuarters Combatives experts simply as “battery position.” To tap into this biologically hard-wired strength, protract (outward) and depress (downward) your shoulder blades, bringing the shoulders into the safest and strongest biomechanical position they can attain: called the “closed, packed position” - or as I coined it in my first book, “shoulder pack.” Pull your ribs downward at the sides, engaging the internal and external obliques as well as quadratus lumbarum (your suspenders). Pull inward your transverse abdominus (your corset) but don’t suck upward, and crunch downward your rectus abdominus (your 6 pack) pulling your chest down to your hips. This creates the strongest core activation possible with exhalation mandatory.

!

Exhale and engage the pelvic floor, drawing it upwards towards your navel. Think of it as the space between the pubic bone and the tailbone. Initially you may need to contract and hold the muscles around the anus and genitals, but you want to isolate and draw up the perineum (between the anus and genitals). Engaging the pelvic floor creates both powerful lift and secure rooting. This is especially useful when jumping, receiving a collision or administering force. Squeeze your abdominals, thighs, and glutes very hard. Grab the floor with your toes and feet, and push the Earth away midfoot while knees remain bent. The tighter - the lighter! There is an anthropological reason for the strength of this position: it is the primal fighting / defensive posture with which we evolved to instinctively protect ourselves. Biologically, it is the most effective position to absorb and deliver force. We are neurologically wired to strengthen this “hollow body.” It is essential to perfecting a proper handstand, a strict pullup, as well as the body lever and back lever, the kettlebell rack position and the clubbell order position. The physical range may not be as dramatic from a handstand to a fighting stance, but it is “resisting rotation” which correctly elicits the neuromuscular efficacy of the power chamber. Make it the focus in every Survival exercise.


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HOW DOES TACFIT SURVIVAL DIFFER?! I write volumes on this, but one arena of particularly stark departure of TACFIT from the norm regards: sophistication. When most exercise programs bump you “up” a level, they are adjusting standard variables like intensity, volume, speed, duration, etc to increase the challenge. While you can certainly increase speed with this program, that isn’t the primary goal. Rather, the 3 Missions included in TACFIT Survival specifically progress in complexity: each mission develops neuromuscular efficiency, preparing you for the next higher level. Your nervous systems evolves to become "smarter" and more efficient as you progress. In addition, something called the “complex training effect” (CTE) provides an additional touch of magic. The CTE simply states that when you couple simple movements together, the synergistic effect is greater than if the individual exercises were performed independently. More (and smarter!) bang for your buck. Here, I utilized a Russian biomechanics concept called “Component Learning” which demands that each movement be a building block to the next. This allows “back-shaping” or “reverse engineering” of high level sports skills. The science underpinning TACFIT Survival combines influences from the Russian System of Training (P.O.C.C.) with the biomechanics of Nikolay Bernstein (the father of Russian biomechanics) — in particular this "Component Learning Theory" — which leads you carefully through simple steps leading to more advanced and evolved physical performance.

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merely by adjusting level. The same skill families, the same result, but an incredible advantage in developing team spirit. No one need be left out of the training session, ever again. Due to the conventional exercise community heralding the inviolate nature of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) training, I’ve become infamous for stating that most of the fitness world has become SISSified, or Stuck In Simplistic Stupidity. This is the polar opposite of TACFIT Survival training. We don’t just move more — more weight, more time, more frequency — we move better, and we do this by increasing movement sophistication. Bigger isn’t better. Faster isn’t better. Stronger isn’t even better. ONLY Better is Better! When you add in this unique nature of increased sophistication, you don’t merely make the exercises more challenging, you learn a new skill. You stimulate the nervous system to evolve; your brain to become more powerful. You learn a completely new set of tools that you can access in all aspects of your life. You improve the most sophisticated machine that God has ever created. Remember Component Learning Theory? A complex movement chain practiced as a single movement produces a sum total training effect greater than that produced if the individual components are practiced for the same number of repetitions. TACFIT Survival incorporates movements that increase in complexity, so your gains compound as your movement ability develops.

Don’t believe that this means that this will not be functional movement. It certainly will. TACFIT programs enhance “Tactical Fitness.” There can be no fluff: the motions themselves enhance the motor patterns and energy systems that allow the human machine to respond to crisis and conflict. Like the avionics which evolved our understanding of combat effectiveness, the movements contained in such a program must cover all 6 degrees of freedom: heaving (updown), surging (front-back), swaying (right- left), rolling (bending right-left), yawing (twisting right-left) and pitching (bending front- back). This training principle makes it possible to serve a wide range of individuals levels at the same time, regardless of beginning fitness levels, or even limiting overcompensations and repetitive stress injuries. The entire team can train together, from modern ninja to desk warrior, ! RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

TO EXHALE OR INHALE: THAT IS THE QUESTION!!

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Hypoxic versus Hypercapnic Breathing Techniques: Near the close of the 19th Century, Russian Physiologist Verigo and Dutch Scientist Bohr independently discovered that without CO2, oxygen remains bound to hemoglobin, unreleased and incapable of being utilized by our tissues. As a result there is an oxygen deficiency in tissues such as our brain, kidneys and heart, as well as a significant increase in our blood pressure. Russian and former Soviet research, such as Dr. V. Frolov, Dr. K. Buteyko and Prof. R. Strelkov surmised that deep breathing serves as the root cause of many illnesses. Deep-breathers suffer from O2 starvation and so they “overbreathe” which begins the cycle called the Hyperventilation Feedback Loop. Notice how a person holding his breath becomes increasingly hyperactive. Over time the level of CO2 increases dramatically causing the rapid consumption of O2. This hyperactivity continues until unconsciousness (syncope) – a method used in martial arts to expedite strangulation techniques. The cause of O2 deficiency is not due to the lack of O2 presence, but by the lack of CO2 retention. Over-breathing causes O2 deficiency. If we inhale too much, we have less O2 in our body. Two methods of breathing developed from this understanding: hypoxic (or lowered oxygen count) and hypercapnic (or saturated with carbonic gas) breathing. Dr. Vladimir Frolov (Endogenous Respiration) concluded from his research that both methods intend the same goal but achieve it through different means: “Buteyko achieved positive results raising the concentration of carbonic gas in the lungs. Strelkov, in turn, obtained the identical result by lowering the oxygen content in the lungs. The paradox solves itself if we compare oxygen concentrations in both methods. It turned out that what united them was an approximately identical hypoxia regime (lower oxygen content).” For many strength athletes, the conventional method of breathing entails the “Power Breathing Technique” - a hypoxic method was researched by a Russian scientist Professor R. Strelkov (popularized by Pavel Tsatsouline in the West). Power increases immediately, but fine and complex motor skills, such as combat skills, suffer. The problem with inhalation bracing lies with the pneumatic pressure it creates intra-abdominally. When you inhale and exert yourself, you literally attempt to move with an inflated balloon within your torso. When moving in 1 or 2 dimensions and short range, that may be acceptable. However, when you must resist rotation in six degrees, you must use muscular control, not pneumatic pressure to withstand forces while remaining mobile. Inhalation cannot do this. Only exhalation can. The optimal method of health and performance lies with the exhalation. The deeper the exhalation, the stronger the core activation, and the more utilization of oxygen at a cellular level. Training happens at the level of discipline, when you must actively exhale through the effort of an exercise. When you find that you’re no longer needing to actively exhale to press through an exercise, and you’re in “flow”, then you’ve adapted to the tempo or complexity of the movement, and it’s time to progress. However, if you find that you’re having to inhale and hold your breath in order to “force” out a repetition, then the tempo or complexity is too much (for that day or session), and it’s time for you to regress down to a lower level complexity (Advanced to Intermediate to Basic), or decrease the tempo until you can regain discipline over your breath. ! RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF CORE ACTIVATION?!

