Tacfit Warrior Manual

!

WARNING:  This  eBook  is  for  your  personal   use  only.      You  may  NOT  Give  Away,  Share  Or   Resell  This  Intellectual  Property  In  Any  Way All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2010 – 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.

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.

1

Throughout history, the successful warrior has been the ordinary man and woman with extra-ordinary focus. This exposes the truth that success is a trainable and programmable attribute, like strength, agility, endurance and stamina. Don't waste the most chemically rich environment in your daily schedule: exercise and focus upon your personal goals. destitutus ventis, remos adhibe. (If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.) Timing and Grace often await self-effort. Often we cannot wait until the iron is hot to strike; often we must make it hot by striking. - Scott Sonnon

an RMAX International Production

WELCOME WARRIORS... TACFIT Warrior... the program under the program. Yes, there's a completely unique exercise system in Warrior... a tightly sequenced array of "smart" exercises which stimulate the nervous system and body chemistry in the signature fashion of TACFIT. TACFIT never fails, for who dares wins. Qui audet adipiscitur! But this is the Science of Mind-Body Exercise. There’s a program under the program, a mind interwoven with the movement, a more entrenched layer of mental and emotional strategies that intertwine with the exercise. You can stumble about through movements and never touch these methods, like I did for years. But I had no choice but to dig deeper. Genetically, I needed to exploit every technological advantage in order to succeed, not just physically, but also educationally and vocationally. To even rehearse a technique in fighting required specific mind-focusing tactics to combat the neural chaos of my learning disabilities, and lift me to world championship gold. The fog and friction of the commercial battlefield differed little from hand to hand combat: the mental are to the physical as 3 is to 1. Whoever can cycle faster mentally wins in all endeavors. Strategies to refine the mind’s agility should be our central focus of our material success, and yet... the body’s agility literally programs the mind. A program under the program... which can then be used with all TACFIT courses, and which will infect the weaknesses in all of our daily tasks with a virus of success, the bacteria of discipline. TACFIT Warrior's mental techniques elegantly plug-and-play with any of the TACFIT fleet of programs. Let’s begin...

TACFIT® is a registered mark of Sconik International, LLC

2 RMAX International | PO BOX 501388, Atlanta, GA 31150 USA | phone 1.678.867.RMAX (7629) | fax 1.678.867.7676

Using This Manual 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 manual serves as your base camp, and you need to be totally familiar with it. Download all Pre-Recruit instructional videos. Study the movements carefully. Download the Warm Up and Cool Down recovery videos. Download the Strain Prevention and Stress Conversion program videos. Print out the Pre-Recruit Program Calendar and Chart. This will guide you for the next 28 days. (If pre-recruit is too challenging, start with “Warrior Lite” program we’ve included in your armory.) Go to Day One of the Calendar and start working! Upon successful completion of Pre-Recruit level, repeat these same steps with the Recruit, Grunt and Commando levels. 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.

3

Part 1: Introductory Briefing Background I was the first Westerner licensed to teach the "Russian System of Training" in Russia — by this I mean that I was the first foreigner to be licensed in Russia, and I was also the first foreigner to teach to members of the Russian Spetsnaz. While studying in Russia I ran morning sessions during our camps, a huge honor and a major controversy given that I am American. Many of you will be old enough to remember the tension between America and the former Soviet Union. Its expansionistic policies and apparent paranoia seemed to place our cultures on an inevitable collision course, that culminating in the Cuban Missile crisis, and the brink of World War Three. But one thing many Americans didn't understand about our Russian friends - they had had a dramatically different experience during World War Two. And without understanding that difference, it would be impossible to understand the evolution of the U.S.S.R. During the conflict, the United States suffered some 300,000 total casualties, 1,700 of them civilians. The Soviets lost almost nine MILLION military personnel and 19 million civilians. To put it another way, please remember the fear and anger that followed the attacks of 9/11. We lost three thousand people, due to an attack designed to target “soft”civilian targets. The Russians suffered more than FOUR THOUSAND times as many casualties. It is hardly surprising that they might wish a wide defensive perimeter, as well as view the world with a certain black-and-white perspective. But they also needed to deal with the massive, almost incomprehensible amount of fear and stress inflicted on their population, the kind of mortal anxiety that can cripple a people for generations. Whatever they did to prepare their people for life, for combative service, and for sportive display had to be extraordinary. And extraordinary it was.

4

During the entire Twentieth Century, the Russians spent billions of rubles studying the intricacies of human high performance. We certainly had more money to spend, and in no way were they smarter than American scientists, but they did have a fascinating advantage: they have an old culture. Within the Soviet empire were people who had lived in the same locations for not merely hundreds but thousands of years. And that meant that they had folk knowledge that had been proven for countless generations through practical experimentation. Living in harsh environments, there is no room for pretty theory. But there is time for deep wisdom, passed from father to son and mother to daughter. And it was in places like these that the Soviet sports and military scientists ferreted out secrets that, by the middle of the century, would be applied not just to the healing of their people but in the creation of one of the greatest military forces the world had ever seen - second only to that of the wealthiest nation in the world, the United States of America. Remembering that the efficiency of an army is not merely in its weaponry and tactics, but the morale of its troops, one of the core concerns was to build into its training programs not merely physical fitness, but emotional readiness as well. And the most important aspect of this was resistance to stress. STRESS IS NOT THE ENEMY We’re all familiar with the concept of stress, the pressures of life that can cause catabolism, immune breakdown, tunnel vision, conceptual inflexibility and just generally screw up your whole day. Well, it turns out that the problem may have been misdiagnosed. Hans Selye, the genius who originally popularized the concept of stress, spoke about five languages, and English was not his first. Before he died, he was quoted as saying that if English had been his first language, he might have been known as the “Father of Strain” rather than the “Father of Stress.” What’s the difference?

5

Well, from an engineering point of view, Stress equals pressure per unit area, whereas Strain equals deformation per unit length. The difference is critical. It is stress that triggers all growth: physical, psychological, emotional, whatever. Think back over your life, and remember the times when you EXPLODED to a new level of potential. Almost invariably, it was in response to something uncomfortable in your life, either the urge to avoid pain, or the desire to reach a new level of pleasure. So long as the stress is handled gradually enough for your body/mind’s progressive adaptation response to kick in, the only way your system can respond is by growing stronger. If, on the other hand, the stress happens too quickly, or in an unbalanced load, you get STRAIN, and begin to break down. Catabolism. This stress can be psychological as well as physical. Imagined as well as real. Strange as it may seem, your nervous system doesn’t differentiate between an actual event and one vividly imagined. The link between mind and body explains both the efficiency and flaw of traditional lie detection apparatus. The stress of concealing information from an interrogator triggers a cascade of physiological events: depth and rate of breathing, pupillary contraction, galvanic skin response, blood pressure, heart beat rate, and more. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the feedback loop goes both ways. If you can control some of these physiological reflexes, the others will often come along for the ride. BREATH, MOVEMENT, AND STRUCTURE One of the core Soviet teachings dealt with the interplay of three major factors in the formation of any physical technique: Breath, Movement, and Structural alignment. The “Be Breathed” which you will learn in this course, is designed to not merely teach this idea, but to integrate it on an unconscious level.

6

The Flow State Performance Spiral, which you shall also learn in this course, suggests that in a combative engagement, one explanation for the vast difference between the martial arts master and the student during a sparring session (or between a combative expert and his attacker in the field) is that the Master maintains and improves integration of these aspects, while simultaneously “dismantling” them in the student. The master is rising up into the “Zone” while the student is spiraling down into the “Void.” In fact, the phenomenon of psychological time distortion, where the master has all the time in the world to strike while the student flails in panic, can be attributed to the differential between these two things—the Master rising to greater calm integration of these aspects, while the student falls into disarray. The Master experiences stress, but not strain. In fact, the master has programmed his nervous system so that stress actually triggers a re-integrative response. THIS was one of the greatest secrets of disciplines like Combat Sambo Spetsnaz and Systema - that their physical exercises actually taught this discipline whether the master discussed it openly or not. The repatterning of the nervous system doesn’t happen on the conceptual level. It happens while learning to move smoothly and efficiently under steadily increasing levels of discomfort and Circulo-Respiratory Distress. And the key to this is two things, just two things which, if you will learn and apply them, will totally transform not merely your physical performance, but your entire life. Years ago, I introduced the concept of “Perpetual Exercise” to allow our students, combat athletes, police and First Responders to vastly increase the effects of their training. Busy people simply don’t have the luxury of training for hours a day (I’m the luckiest guy in the world. One of the greatest side-benefits of my own lifestyle: I get paid to work out!). I wanted to give these courageous men and women “the ultimate edge.” So I asked myself the question: what if I didn’t teach “exercise” in the traditional sense? What if, instead, I taught students not just to sophisticate their physical motion, but to improve the connection between mind and body? What if I taught them to put this new awareness, new sophistication into every step they took, every breath that moved through their lungs?

7

The puzzle swirled in my mind for years, but I believed there was an answer. It had to be simple, it had to be effective, it had to be safe, and it had to be something that worked for housewives and warriors, athletes and former couch potatoes. The answer, as has happened so many times in my life, came from the warrior arts. I should have known - a warrior is someone willing to put his mind and body on the line for his values, his family, his country. Not merely willing to die - that could be said of a martyr. But someone willing to destroy in order to protect, a step which requires an additional level of mental and moral clarity. There are many archetypes in the psychological pantheon: teacher, healer, artist, priest… and warrior. But beneath all of them is the paired dyad of creation AND destruction. For most, “destruction” is an abstract, a “way of putting things.” For a warrior, this is an actual physical reality. But even if one elevated the role of the warrior, I couldn’t discount the other values. In Chinese martial arts, the highest respect is offered to the “Master of the Five Excellences” - medicine, art, calligraphy, poetry - and fighting. It is through understanding the way of excellence in each of these that the transcendent knowledge appeared. There is nothing theoretical about this for the soldier, the peace officer, or the martial artist. So I believed that the answer would be found here, where the stakes are greatest, and the rubber most assuredly meets the road. A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY SAMURAI Poring over the collected martial wisdom of the world, the work of the most famous Japanese swordsman in history struck a particular cord. Musashi Miyamoto, “Ronin of the World” wrote of discovering the “art of strategy” and that once he discovered it, was able to master “a number of disciplines” (including art, calligraphy, and sculpture) with no teacher. Re-reading his “Book Of Five Rings” he gave a clue in his statement, “Let your everyday stance be your combat stance. And let your combat stance be your everyday stance.” In other words, find the essential something which, properly expressed, will change the nature and function of everything else. Some simple thing or things which you can concentrate upon whenever you are consciously aware, which will change the very complexion and nature of all performance. Ideally, it will change the very nature of your existence, to the point that you are BECOMING this new, more sophisticated being twenty-four hours a day.

8

Do you see? If such a thing was possible, you would not be practicing medicine one day, martial arts the next, and poetry the day after that. You are merely sophisticating yourself, purifying yourself, and then in each context just being who you are, expressing your excellence in a different arena. As Bruce Lee said, “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” The original, formless self. The masters had found the secret of moving beyond forms to the original energy that creates all excellence. And the Russians, like the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Indian Yogis, had found the breath to be the connection between mind and body. But, just possibly… it took Americans to put it all together in a simple, turnkey system, stripped of dogma and revved up like a rocket. And you are about to be one of the very first to experience this Next-Level, 21st Century training. This is the time. 9/11 showed us that there are no battle-lines. We are all warriors now. In a world of crumbling classrooms, we are all teachers. In a world of degraded nutrition and pollution, we must all be doctors. We must all be excellent, 24/7, or we risk being nothing at all.

