Episode Details

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Our Favorite Exercises

No guest this week. Just Drew and Alex talking about the exercises they actually love, the ones they've quietly stopped programming, and the ones they think the military is completely sleeping on. It goes longer than expected. There's a lot of meat on this bone.

What we get into:

The barbell reverse lunge keeps showing up in everything Drew writes. There's a reason for that. Single leg work in general gets way less credit than it deserves in the tactical space, and this episode makes the case pretty thoroughly.

Pull-ups are everyone's favorite measure of upper body fitness and almost nobody programs them correctly. Volume, frequency, the way units approach it — there's a lot to fix here.

Running is the exercise everyone programs wrong. Not because they're running, but because they're running the same pace, same distance, same everything, every single week. Alex also makes an extended argument for trail running that he was technically not supposed to provide context for but did anyway.

The Turkish get-up debate — Drew wants more military coaches using them, Alex would rather see a sandbag get-up, and both agree it's the kind of exercise that tells you a lot about a coach based on how they react to it.

Jump rope somehow never comes up in these conversations and probably should. Ido Portal shows up briefly. Crawling gets discussed. Nobody is fully sure where movement culture ends and content begins.

The episode closes with a rapid fire round — seven questions, no context allowed. Most overrated exercise. Most underrated. Exercise everyone programs wrong. Exercise that changed your coaching. One you used to love but gave up. Ugly but effective. Exercise you wish more military coaches used. Both of them say bench press is overrated and are not happy about it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Ido Portal — movement, crawling, linen clothing, possibly Jesus

Robert Forstemann — the cyclist with the legs

Coach Kelleher up in Alaska — rucking conditioning, Jacob's Ladder

Military Athlete / Rob Shaul — sandbag get-ups

Wednesday leave — take it. This is a public service announcement.

Long and Strong — the Mops and Moes training program on TrainHeroic

All-Access Bundle — all of our programs, rehab plans, and more, all in one place!

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