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As just described, the science behind respiratory performance goes very deep. For the purposes of TACFIT, concentrate on three of the 5 levels: force (inhale bracing and pressurized exhalation), discipline (exhale on effort phase) and flow (exhale on compression phase). Avoid having to force, focus on discipline, and when you begin to flow increase the challenge until you must discipline to avoid force. Now on to the depth of the breath. The depth of your exhalation directly correlates to the strength that you can activate throughout your body. There are four volumes to your exhale: 1.Normal: what you exhale when talking. 2.Complementary: what you exhale when you move moderately. 3.Supplementary: what you exhale when you move intensely. 4.Residual: what you cannot fully exhale while alive, but where all high performance floats. Think of these four volumes like levels of a skill. •What is not challenging to you can be performed with a normal exhale. •What is moderately challenging to you can be performed with a complementary exhale. •What is very challenging to you can be performed with a supplementary exhale. •What is extremely challenging to you can only be performed at the end of exhaling all normal, complementary and supplementary volume, called the “Control Pause.” The stronger your exhale, the more powerful you become. Martial artists have known this for millennia, but modern science only now begins to understand this mechanism, as it mysteriously branches into both aspects of the nervous system: the autonomic (what you cannot control), and the voluntary (what you can control.) The depth of your exhale determines how deeply you access the “power chamber” in hollow body position. Physiologically, it is impossible to tap into the power of the core and spine without exhalation. It will not happen immediately. You will need practice daily. As it remains impossible to plumb the bottom of residual breath volume, you can always go deeper and deeper, no matter your age. Strength is not age-dependent: a trained octogenarian can be much more physiologically powerful than an untrained twenty-something. Breath remains the key ingredient to tapping into that limitless potential.


WHAT IF YOU DON’T DO THE REST OF TACFIT?!

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The nervous system doesn’t know the difference between types of tension. It only knows degree of recovery! The above sounds simple enough, but amounts to libraries of research and anecdotal experience.

adaptations. Only recovering from the stress causes you to adapt.

But you don’t NEED to purchase and use the TACFIT fleet to do so. It could be a sandbag, barbell, It works regardless of type of rock, or a club, or just your own tension. TACFIT merely bodyweight. Your nervous system consolidates and distills this into a cannot tell the difference. It only conscious system of application knows how hard it must work to where you become more powerful achieve the technique mechanics. and graceful while minimizing And more importantly... room for error (injury) and maximizing the effectiveness of It only knows how much it has this “wave” of intensity.) recovered from adapting to the work that you keep forcing it to To the right, read an example of do. (You are, for a fact, forcing how to take common activities change. Your body only knows and plug them into this efficiency: it prefers that you don’t biochemical phenomenon of do anything. It doesn’t know that it adaptation called the “4 Day commits suicide a little bit every Wave.” day that it doesn’t experience positive stress.) If you consider the 4 Day Wave in TACFIT, you can insert your bar You adapt to positive physical work into the moderate intensity stress in two ways: by increasing “strength” sessions. muscle developing (by becoming more powerful,) and by increasing As TACFIT Survival builds neuromuscular efficiency (by stabilized strength, focusing on becoming more graceful.) practice at moderate intensity: Some people adapt faster in one • 60-80% heart rate maximum, way than the other, but everyone • 6-8 on a rate of perceived effort scale of 1-10 (10 being the adapts in both ways given hardest effort) sufficiently proper and sustained • Hard or difficult work, but not positive physical stress. extremely hard or difficult. Unfortunately, most people either, don’t give sufficiently high enough Still implement the waving stress for long enough over time, elements of TACFIT, organizing or they don’t consciously reduce other missions in the TACFIT and the stress low enough for long CST Circular Strength Training enough. family can appear like so: (See Right-Side Bar Day 1-4 Example Giving stress doesn’t create these Explanations.) powerful and graceful

Day 1: No Intensity • Mobility, Tai Chi, Light Stretching, Walking, Swimming, Hiking • Strain Prevention, Intu-Flow, Body-Rolling, Band-Ageless

Day 2: Low Intensity • Yoga, Pilates, Core, Deep Stretching, Myofascial Release, Jogging, Biking • Ageless Mobility, Prasara Yoga, Tactical Gymnastics, Stress Conversion

Day 3: Moderate Intensity • Climbing, Mountain Biking, Rowing, Running, moderate Circuit Conditioning • Survival, Spetsnaz Kettlebell, King of Clubs, Barbarian, ROPE

Day 4: High Intensity • Sprinting, Hill Runs, very hard Circuit Conditioning, high intensity weight training, Racing (rowing, biking, etc) • Survival, Commando, Warrior, Accelerator, Drift, Furnace, Pillars


DEFINING TACTICAL FITNESS!

Tactical Fitness “T he ability to change energy state rapidly. To tur n, rotate, or twist faster than your opponent. And most importantly, to sustain that high energy state in the grueling turns that rapidly bleed out an o p p o n e n t ’s s i z e , strength and speed advantages. T he ideal fighter accelerates in rotation the quickest, and moves the fight into this rotation where he holds distinctly superior virtues.”