9

While some of the intent may have shifted, the core of this program, as other members of the TACFIT family, is efficient, fatshredding movement. My first task was to remember that both First Responders and Householders are busy to the eyeballs, and when we contemplate adding an additional “layer” to help focus gained physical energy into your life, we can’t add time to the most basic components without cheating the very people we are most committed to helping. So…let’s lay down some basic ideas. 1. Mental Focus. Also known as “Goal Setting.” Simply put, to know WHAT you’re going to do with the energy once you have it. What are the tasks most important to perform on a daily, weekly, monthly basis? What are your long-term operational ends? Without knowing where you’re going on vacation, you just load up the car and drive in circles. No way to spend the summer. To use this program to the limits, you need three goals: a physical body-transformation goal (for instance: to lose ten pounds), a career or education goal (for instance: to finish a project or gain X new clients), and a personal/emotional goal (for instance: to spend more /better time with your spouse, to journal for twenty minutes a day, to meditate or ask that special someone for a date) You are going to think about these goals at carefully selected moments during your exercise. You are going to be fatigued, trust me—so the representation of your goals must be CLEAR and SIMPLE. A photographable moment would be great: the Dean handing you a diploma, with you in your cap and gown. Cutting the ribbon on your new store. Seeing your new body in the mirror. The referee raising your hand in victory. Exiting that burning building with a child safely in your arms. Being able to SEE the goal magnifies your powers considerably. So: three pictures. “Body,” “Career/Education” and “Personal Development.” If you can hold the image in your mind through the kind of stress you’re going to experience, you will create an almost unstoppable torrent of motivation, and the ability to blow through the kinds of barriers that halt others in their tracks. And fear? Sure, it will be there, pumping strength into your heart and muscles. But you won’t be afraid of your fear. Won’t be guilty, or worried, or ashamed of the fear. Because in life, you either have time to act, or you have time to worry about your fear. Make a choice.

10

2. Behavioral Modification. Unless your behaviors, thoughts and feelings are already in perfect alignment with your long and short-term ends, you will find that you must make changes to long-entrenched habits and attitudes. Living systems crave homeostasis (stability). Habits will fight back for dear life! The pattern of Behavioral Modification is as follows: a) b) c) d) e) f)

Identify the pattern you wish to change Identify the pattern you wish to adopt Raise your energy level Practice the new pattern Fail Successfully Start over again.

Most people know what they DON’T want in their lives, but not what they do. So…just taking the step to write down your dreams and goals puts you way ahead of your rivals. Most also don’t consider that to break a long-standing habit it is critical to RAISE your energy. YOU CAN’T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS That saying is most true when the old dog runs out of energy. The entire TacFit series is dynamite for increasing energy levels for multiple reasons: increased metabolism, improved fat-muscle ratios, decreased muscle tension (“taking off the brakes”), improved posture, improved focus, and more. But perhaps the most important, little-understood aspect of achieving excellence is “Failing successfully.” Every champion in any arena knows that he must contest with superior opponents to learn and grow. The salesman knows he has to hear “no” before he’ll hear “yes.” And Thomas Edison knew it would take 10,000 failures to make one measly light bulb. When most people fall off a diet, they interpret this as “I can’t” as opposed to simply grasping that they are experiencing the natural resistance to change that marks true progress. The warrior falls down…but he also gets back up again.

11

3. Stress Management. Every fighter, public speaker, artist, entrepreneur or high-performer knows fear…just like the rest of humanity. It is a natural experience, and just a product of the human fight or flight response. The problem isn’t fear… it is making the mistake of thinking your fear response means you Cannot or Should Not go ahead. The sympathetic nervous system (triggered by danger or competition) generates a cascade of powerful hormones preparing us for action. The parasympathetic nervous system gives us calming effects, and helps us center, relax, and go to sleep. In the modern world, we are more likely to be frightened by unpaid bills than saber-tooth tigers. But you can’t just run from bills, and the tunnel-vision and agitation produced by anxiety can prevent us from seeing the options available for resolving such problems, sending us into a negative spiral. The trick is to balance these two systems. TACFIT Warrior does this through having you produce a small amount of anxiety about your coming week before you exercise. Then, when you perform TACFIT, magic happens: as you repeatedly approach circulo-respiratory distress, your brain begins to treat the anxiety chemicals as if they are the product of simple exertion, hitting the “reset” buttons on your emotions, and voila! You transform fear into pure savage energy to channel into your life. 4. Flow State Performance Spiral, referenced earlier, is a model of high-level human performance. By breaking a physical technique into breath, movement, and alignment, you are bringing a vast number of ordinarily unconscious factors under conscious control. Learn to manage them while simultaneously, gradually, placing yourself under higher and higher levels of stress, and you open the door to a level of excellence previously reserved for the “natural” athlete, or the special unit soldier exposed to the very highest levels of training.

There is more, much more, but these are the most important things to remember as we move forward.

12

How are TACFIT programs Different? Let me count the ways… we could write volumes on this, but one arena of particularly stark departure is in the arena of 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 five Missions included in TACFITWarrior are specifically progressive in their complexity: each mission develops the neuro-muscular 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 we’re utilizing a Russian biomechanical principle 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. TACFIT Warrior combines influences from the "Russian System of Training" (P.O.C.C./R.O.S.S.) with the biomechanics of Nikolay Bernstein (the father of Russian biomechanics) — in particular this "Component Learning Theory" — and leads you carefully through simple steps leading to more advanced and evolved physical performance. All TACFIT programs are designed to enhance “Tactical Fitness.” That means that there can be no fluff: the motions themselves have to enhance the motor patterns and energy systems that allow the human machine to respond to crisis and conflict.

13

The movements contained in such a program must cover all 6 degrees of freedom: heaving (up-down), 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 over-compensations and repetitive stress injuries. The entire team can train together, from modern ninja to desk warrior, 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. Finally, what about those eternal concerns: building muscle and losing fat? Well, the bodybuilding “muscle confusion principle” kicks your butt into high gear by never allowing your nervous system to get “bored” with the exercise. We take this to a whole ‘nother level by scientifically designing the transitions to greater and greater complexity. The result is a body that wants to be prepared for ANYTHING. A commando body. One that is ready for “go” and not merely “show.” And isn’t that what you really want?

14

The Core Concepts Time to examine the principles behind TACFIT Warrior .

The 6 Degrees of Freedom We mentioned earlier that the movements in TACFIT programs cover all 6 degrees of freedom. The term comes from aviation, a description of your body’s movement through 3-dimensional space. •

Heaving: moving up and down

•

Swaying: moving right and left

•

Surging: moving forward and backward

•

Pitching: bending forward and backward

•

Yawing: twisting right and left

•

Rolling: bending right and left

The specific applications to your program will be: • Stoke the core furnace through pitch. • Engage the anabolic (lower body) engine with surge. • Smoke the forward pressure while adding the pulls with heave. • Open the lateral line while recovering from the pulls by returning to the furnace in sways. • Crush the ego with core twisting presses in yaw. • Recover and process the toxins with natural gymnastics. To understand how truly revolutionary this is for your training, you need a quick briefing on how “fitness” has evolved.

15

Exercise has an evolutionary history which if you’re so inclined can trace you through the evolution of human movement potential. Much like the evolution of artistic techniques, how we saw the world was represented in the ways which we believed we were capable of moving. Literally, our movement is limited only by our imagination. What we know of today as “strength training” originally developed in the early 19th century - the “Golden Age” of strongmen. Their exercises were actually stunts, and they would compete on stage against one another for the most impressive, or outlandish performances, such as lifting a bleacher full of spectators upon one’s back, or pulling a rail car with a chain held by the mouth, stopping an airplane from takeoff with a rope attached to one’s hair. Eventually these stunts needed to become more quantifiable as the betting on these competitions demanded something other than subjective cheering from the crowd. Agreed upon lifts, with balanced weights appeared to demonstrate who was the stronger lifter that day. And as a result, one dimensional lifts using enormous dumbbells or bending steel bars for time became the test of the strongman competitor. These were all impressive feats, but crude and unsophisticated in comparison to the athletes of the modern world. These strongman competitions obviously evolved into powerlifting and Olympic lifting competitions - which have a very convoluted and politicalized history themselves. These very short-range, high-tension two-dimensional movements - such as the bench press, deadlift, clean and jerk and snatch, were highly quantifiable, but classified by the 6-D model from modern functional training, these only possessed heaving and pitching - only 2 Degrees of freedom. Later we moved into comparison of the physique produced by the exercise, actually a step backwards from a movement standpoint. As bodybuilding became a sport, how strong you were and how well you could move had no impact upon the competition. It took another few decades before fitness competitions began to push out mere physique by requiring demonstrations of strength, mobility, agility and coordination. This led to the advent of functional strength training, the recognition that linear isolation not only cannot prepare you for the real world, but actually accelerates misuse and overuse injuries and aging. Functional training added tri-planar angular/diagonal movement, and taking unconventional objects and moving them through the three planes. The result created 3D strength training. When the cutting edge of fitness arrived, with systems such as Circular Strength Training and Tactical Fitness, rotary movement sophisticated our potential once again. Adding the three elements of rotation to the three elements of translation doubled our 3D movement to 6D. The rotational aspects of pitching, yawing and rolling to the translational elements of swaying, heaving and surging, finally addressed the totality of human motion. Whether a couch potato or tactical operator, THIS is what you’ve always really been searching for.

16

Structural Alignment The body is a sea of continuous tension pulling inward - holding us together - laid overtop of a system of compressive struts pushing outward - holding us upright and anti-gravitational. As a result, exercise should be able to teach and refine our ability to absorb force with our whole body and transfer that force outward using our whole body... if we are to maximize our potential as a 6D creation. Regardless of whether you’re using bodyweight through a complex range of motion against gravity, or wielding clubbells, kettlebells, barbells, or using a pullup bar, you need structural alignment - the effective and efficient use of those compressive struts for optimal ability to “break gravity”. The greatest benefits of such exercise should be, not mere muscle growth (although we want that as well), but the increase in neurological efficiency you’ll gain as a direct result of learning to integrate your body and efficiently direct the sum of its forces. The key to all of this is the integration of the 7 Key Components of Structure: 1) Crown to Coccyx Alignment 2) Shoulder Pack 3) Arm Lock 4) Grip Confirmation 5) Core Activation 6) Hip Recruitment 7) Leg Drive Think of the 7 Key Components as the links in your chain. When each link is aligned, force is transferred smoothly through the entire system. If a link is missing, you’ll only have access to the force production of the links between that break and your application of force. To put this into a combat context, a warrior who lacks shoulder pack cannot transfer the force of a strike up his legs, snapping through his hips and out the length of his arm. Unless he learns how to integrate proper mechanics into his strikes, he will forever be an ineffective “arm puncher.” In sports, a baseball player who cannot transfer power from his toes to his fingertips will never hit the long ball. Each exercise in TACFIT Warrior is coached with reference to integrating these 7 Key Components, so you don’t just become shredded — you learn to harness and apply your body’s full power.

17

Movement Sophistication 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 training. We don’t just move more — more weight, more time, more frequency — we move better, thank you very much, 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’re learning a new task. You’re stimulating the nervous system to evolve; your brain to become more powerful. This is a neurochemical super-system here... not some grotesque neanderthal. You’re learning a completely new set of tools that you can access in all aspects of your life. You’re improving the most sophisticated machine that God has ever created. Of course, you’re also getting more physique bang for your exercise buck, because what some refer to as “muscle confusion” is actually increasing the demands that exceed mere muscle growth. Your entire neuro-muscular system improves when you stimulate it with a new skill. This new total load creates a systemic, or anabolic, growth of muscle throughout. Whole body stress creates whole body growth. 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 Warrior incorporates movements that increase in complexity, so your gains compound as your movement ability develops.

