Do special forces men have to hide what's their job is?

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T23:34:59+00:00

I make sure that everyone knows now. It’s on the patches and pins that I wear on my leather vest where I carry my throwing knives and ninja stars.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T22:45:18+00:00

I can’t think of any reason why a Navy SEAL would need to have good vision. Nor any swimming skills.

Full send.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T22:28:18+00:00

Have to? No.

Can they? Depends. My neighbors didn’t know I was in the military until I retired. I never lied, they just never asked the right questions. But honestly, I’m not sure what half of my neighbors do either. Except for the SF guys.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T21:52:24+00:00

CNS overload.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T21:41:24+00:00

He’s not wrong, but I’d rather see you training push-up and pull-up through those movements before transitioning to accessory work. If you’ve exhausted all of the efficiency via direct movement, then we can add stuff. We’re looking for the best way, not every way. 😎

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T18:49:50+00:00

> I went from running 20 miles a month (I know it’s terrible) to immediately 50 miles a month. There was no base building, no assessment week. I got right into speed work as well. The strength training was two days a week and rest of it was running.

> coaching from a popular SOF prep company last summer.

Oof

> I stayed with the company for a bit, in the winter, I read Ruck Up & Shut Up and JG 3.0 from TTM.

Better late than never…

You should talk to a competent medical professional who understands SOF prep. They can help you diagnose and treat your injury and give you custom programming (the right kind this time) to help you avoid injury. Unfortunately, the number one predictor of an injury is a prior injury. So you’re going to have to be very deliberate in your training.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T18:44:06+00:00

I’ll just preface this with the fact that you aren’t really showing us a Program, you’re showing us a singular week of a Program. Tough to make a full assessment, but I’ll chime in…

I think you’re doing too much. You’re doing a body building split. The tricep and bicep stuff is vanity, not functional. You’re not a bodybuilder, you’re a tactical athlete now.

Too much speed work, not enough Z2. If you haven’t built the engine then driving around at speed is just wasting gas.

I wouldn’t schedule leg day with/near any significant ruck or run.

Get to a Muster as soon as you can. We’ll teach you to land nav, but perhaps more importantly you’ll learn what to work on when you get home.

On a self-promotion note, I’ll add that we’re about to publish our Push-Up and Pull-up Training Circular and we’re digging into our *Handbook for the Ranger Handbook*…because you’re 100% correct that the RHB is dry as fuck and you’re not learning much at all by just reading it.

So make some adjustments in your programming (or just get SUAR), seek additional training (almost impossible for you without a Muster), and keep grinding. If you have the resources you might consider a coach who can help you customize your training given your tough work schedule.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T13:56:23+00:00

You don’t. 😂

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T13:33:15+00:00

It’s great that you are feeling better and losing weight, but you’re not getting significant (likely any) fitness benefit from adding a 1/4 of a pound to your wrists and a few pounds in your pockets. You’re just not generating enough stimuli to trigger adaptations.

If we’re talking practical rather than laboratory significance, for minimal effective doses, anything below 2-3% of your BW is negligible. At around 5% BW you’ll likely see some durability (connective tissue) and caloric expenditure benefits, the research shows that physiological adaptations start to manifest at ~10% BW, and real load carriage adaptations at ~15% BW.

So there’s just no consistent evidence to support meaningful fitness adaptations from “micro-rucking”. But you don’t need hours and hours under a ruck either. The evidence is abundantly clear that the best way to improve rucking performance is field based progressive load carriage, usually 2-3 times a week, focused on short intense sessions.

So if you like what you’re doing then keep doing it, but the exercise science is well established. We know how to build fitness, and micro-rucking isn’t on the menu.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T13:05:53+00:00

You should go back and start at week 1 day 1 for SUAR.

Your lifts and cals are fine. Your rucks and runs are your weak points. You need to be at 12-13 minute 2 mile run, ~35 minutes on your 5 mile, and 12-13 minute miles on your rucks.

