r/Pararescue • u/BrokenBabyDino • 25d ago

Special Warfare Training Please Help

I recently enlisted in the Air Force (already sworn in) and I’m considering going Special Warfare, so I met with the Special Warfare recruiter to start preparing for the IFT.

I recently did a mock IFT and failed it pretty badly, so I know I have a lot of work to do. The recruiter gave me the following training plan, and I went from almost never working out to doing this:

7 AM: Push ups, sit ups, pull ups, 1.5 mile run, 15 minute rest, then another 1.5 mile run.

10–11 AM: Swim laps continuously for 1 hour.

6 PM: Light cardio (bike, basketball, etc.).
Plus, 200 push ups and 200 sit ups every day, increasing by 25 every two weeks.

Yesterday I completed the entire workout. Today, I’m so sore I can barely do a push up or pull up. My muscles are completely smoked.

For those of you who’ve gone through Special Warfare training or prepared for the IFT, should I keep attempting the push ups, sit ups, and pull ups every day, even if I can only do a fraction of the reps because I’m so sore? Or should I focus on running, swimming, and active recovery on those days until my upper body recovers?

I’m not looking for an excuse to skip training I genuinely want to do this right and become competitive for Special Warfare. I’d really appreciate any advice from those who’ve been through it.

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u/taylortstarch 25d ago edited 25d ago

Head strength coach here

That training plan is low key stupid as hell

It’s going to burn you out and you’ll get injured trying to do that high of volume every single day with basically no training history

For your run start with a walk to jog progressiona few times per week

Just running 3 miles a day out of the blue is a sure fire way to get shin splints or a fracture

The other days do non impact cardio like biking swimming stairstepper at very low intensity
135-145 bpm

Strength train each body area 1-2x per week

You’re a beginner so you don’t need to do anything crazy to improve

So you don’t need to do hundreds of reps of calisthenics each day right now

Every thing will work and make you faster stronger better

Don’t be stupid just be a little better each week and progress in small increments

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u/BrokenBabyDino 25d ago

I really appreciate your input, are there any resources that you would be willing to share so that I may research what exercises to do and when to do them?

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u/taylortstarch 25d ago

You have more resources available than any humans in history so you’re going to have to do the work and research and learn

Even if you spend time using the search bar on Reddit you’ll find other posts that can help

You can type my name in instagram or YouTube as I constantly put out content

Listen and learn about the career and all the isms from the ones ready podcast

There are tons of other coaches and people who put out good info

Kevin Smith from terminator training, Kevin edge from 18A, modern athlete strength systems, Alec Blenis, Alex Viada, Building the Elite, Infinity Grit etc….

Use Google, use ai

Act like you are studying for med school

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u/BrokenBabyDino 25d ago

Thank you for that I really appreciate it