18

Programming TACFIT Warrior You’ll need to understand two concepts in order to bring out the Warrior in you through TACFIT.... First you must 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. The second component you must understand is the 4 Day Wave. The entire TACFITWarrior program is based on a 4-day microcycle of waving intensity levels. We’ll explain what each of the 4 days looks like, and then we’ll outline two different ways that you can program them depending on your personal work and leisure schedule.

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. The TACFIT 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.

19

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. 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.

20

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 become more noisily defiant, 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 - taught to me by one of my colleagues Mike Locke, the man who coached my conditioning to the level necessary to win four gold medals at the 2010 World Martial Arts Games. Like a surfer, you must ride the edge of high exertion, high quality technique and low value discomfort, in order to minimize injuries and maximize results. Poor technique is as trainable as good technique. Every repetition that you repeat poor technique increases the likelihood that you will embed this. It’s simply one of the Laws of Conditioning which I’ve written about in my early books from the last decade. 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 of the four days in the 4x7 protocol 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. We’ve taken care of the rest.

21

The 4 Day Wave Your TACFIT Warrior mission develops 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*:

Day 1—No Intensity

Day Two—Low Intensity

Day Three—Moderate Intensity

Day Four—High Intensity

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

RPE: 3-4; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

RPE: 5-7; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

RPE: 8-10; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

When you reach the No Intensity day, follow along with the TACFIT Warrior Strain Prevention Program included in your TACFIT Warrior dossier. In the TACFIT Warrior PDF journal you will also be encouraged to list your goals, and actions for the day that will move you toward those goals.

Your task on the Low Intensity day is to use specific compensatory movements to balance growth and remove the parking brake from your high-performance output and mobility. In the TACFIT Warrior PDF journal you will also be encouraged to list your goals, and actions for the week and month that will move you toward those goals.

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.

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

When you reach the Low Intensity day, follow along with the TACFIT Warrior Stress Conversion Program included in your TACFIT Warrior dossier.

The Master Program chart at the beginning of each Mission Chapter provides detailed guidance as to exercise selection, duration, and rest periods.

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.

When you reach the High Intensity day, watch that session’s Video Briefing and follow the program guidelines for the specific mission and level you’ve chosen to complete. The Master Program chart included in the Program chapter (Part 2 of the manual) provides detailed guidance as to exercise selection, duration, and rest periods.

22

(*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.” Instead, recovery days are factored into the program that involve short sessions of joint mobility and compensatory yoga.

Micro-

No

Low

Moderate

High

Cycle

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

CYCLE

Strain

Stress

strength

1 2

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

Metabolic Conditioning

CYCLE

Strain

Stress

strength

3

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

CYCLE

Strain

Stress

strength

4

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

CYCLE

Strain

Stress

strength

5

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

CYCLE

Strain

Stress

strength

6

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

CYCLE

Strain

Stress

strength

7

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

CYCLE

mobility

1

Compensation 2

3

Strain

Stress

strength

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

mobility

mobility

mobility

mobility

mobility

mobility

5

9

13

17

21

25

Compensation

Compensation

Compensation

Compensation

Compensation

Compensation

6

Metabolic Conditioning

7

10

8 Metabolic Conditioning

11

14

12 Metabolic Conditioning

15

18

16 Metabolic Conditioning

19

22

26

4

20 Metabolic Conditioning

23

24 Metabolic Conditioning

28

27 23

Effective Efficiency 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).

effectiveness = results / loss efficiency = results / effort But we must quantifiable 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.") We improve our ceiling of maximal effort during high intensity sessions, but the benefit to the warrior 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: 25-45% HRmax Low intensity: 45-65% HRmax Moderate intensity: 65-85% HRmax High intensity: 85-100% HRmax

24

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 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 "superfuels" rather than kinesiologic performances.) 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.) • 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.

25

What if you can’t commit to the Mission as prescribed? Options for a “Fixed Living” schedule... Some may be bringing up the point that you may not live in the utopia where you can train 7 days a week and follow the progression exactly as prescribed. Firstly, and candidly, stop complaining. That’s your habit talking, not you. You’re infinitely capable to adapt, improvise and overcome... The point is to find out where you can insert this into your life, without your habits backlashing at you too strongly, and slowly overtake the tyranny they hold over your lifestyle. You’re going to gain the greatest results by following the mission proper. But you need to start where you are, so the plan as prescribed may not always go as planned. And believe me, I understand the lurking Murphy. What follows are several different ways you can integrate TACFIT Warrior into your current lifestyle without following our 28-day plan by rote. We’ve also covered a few typical questions that new Recruits ask when starting with our programs. Don’t Want to Train 4x7 Style? For some people, adhering to the 28 day calendar can be challenging at first, when you have a schedule of daily activities, and haven’t yet optimized your time tables. Here are three scheduling variations for TACFIT Warrior: a conventional 3-day 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 the Pre-Recruit level (or Lite, if you’re unready to start basic training). Perform it for each of the three days. Only progress to the next mission (i.e. Recruit) 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. Each program builds upon the one before, and the movements increase in sophistication as your strength and level of mastery grow. When you’ve mastered Recruit, you’re ready for Grunt, and so on, to Commando.

26

Micro-

No

Low

Moderate

No

Low

Moderate

High

Cycle

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

Intensity

WEEK

Strain

Stress

strength

Strain

Stress

strength

Conversion:

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

Metabolic Conditioning

Prevention:

ASSISTANCE

mobility

Compensation

mobility

Compensation

Strain

Stress

strength

Strain

Stress

strength

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

mobility

Compensation

mobility

Compensation

Strain

Stress

strength

Strain

Stress

strength

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

mobility

Compensation

mobility

Compensation

Strain

Stress

strength

Strain

Stress

strength

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

Prevention:

Conversion:

ASSISTANCE

mobility

Compensation

mobility

Compensation

1 2 3 4

WEEK

WEEK

WEEK

Metabolic Conditioning

Metabolic Conditioning

Metabolic Conditioning

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 the alternate Master Program Chart that we provided in your Program chapter instead of the 4x7 Chart.

27

Scheduling on the 4-day Wave If you feel that you’re ready to knee-deep into the 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 Master Program Chart included in this manual is formatted on this 4-day wave. This is the ideal choice for completing TACFIT Warrior because it most precisely synchronizes with your nervous system and biochemistry so that you gain the greatest results from your work while minimizing the length of recovery needed. 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 - as the proverb goes. 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. You must candidly ask yourself and answer, “what do I want from exercise?” And if you find that you don’t have a specific answer, then you may be “cocktailing” your training; decreasing your results from ALL of the activities you’re doing. Cocktailing is unhelpful because throwing together a bunch of random exercises will get you random results. It’s better to focus on knocking down one goal at a time. Trying to go in too many directions at once, gets you nowhere fast. However, life often doesn’t give us the optimal circumstances. I get this, because my schedule of travel around the world often presents insurmountable problems to routine. Sometimes, you just have to gut it out and make due with the hand you’ve been dealt. Here are some suggestions for incorporating other activities into the schedule: Each day of the TACFIT Warrior 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. Take running, for example. 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 TACFIT Intuitive Training Protocol to rate your exertion, technique and discomfort will over time give you a precise lens for gauging your output.

28

Remember: the goal of the TACFIT 4 Day Wave is to peak on every 4th day. If you siphon off the extra energy you’re building during the micro cycle, it’ll rob you of the results you could be reaping on each High Intensity day. It will help to determine where your chosen activity falls on this spectrum:

• • • •

No intensity = strain prevention, such as joint mobility, tai chi, light stretching, long walk Low intensity = stress conversion, such as yoga, pilates, heavy stretching, light runs Moderate intensity = strength practice, such as weight training, gymnastics skills, low volume, jogging High intensity = metabolic conditioning, such as sprinting, interval training, high jumps, etc

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. TACFIT Warrior may be the only training stress you can have, so 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 TACFIT sessions. Perform your joint mobility recovery exercises daily as prescribed, but exclude your high intensity workouts in TACFIT. Keep performing the Strain Prevention program 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. Time to get on to the actual Warrior Workouts...

29

Part 2: The Program These Master Program Charts outline each phase of your first 28-day Mission. You may choose to complete TACFIT Warrior with either the 4x7 or the 7x4 progression. Chose one of the following and stick to it for the next 28 days. The 4x7 Master Program Chart: Intensity Level ->

NO

LOW

MODERATE

HIGH

CYCLE 1

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

CYCLE 2

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

CYCLE 3

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

CYCLE 4

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

CYCLE 5

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

CYCLE 6

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

CYCLE 7

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

30

The 7x4 Master Program Chart: Intensity Level ->

NO

LOW

MODERATE

NO

LOW

MOD

HIGH

WEEK 1

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

WEEK 2

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

WEEK 3

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

WEEK 4

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Strain Prevention Program

Stress Conversion Program

Warrior Workout 65-85% HRmax

Warrior Workout 85-100% HRmax

31

TACFIT Warrior Mission Objectives The following diagram shows the tasks that you will be completing on the workout days: the Moderate and High intensity days. You’ll see all 5 levels listed so that you can appreciate how the “sophistication” progresses from one program to the next. Select a level and perform on it for the whole 28 days (Lite, Pre-Recruit, Recruit, Grunt or Commando). How Do I know Where To Start? Excellent question. Sharp eyes will notice that for the first time there are FIVE different levels: we wanted to be absolutely certain that anyone with the heart to change can take advantage of TACFITWarrior. We suggest that you begin with “Recruit” and see how it feels. If you can maintain at least ½ tempo without going above a pain level of “3” on a scale of 1-10, and with a level of form above a “6”, then that is a decent place to begin. If that feels like kindergarten to you, go up to “Grunt.” If it feels too hard, drop down to “Pre-Recruit.” If “Pre-Recruit” is too difficult, then drop down to “Lite.” And here is where common sense MUST come in. It is important to consult with your doctor before beginning any exercise program, of course. This is particularly true of a program that asks your body to travel through as many movement options as TACFITWarrior: we leave no stone unturned in our quest for performance. Let us say that you have serious issues: an extreme weight issue, for instance, or Fibromyalgia. First, it is twice as important that your doctor or health care provider be involved in your decisions. Period. Show them everything that you intend to do, and get them to sign off on it. Second, perform the “Warrior Strain Prevention” warm ups, instead of (or in addition to) the standard warmup. Perform these slowly, and daily.

32

Third, you can modify each of the exercises, even in “Lite”, to be even easier. Exercise #1: use knee-ups only. Exercise #2: only dip as deeply as you can and keep perfect balance, and pain below a “3” Exercise #3: Move as far back and forward as you can with pain below a “3” Exercise #4: Make the circles smaller Exercise #5: Place your hands on a stable chair seat or back, or the wall. This decreases the amount of your body weight you are supporting. Continue to decrease that weight until you can perform the movement without pain, and with good form. • Exercise #6: Rest your back against a wall, or sit in a chair, and perform the knee twists to the best of your ability. • • • • •

Fourth, you can reduce the NUMBER of reps per round. Perform one rep perfectly in a 20-second round. Rest. Perform one rep on the opposite side in the next round. And your physical goal? To get to a full “Lite” performance. And then slowly, at a rate of 1% improvement (or about one rep per exercise per week)… climb the ladder. AND WHAT IF “COMMANDO” LEVEL IS TOO EASY? Well, first of all, congratulations, son, you are definitely new to this world. But until we stitch your red tights together, here’s a little kryptonite for you: perform five minutes of a whole-body nastiness first, say Turkish Get-Ups with a sizable kettlebell, Clubbell Barbarian Squats, jumping rope, or your favorite form of self-torture. The magic of pre-exhaustion will bring you back to Earth just fine.

