Strength Training For Tactical Athletes: The Unsung Hero For Dropping Run Times - Part 2 of 4
- Jul 16
- 8 min read
We finished Part 1 with a running game plan. Easy, hard, and moderate runs throughout the week, moving slow, fast, and practicing pacing. Your internal monitor and RPE gauge are improving and you're practicing the skill of running. If you don't do anything else, your run times will improve. But, we need to realize improving runs and performing at full capacity are completely different things.
If you want to perform at full capacity, you need the strength to support it. Without the strength to endure the increased mileage, you are destined to come face to face with the all too common running injuries. The bad news? Sometimes injuries happen and are out of our control. The good news? Many of them can be prevented (outside of freak accidents). I like to look at injuries as a symptom, not a diagnosis. The best way to avoid injuries is to prevent them in the first place. In my experience, enough strength is a great way to get ahead.
The tactical athlete who did everything right on the pavement, but neglected the barbell is not only a liability in uniform. They are also a liability by increasing the likelihook of shin splits, aches, and pains. While most people play the blame game for injuries, you can create staying power both in uniform, and on the track. That's what Part 2 is about. Not "lifting for lifting's sake", but using strength so you can thrive on your runs while surviving contact with real life.
Strength Training For Tactical Athletes Isn't Optional
Here's the principle to build everything else around:
Faster than lighter. Stronger than heavier.
You're not trying to become a bodybuilder. You're not trying to become a powerlifter either. You're also not trying to be the typical runner. But, we can steal tactics from all three and make them uniform specific. The goal is to find your "strong enough". The point where your strength stops being the limiter on your run times and your injury risk. Not being light as a feather, but transferring that size into a freight train that can do all things.
Strength training is the unsung hero:
Improved quality, function, and mobility - how well the tissue actually works under load, and moves through a full range of motion.
Strength, hypertrophy, and power - the raw capacity to produce force, and the muscle to support it.
Durability - a resilient body that properly progressed running won't do alone.
Force production and coordination - the ability to put force into the ground efficiently, which is a big piece of what actually makes you faster.
The Three Mistakes That Keep Tactical Athletes Hurt and Slow
1 - Not Respecting The System
Our body is a system. Meaning that everything we do has first, second, and third order effects. What that means is we can not have everything maxed out at once. Often times when talking to tactical athletes, this combination of goals is often what I hear:
Under 12% body fat
Deadlift 2x bodyweight
60-80 pushups in 2 min
3 mile run under 22 minutes
20 pull-ups
Bench press 1.5x bodyweight
There is nothing wrong with these goals (I actually like the competitive nature). The problem arises when we smash a powerlifting program, running improvement plan, and calisthenics together and full send it. Grazing six targets, instead of hitting a bullseye and moving to the next. You can work on multiple goals at once, but they all need to respect one another.
If running is the limiting factor, you need to target it and prioritize it, while not letting anything fall off course. That's going to offer you the most ROI, and directly affect all of the other goals. I like to look at our limiter as an e-brake on all other targets. You bring that up, and everything else will follow the course. Your biggest weakness will always be the failure point.
What this means is if your mileage is progressing, you're better off holding the line on strength - not trying to seamlessly progress everything at the same time. That does not mean sandbagging sessions, that means keeping the main thing the main thing. The reality? If you allow your body to adapt, you will maingain your strength - a combination of maintaining the current strength stimulus while the total keeps climbing.
2 - Strength Training "Like a Runner"
Strength training is not conditioning. Yet, I've seen tactical athletes try to "hack" their strength training by taking specificity to the next level. Loaded running, bodyweight calisthenics, high rep - low load work, or strength training that looks like running. This mentality neglects all of the qualities above that strength training should give us. These are all sub-optimal run times disguised as moving without progress.
You already get plenty of high-rep, bodyweight, cardiovascular stress from running, rucking, and PT. Doing more of it in the weight room isn't strength training, it's just more volume stacked on a weak body. Don't neglect the basics or try to re-create the wheel. Remember the intent of strength: load the tissue enough that it adapts, not just enough that you sweat.
To put this into perspective, let's look at a muscle that gets beat up during running. Take the soleus, the deep calf muscle that absorbs a massive amount of impact every time your foot hits the ground. A soleus that isn't strong enough to tolerate impact can start referring pain everywhere around it - hip, knee, ankle, and foot pain, calf strains, achilles injuries, shins ("shin splints"), and plantar fasciitis. The issue isn't that running is bad for you. The issue may have been solved if strength was never a weakness. Strength work is treatment and prevention at the same time.
3 - Too Much Volume, Not Enough Intensity
I don't think tactical athletes train as hard as they think they do. There is a caveat here, training hard does not equal sweat, soreness, and fatigue. I like to look at training hard as:
Intentional - Form is dialed in. Full range of motion. Mind muscle connection is engaged. You're hitting the desired RPE while controlling tempo.
Resting - Working hard enough during your set, that you NEED your rest period.
Training > testing - The mentality brought to each rep, set, and rest interval. We are focused on hitting the required stimulus. Not just throwing weight around.