TIME is the most critical ingredient here. How do we perform repeatedly over time? Time is the top of the pyramid of importance, because it renders the needed energy system of the activity. For tactical fitness, we need the ability to perform at intense task, rapidly recover and retranslate to another intense task. After we establish the appropriate timeframe, then we can select the skills necessary to enhance the mechanics of our discipline. When we understand the mechanics, only then can we choose the tools: the chains of tension, or movements, and the type of tools to elicit those chains of tension. (see the model left.) Recovery is a known term, though frequently neglected activity. All your progress, growth and results happen during the recovery periods between your workouts; never during them. So, for all your hard-chargers out there, if you’re not taking the time to recover, you not only aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse. Each time you exercise without recovery, you’re destroying the body, not building it. Nutrition is king for recovery between workouts and missions. But that’s not the recovery we’re discussing now.; let’s call that recuperation. Recovery regards how to RESET between “collisions” - between rounds, sets, reps and even within an exercise repetition itself (how to recover one part of your body while the other continues in a different movement.) To reset between bouts requires switching the n e r vo u s s y s t e m f ro m a c c e l e r a t o r ( t h e sympathetic) to the brake (the parasympathetic). To recover rapidly you must: • stop moving around, to avoid keeping your foot on the accelerator;

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• on mid-foot, with your body completely relax, chug your body up and down by bending at the knees and hips. We tend to hop on ball of foot and do this, but that keeps the posterior chain tight. Mid-foot keeps the calves relaxed and allows us to “vibrate” the residual muscle tone of the prior exertion. Tension only relaxes when you send it the frequency of its tension, like a tuning fork. The faster you return to full, resting length of a tissue, the quicker you’ll have maximal power output again for the next collision. • find your heart rate and a clock (if possible), because you need to create a bridge from the controllable (your voluntary nervous system) to the uncontrollable (autonomic nervous system). • exhale long, slow and deep into the belly through the mouth, for the longer, slower and deeper you exhale, the quicker your heart rate drops under the radar (heart rate maximum) of excessive arousal. The lower your heart rate, the faster you return complex and fine motor skills to function. If you train only at high intensity, then under stress, that’s what you’ll be conditioned to do; and at high stress >145BPM, you lose fine and complex motor skills. Who recovers fastest wins! If you want your exercise to be tactical fitness, then it must regard this formula: how fast can you recover from high intensity output. That’s your litmus test. Not how big, strong or fast you are. Those are great attributes. But if you can’t recover from the first impact, from surprise, error, or the unknown, then bigger, faster, stronger isn’t better.

Only better is better.


HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?!

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Programming TACFIT You’ll need to understand two concepts in order to take full advantage of TACFIT. Firstly, understand is the 4 Day Wave. The entire system is based on a 4-day microcycle of waving intensity levels. Next, understand the tool I’ve created over the years to zone in on your intuitive awareness: the internal experience of exercise. I’ve created this tool to ensure you’re precisely target your intensity level for the day without exceeding the discomfort levels and without diminishing the technique levels mandatory for optimal performance and health. Your Compass: the Intuitive Training System Can you say with specificity how “much” is “much” and how “hard” is “hard”? Unfortunately for our internal experience, exercise doesn’t come in denominations of much and hard. What might be considered a difficult session for a couch potato is a breeze for an elite commando, and what might be a “light” training day for said commando might be hell itself for an average recreational athlete. It’s all extremely subjective. How, then, do you train yourself to understand your limits and capacities? You do this by journaling your training and by applying your tools. My Intuitive Training Protocol gives you the ability to differentiate form, exertion and discomfort subjectively, and you can then use this as a determinant factor in progressive resistance. By learning to quantify the subjective, you give yourself an immediate sense of where you stand, and you create a very accurate gauge of your progress. In order to make this tool work for you, you must first learn how to use it. That takes a bit of diligence in the beginning. By journaling your training and by rating these three variables, you will come to a better understanding of your body and you will calibrate your instrument. The skill of rating your performance becomes more finely honed with each use, until eventually you barely have to think about it. But you will have to think about it in the beginning. These are the three variables you will rate after each training session: • Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE): the subjective evaluation of your effort on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the hardest you’ve ever worked. • Rate of Perceived Discomfort (RPD): the subjective evaluation of your pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever experienced. • Rate of Perceived Technique (RPT): the subjective evaluation of your mechanical performance on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best possible form in that exercise.

As you begin to fatigue and become exhausted, your form begins to fail. Without form, you cannot competently hold the force of your exertion, and as a result, you over-compensate with poor form leading to aches and pains. As these aches and pains go unaddressed, injuries appear. Pouring your effort into your technique, instead of the number of repetitions of weight of the resistance, is what brings you great dividends. With deeper concentration on technique, comes greater physiological benefits. Poor technique is as trainable as good technique. Every repetition that you repeat poor technique increases the likelihood that you will embed this. Whatever you repeat, you will adapt to and make more likely, whether you want that result or not. As a general guideline, when you can sustain an RPT of equal to or greater than 8, an RPD of less than or equal to 3, and an RPE of equal to or greater than 6 over the course of 3 sessions, it’s time to increase a variable: frequency, intensity, speed, density, volume, complexity, etc. Each day in the 4 Day Wave includes specific target guidelines that you should be aiming for with each of these three variables. We have also precisely calculated exactly which variable to change, and by how much, when it comes time to move on. All you have to do is rate your performance in terms of the Intuitive Training Protocol, and plug-and-play the program. I’ve taken care of the rest.

If your technique is high enough (greater than or equal to 8) and your discomfort is low enough (less than or equal to 3) you can hold even an exertion level of 10 for as long as your stamina, strength and endurance allow.


THE TACFIT 4 DAY WAVE!

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Your Tactical Fitness missions develop through the signature periodization pattern of TACFIT, which escalates as you work your way through the program. The following combination of “training days” is repeated throughout the program for a total of 28 days per mission. See the specific Program chapter in Part 2 of the manual for the actual program instructions and exercises. That’s how the 4 “training days” of TACFIT shape up. This pattern is repeated for a total of 28 days — or one complete mission. If you are following the traditional 4 wave, your schedule will consist of No, Low, Moderate and High days, repeated 7 times in succession for a total of 28 days. There are no "off days.” Instead, recovery days are factored into the program that involve short sessions of joint mobility and compensatory yoga.

Day 1—No Intensity

Day Two—Low Intensity

1 2 3 4

RPE: 1-2; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower


When you reach the No Intensity day, follow along the warmup video. You can also insert in here any strain prevention mobility programs, such as Intu-Flow - a basic and intermediate program available for free on Youtube.

Your task on the Low Intensity day: follow-along the cooldown video to use specific compensatory movements to balance growth and remove the parking brake from your highperformance output and mobility.