33

The 5 Warrior Workouts in Progression: LITE MISSION

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION

RECRUIT MISSION

GRUNT MISSION

COMMANDO MISSION

Sit Up Knee Lift

Knee Lift Cradle

Basic Spinal Rock

Straddle Spinal Rock

Hurdler Spinal Rock

Lunge Squat

Shin Lunge

Monkey Front Lunge

Monkey Lunge Downdog

Monkey Lunge 3 Leg Dog

Bear Press Knee

Plank Pull Knee

Plank Pull

Plank Pull Muscle Up

Plank Pull Bomber

Shin Reach

Sit Behind Twist

Rear Sit Thru Press

Rear Sit Thru Pushup

Rear Sit Thru Pushup Extension

Knee Thru Hip

Sit thru Stretch

Sit Thru Extension

Sit Thru Press

Sit Thru 3 Leg

Windshield Wiper

Shinbox Switch

Shinbox Kick

Shinbox 180

Shinbox Guard Spin

34

Video Download Briefings The “Video Download Briefings” included in this dossier explain every single exercise in all 5 levels of the program using precision coaching cues and performance goals. Study these Briefings before attempting the movements in the chart above: TACFIT Warrior Moderate and High Intensity Programs: 1. Lite: warriorliteinstr.mp4 2. Pre-Recruit: warriorprerecruitinstr.mp4 3. Recruit: warriorrecruitinstr.mp4 4. Grunt: warriorgruntinstr.mp4 5. Commando: warriorcommandoinstr.mp4 TACFIT Warrior No Intensity Day Program: • Strain Prevention Mobility Program: warriorstrainprevention.mp4 TACFIT Warrior Low Intensity Day Program: • Stress Conversion Compensation Program: warriorstressconversion.mp4

35

The How-To: Warm Up Mobility Program The Master Program Chart provides an overview of your 28-day mission. Choose either the 4x7 or 7x4 format and follow that chart for the entire 28-days. Here’s what to do when you reach each of the four “days”:

No Intensity Day: Perform the 6 minute mobility warm-up program for active recovery. Each movement is performed for 60 seconds.

Guard Circle

Prone Worm

Leg Thread Circle One Leg Runner

AND/OR perform the full 15 minute Warrior Strain Prevention program. Reference the warriorstrainprevention.mp4 video briefing. RPE: 1-2; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

Three Point Cossack Belt Figure 8

36

Low Intensity Day: Warm up with the 7 minute warm up mobility program, and perform the 7 minute cool down compensation program. Each movement is performed for 60 seconds. AND/OR perform the full 15 minute Warrior Stress Conversion program. Reference the warriorstressconversion.mp4 video briefing. RPE: 3-4; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

Cool Down Compensation Program Shinbox Frog Stretch Camel Sidebend

Elbow Downdog (standing) Shin Lunge Side Angle Crossbow

One Arm Locus

Corpse

37

Moderate Intensity Day: Warm up with the 6 minute warm up mobility program. Reference the WarriorWarmup video briefing. Complete 8 rounds of the first exercise. These are twenty second bursts, followed by ten seconds of rest. After these eight rounds, take a sixty second rest break and start the next exercise. Reference the printable Mission Calendar for a step by step description of each day of your workout. You can also train along with the follow-along Mission Simulation video for each level of the program: WarriorLite—WarriorLitesim Pre-Recruit - WarriorPreRecruitSim Recruit – WarriorRecruitSim Grunt – WarriorGruntSim Commando – WarriorCommandoSim End your session with the 7 minute cool down compensation program. Reference the WarriorCooldown video briefing. RPE: 5-7; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

38

High Intensity Day: Warm up with the 6 minute warm up mobility program. Reference the WarriorWarmup video briefing. Complete 8 rounds of the first exercise. These are twenty second bursts, followed by ten seconds of rest. After these eight rounds, take a sixty second rest break and start the next exercise. Reference the printable Mission Calendar for a step by step description of each day of your workout. You can also train along with the follow-along Mission Simulation video for each level of the program: WarriorLite—WarriorLitesim Pre-Recruit - WarriorPreRecruitSim Recruit – WarriorRecruitSim Grunt – WarriorGruntSim Commando – WarriorCommandoSim End your session with the 7 minute cool down compensation program. Reference the WarriorCooldown video briefing. Remember: your Target on the High Intensity day is to complete more reps per exercise than you did on yesterday’s Moderate Intensity day. Maintaining the status quo is not acceptable. You are expected to step up each time and conquer new territory. You must learn to differentiate the previous Moderate day’s RPE from today’s target High day RPE and translate that to your physical performance. Our goal is to "trick" you into learning to regulate your intensity levels to a rather precise degree. This goes beyond simply getting in shape or building a pretty physique. You're becoming more sensitive to your energy output, your moment-by-moment condition, and you're learning how to regulate it and the effect that doing so has on your overall system from day to day and in terms of recovery and growth. You’re building neural sophistication at the same time as physical strength. RPE: 8-10; RPT: 8 or higher; RPD: 3 or lower

39

How do I keep score of my results from the workout? Here is how to use your scorecard for your Moderate and High Intensity workouts: • Record your Resting Heartrate, before your warmup. • Calculate your Heart Rate Maximum. 220 - AGE is easiest; though 205.8 - (0.685 x AGE) is more accurate. • Calulate Target Intensity in heart rate beats per minute: for High Intensity days 85-100% heart rate maximum (What is 85-100% of your HRmax?); and for Moderate Intensity days 65-85% heart rate maximum. (What is 65-85% of your HRmax?) • 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. ATTENTION!!! You do not NEED to use the scorecard, but tracking your progress, especially our target heart rate will maximize the effectiveness of TACFIT Warrior for reaping all of the results you desire!

40

Resting Heart Rate

Heart Rate Maximum 205.8 – (0.685 x AGE)

TASK

DAY #

Target HR Beats per Min HI = 85-100%HRmax = ?BPM MOD= 65-85%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 RPT

AVE RPE

AVE RPD

AVE HRBPM

HRBPM = Heart Rate Beats Per Minute RPT = Rate of Perceived Technique (for all 8 sets total, not each individual set) RPE = Rate of Perceive Effort (for all 8 sets total, not each individual set) RPD = Rate of Perceived Discomfort (for all 8 sets total, not each individual set) Total Score = all 6 of your lowest sets from each task added together AVE RPT = the average of all of your RPTs AVE RPE = the average of all of your RPEs AVE RPD = the average of all of your RPDs AVE HRBPM = the average of all of your heart rate beats per minute. 41

Part 3: TACFIT Warrior Rules of Engagement As in many of the TACFIT programs, the protocol we use is influenced by the work of Dr. Izumi Tabata, often referred to as the “Tabata Protocol.” We do this to carefully maximize recovery while minimizing time utilized for the exercise program. Dr. Tabata, in 1996, along with his team at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan, completed a revolutionary research finding using high intensity interval training (HIIT). The discoveries shook the dominant held beliefs about fitness at the time.* In Tabata's study, the researchers found that individuals who used the routine improved their maximum aerobic capacity (a measure of your body's ability to consume oxygen - the more oxygen you can take in, the longer and harder you'll be able to run) by 14%. What's more, it also improved anaerobic capacity (which measures the duration you're able to sprint at full effort) by 28%. So, the Tabata Protocol is the rare workout that benefits both endurance athletes and sprinters. That’s very hard to accomplish. Consider this comparison in which a study of traditional aerobic training running at 70% of aerobic capacity for 60 minutes for the same number of weeks showed an improvement in aerobic capacity of only 9.5% and had ZERO effect on anaerobic capacity! That’s a dramatic difference considering it’s one third the time investment with the Tabata protocol. The key to the its effectiveness appears to be the short rest intervals between bursts of activity. Conventional interval-training guidelines suggest keeping a 1:3 work-rest ratio. That is, your rest periods should last three times as long as the duration of your sprints. But the Tabata Protocol's work-rest ratio is 2:1, which means your rest periods are only half as long as the time you're working. And according to another Tabata study, the formula isn't just more effective than traditional aerobic training, it's also more effective than typical interval training. In that other study, Tabata and his colleagues compared their original protocol to a second configuration of intervals that consisted of 30-second sprints interspersed with two-minute rest periods. Despite the fact that this required subjects to sprint for more time at a higher intensity, the original Tabata Protocol still proved more effective at boosting both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Now, we have ulterior motives for the variation of this protocol that we use. We scale and wave the intensity with much more precision: a scalpel rather than a pickaxe. The reasons for this will unfold as you study the TACFIT system... * Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, October 1996, Vol 28, Issue 10.

42

“The Strongest Survive the Longest” - Erik Esik Melland of Projekt Seer The key to the success of TACFIT is that it’s not the bigger, faster or stronger athlete alone who wins, but the BETTER athlete. Who recovers fastest wins. That’s what makes the best athlete. And that simple understand has been encoded in our very DNA. Our nervous system has evolved over 100,000 years to make use the most fearsome, the most adaptable predator in the history of the world. Not the T-Rex. Not the Sabertooth. Not Shark or the Alligator. No, the most lethal creature the world has ever known has no sharp teeth, no talons, no armor whatsoever. It is the simply sophisticated attribute of being able to burst very fast, and recover our full mental and emotional faculties faster than any other competitor, that has made us Warriors among the most monstrous foes in the animal kingdom. But we are not beasts. We are not doomed to killing. We can utilize our genetic heritage to advance ourselves on other battlefields, not of blood, but of bounty. We can do this only if we honor our physical excellence... and train under a protocol which resonates with the frequency of our evolution. To burst - to recover - and to burst again. Consider a crisis, and how your body exerts itself. Burst - recover - burst. We need look no farther than in the micro of the macro - in hand to hand fighting. A typical martial art bout involves a 2 minute round: a marathon by any stretch. But the fighters aren’t throwing a blizzard of attacks non-stop for the entire two minutes. The round can be characterized by short, intense bursts, or volleys of attacks and defenses, interspersed by recovering from those collisions as the fighters stand or separate and begin to circle yet again. Whoever can recover fastest and most fully between those collisions is most often the victor. Not the one who attacks the most often, because the power of attacks diminish like walking off the shelf of the sea, if you’re not recovered fully. So, it’s not just who recovers fastest... but who chemically regenerates the most fully. We use our variation of the Tabata protocol specifically due to the nervous system’s characterization of burst-recover-burst as the most efficient use of its resources. It responds most quickly and most completely to this way of exercising. (And we haven’t even gotten to the TYPE of exercises we’ve selected, created and scaled!!)

43

The Science of Mind-Body Exercise In my inter-disciplinary study of combat biomechanics, stress physiology and endocrinology, I discovered key elements which shaped the way in which I exercised. • The CNS cannot differentiate between a physical threat and an emotional/symbolic one. • The CNS cannot differentiate between types of stressors induced whether they be occupational, social, interpersonal, intrapersonal, financial, familial, etc. • The CNS cannot differentiate between types of tension / stress, it only knows degree and direction. • The CNS cannot differentiate between conflict-induced and exercise-induced stressors. It only knows degree of physiological arousal: sub-maximal to maximal heart rate. • Rapidly approaching and exceeding heart rate maximum elicits the survival stress response (SSR) also known as the “fight, flight or freeze” syndrome. • The breathing mechanism has branches to both the autonomic and the voluntary nervous systems, and as a result can be used to influence heart rate (called biofeedback). • Exercise which rapidly approaches HRmax can be used to internalize breathing techniques in a controlled, monitored environment. • Exercise using proper breathing techniques can prevent rapidly approaching and/or exceeding, and/or recover from HRmax. • Recovering from heart rate maximum (HRmax) shuts down the psychotropic effects of SSR. • Exercise can be used to incrementally lift the threshold of SSR, by adapting to higher levels of physical exertion while maintaining or regaining sub-HRmax. • Exercise, therefore, can be used to convert the “adrenal dump” (fast-release hormonal excitation) to a “adrenal drip” (slowrelease hormonal excitation). What does all of that mean? Read on, and let’s decode the above scientific factoids...

