INTRODUCTION

This is what I am calling my “Greatest Hits Album.” Each workout in this book has been drawn from my many published collections—as well as a few bonus workouts from upcoming projects. It is intended to provide you with the ultimate in a la carte workout selection, providing a complete resource for designing and supplementing new or existing workout programs. All the workouts in this book are therefore designated as Upper Body, Lower Body or Cardio, and each comes from my over 20 years of fitness writing in the tactical fitness arena.

This is a culmination of more than two decades of working in tactical fitness. The 10 workouts selected from each different project are a mix of calisthenics, lifting, running, swimming, rucking, TRX, kettlebells and many other arrangement types. My hope is that, in providing you with nothing but the cream of the crop, you will be inspired to take your lifting cycle in a new direction, or pump up your calisthenics/PT cycles to new heights.

All of these workouts have been tested throughout the years by myself and the Heroes of Tomorrow training groups. This training group yields several successful special ops candidates (all branches/services), SWAT team members, FBI and local law enforcement, and fire fighters every year. These workouts are hardcore, but completely scalable. However, as these workouts are not personally tailored for any one individual—impossible to do without a trained physical trainer’s assistance—you may have to rearrange them or make changes to reps, distances, and events to fit your current fitness level and goals.

How to Use the Warrior Workouts

Searching through all my previously published workout collections, I found nearly a thousand weeks’ worth of programming to choose from. This book compiles my 100 personal favorite individual workouts—focuses on everything from calisthenics and running, to swimming, rucking, and easy-to-use weight exercises featuring dumbbells, kettlebells, and sandbags/back packs.

These workouts are arranged first by order of original publication, then by target area. Each section contains 3–4 upper body workouts, 3–4 lower body workouts (some weighted, some calisthenics for resistance), with a variety of cardio options for you to choose from.

Each workout has been titled appropriately; so, if you are looking for an Upper Body PT, a Run/PT, a Swim/PT, or a Full Body day of workouts, you need only refer to the workout titles (or the workout index, on page xx) to find the perfect program for your needs.

Some workouts are quick, some require at least an hour to complete, but the goal is for you to do what you can and progress according to what your body will tolerate. My advice for arranging the workouts into a complete week would be this:

• Pick a few of your favorite workouts if you want to do something 5–6 days a week.
  • Do your upper body workouts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can also add in cardio workouts after the upper body resistance workouts (though cardio is often mixed into these particular workouts anyway).
  • Add in some leg days on the days in between (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday), or at least some form of cardio where you use the legs like running, biking, rucking, swimming (using fins), rowing, etc.
• The other option is to focus on the full body workouts in this group of 100 and do them every other day of the week, with rest or cardio days in between.

The rules are that simple! With this type of volume—even in calisthenics—it is recommended to use the same muscle group every other day when it comes to resistance training for recovery and growth purposes. The cardio workouts can progress logically to several days a week, though I would keep rucking at 2–3 times a week max.

NOTE: There are no exercise descriptions or pictures in this book. If you require a more detailed explanation of these standard exercises, or if there are a few exercises you don’t recognize, all my other books have chapters devoted to exercise descriptions, with accompanying pictures. See the Resources section for a list of my other books, or check out my YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/stew50smith to find over 120 exercise videos, swim technique videos, and even some of these workouts to see the descriptions in motion.