With this intent, you won't need more training (or won't be able to handle more). If you bring this approach to the traditional dumpster fires of training it will take too long, sets will get sloppy, and recovery will be non-existent. Because of this, I've found 2-3 sets of strength work to be plenty. Lower volume, higher intensity strength work is easier to recover from - fewer total repetitions under fatigue, less cumulative joint stress, and a clear signal of adaption. For running goals, high-volume, low-intensity nonsense lifting gives you the worst of both worlds: not enough stimulus to build real strength, and fatigue to blunt your next run.
I will die on the hill of minimum effective dose: Doing the least amount of work to elicit positive adaptations. Now we have room to add to training. Stop working overtime in the gym and not getting paid for it.
The Target
General recommendation: 2-4x strength training days per week.
I tend to bias full body training (FBT), though upper/lower or upper/lower/FBT splits work too, depending on your schedule and how many days you can actually commit. Whatever split you choose, the structure of each session stays very similar. This is the approach we use in our Everyday Responder System:
General warmup: Elevate heart rate. Ankles, knees, hips, shoulders - get them moving through range before you load them.
Primer: Stability, mobility, CNS prep, durability. This is where you wake the system up and address the specific weak links running or potential demands could expose. We use a variety of tactics in the primer spot:
Sled work
"Pump work"
Single leg work
Plyometrics
Core
Main movers and secondary: Your primary strength movements. Squat, hinge, and push or pull patterns, loaded and heavy relative to you. This is where "strong enough" actually gets built. Leave a couple reps in the tank - this isn't RPE 10 testing, it's training. Remember to actually train hard.
Squat variations (ex. front squat, hack squat, SSB squat, belt squat)
Hinge variations (ex. TBDL, RDL, back raises, belt squat RDL, rack pull)
Single leg variations (ex. deficit reverse lunge, step up, SL RDL, SL hip thrust, lunge)
Push (ex. incline DB, smith machine, machine press, deficit pushup, standing DB press)
Pull (ex. chest supported row, pull-up variations, DB row, lat pull down, T-bar row)
Finishers: I call this dessert. The "fun stuff" is earned after the main movers.
Arm farms: Blast biceps, triceps, and shoulders.
Weaknesses: Directly target secondary or tertiary goals.
Conditioning: Higher intensity conditioning (combining strength and conditioning allows us to hit it hard - and initiate the recovery process for the rest of the week).
Sample Week Of Training
We have built the overall strength training strategy. Now I want to give you a way to see this all in action. This is an example, which doesn't mean it will be perfect for you. Focus on principles over the specifics.
Day 1:
1A - Seated Box Jump (vertical) 2 x 3
1B - Med Ball Slams 2 x 5
1C - Single Arm Overhead Carry 2 x 30s
2 - TBDL 3 x 4-6
3 - Dips (Weighted) 3 x 6-8
4A - Half Kneeling Cable Row 2-3 x 8-10
4B - Deficit Reverse Lunge 2-3 x 8-10
5 - Speed Intervals 6 x 30s @RPE 8-9 (Rest 2:00)
Day 2: 30-45 minute easy run (conversational pace @RPE 4-6)
Day 3: Off / Flex day
Day 4:
1A - Seated leg curls 2 x 10-12
1B - Deadhangs 2 x 30s
2 - Front Squat 3 x 4-6
3 - Weighted Pullups 3 x 6-8
4A - Incline DB Bench 2-3 x 8-10
4B - GHD Back Raises 2-3 x 8-10
5A - Chest Supported Laterals 2 x 1-2 reps before failure
5B - Pushups 2 x 1-2 reps before failure
5C - Seated Incline Curls 2 x 1-2 reps before failure
Day 5:
1A - Pogo hops 2 x 30s
1B - Pogo in and outs 2 x 30s
1C - Pogo switches 2 x 30s
2 - Easy pace (warm up) 5-10:00 minutes @RPE 4-6
3 - Progression runs 3 x 5 min. Rest 2:00 (each interval increase RPE 4-6, 6-8, 7-8)
4 - Easy pace (cooldown) 5-10:00 minutes @RPE 4-6
Day 6 & 7: Off / Flex day
Why this split?
We hit fast, slow, and practice pacing when it comes to our runs. Strength stimulus is hit, but not overbearing (especially if you actually train hard). Plus, we have three separate off / flex days where we can flex our schedule if life punches us in the face. Again, if you think this is "too easy," I would review our definition of what training hard means.
How Strength and Running Actually Work Together
Running builds the engine. Strength builds the frame the engine sits in.
An engine without a frame doesnt move. A frame without an engine doesnt move either.
Neither one wins the 2 mile alone.
You're allowed to train both without being mediocre at both. We just proved it.
What's Next
Running and strength are half the equation. You can train both perfectly and still stall out if what's fueling the system is working against you.
Part 3 covers nutrition - what actually moves the needle for a tactical athlete, and what's just noise.
PS - we also cover your nutrition strategy in our Tactical Readiness Blueprint. If you want to skip the guess work, you can use the assessment below to get your blueprint built:
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