44

As a child, I dealt with almost daily violence. Due to obesity, impoverishment, learning disabilities, and estrangement, I faced abuse and turmoil. The emotional trauma often much more impacting than the physical fights I faced at home, in school and sprinting between the two to avoid the others. To address the disturbing memories of the violence, I would escape into long walks, which became long runs, which became fantastical adventures of acrobatic, parkour-like gymnastics outdoors. While I performed these jaunts, I would imagine what my life would be like, what I would look like, how powerful I could become, free from daily terror, fulfilled in my pursuits and gratified with my work, family and social life. I had stumbled upon a technique. Unrefined and inaccurate, but effective. Taking the most chemically rich daily experience exercise - and using visual imagery powerfully melded together the two at a cellular level. The secrets have been hidden in plain sight. "Change your mind, change your body." It goes the other way as well: "change your body, and you change your mind." If you can do either, you can do both. Do both... and you change your destiny. Later, in a strange series of serendipitous events, due to my martial art training leading me to become the USA National Sambo Team Coach, I was selected to become the first foreigner to formally intern behind the former “Iron Curtain” of the xUSSR. There, they exposed me to their methods of "biomechanical exercise" crafted through psychophysiology. Their research confirmed my childhood discoveries that you can rewrite trauma through intense exercise and mental imagery upon a "reframed" attitude. Sport Psychologists have understood and researched this phenomenon for decades, and fringe sciences like Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Total Physical Response have plumbed the depths of the method. The new fields of positive psychology and flow psychology have attempted to look at this process from the perspective of success development. In practice, it's very simple. You just need to follow along the easy, simple steps that are laid out for you on your daily calendar. Fill in the blanks. Sweat with some "smart" (cross-hemispheric) exercise. And Voila. Success. Fat melted. Muscle built. Mobility gain. Pain abolished. And what happens when you do this?

45

When you marry the most chemically rich experience of "success" - performing high intensity exercise - with visualization techniques to hold what your goals as real and manifest... you remove any internal obstacles to their achievement. The riddle of wisdom has always been, that experience (courage and confidence) comes after the time that you need it. Through this method Steve and I have unearthed and formulated, you get the courage and confidence that you're 100% going to succeed BEFORE you actually face the challenge. And as we all know... the task is never as hard as we imagine. Facing it. Going through it. That's the challenge. We've taken this Science of Mind-Body Exercise and distilled it into a refined turn-key system, here.

46

Here’s How You Perform the Program... Your first TACFIT Warrior Mission involves 20 seconds of high intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This cycle is repeated 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. In our Briefing Charts we refer to this as 20/10 x 8. Each “work day” of your mission will follow this pattern with 6 different exercises. This is how you will put it into practice. You can see from the chart that your Recruit Mission Task 1 is the Basic Spinal Rock. Perform 20 seconds of Basic Spinal Rocks followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times. When youʼve finished all 8 rounds, rest for 1 minute, then move on to Task 2 - the Monkey Front Lunge - for another 8 sets of 20/10. Follow this pattern until youʼve completed all 6 Tasks. Your goal during that 20 second burst of effort is to crank out as many reps as possible while maintaining good form. Your goal during the 10 seconds of rest is to shake it off, recover your breathing and lower your heart rate in preparation for the next round. If you are unable to burst for the full 20 seconds with a particular Task despite choosing the appropriate level (Lite, PreRecruit, Recruit, Grunt or Commando), 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.

47

Regarding the 5 Levels of Difficulty in TACFIT Warrior There are five levels of difficulty to each task, so they are always accessible and challenging regardless of whether youʼre an experienced warrior, or fresh off the teat. You will see this outlined in the Briefing Chart: • Warrior LITE level is for those of you who have never exercised before. This is entry level movement. • Pre-Recruit is for those of you who are ready to prepare for bootcamp fitness. • Recruit level is for you ready to step out into basic training and get your mouth a bit bloodied. • Grunt is for when you’ve had several missions notched on your stock. • Commando is for those of you who have the perfect combination of character flaws to want to step outside societal definitions of the impossible... and become the Warrior that you are. 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 which forges the Warrior. Itʼs not just biomechanics; itʼs also a physiological adaptation. Your objective is to reap 100% of the benefit from every injury-free repetition.

48

Lite

pre-recruit

recruit

grunt

commando

task 1

task 2

task 4

task 3

task 4

task 5

task 6

49

Part 4: The Exercise Descriptions Lite Level Exercise Descriptions The following photos and descriptions are intended to be a reminder of the detailed coaching guidance presented in the Warrior Lite Version Video. Please study the video carefully before you begin this exercise program.

50

LITE MISSION TASK 1:

sit-up / knee lift • Make sure youʼre lying flat on your back, and return to this “corpse” position each time to validate the repetition, or it doesnʼt count. • Exhale and bend your knees up to your chest, as you pull your belly to your spine. Inhale as you extend them and lock out your knees before placing them on the ground. • In the next phase, attempt to keep your legs extended if possible to avoid the “sit-up” coming from your hip flexors, and instead having it come from your “abs”. • Tucking chin to chest, exhale and pull belly to spine, reach between legs and roll spine off the ground with the lower back remaining flat until the end. You can use a towel or a band around a pole, or even a partnerʼs hands to help you through this portion. Slow and smooth is best. Roll your lower back flat to the ground before sitting-back with your mid-spine. Exhale and contract your core until your shoulder blades touch. Then, allow an inhale. • That completes one repetition. Begin again with #1.

51

LITE MISSION TASK 2:

Lunge Squat • Begin in a standing lunge: front leg foot flat, knee over mid-foot; rear leg on ball of foot. Keep feet shoulderʼs width apart. Keep your hands up, and your elbows in to your ribs. • With an inhale through the nose, press both knees extended. With an exhale through the mouth, bend both knees until the rear leg knee just barely hovers above the ground. • Keep your spine perpendicular to the ground, like a piston moving upward and downward. • Only switch legs on the next set. Stay with one stance the entire set.

52

LITE MISSION TASK 3:

Bear Press Knee • On your hands and knees, push your bottom back toward your heels , toes extended, insteps on the ground; with your elbows locked. Allow an inhale to happen into you get to your depth, then exhale through the mouth and push with your palm heels as low as you can get your bottom comfortably toward your heels. • Pressing off your knees and shins, use your palms to pull yourself to a hand and knees position while allowing an inhale to happen. Continue forward bending your elbows toward your hips, close to your ribs. Keep a flat back and lowers yourself to a kneeling pushup position. • Press off your hands and knees with an exhale through the mouth to return to a hands and knees position. This completes one full rep.

53

LITE MISSION TASK 4:

Shin Reach

• From a kneeling position - hands and shins, extend one of your legs straight behind you with your ball of foot hovering above the ground. Exhale through the mouth as you swing your extended leg to cross over top of your bent leg and if possible touch the ground, as far across your bent leg as possible (without lifting your palms off the ground.) • Uncross your extended leg until it returns in line with your shoulder and allow an inhale as you bring your shin back to the original position. This completes 1/2 repetition. Perform the opposite side to validate one full rep.

54

LITE MISSION TASK 5:

Knee-Thru Hip • From a kneeling position - hands and knees (and ball of foot), press off of the palm heels, to lift the knees. Rotate both knees in one direction until the outside of the thigh becomes parallel with the ground. Sit down on the outside of the hip, and bring the elbow of the arm in the direction your knees rotated, to your ribs with an exhale through the mouth. • Place the palm back down on the ground in the original position. Press off both arms and the rear outside foot-sword. Rotate the knees inward to ball of foot and hands. Continue rotating the knees to the opposite side with and exhale through the mouth to perform the second half of the repetition.

55

LITE MISSION TASK 6:

Windshield Wipers • From a seated position, feet flat, knees bent and sits-bones resting on the ground. Reach back and place your hands on the ground behind you with elbows locked if possible, but keep your shoulders down off your ears (in packed position). You can stay in this reclined position for the full repetition, or you can attempt to stay seated for a greater challenge. • As you exhale through the mouth, keeping your feet in their exact place, lower both knees to one side: one shin will be on the ground parallel to your torso, and the other perpendicular to it. Attempt to keep both sitsbones on the ground. If you feel yourself bending at the spine too much, then lean back and place both hands on the ground until you can keep both sits-bones down and touch both knees to the ground. This is the “shinbox” position. • Keeping your feet in the same position, merely rolling over the sides of them, switch all the way to the opposite side with an exhale through the mouth as you pass by your center to perform one full repetition. Performed fluidly, it will look like “windshield wipers.”

56

Pre-Recruit Level Exercise Descriptions The following photos and descriptions are intended to be a reminder of the detailed coaching guidance presented in the PreRecruit Version Video. Please study the video carefully before you begin this exercise program.

57

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION TASK 1:

Knee lift cradle • Lying on your back, grab your knees with your hands to the outside of your thighs. Tucking your elbows, pull your knees as high to your chest as possible while exhaling and contracting your belly to your spine. Allow your lower back to round off the ground. • Extend your elbows and kick your knees into your hands to rock back forward. Keeping your spine rounded the entire time, exhale into the effort and kicking your knees forward. • As you come close to being seated, relax and allow and inhale before gravity rocks you back. Keep your chin tucked, and as the inertia takes you to your shoulder blades, exhale and pull your knees in again to begin the next repetition.

58

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION TASK 2:

Shin Lunge

• Beginning in a kneeling position with your toes curled underneath, resting on ball of foot. Place a rolled towel, blanket or mat under your knees if you feel uncomfortable. Sit as far back toward your heels as you feel comfortable. • Exhale and step forward with one leg until flat footed. Keep your hips in one line, parallel with your shoulders. Donʼt leg the rear leg hip open your hips perpendicular to your shoulders. Exhale and extend your rear leg hip forward to keep both hips in one line. Your knee can extend forward over your toes, as long as your heel doesnʼt lift off the ground. • Keep your spine perpendicular to the ground, and exhale as low into the lunge as you can keep the front heel flat. • Continue your exhale as you press off the front mid-foot in order to return that leg back to a kneeling position. Donʼt drag your foot; lift your heel to your bottom. • This completes 1/2 of a repetition. Perform the opposite Shin Lunge to validate one full repetition.

59

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION TASK 3:

Plank Pull Knee • On your forearms and shins, press backward to the sleeping warrior position: bottom to heels, toes extended, insteps on the ground. Push back with your palms, locking your elbows (and as a result lifting your forearms off the ground) to load yourself like a rubber band stretching. • Bend your elbows and place your forearms back on the ground, and like trying to pull yourself up to look through a window, pull your forearms against the ground to bring your torso forward. Press from your knees to help you project forward with your exhale through the mouth. • Continue as far forward as you can keep your spine parallel to the ground. Ultimately, you want to pull forward until your elbows lift off the ground, pinching to your ribs into a knee pushup position. Tuck the tailbone underneath, like performing an upside-down abdominal crunch. Keep looking down at the ground and donʼt arch your mid-back. • Press backward (not upward like a pushup), spine hovering parallel to the ground to place your forearms back on the ground. Exhale through the mouth and continue to push backward with your entire palm to forearm contact on the ground until you arrive back at the sleeping warrior position to complete one repetition.

60

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION TASK 4:

Sit-Behind Twist • From a ball of foot squat position, place both hands on the ground and extend one leg behind you as close to your opposite leg as possible. Stabilize on the same side palm as the extended leg, and allow your other arm to come off the ground. • As you slide your leg along the ground, let your hip touch the ground and sit down with your top bent leg crossing over your extended leg. • Rotate over onto your bottom and grab your top crossed leg with both hands. Inhale through the nose and lift your chest up to your knee, keeping your chin down and keeping your ears between your shoulders in one line (no twisting the neck.) • Smoothly relax your spine backward and twist your hands back to your original position. With an exhale through the mouth, shift your weight partially to your hands as you press off your top crossed foot to lift your hip off the ground. Retract your leg back to a flat foot squat position. This completes 1/2 repetition. Perform the opposite side to validate one full rep.