Your No Intensity recovery day is one of the keys to the rapid adaptation you’ll experience with this program. Do not skip it.

Insert stress conversion, yoga or stretching routines such as Body-Rolling and Healing Staff included in your dossier.

Day Three—Moderate Intensity

Day Four—High Intensity



Now the work starts. Your task on the Moderate Intensity day is to ramp up your output according to the specific mission objectives.

If you’ve been following orders, this will be your peak performance day. What prepared you for today, is the strength you activated yesterday, in the moderate intensity session.

When you reach the Moderate Intensity day, watch that session’s Video Briefing and follow the program guidelines for the specific mission and level you’ve chosen to complete.

Follow along with the TACFIT Survival Basic, Intermediate and Advanced missions included in your dossier.

Repeat yesterday’s TACFIT Survival mission, but go as hard as your technique can hold it. You’ve practiced this now, turn it loose and let the engine run hot!


CAN’T COMPLY TO MISSION RX?!

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What if you can’t commit to the Mission as prescribed? Options for “Fixed Living” schedule You may not live in the utopia where you can train 7 days a week and follow as prescribed. Firstly, stop complaining. You’re infinitely capable to adapt, improvise and overcome. Find out where you can insert this into your life, and slowly reclaim your life from habits. Gain the greatest results by following the mission as Rx. But start where you are, so the plan may not always go as planned. Believe me, I understand lurking Murphy. Don’t Want to Train 4x7 Style? Adhering to the 28 day calendar can be challenging, when you haven’t yet optimized your time tables. Here are three variations for Survival: a conventional 3day split, a 7-day wave in which the training days remain constant from week to week, and the optimal 4-day wave (the 4x7 format). The conventional 3-day Split Only have 3 days a week to train? Better make the most of them! Start with Level 1 or Basic level. Perform it for each of the three days. Only progress to the next mission Level 2 (Intermediate) when your technique is high enough (RPT greater than or equal to 8) and your discomfort is low enough (RPD less than or equal to 3) to move on safely (to Level 3 Advanced). Each mission builds upon the prior. The movements increase in sophistication as your strength and mastery grow. When you’ve mastered Level 1, you’re ready for Level 2, and finally on to the Level 3 Alpha dogs. Scheduling on the “Week Wave” If you feel that you’re ready for all four levels of intensity, then the “week wave” involves No, Low, Moderate, No, Low, Moderate, High, repeated 4 times in succession for a total of 28 days. Scheduling on the 4-day Wave

If you feel that you’re ready to knee-deep into mission proper, then the 4 day wave will consist of No, Low, Moderate and High days, repeated 7 times in succession for a total of 28 days. The Program Chart is formatted on this 4-day wave. This is the ideal choice for Survival because it synchronizes with your nervous system for greatest results. How do you add other sports and programs to TACFIT? Though we appreciate your zeal, focus. If you chase two rabbits, you’ll catch neither. If you focus on this one mission, you’ll achieve all of the results you hoped of and much more once you’re on the other end. Results we can’t describe, as you’ll have to experience them to appreciate what you’re about to develop and gain access to. Candidly ask, “what do I want from exercise?” If you find you don’t have a specific answer, then you may be “cocktailing”; decreasing your results from ALL your activities. Cocktailing is unhelpful because throwing together a bunch of random exercises will get you random results. Better focus on one goal at a time. Go in too many directions at once, gets you nowhere fast. Life often doesn’t give us the optimal circumstances. My schedule of travel around often presents insurmountable problems to routine. Sometimes, you just gut it out and make due with the hand you’ve been dealt. Suggestions for other activities Each day of the cycle is tied to a specific intensity level - waved in order to elicit the 4×7 effect. To make this 4×7 to work for you, then you should align your activity level with the guidelines for RPE. It can be highly subjective, and there are no hard and fast numbers. What may be a light recovery jog for a highly conditioned runner may be a Moderate or High Intensity session for someone with little running experience.

Logging your training and applying the Intuitive Training Protocol to rate your exertion, technique and discomfort will over time give you a precise lens for gauging your output. It will help to determine where your chosen activity falls on this spectrum: • No intensity: such as mobility, body rolling, tai chi, stretching, long walk • Low intensity: such as yoga, pilates, deep stretching, low gymnastics, light runs • Moderate intensity = strength practice, weight training, gymnastics skills, jogging • High intensity = metabolic conditioning, sprinting, interval training, high jumps On occasion, different activities won’t match because your body cannot handle the sum total stress load, and then stress turns to strain. Bad news: over-training, injury and illness often result. If you want to continue with extra-curricular training, you may want to consider either scheduling out the others for the month, or lightening your intensity load of the high intensity sessions. Perform your mobility recovery exercises daily as prescribed, but exclude your high intensity workouts. Keep performing the No intensity programs daily, until your scheduling becomes more permissive of higher intensity workouts. As it opens up, then start back on your 4 day wave as prescribed. Lastly, there may be times when Murphy makes a visit and knocks you off the wagon. Just because you get burned, doesn’t mean that you can’t jump back on. Missing one or two days is fine; just fall back into formation picking up where you left off. Missing 4 or more days means you missed a cycle completely, so restart at the previous 4 day cycle on your calendar to catch up.


THE 4X7 MONTH PROGRAM CHART!

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No

Low

Moderate

High

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

1

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

2

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

3

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

4

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

5

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

6

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

CYCLE

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

7

Program

Program

Survival

Survival

1

2

5

6

9

16

19

22

26

12

15

18

21

8

11

14

17

4

7

10

13

25

3

20

23

24

27

28

(*see the specific Program chapter in Part 2 of the manual for the actual program instructions and exercises) That’s how the 4 “training days” of TACFIT shape up. This pattern is repeated for a total of 28 days — or one complete mission. If you are following the traditional 4x7 wave, your schedule will consist of No, Low, Moderate and High days, repeated 7 times in succession for a total of 28 days. There are no "off days.” ! RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

THE 7X4 MONTH PROGRAM CHART!