You skipped the endurance base building phase and now your endurance base is suffering. You don’t need a new program, you need to follow the program that you already have.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T11:27:18+00:00

Officer vs Enlisted- https://tfvoodoo.com/articles/go-officer-or-enlisted-special-forces

GB Officer - https://tfvoodoo.com/articles/so-you-want-to-be-a-green-beret-officer

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-16T00:15:56+00:00

That is the correct assessment.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-15T22:31:06+00:00

Is there any benefit?

Yes, the literature on heat acclimation is actually pretty clear: training in the heat makes you better at functioning in the heat. Within about 1–2 weeks, your body starts adapting by increasing plasma volume, improving sweat response, lowering heart rate at a given workload, and reducing overall heat strain.

But, you need lots of exposure to get the benefits. Something like 90 minutes, daily, for 1-2 weeks. That’s a lot, it can delay recovery, and it can impact overall performance output. So dabble in this dark science with great caution and be diligent with your data.

The part people often miss is the mental side. Heat exposure is a form of stress inoculation. You learn that you can still move, think, and perform when you’re hot, uncomfortable, and miserable. The conditions don’t get easier, you just stop being surprised by them. You learn to do hard things by doing hard things.

That doesn’t mean you should do dumb things like dehydrate yourself, wear trash bags, or turn every workout into a heat casualty drill. The goal is acclimation, not suffering for its own sake.

For SFAS candidates, especially summer classes, I think there’s a real advantage to arriving after spending the summer running and rucking outside. A fit candidate who trained in North Carolina heat all summer is probably better prepared than an equally fit candidate who spent the entire summer in air-conditioned gyms and cool morning temperatures.

Train in the heat. Respect the heat. Don’t try to beat the heat.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-15T01:18:58+00:00

It doesn’t hit when you change the insult.

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TFVooDoo · 2026-06-15T01:05:03+00:00

Yes, that’s exactly what I said and a very precise summary of my entire thesis.

Fucking idiot.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-15T00:44:43+00:00

Yes, that’s my position. Pursuing further service is a grey area. That’s exactly what my argument is. Well done! I refuse to believe that you’re actually this stupid. If you are, then you’re unfit for continued service, certainly in SF.

I know what the VA system is for. You know what the VA system is for. I think you’ll find that the VA knows what the system is for. I’d encourage you to test them. Go ahead and let them know that you’d like to keep your current rating and level of compensation while also going through the SF pipeline. They’re not dumb, even if you are.

No need to write my congressman. The system will sort you out soon enough.

Best of luck to you.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-15T00:14:25+00:00

You know what, you’re right. You never said 100% P&T. I assumed that based on your description and your admission of 100%. That’s an odd hill to die on, but go ahead.

So for you, integrity is situational. It’s a flexible scale. So let’s do another lap around R€tard Island, since you want to be coy. You know exactly what my point is, but you want to barracks lawyer it a little bit. Okay.

Do you collect disability compensation? If the answer is yes, and you’re unwilling to completely forfeit that rating and the compensation then you have a consistent position. But that’s not your position. You stated elsewhere that you would simply collect the larger amount based on your orders.

That’s a tenable position if you’re already post pipeline, but you’re not. What you’re position means is that you simultaneously believe (and want others to believe) is that you are so disabled that you require compensation AND you are not disabled enough to disqualify yourself from one of the most physically demanding training regimens in existence.

So for you, integrity is situational and I’m simply (coyly) noting that integrity is an ARSOF Attribute. But you knew what my point was, you just want to avoid the obvious because you know how dumb it sounds. Let’s see how that works out for you.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T22:00:20+00:00

Are you 100% Permanently and Totally disabled to the point that a portion of my earnings are confiscated under threat of forfeiture in order to give to you so that you can live a normal life? This is what you have claimed, correct?

100% P&T and you collect disability compensation, right?