61

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION TASK 5:

Sit-Thru Stretch • From a kneeling position - hands and knees (and ball of foot), press off of the palm heels, to lift the knees. Rotate both knees in one direction and extend the knee until the knee locks. When the outside of the thigh becomes parallel with the ground, lift your leg as you can perpendicular to your opposite leg. • With an exhale through the mouth, extend your bent leg backward perpendicular to your crossed leg (i.e. if your right leg is through at 9 oʼclock, then extend your opposite leg backward to 6 oʼclock). Rotate your laces / instep down to the ground. Flex your quad and lock your knee. As you continue your exhale, allow your top hip (of your 6 oʼclock extended leg) to rotate as far over toward your crossed leg inner thigh. Exhale all the way down chest to ground if possible. • Press off both arms and retract the rear (6 oʼclock) leg back to ball of foot. Rotate to pull the side extended leg inward back to the original ball of foot and hands position. Continue rotating and kick the opposite leg to the side to perform the second half of the repetition.

62

PRE-RECRUIT MISSION TASK 6:

Shinbox switch

• Begin in one direction of the shinbox position. As you exhale through the mouth, lean back if you must to place your hands on the ground behind you with elbows locked if possible, but keep your shoulders down off your ears (in packed position). • Extend the front leg (shin parallel to your torso) until it is locked in front of you; toes skyward. As you extend the rear leg to meet your front leg, begin to rotate your (first extended) leg, heel toward your bottom - moving toward the opposite shinbox. As that leg moves into place, bend your (second extended) leg across in front of you to complete the new shinbox. • Reverse this process to the original side with an exhale through the mouth as you pass by your center to perform one full repetition.

63

Recruit Level Exercise Descriptions The following photos and descriptions are intended to be a reminder of the detailed coaching guidance presented in the Recruit Version Video. Please study the video carefully before you begin this exercise program.

64

RECRUIT MISSION TASK 1:

Basic Spinal Rock • Lying on your back, grab your knees with your hands to the outside of your thighs. Tucking your elbows, pull your knees as high to your chest as possible while exhaling and contracting your bellow to your spine. Allow your lower back to round off the ground. • Extend your elbows and kick your knees into your hands to rock back forward. Keeping your spine rounded the entire time, exhale into the effort and kicking your knees forward. • As you come upward to being seated, place your feet flat on the ground at shoulderʼs width. Inhale through your nose and inflate your chest skyward, but keep your chin down maintaining spinal alignment. Press into the ground with your two sits-bones and your tailbone as a triangle-like chair to establish a perpendicular spine to the ground. • As gravity rocks you back, keep your chin tucked, and as the inertia takes you to your shoulder blades, exhale and pull your knees in again to begin the next repetition. Ensure that you do not roll to your neck, only to your shoulder blades.

65

RECRUIT MISSION TASK 2:

Monkey Front Lunge • Begin on your hands and shins, toes extended, insteps on the ground. Spine parallel to the ground, with your shoulders packed down so that your shoulder blades are flat. • With an exhale through the mouth, lift your knee out to the side and up to your armpit, missing your ribcage. Continue until you place your foot flat on the ground with no heel lifted. Depending upon your flexibility, you can step outward at an angle as far as you must, but work to step eventually directly in line with your shoulder width. • Keep both palms flat to the ground, and extend the hips downward. Maintain a flat spine; although it will be slightly off-parallel as you drop your hips. Keep both hips in one line, and donʼt let the rear leg hip turn out. • Continue your exhale as you press off the front mid-foot in order to return that leg back to a kneeling position. This completes 1/2 of a repetition. Perform the opposite Monkey Front Lunge to validate one full repetition.

66

RECRUIT MISSION TASK 3:

Plank Pull

• On your forearms and ball of foot, press backward to the bear squat position: (ball of foot, bottom to heels, palms pressing backward, belly to thighs). Push back with your palms, locking your elbows (and as a result lifting your forearms off the ground) to load yourself like a rubber band stretching. • Bend your elbows and place your forearms back on the ground, and like trying to pull yourself up to look through a window, pull your forearms against the ground to bring your torso forward. Try not to let your knees touch the ground. Exhale through the mouth and drive forward. • Continue as far forward as you can keep your spine parallel to the ground. Pull forward until your elbows lift off the ground, pinching to your ribs into a knee pushup position. Tuck the tailbone underneath, like performing an upside-down abdominal crunch. Keep looking down at the ground and donʼt arch your midback. Flex your quads to squeeze your knees locked. Kick your heels in the opposite direction and pull your toes to your shins. • Press backward (not upward like a pushup), spine hovering parallel to the ground to place your forearms back on the ground. Exhale through the mouth and continue to push backward with your entire palm to forearm contact on the ground until you arrive back at the bear squat position to complete one repetition.

67

RECRUIT MISSION TASK 4:

Rear Sit Thru Press • From a ball of foot squat position, place both hands on the ground and extend one leg behind you as close to your opposite leg as possible. Stabilize on the same side palm as the extended leg, but keep both hands flat on the ground. • Slide your leg through as if performing the Sit-Behind Twist, on the outside of the foot-sword. But do not allow the knee and hip to touch the ground. Keep your eyes downward to the ground between your hands. • Shift your weight predominantly to your hands as you press off your top crossed foot to lift your hip off the ground. Retract your leg back past the flat foot squat position as smoothly as possible transition to the opposite side without pausing in the flat foot squat. Perform the opposite side to validate one full rep.

68

RECRUIT MISSION TASK 5:

Sit-Thru Extension • From a kneeling position - hands and knees (and ball of foot), press off of the palm heels, to lift the knees. Rotate both knees in one direction and extend the knee until the knee locks. When the outside of the thigh becomes parallel with the ground, lift your leg as you can perpendicular to your opposite leg. • With an exhale through the mouth, lift the opposite arm (of the extending leg) off the ground, elbow to ribs, as you extend your leg across to the opposite side without touching the ground whatsoever; flex the quad to lock the knee, pull the toes to the shin and keep the heel away. Keep your palm pressed down into the ground and lat flaired to ensure that your shoulder does not sag up to your ear; maintain shoulder pack to prevent over rotation at the shoulder. • Replace the lifted hand back down to the original position. Rotate to pull the side extended leg inward back to the original ball of foot and hands position. Continue rotating and kick the opposite leg to the side to perform the second half of the repetition.

69

RECRUIT MISSION TASK 6:

Shinbox Kick

• As you exhale through the mouth, contract your core and lean back in the “V” position - sits bones on the ground, with both legs in the air. Squeeze the quads to lock the knees. Avoid rounding at the back; tolerate some. Kick the heels away and pull the toes toward the shins. Keep the elbows in tight to the ribs. • While maintaining the “V” retract one leg bending at the knee into the back position of the shinbox. When you land in position, retract the opposite leg bending the knee parallel with the torso to complete the shinbox. • Kick the front leg (shin parallel to your torso) off the ground, into the air in front of you, until you lock your knee; toes skyward. As you kick the rear leg to meet your front leg, begin to rotate your (first extended) leg, heel toward your bottom - moving toward the opposite shinbox. As that leg moves into place, bend your (second extended) leg across in front of you to complete the new shinbox. • Reverse this process to the original side with an exhale through the mouth as you pass by your center to perform one full repetition.

70

Grunt Level Exercise Descriptions The following photos and descriptions are intended to be a reminder of the detailed coaching guidance presented in the Grunt Version Video. Please study the video carefully before you begin this exercise program.

71

GRUNT MISSION TASK 1:

Straddle Spinal Rock • Lying on your back, grab your knees with your hands to the outside of your thighs. Tucking your elbows, pull your knees as high to your chest as possible, but to the sides of your ribcage. Exhale and contracting your bellow to your spine. Allow your legs to extend outward to the side in an inverted straddle. Donʼt kick. Contract your quads (upper thighs), and kick your heels away while flexing your toes toward your shins. If you donʼt touch the ground, thatʼs fine. Itʼs a skill youʼll develop by timing your exhale, not a flexibility issue (solely). You want to ensure that youʼre not forcibly rolling onto your neck to substitute for lack of range of motion. Extend your legs into the air instead. Over time, it will come. • Flex your heels back toward your thighs, and touch your feet together as you begin to roll forward, while allowing an inhale through the nose. Keeping your spine rounded the entire time, as you begin to roll toward seated position, begin to extend your legs again in a straddle. • As you come upward to being seated, squeeze your quads and lock your knees, while pulling your toes curled toward your shins, and kick your heels away to straighten your legs (as much as you can control smoothly and slowly; donʼt force toward locked position). • Lead with the belly downward the ground first. exhaling, then chest forward. Then, exhale completely to extend your arms. • As you tuck your tailbone and bend your knees, begin to roll back tuck your chin. Make sure your lower back becomes flat before lifting your knees toward your chest. As the inertia takes you to your shoulder blades, exhale and extend your legs again into straddle to begin the next repetition. Ensure that you do not roll to your neck, only to your shoulder blades.

72

GRUNT MISSION TASK 2:

Monkey Lunge Downdog • Begin in downdog position: palms flat, elbows locked, shoulders off your ears pulled back, knees extended as wide as necessary to keep heels flat to the ground. Work to keep your lower back flat, but since this isnʼt “yoga depth” tolerate a little spinal rounding. Spine parallel to the ground, with your shoulders packed down so that your shoulder blades are flat. • With an exhale through the mouth, lift your knee out to the side and up to your armpit, missing your ribcage. Continue until you place your foot flat on the ground with no heel lifted. Depending upon your flexibility, you can step outward at an angle as far as you must, but work to step eventually directly in line with your shoulder width. • Keep both palms flat to the ground, and extend the hips downward. Maintain a flat spine; although it will be slightly off-parallel as you drop your hips. Keep both hips in one line, and donʼt let the rear leg hip turn out. • Continue your exhale as you press off the front mid-foot in order to return that leg back to the downdog position. This completes 1/2 of a repetition. Perform the opposite monkey lunge downdog to validate one full repetition.

73

GRUNT MISSION TASK 3:

Plank Pull Muscle-up • On your forearms and ball of foot, press backward to the bear squat position (ball of foot, bottom to heels, palms pressing backward, belly to thighs). Push back with your palms, locking your elbows (and as a result lifting your forearms off the ground) to load yourself like a rubber band stretching. • Bend your elbows and place your forearms back on the ground, and like trying to pull yourself up to look through a window, pull your forearms against the ground to bring your torso forward. Try not to let your knees touch the ground. Exhale through the mouth and drive forward. • Continue as far forward as you can keep your spine parallel to the ground. Pull forward until your elbows lift off the ground, pinching to your ribs into a knee pushup position. Keep pulling with your hands until your palm heels threaten to lift off the ground, and you pull them back to around your floating ribs (as if performing a horizontal muscle-up like pulling yourself into an open window from below). Flip your toes in the opposite direction so that you rest on your insteps. You can place your hips down on the ground if you must. Keep looking down at the ground and donʼt arch your neck. • Curl your toes underneath until you return to ball of foot, pushup plank position and press backward (not upward like a pushup), spine hovering parallel to the ground to place your forearms back on the ground. Exhale through the mouth and continue to push backward with your entire palm to forearm contact on the ground until you arrive back at the bear squat position to complete one repetition.