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No

Low

Moderate

No

Low

Moderate

High

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

week

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Mobility

Compensation

Strength

Conditioning

1

Program

Survival

Program

Survival

Survival

week

Mobility

Strength

Mobility

Strength

Conditioning

2

Program

Survival

Program

Survival

Survival

week

Mobility

Strength

Mobility

Strength

Conditioning

3

Program

Survival

Program

Survival

Survival

week

Mobility

Strength

Mobility

Strength

Conditioning

4

Program

Survival

Program

Survival

Survival

Program

Compensation

Program

Compensation

Program

Compensation

Program

Program

Compensation

Program

Compensation

Program

Compensation

Program

Routinizing the 7-day Week Choosing the “Weekly” model of exercise - a four week progression (7x4) - your “wave” of intensity is a No, Low, Moderate, No, Low, Moderate, and High days, repeated for four weeks in succession for a total of 28 days. You’ll be on the traditional calendar work week, instead of the four day wave. This allows you to arrange your workouts so that the High Intensity day falls on the same day each week. For example, if you’d like to hit your best effort of the week on Fridays, start with Day 1 (No Intensity) on the previous Saturday. With some good planning you’ll be able to address all of your other scheduling demands and prevent aborting the mission partly through. If you prefer to train on a 7-day schedule, simply follow this alternate Program Chart instead of the 4x7 Chart. ! RMAX International, PO BOX 501388, Atlanta GA, USA | 678-867-7629 | www.tacfit-survival.com

HOW TO TRACK PROGRESS: %HEART RATE MAX!

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What warrior cultures have understood for millennia and what military scientists have rigorously studied for centuries is the reality that whoever can recover faster from error, surprise and failure, and whoever uses the least effort to accomplish the most, wins. One term commonly associated with the highest level of warrior skills or martial arts is “Chi” or “Ki,” which is translated variously as “intrinsic energy” and “maximum results with minimum effort.” It is this latter quality, “effective efficiency,” which concerns us here. “Effective efficiency” means to perform with greater total results (effectiveness) while using lesser total effort (efficiency). You must quantifiably track this to be assured of our results. To do this we use the TACFIT technology of tracking HRbpm during Moderate Intensity efforts. Not high Intensity. (You may track it, but we gauge our ultimate success not my maximal effort, but by maximal "effective efficiency.") You improve your ceiling of maximal effort during high intensity sessions, but the benefit is only shown by improvements in numbers of quality repetitions during moderate intensity sessions. Therefore the target heart rate for the four day wave is: • No intensity: <40% HRmax • Low intensity: 40-60% HRmax • Moderate intensity: 60-80% HRmax • High intensity: 80-100% HRmax If during your moderate intensity season you crest above 85%HRmax, the reps do not count. From a biochemical standpoint, it isn't just as we exceed heart rate maximum (HRmax) but as we rapidly approach it that the "adrenaline dump" happens. This cascade of hormones and neuropeptides crashes through your body like a waterfall. It's psychotropic effects distort reality adversely and impede your ability to function. And you cannot adapt to it. Therefore, any reps that you score approaching or exceeding HRmax, so not count (since they are purely hormonal "super-fuels" rather than kinesiologic performances.)

• Low intensity: exhale on compression, inhale on expansion; but in some of the more challenging positions, you will find that you need to exhale through the internal resistance, the tightness. Seek to let the tension melt, and return to allostatic balance – your normal resting length. • Moderate intensity: exhale on effort, inhale on relaxation; if you find that you’re able to exhale on compression, that you don’t need to exhale through the effort, then turn it up a few notches in intensity until you do. But if you find yourself beginning to exhale very hard, or even feeling the compulsion to inhale and power through the movement, then dial it back. • High intensity: resisting the urge to inhale on effort, is the key to high intensity. Stay underneath this defensive bracing reflex, by keeping at a pace that you can exhale through.

Determining Heart Rate Maximum (HRmax): HRmax is often listed as [HRmax = 220-AGE] as in the Exercise Zone chart above. However, with so much deviation to this formula, the least objectionable formula has been found to be:

HRmax = 205.8 - (0.685 x AGE) For example, a 50 year old HRmax by this formula would be 205.8 - (0.685x50) = 205.8 - 34.25 = 171.55 or 172.

We are working to convert training stress into bodily growth and development. But if the body feels the strain then it calls in the shock troops to insure that you can outrun that panther. Complete the scoresheet during your moderate intensity sessions, by listing not merely your reps achieved but also your heart rate, and perceived technique, effort and discomfort levels. You can also keep aware of your breathing as it also indicates intensity level: • No intensity: exhale on compression, inhale on expansion. It can be easy to not connect your breathing to movement on a no intensity session, but be sure to deliberately allow exhalation as you compress your lungs with movement (like bending over in spinal circles – allow the exhale to happen.)


SURVIVAL PART II: Mission Briefing Reports ! !

• Survival Basic • Survival Intermediate • Survival Advanced 18

ABOUT TO GET STARTED...!

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Here’s how you’re performing the programs... Each of your Survival programs involves 6 exercises performed for 8 consecutive sets of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest,(totaling 4 minutes / exercise), with a 1 minute break in between exercises. This is how you will put each into practice (See Scoring Chart): Survival Level 1: Basic • Perform each exercise for 8 sets of 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off. • Take 1 minute recovery between each exercise (30 minutes total program length) • Follow the exercises in this sequence: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Ground Compression Penetration Kick Rolling Sprawl Survival Plank Rear Spring Kick Wall Thrust Kick

• Alternate sides between sets (4 sets right, 4 sets left) Survival Level 2: Intermediate • Perform each exercise for 8 sets of 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off. • Take 1 minute recovery between each exercise (30 minutes total program length) • Follow the exercises in this sequence: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Ground Compression II Penetration Kick II Rolling Sprawl II Survival Plank II Rear Spring Kick II

6. Wall Thrust Kick II

• Alternate sides between sets (4 sets right, 4 sets left) Survival Level 3: Advanced • Perform each exercise for 8 sets of 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off. • Take 1 minute recovery between each exercise (30 minutes total program length) • Follow the exercises in this sequence: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Ground Compression III Penetration Kick III Rolling Sprawl III Survival Plank III Rear Spring Kick III Wall Thrust Kick III

• Alternate sides between sets (4 sets right, 4 sets left) Training Guidance: • Crank out as many reps as possible while maintaining good form. • During the 1 minute break, shake it off, recover your breathing and lower your heart rate in preparation for the next push. • Focus on completing as many reps as you can and then pause to shake it off. Keep track of your reps and strive to at least equal what you did in the prior round. • Your Objective is to add one or two reps to your previous best each session. In this way, youʼre always making progress and youʼre keeping it within safe limits.

The 3 Levels of Sophistication: There are three levels of difficulty to each task, so they are always accessible and challenging regardless of whether youʼre an experienced tactical athlete, or fresh off the teat. • Basic is for you to begin developing the mechanics of the training and get your teeth bloody. • Intermediate is for when you’ve had several missions notched on your stock, and have no problem adapting to errors and surprises without pain. • Advanced is for those of you seasoned operators who can exhale through a crisis and keep form under stress. Begin at the level appropriate to your current ability and experience. Remember: high-rise skyscrapers build upon concrete, not sand. It's not simply a matter of imitating an external movement, but the internal experience of exercise. Your objective is to reap 100% of the benefit from every injuryfree repetition.