74

GRUNT MISSION TASK 4:

Rear Sit Thru Pushup • From a ball of foot squat position, place both hands on the ground and extend one leg behind you as close to your opposite leg as possible. Stabilize on the same side palm as the extended leg. Keep both hands flat on the ground, retract the elbows to the ribs and lower your chest to your hands. • Slide your leg through as if performing the Sit-Behind Twist, on the outside of the foot-sword. But do not allow the knee and hip to touch the ground. Keep your eyes downward to the ground between your hands. Exhale through the mouth as you perform a pushup, with your leg extended in the rear sit-thru position. • As you pushup, press off your top crossed foot to lift your hip off the ground. Shift your weight predominantly to your hands as you press off your top crossed foot to lift your hip off the ground. Retract your leg back past the flat foot squat position as smoothly as possible transition to the opposite side without pausing in the flat foot squat. Perform the opposite side to validate one full rep.

75

GRUNT MISSION TASK 5:

Sit-Thru Press • From a kneeling position - hands and knees (and ball of foot), press off of the palm heels, to lift the knees. Rotate both knees in one direction and extend the knee until the knee locks. When the outside of the thigh becomes parallel with the ground, lift your leg as you can perpendicular to your opposite leg. • With an exhale through the mouth, lower yourself down chest to hands while the leg extends across to the opposite side without touching the ground whatsoever; flex the quad to lock the knee, pull the toes to the shin and keep the heel away. Exhale deeply to lock the core tightly as if being kicked in the belly. • Perform a pushup explosively to rotate the side extended leg inward back to the original ball of foot and hands position. Continue rotating and kick the opposite leg to the side to perform the second half of the repetition.

76

GRUNT MISSION TASK 6:

Shinbox 180 • Lying on your back, lift both legs into the air, held together, locking the knees and pulling the toes toward the shins. Rock slightly onto the shoulder blades; lifting the legs directly skyward, perpendicular to the ground to begin the rock, and placing the tailbone flat before rocking upward toward a seated position. • Bend one leg to place the foot flat to the ground knee bent. Exhale through the mouth and drive the ground with your foot; while doing so drop the inside of the bent knee downward. Allow this inward push to spin you on your sits-bones away from the bent-knee leg. • Keeping the opposite leg straight extended, swing around 180 degrees and place the extended leg on the ground. By driving inward with the bent-knee leg and rotating on the sits-bones 180 degrees, the driving leg ends in the rear leg position of the shinbox. • Kick the rear leg forward to meet the extended leg and roll onto your back, kicking both legs into the air. Repeat with the opposite leg in the opposite direction to complete the full repetition.

77

Commando Level Exercise Descriptions The following photos and descriptions are intended to be a reminder of the detailed coaching guidance presented in the Commando Version Video. Please study the video carefully before you begin this exercise program.

78

COMMANDO MISSION TASK 1:

Hurdler Spinal Rock • Begin in a seated position, with one leg extended, and one leg bent with the foot tucked against your thigh, and the bent knee lying as flat to the ground as your flexibility permits. Lean downward with your belly first, and chest forward parallel with your thigh, and then finally exhaling completely to allow the arms to flow forward toward the feet. • Tuck your tailbone as your begin to roll backward. Bend your straight-leg knee toward your chest. Exhale your navel to your spine and as you roll onto your back, contract your thigh (of the leg was originally straight when sitting). Pull your toes to your shin and kick your heel to lengthen your leg. Donʼt kick, and only extend your leg with as much control as you can lengthen it smoothly and without strain. If you do not touch the ground, the air is totally acceptable. Over time, you will reach it. (And even when you have been touching, sometimes you may be tight, so just be careful.) • As you extend your leg, simultaneously, keep your opposite leg bent, but work to extend that legʼs toe in the opposite direction (as if you were performing an inverted “hurdle jump”.) • As you start to roll down onto your back, keep extending the rear leg (which was originally bent when you were seated.) As you inhale upward to a seated position, what was your rear leg while inverted on your back, will become your new extended leg. As you come to a fully seated position, tuck your foot into your extending legʼs thigh. You ill now be in the opposite position. • This completes 1/2 of a repetition. Perform the opposite hurdler spinal rock to validate one full repetition.

79

COMMANDO MISSION TASK 2:

Monkey Lunge 3 Leg dog • Begin in downdog position: palms flat, elbows locked, shoulders off your ears pulled back, knees extended as wide as necessary to keep heels flat to the ground. Work to keep your lower back flat, but since this isnʼt “yoga depth” tolerate a little spinal rounding. Spine parallel to the ground, with your shoulders packed down so that your shoulder blades are flat. • With an exhale through the mouth, extend one leg straight into the air, for the 3 leg dog position. When you cannot lift it any higher (while keeping your hips in one line), bring your knee out to the side and up to your armpit, missing your ribcage. Continue until you place your foot flat on the ground with no heel lifted. Depending upon your flexibility, you can step outward at an angle as far as you must, but work to step eventually directly in line with your shoulder width. • Keep both palms flat to the ground, and extend the hips downward. Maintain a flat spine; although it will be slightly off-parallel as you drop your hips. Keep both hips in one line, and donʼt let the rear leg hip turn out. • Continue your exhale as you press off the front mid-foot in order to return that leg back to the downdog position. This completes 1/2 of a repetition. Perform the opposite monkey lunge 3 leg to validate one full repetition.

80

COMMANDO MISSION TASK 3:

Plank Pull Bomber • On your forearms and ball of foot, press upward until you arrive in the downward dog position: knees locked and feet as wide as you must in order to keep your heels on the ground. Tolerate a little rounding of the spine because youʼre not going to “yoga depth” (stretching) at the top position. • Bend your knees and lower your bottom to your heels the bear squat position. Push back with your palms, locking your elbows (and as a result lifting your forearms off the ground) to load yourself like a rubber band stretching. • Bend your elbows and place your forearms back on the ground, and like trying to pull yourself up to look through a window, pull your forearms against the ground to bring your torso forward. Try not to let your knees touch the ground. Exhale through the mouth and drive forward. • Continue as far forward as you can keep your spine parallel to the ground. Pull forward until your elbows lift off the ground, pinching to your ribs into a knee pushup position. Keep pulling with your hands until your palm heels threaten to lift off the ground, and you pull them back to around your floating ribs (as if performing a horizontal muscle-up like pulling yourself into an open window from below). Flip your toes in the opposite direction so that you rest on your insteps. You can place your hips down on the ground if you must. Keep looking down at the ground and donʼt arch your neck. • Curl your toes underneath until you return to ball of foot, pushup plank position and press backward (not upward like a pushup), spine hovering parallel to the ground to place your forearms back on the ground. Exhale through the mouth and continue to push backward with your entire palm to forearm contact on the ground until you arrive back at the bear squat position. Extend your knees to return to the downdog position to complete one repetition.

81

COMMANDO MISSION TASK 4:

Rear Sit Thru Pushup Extension • From a ball of foot squat position, place both hands on the ground and extend one leg behind you as close to your opposite leg as possible. Stabilize on the same side palm as the extended leg, and use the footsword of your extended leg to prevent any sag in your hip. Also, press off your mid-foot of your crossed leg. Exhale as you take your other arm and reach overhead, like a side bend. Let your eyes look upward. • Return both hands flat on the ground, retract the elbows to the ribs and lower your chest to your hands. • Slide your leg through as if performing the Sit-Behind Twist, on the outside of the foot-sword. But do not allow the knee and hip to touch the ground. Keep your eyes downward to the ground between your hands. Exhale through the mouth as you perform a pushup, with your leg extended in the rear sit-thru position. • As you pushup, press off your top crossed foot to lift your hip off the ground. Shift your weight predominantly to your hands as you press off your top crossed foot to lift your hip off the ground. Retract your leg back past the flat foot squat position as smoothly as possible transition to the opposite side without pausing in the flat foot squat. Perform the opposite side to validate one full rep.

82

COMMANDO MISSION TASK 5:

Sit-Thru 3 Leg

• From a kneeling position - hands and knees (and ball of foot), press off of the palm heels, to lift the knees. Rotate both knees in one direction and extend the knee until the knee locks. When the outside of the thigh becomes parallel with the ground, lift your leg as you can perpendicular to your opposite leg. • With an exhale through the mouth, lower yourself down chest to hands while the leg extends across to the opposite side without touching the ground whatsoever; flex the quad to lock the knee, pull the toes to the shin and keep the heel away. Exhale deeply to lock the core tightly as if being kicked in the belly. • Perform a pushup and press backward locking elbows overhead while rotating the side extended leg inward but continue upward and extend as if performing a 3 leg dog; with the opposite leg extending the knee, foot flat and heel down. Begin bending the knee of the leg you just retracted and continue rotating and kick the opposite leg to the side to perform the second half of the repetition.

83

COMMANDO MISSION TASK 6:

Shinbox Guard Spin • Beginning in one side of the shinbox position, roll backward at a diagonal opposite of rear bent-knee. As you roll backward to that side, the rear leg will become the “top” leg. Exhale through the mouth and swing the top leg toward your chest and extend the knee. • As the inertia rolls you across from one shoulder blade to the opposite, both knees, top leading the bottom will come toward the chest, as you pass through the rear position of the spinal rock. Continuing the motion, the top leg will become the bottom as you roll completely across to the opposite shoulder blade. • Bend the bottom knee to the chest, and extend the top leg. As you press off the bottom shoulder blade, pushing to seated position, bend the top knee until it reaches the rear position of the (now opposite) shinbox. Repeat in the opposite direction in order to complete the full repetition.

84

Part 5: The Rosetta Stone - Putting it all Together (by Steven Barnes) Thank you for joining TACFIT Warrior, which we promise you will be one of the wisest decisions you have ever made. There are many pieces to this puzzle, and it would be impossible to describe, in simple terms, everything you can hope to gain, any more than a steak can be described fully enough to nourish your body. You will know, in the practice. Only the practice of TACFIT Warrior will actually open your eyes. But we can guide you to the most efficient and effective use of the program. 1. Read the manuals. From beginning to end. Become familiar with the overall structure, the intent, the basic technologies and philosophies underlying the program. More than fiy combined years of research went into this, culling thousands of years of mental and physical development history. You cannot expect to understand everything on a single read-through. en, begin to study the TACFIT Warrior 4 Day Diet manual as well... 2. Watch the Videos. e instructional videos, and the follow-along "sim" videos. Note that the exercises are in five different levels of difficulty: Warrior Lite, Pre-Recruit, Recruit, Grunt, and Commando. If you have any doubts at all of your fitness, begin at Warrior Lite. You do NOT have permission to hurt yourself practicing this program!! Time and regular practice will determine progress. 3. Read the "Nine Secrets of the Samurai" book. is is a core set of values and beliefs for the TACFIT Warrior program, extracted from the famed "Book of Five Rings" created by Musashi Miyamoto, arguably the greatest warrior in Japanese history. e heart of his book are nine principles which, if taken seriously, will lead you to success in any discipline in the world. TACFIT Warrior is, among other things, designed to implant these principles in your mind at such a deep, unconscious level that you automatically begin to employ them in choosing your actions and designing your value hierarchies. But if you are consciously aware of WHY you are studying these principles, WHY and HOW they are critical to success, you will succeed more rapidly. 4. Read and use the Mission Calendars and Charts. Print out the PDF appropriate to the level of your practice. Place them in a binder, and use as a daily journal. is will be your record of effort, challenge, and triumph. ese binders may be the most important document of your progress in years to come.