The “Video Download Briefings” included in this dossier explain every single exercise in all 3 missions of TACFIT Survival using precision coaching cues and performance goals.

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TACFIT Survival Basic Level 2

1

Penetration Kick

Ground Compression

4

3

Rolling Sprawl

Survival Plank

6

5

Wall Thrust Kick

Rear Spring Kick

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BASIC: GROUND COMPRESSION! Start in flat foot squat position. With shoulder wide press the ground with your hands keeping your fingers pointing forwards. Your stomach should be against your quads, the weight is balance between hands and feet. Your back should naturally rounding almost flat and your crown aligned with the tailbone.

In the basic version: rotate left hand outside pointing your fingers toward the thumb of the right hand then jump without lifting your back and butt in the direction of the turned hand. Remember to keep pressing the ground to keep elbow and shoulder pack and your core active. Do not lift or sit on your legs. To go back in starting position turn now the left hand inside and jump back in the flat foot squat press as you started.

Rotate right hand outside pointing your fingers toward the thumb of the left hand. Then jump without lifting your back and butt in the direction of the turned hand. Remember to keep pressing the ground to keep elbow and shoulder pack and your core active. Don’t lift or sit on your legs. Keep going left and right for the time of the exercises. Focus on keeping flat foot and press with your open wide fingers.

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BASIC: PENETRATION KICK! Start from a wide downward facing dog position, you want to have your feet at shoulder wide stance, your back a little rounded and you want to focus on pressing the ground both with feet and hands. Keep your knee locked and flatfoot stance.

Lift one hand and kick the opposite leg through to replace the lifted hand. Land and absorb with hips down. Press the ground from flat foot and your hands driving your hips up till you reach a table position. Do not extend backward, your neck. Press your knees actively toward each other to get strong hips drive and core activation.

Drive you hips down and lift the same arm and leg you lifted before; pulling now your knee to chest and kick your leg backward to downward facing dog.

Make sure you press with your heels down to feel the posterior chain working. Lift now opposite hand and do same movement to the other side.

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BASIC: ROLLING SPRAWL!

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Standing foot shoulder wide and point your toes forward as you're on trail track. Squat down to flatfoot position. Tuck your chin to your chest as you engage the ground. Exhale and control the movement like in a spinal rock. Roll backward vertebra by vertebra keeping knees to chest.

Keeping knee to chest roll over one shoulder (do not roll on your neck). Roll back on soft tissue without pressing into the ground with your skull. Exhale to sprawl backward half way through the rear roll. During the roll, keep your arms close to your body; if you need, at beginning you can assist yourself with one hand. At the end of sprawl, rotate the opposite forearm to put you in a push up position.

From sprawl position drive your heels to the ground and rotate them in a swimming motion. This uses the power of your hips and core to get back in flatfoot squat. DO NOT push with your major pec and triceps. Come back to standing position and do again the complete rolling sprawl on the same shoulder for the entire round. Switch shoulders the next round.

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BASIC: SURVIVAL PLANK!

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Start in plank position but focus on pressing your heels backward to feel your quads and core activation. Rotate in one direction from the hip, while extending your arm to lock your elbow. Pivot your feet together with your hips as a total unit. This enters the side plank position. Overlap one foot on top of another and stay on the blade of your grounded foot. Drive your hips toward the sky while you pressing your hand in the ground to make your plank flat. Keep your top elbow locked to keep shoulder pack position. This helps prevent you from falling backward. The free hand will be close to your body as if holding something on your chest. Rotate now inside and like if you want to strike the ground with your top hand to fall back into plank. Exhale to get maximal shock absorption and keep feet and legs tight together.

When you reach bottom plank, do not stop holding this posture but use the momentum and rotate on the opposite side. If your exhale and momentum are in flow you’ll maximize power to reach the opposite plank. Once again, focus on having fleet overlap each other and drive your hips up. Tighten your body to get more drive and benefit from this movement. Keep rolling side to side for the entire round.

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BASIC: REAR SPRING KICK!

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Get in plank position like in the Survival plank. Keep your hips and chest off of the ground and keep pressing your heels backward to fire your quads. Keep your elbows close to your ribcage and your head relaxed facing down to the floor.

From plank, pull one of your knees against your chest as deep as possible in the same line between your hands. Keep your hips down and press the ground with your hands to reach elbow lock. Never leave the ground with your hands. In this middle position, your rear leg is driving backward. Drive backward your heel as deep as you can to lock your knee.

When you switch knees, kick the bent knee back as if you mule kick with your heel. Pull the opposite knee to your chest, then kick back and go to plank again. Continue left and right for the entire round. Do not perform a push up but drive your hips forward while your knee is coming to the chest. In this manner you'll use less pec and triceps. Keep your elbows very tight to your rib cage.

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BASIC: WALL THRUST KICK! Start from a quad position close to a wall. Balance your weight on your hands and legs evenly. Stay on the balls of your feet and keep your back flat. Look down to the floor but be careful not to round your neck.

Inwardly rotate toward the wall and kick the wall flatfoot. Perform it as if doing a TACFIT “SitThru.” Press the ground with the outside hand while you pull the other in tight to your chest, to activate your core and help you to keep shoulder pack and safe. Do not look at the wall while you're pivoting toward it; keep focusing on the ground.

Extend the leg to knee lock, so if you need to step a little away from wall in order to reach full extend leg, do it. The foot of the leg engaging the wall should be kept horizontal. Once you reach full extend position, recall your leg to quad position, focusing on your core activation to pull the foot back to quad press. Exhale in both motions, kicking and pulling to limit your hyperventilation. Keep going in and out for the entire the round. Then on the next round switch to face the other side and kick with the opposite leg.

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TACFIT Survival Intermediate Level 2

1

Penetration Kick II

Ground Compression II

4

3

Survival Plank II

Rolling Sprawl II

6

5

Wall Thrust Kick II

Rear Spring Kick

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INTERMEDIATE: GROUND COMPRESSION II! Start flat foot with shoulders wide. Press the ground with your hands. Your belly should be against your quads; the weight equally balanced between hands and feet.

Rotate left hand outside pointing your fingers toward the thumb of the right hand then jump without lifting your back and butt in the direction of the turned hand.

When you reach turned squat press position, sprawl backward. Be careful because you’ll have the elbows facing different directions. Exhale when you sprawl and keep both elbow (especially the one of the rotated hand) very close to the rib cage. Do a complete sprawl landing in asymmetric push up position. Exhale down. Keep quads, core and pecs fired and do not let your hips touch the ground. From Sprawl drive the hips forward so to explode up to quad press position. Do not push with chest muscles as if you press up but exhale and fire your core while you use your lower frame to do the movement. Back on quad press position, rotate now the opposite hand and perform your pivot on the other side, while you keep focusing on pressing the heart and landing always flat foot.

Sprawl back on the opposite side. Keep focusing on your technique and of total body activation. From sprawl, drive your hips back to squat and keep going left and right till the time is off!

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INTERMEDIATE: PENETRATION KICK II! Start from a wide downward facing dog position, feet at shoulder wide stance and press the ground with feet and hands. Keep your knees locked and flatfoot.

When you lift your hand and kick your leg through, bend your bend against your chest while you rotate inside. Put your hand down as in basic level.

With your knee pressing against your chest, drive your hips up while extending your legs as you kick the sky. Exhale up.

Recover your knee to the chest and do opposite rotation to go back to start position. When you reach your half table, perform your kick having your hips doing the movement, do not flash your feet. Press your foot out actively (exhale on final position). Press up as much as you can without lifting your hand and pressing feet from ground.

Every time you go back to downward facing dog, focus on pushing back with index fingers and thumbs. Do drive your heels into the ground. Lift opposite hand now and go through the rotation on the opposite direction.

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INTERMEDIATE: ROLLING SPRAWL II! From standing position, perform your squat to roll over your shoulder and finish in sprawl pushup position as before.

From sprawl drive your hip up and get back to squat,. Tuck your tailbone under and drive hips up to reach stand position.

Perform a little shuffle run forward for 2 or 3 steps. Do this every time you come up from the rolling sprawl.

Squat down again but this time be aware to roll on the other shoulder, tuck your arms inside close to chest and focus on rolling or the soft tissue.

Sprawl back again and do the forearm rotation to drive you back on the perfect alignment to jump up again and be ready to sprawl on the other side.

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INTERMEDIATE: SURVIVAL PLANK II! From plank position like in basic level, perform the inside hip rotation. Lock your supporting elbow and pivot your feet together with your hips as a total unit. When you reach the side plank the free hand will be close to your body; but now you’ll perform an elbow strike to the sky. Keep alignment of the extend elbow with the posting shoulder, to prevent the power of the rotation causing you to fall back.

From elbow strike plank you now will have great acceleration driving you back to plank. Don’t slow down the movement. Instead, powerfully exhale while you roll back down and absorb into the ground.

From down position, use the momentum of your exhale to rotate your hips on the opposite side and drive the elbow up for the strike. Achieve velocity going down and use the explosive movement created by the elastic force gained on the absorption to drive you up on the other side striking plank.

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INTERMEDIATE: REAR SPRING KICK II! Perform your rear leg thrust like in the basic level, but this time when your knee will be forward in the same line of your hands, lift your back as if you want sprint “out of the blocks.” Remove your hands from the ground.

Drive your rear leg back and your hips down to your heart. Release the tension upward. Drive hips up and kick back the bent leg. Switch to land on the other foot. Avoid pushing from the quad.

From sprinter position bend forward and put your hand on the ground. Exhale your bent leg back to plank and get ready to start over again.

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INTERMEDIATE: WALL THRUST KICK II! In this variation keep both hands on the ground; a must in order to be able to go through the movement without falling on the ground. Keep knees close to elbows and spread your fingers. Internally rotate your elbow to pack your shoulder and fire your lats.

With solid quad position and your hands pressing the earth away from you, pivot inside with your hips and kick the wall now with both feet together full extended. Keep legs in line of your hips, to avoid rotating the lower back and potentially injuring you.

Hit the wall with your kick flat foot; in order to save your kneecap and build the mechanics for the advanced variation. Once your reach the wall with both feet, you're now holding yourself on your hands. While your legs are extended, your core strength keeps you horizontal. Recall your legs back to quad position. Exhale on both transitions and keep performing for the entire round. Then switch sides.

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TACFIT Survival Advanced Level 2

1

Penetration Kick III

Ground Compression III

4

3

Rolling Sprawl III

Survival Plank III

6

5

Wall Thrust Kick III

Rear Spring Kick III

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ADVANCED: GROUND COMPRESSION III! Start exercise as basic variation. When you reach the push up, do an outside elbow roll extending the arm of the rotated hand. In final position, anchor to the ground with three points: feet and shoulder and your palm facing up.

From this position rotate the forearms inside, pull your elbow close to ribcage. While exhaling, activate your core to bring you back in sprawl position. Keep your hips elevated at the end of this transition.

From push up sprawl position jump back in squat press without leaving the ground with your hands. Be aware that now your hands should be still rotated as they were before the sprawl.

Rotate the elbow that is pointing outside to the inside pivoting your hand and jump back in start position. During transition, focus on your technique and maintain ground compression.

Rotate on the opposite side and sprawl. Hold your coordination with hand, flat foot and exhalation until you go down into sprawl on this side. Pay attention to not let your hips touch the ground.

Do an outside elbow roll extending the arm of the rotated hand. Drive yourself backward on your tricep and lock your elbow .

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ADVANCED: PENETRATION KICK III! From downward facing dog, lift your left hand and do an inside rotation like in the second level, pulling the right knee to your chest.

With knee on your chest you will fold your hips down to load your leg like a cannon. Keep now your left hand close to your face like protecting your vital points. Lock your elbow to your ribcage.

Release your hips and drive up while you execute a front kick focusing on pulling the big toe toward the knee. Exhale and try to hold maximum core activation while your are in the final position and keep your hips in one line horizontally.

Pull back your knee and fold your hips down while maintaining balance pressing down with mid-foot. Keep your shoulder pack on the supporting side. Kick back your leg to downward dog and remember to press back with your index fingers and thumbs so to drive heels on the ground (VERY important.)

From your downward dog lift now your right hand and follow the mechanics as you performed in the left side. Keep going inside and outside for entire round.

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ADVANCED: ROLLING SPRAWL III! From standing perform your squat to reach flatfoot squat. Tuck your chin down and start exhaling while your engage the ground vertebra by vertebra.

Roll over your shoulder and remember to focus not to have your head in contact with the ground, keep your arms close to your body.

When you complete your roll and reach sprawl pushup position, drive the legs of the shoulder where you performed the roll, under the other leg. End facing up now and perform a bridge. Focus throughout the movement to not lift your feet from the ground; in order to drive the transition form your hips.