85

ere are FOUR different stress levels: 1-No Intensity 2-Low Intensity, 3-Medium Intensity, and 4-High Intensity. ere are TWO different basic ways these days can be laid out: e 4:7 Cycle, where the 1,2,3,4 cycle is repeated seven times over the course of 28 days, approximately one month. e other is the 7x4 Cycle, where the same stress levels are repeated on the same days of the week, in a cycle repeated four times over 28 days. e pattern is 1231234. For instance, Sunday is no Intensity, Monday low Intensity, Tuesday Medium Intensity, Wednesday No Intensity, ursday Low Intensity, Friday Medium Intensity, Saturday High Intensity. e choice is yours. On each day you will be tracking different kinds and amounts of information. e more you keep track of, the easier your progress will be: "what gets measured gets managed." But never forget: the core of this system is the actual practice. Not thinking about it, reading about it, or writing about it. DOING IT. 99% Perspiration, 1% theory. Without the work, the rest is meaningless. Never forget this. Day 1--No Stress. is is your recovery day. On this day, you rest, and perform joint recovery motion, with very little weight-bearing, concerned only with nourishing and depressurizing the stressed tissues. On this day you will also clarify your objectives. Note the three objective areas: #1--Career #2--Personal #3--Physical ese relate, of course, to Mind, Emotion/Spirit, and Body, the classic Greek Triad that defines humanity.

86

#1: Career. is might be "education" if you are in school, or "Mind" if you are retired. An overall goal should be something MEASURABLE AND PHOTOGRAPHABLE. Not "more money" but "increase my net worth by 100,000K." Not learn a foreign language but "be conversational in Spanish" not "improve my education" but "earn my master's degree." #2: Personal. is is the domain of your heart, your emotions, your connection to others and your deep self. e framework of your birth and death. ese are huge issues and they are best approached in small steps. What are the activities that will bring you into better alignment with your spouse, your family, your God, your own heart? Define them. It may be a certain amount of time per day meditating, journaling, praying, playing with your children, talking with your husband or wife. Deepening your familial and social relationships, achieving deeper awareness, attending church more regularly or reading the Bhagavad Gita. Only you know what you wish, and what you need. But you need to select a goal that can be quantified. Be, have, or do. #3: Physical. e easiest. Good goals are percentages of body fat, weight, running a marathon, earning a black belt, winning a competition, fitting into that cheerleader uniform. Nice, easily understood, quantifiable goals. What if you can't think of a goal? Try using these as a default until you customize your intentions: doubling your income, doubling the passion and intimacy in your current relationship, and doubling your physical energy. A little scary, right? What would it take to accomplish all three, at the same time? You would have to change as a human being, would have to evolve. And that is ALWAYS a little frightening. But to really progress in life, you MUST have goals in all three arenas -- trust us: whatever flaws and negative beliefs that hold you back will hide wherever you hesitate to search for them.  

87

ACTION STEPS TODAY. What can you do TODAY to move you closer to your goals? 1-3 actions, preferably one in each major arena. WRITE IT DOWN. ALLIES OR NEW INFORMATION NEEDED. It is safest to assume that if you already have the capacity to accomplish something, you'd already be doing it. While you must have faith that you can learn, or grow, to be the person who can bring your dreams to life, you will need teachers, guides, mentors...a tribe of brothers and sisters and allies. Define them. Define what you need in order to become the person you need to be to have the goals. GREATEST OBSTACLES IN MY PATH. What is it that holds you back today? If you can define it clearly enough, you can begin to find solutions. EXTERNAL: Obstacles outside of you might include competitors, lack of resources, or saboteurs in your environment. INTERNAL: Obstacles within yourself might include fear, anxiety, anger, lack of clarity, creative block, avoidance, lack of focus, etc.

88

LOW INTENSITY DAYS Objectives: #1 Career, #2 Personal, #3 Physical. Re-write your goals. It is EXTREMELY valuable to write your goals down as oen as possible. "Knowing" them is one thing. It is amazing how much resistance people have to writing down their goals. is is because they know that this is the beginning of real change, and the beginning of risk. Action Steps is Week. Notice that on the "No Stress" day we talked about what you would accomplish on THAT day. Now we are broadening scope. What will you accomplish by the end of the week? And in "Action Steps is Month" you ask what you will accomplish in the next 30 days. Being able to see long, medium, and short term goals and steps to their accomplishment is one of the secrets to success. PERCENTAGE POINTS EARNED TODAY: If every day you wrote down an approximation of your completed tasks or successful efforts...what effect do you think this would have on your overall performance? Just give yourself a score from 1-100, but be honest. Set it up so that if you had a month of 90% days, you'd be KICKING BUTT in all arenas. Possible ways to score would be: • promises kept • projects completed • successful sales calls • time spent with family • pages of reading completed • subjective mental clarity • sticking to diet • exercising • on-time for appointments

89

is is your way of measuring success. 100% would be one of the best days of your life. 90% is an "A", 80% is a "B", 70% is a "C" and so on. Rate yourself so that it is a little painful if you screw up. It SHOULD be a little painful to fail. And it should feel GOOD to succeed. And so long as your goals are arrayed in balance, caring about all three arenas of body, mind, and emotions--you can't go wrong. Set your goals. Set your standards. Track your results... And reap the rewards. A SAMPLE DAY: Let's say it's a "Medium Intensity" Day. You wake up, and flip through your calendar, noting the overall goals. Take a look at what you are committed to doing, and the actions you will have to take to accomplish them. Feeling any trepidation? A little nervous? GREAT! is means that you are actually confronting your issues, actually gearing up for change. Begin your exercise program with your Warm-up program. As your body warms up, think about the fact that you are preparing to take another step toward the destiny you desire. is day will have challenges (sometimes the greatest challenge is terror...and sometimes it's boredom!) but also rewards, if you can focus and flow. Just follow the instructions, and get ready to rumble. If there is fear, discomfort, anxiety, focus on it. Let yourself feel it. Now, begin to practice your chosen level of TACFIT Warrior. Again, just follow the directions. We've done all the work for you--except the sweating part. at's non-negotiable. Sorry. Aer, perform the six exercises of the cool-down. e seventh exercise is a deep rest pose. Although it only asks for a minute of your time, spend more if possible. Record the information in your journal. Now go and jump into your day! At the end of the day, write down your "Percentage Points Earned Today." As you go to sleep, listen to the "Warrior Sleep" program if you like: it will not only take you into a deep and healing night's rest, it will also help prepare your mind and emotions for another productive day of work and play. You can also use the "Warrior Sleep" program to take a nap in the middle of the aernoon. e state of rest it instills is actually deeper than normal sleep!

90

REMEMBER THE PROCESS Changing, accomplishing anything at all, involves a cycle of activity and feedback, advancement and retreat. Wisdom is a matter of understanding the cycles, and matching your efforts to the demands of the moment. Being able to take the long view. ere are lots of ways to look at this cycle, and here's one that is very useful. 1)Notice the behavior you want to change. 2) Determine the behavior you want to adapt. 3) Raise your energy level 4) Practice the new program 5) Fail successfully 6) Start over again. You will experience many, many of these cycles as you progress toward any goal. ose who fail invariably miss steps of this process. Most oen, we forget to interpret failure as feedback. Equally disappointing is the human tendency to know what we DON'T want, but not what we want. at one has wasted more lives...

91

For twenty years I've taught something called "Lifewriting" that asks you to look at your life through the lens of myth. Specifically the pattern called "e Hero's Journey" which was beautifully expressed in the original Star Wars 1) Hero Confronted with a challenge (come with me Luke, learn the Ways of the Force!) 2) Hero Rejects e Challenge ("I promised Uncle Owen I'd work on the moisture evaporators") 3) Hero allowed or forced to accept the challenge ("teach me to be a Jedi like my father") 4) e Road of Trials (Mos Eisley Cantina, Alderan, the Death Star) 5) Gathering Allies and Powers (Han, Leia, e Force, etc.) 6) Confront Evil--defeated (Obi-Wan dies) 7) Dark Night of the Soul (Disaster at the Death Star) 8) Leap of Faith ("Trust your feelings, Luke!") 9) Confront Evil--victorious (Destruction of Death Star) 10) e Student Becomes e Teacher (Han and Luke get medals, are applauded) is pattern, present in all world culture, matches the general curve of learning and action in human life. Compare this to the Behavioral Modification model above, and you'll get the joke rapidly.

92

Using the TACFIT Warrior program requires the following steps: 1) Hero Confronted with a challenge. Acknowledge that you have goals worth struggling for. Identifying balanced goals worth attaining. 2) Hero Rejects the Challenge. Deal with the fear that stands between you and changing. 3) Hero Accepts the Challenge. Accept full, adult responsibility for your actions. You will need to raise your energy. Nothing does that better than focused goals, TACFIT, and the ability to rest fostered by "Warrior Sleep." All you need to add is a healthy diet, and you have everything. 4) e Road of Trials. Divide your goals into chunks small enough to approach at about 1% a week. 5) Allies and powers. Find role models who have accomplished your goals. What values and skills did they possess that you do not? Develop the skill of focus and modeling. 6) Confront Evil--defeated. You are going to fail at times. Deal with it. ere will be pain, and fear and disappointment. Deal with it. If you can't you will NEVER become all you can be, or live the life you want. e only good news is that you can learn to deal with these emotions more productively. "Mastering F.E.A.R." will take you there. 7) e Dark Night of the Soul. You will enter depression and despair. is is part of life, and you cannot find a single biography of a great man or woman that does not mention it. Deal with it. What you can do is learn to survive your depressions, and you can do that by learning to be graceful and focused through moments of physical stress--like TACFIT Warrior 8) e Leap of Faith. Evidence of things unseen. What Musashi in "e Nine Secrets of the Samurai" calls perceiving things that "cannot be seen." Instinct, trust, faith in action, ability to suspend consideration of individual loss and gain and place yourself in the hands of a deeper wisdom. All different ways of talking about the same phenomenon. Whether it is faith in yourself, a Higher Power or your tribe...you need to find some. None of us can make it without faith. You have the opportunity to learn a lot about yourself with TACFIT Warrior. at kind of work builds faith. ere is more, of course, far more, but knowing yourself is a darned good place to start. 9) Confront Evil and win. Not snarling, obvious evil--but our own sloth and illusion. Cleaning the unfinished business of childhood and accepting adult responsibility for our lives in all ways. is can be tough, mean stuff. But it is the door to really owning your life, and there are few of us who couldn't use a little more of that. 10) e student becomes the teacher. Each of us is an example to an entire web of human associations. We lead by example, whether that is a good example or not. And every ending starts a new cycle of growth. e best teachers are constant students. e best students teach their knowledge. Every basic piece you need is here and Scott and I will always want to know what you are experiencing, and how we can be of service. We're all in this alone, together, Steven Barnes

93

About the Authors Scott Sonnon, National Coach and World Champion TACFIT was created by RMAX International co-founder 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. 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 “Honorable 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 speaks around the world for noteworthy organizations such as MENSA International (the High IQ Society), FLETC (the US Federal Law Enforcement Training Center), NSCA (the National Strength and Conditioning Association), IYCA (International Youth Conditioning Association), SLLETS (the State and Local Law Enforcement Symposium), the Arnold Schwarzenegger Anti-Aging Festival, NLSI (National Law Enforcement and Security Institute), as well as Universities worldwide. Find Scott on Facebook or [email protected]

Steven Barnes, Master Hypnotist and Success Coach CST Steven Barnes holds black belts in Kodokan Judo, AIKKA Kenpo Karate and a fourth-degree black belt in BKF Kenpo Karate. In addition, he has taught Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan, and completed the Yoga Works Instructor training course. He is also a Master Hypnotist through the Transformative Arts Institute in Marin, California, and teaches advanced stress management techniques at Moonview sanctuary in Santa Monica. He was also Kung Fu Columnist for Black Belt Magazine for three years. In his copious free time, he has also found time to publish twenty-four novels: mystery, fantasy, and science fiction, as well as write for television shows such as “Outer Limits,” “Stargate SG-1” “Andromeda” and “Twilight Zone.” He created the Lifewriting program, which connects the inner and outer worlds of creativity and myth, which has been taught to thousands worldwide. www.diamondhour.com www.stevenbarnesblog.com [email protected]

94