From the bridge perform now a roll backward to the other shoulder keeping arms inside and be focus on exhaling through the movement.

Driving your legs back and using the forearm rotation like before, end in sprawl pushup position but facing on the opposite direction. Be exactly on the opposite direction and not diagonal.

Pull back your knees and drive your hips up to get back to flatfoot squat and then stand up, ready to perform the Sprawl Navigation again.

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ADVANCED: SURVIVAL PLANK III! Hold your plank and fire all your muscles. Squeeze your elbows to your ribcage and tighten your core with your exhale.

Roll outside focusing on you hips and on extending your elbow till its locked. Do not try to perform a pushup. Drive your elbow straight up.

With a full side plank and elbow reaching the sky, extend your arm driving your fist like a hammer. Punch the air and careful on not let the power pull you on your back. Exhale and squeeze your core to hold the position.

From the extend hammer position look now down to the ground and while you’re doing that exhale and let your weight go down. Keep your elbow close to your ribcage to keep shoulders packed and absorb the shock.

Redirect the energy that you absorbed from the roll to perform the Survival plank with hammer fist on the opposite side. Try to perform it without any rest in the bottom plank transition.

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ADVANCED: REAR SPRING KICK III ! Start like in the second level. Press the ground with your hands. Drive your knees to your chest, so the hip action will push you up. Do not focus on performing a pushup. Make it a spring movement.

In this variation, don’t perform a fast switch. Bend your rear knee and your arms on the same side. Keep the elbow close to the ribcage. Do an outside forearm rotation and anchor yourself with flatfoot of the bent leg, shoulder and top of the foot of the rear leg.

Roll over until your on your back. Keep your feet off the ground, and elbows inside like a Jiujitsu open guard.

From the guard, roll back on the side switching the knees into spring position again. Reach far with the bent leg; as far as you can put the flat of your foot on the ground, to open your hips. Together, with the rotation of your forearm, this will give you momentum to get back into spring position. Switch knee by kicking back the leg and keep pressing down the ground with elbows rotating inside, this will help to keep your core, lats and shoulder active. Bend your other knee and perform the screw push to get back into your Jiujitsu guard. Exhale when you engage the ground. From your open guard shoot back your foot at shoulder high and do the same mechanics as before to rollup again. Keep doing this for the entire round. Holding good technique in this movement will teach you how to stay in flow with your breathing and also using less pec and triceps in the press.

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ADVANCED: WALL THRUST KICK III!

Start as the first level. This time, keep your hands active all time: keep pressing down the ground and find a distance from wall that will give you space to extend your legs at full range of motion.

Rotate hips inside toward the wall and kick now both of your legs. Land horizontal and with both feet flat on the wall, knees almost locked in order to press your heels into the wall, to give you anchorage to stay in wall plank. Do not shoot your legs higher that waist level; to protect your lower back. From wall planck perform 3 steps along with the movement of your hands. Keep pushing with you core the feet inside the wall and keep pressing down with your hands

After 3 steps, jump back on quad on the opposite side. Land exactly as you started, knee close to elbows and always facing down.

Land in quad, exhale and then perform opposite hips rotation to engage the wall again to walk back at starting point..

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ADVANCED: WALL THRUST KICK III! SCORING TACFIT SURVIVAL!

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Athlete Name

Resting Heart Rate

Heart Rate Maximum 205.8 – (0.685 x AGE)

Station Name

Program Name

Date

Target HR Beats per Min HI = 80-100%HRmax = ?BPM MOD= 60-80%HRmax=?BPM

Sets Scored

TOTAL SCORE

Average HR Beats per Minute

Duration to return to Resting HR (N/A without monitor)

HRBPM

RPT

RPE

RPD

AVE HRBPM

AVE RPT

AVE RPE

AVE RPD

Record Program Name, Coach Name, Athlete Name and Date. Record Resting Heartrate. Calculate Athleteʼs Heart Rate Maximum. Calculate Target Intensity in heart rate beats per minute: for High Intensity days 80-100% heart rate maximum; and for Moderate Intensity days 60-80% heart rate maximum. Record Station 1 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute Record Station 2 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute Record Station 3 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute Record Station 4 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute Record Station 5 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute Record Station 6 Sets Scored, Rate of Perceived Technique, Effort, Discomfort and Heart rates beats per minute Record duration between end of program and return to resting heart rate; not applicable without heart rate monitor. Circle Lowest Sets of each Station. Calculate Total Score (add Lowest Sets of each Station). Calculate Average Rate of Perceived Technique (add all 6 and divide by 6) Calculate Average Rate of Perceived Effort (add all 6 and divide by 6) Calculate Average Rate of Perceived Discomfort (add all 6 and divide by 6) Calculate Average Heart Rate Beats per Minute (add all 6 and divide by 6). Record Average Heart Rate Beats per Minute to compare with Target Heart Rate Beats per Minute span. !

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ABOUT THE TACFIT FOUNDER Master of Sport SCOTT SONNON Chief Operations Officer RMAX International WORLD CHAMPION

Find Scott on Facebook or Twitter

NATIO NAL COACH

Scott was “Born to Lose. And Built to Win.” Against all odds, Scott became a champion, and has shared the discoveries he made along the way. The TACFIT team was created by Scott Sonnon, a martial arts champion in Sport Jiujitsu, Submission Grappling, Amateur Mixed Martial Arts, Russian Sambo and Chinese Sanshou. Sonnon capitalized upon advances in biomechanics, stress physiology, athletic biochemistry and sports/combat psychology to become a multiple time USA National Team Coach, named: “One of the 6 Most Influential Martial Artists of the 21st Century” (Black Belt Magazine, 2010) “One of the World’s Top 25 Trainers” (Men’s Fitness Magazine, 2011) Sonnon trained for six years with the former USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and Special Operations Unit (Spetsnaz) Physical Conditioning and Performance Enhancement Specialists at the RETAL (Physical Skill Consultant Scientific & Practical Training) Center, and became the first American to be licensed by the Russian government in these studies. He is also one of a handful of individuals outside the former USSR to earn the coveted “Master of Sport” —the highest athletic distinction recognized in the former Soviet Union. Sonnon’s peak performance enhancement methods are on the scientific cutting-edge, proving themselves again and again where it counts: in the real world, on and off the field of athletics. He now consults for prestigious agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, the US Federal Law Enforcement Training Center FLETC, US Army160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment SOAR, US Customs and Border Protection Advanced Training Center. (Sonnon on right in photo, next to Gallazzi on left. Two warriors who have changed the face of training worldwide.)


TACFIT Survival Manual

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