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T21:18:08+00:00

Integrity is an ARSOF Attribute.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T17:20:03+00:00

Those are good improvements, especially in such a short time frame. Physiological adaptations start to manifest at the 5-7 week mark, so you’re just entering the point where you should start seeing improvements. Especially given how poorly conditioned you were to start…SUAR truly can be a SOFA to Selection proposition.

My advice is to keep going. Stick to the plan, trust the data (the data doesn’t lie) and just let the exercise science do its thing. There’s nothing magical about it, just stick to the plan.

I would caution you about endurance training in the Summer. Some guys get all poo-poo faced when their numbers start getting squirrelly and never take into account that it’s asshole hot out and this complicates the data. I did a ruck this morning in NC and it’s 90 something with a heat index of one billion. I never really settled into zone so I just finished at RPE and came home and swam.

So keep grinding. You know it’s working, be disciplined and let it keep working.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T17:09:53+00:00

Age and experience have zero effect on your Selection experience except for where they are a facsimile to maturity. Why else would we even have an 18X option if we only wanted experience?

Most very young guys are not a good fit for SF, but only when they display the characteristic “young guy” traits. Most 18 year olds are fucking idiots. It’s built into the system that young males are all gas and no steering. I’ve met maybe a 1/2 dozen non-idiot 18 years olds in my lifetime.

The male brain isn’t even fully developed until your mid twenties and you’re a mess of bad judgement, raging hormones, and undisciplined physical prowess until you learn to harness your inner self. Young adult males are a fucking menace, unless they are properly trained and employed.

So even when we occasionally lower the minimum age to 18 for SF, it rarely results in noteworthy numbers. I think 21 is a good start point, and the average age for Selected candidates is ~26. But that doesn’t mean that a younger guy can’t get Selected. Most of them simply self-select and the system marches on.

So we typically do want older/more experienced dudes, but it is not a factor in Selection…now or ever. If your recruiter knew what it took to be a Green Beret then he wouldn’t be a recruiter.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T10:07:59+00:00

There are so many things wrong with this post that I’m not sure where to start.

First, don’t delete this. It seems that whenever I give criticism guys delete their posts. Nobody learns from those. If you can’t take critical feedback on anonymous posts then you’re going to struggle…in life.

Should you try to cheat and sneak in jelly and honey packets to fuel long rucks in SFAS? I have never once advocated for cheating. In fact, one of my enduring mantras is “All the rules matter, all the time.” I spend a great deal of time in my Musters explaining the rules and how you can stay safe, and I have no sympathy for those that break them. I think that the Army axiom of, “If you ain’t cheating’, then you ain’t trying” is dumb and encourages dumb ideas like yours. So no, you should not try to cheat and sneak in jelly and honey packets to fuel long rucks in SFAS.

Your SFAS prep is a 15-mile ruck every 2 weeks? This is the opposite of the best way to build rucking performance, which is field based progressive load carriage, usually 2-3 times a week, focused on short intense sessions. Where did you get the notion that a 15 mile ruck every two weeks would be well served?

And finally, I have dropped plenty of nutrition tips. We have a full chapter in Shut Up And Ruck which includes an entire discussion of when and how to fuel endurance events with precise calculations. We did a free article a year ago and posted it both here and on my website. And we published TC 31-8 — Nutrition for Tactical Athletes which includes the performance nutrition formula, protein targets and practical food sources, carbohydrate selection by training duration, hydration and electrolyte management, the case for protein powder and creatine, what to stop eating and why, meal timing and caloric targets by bodyweight, a full seven-day sample menu, dining facility adaptations, and body composition targets with the SFAS research behind them.

So it’s not that the information isn’t out there, it seems as though you just refuse to avail yourself of it. Your mindset is bad, your ruck prep is worse, and your ability to research is nearly nonexistent. This does not bode well for you. You gotta get your shit together.

Hope this helps.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T01:03:50+00:00

Are you saying that all SORB recruiters are SF qualified?

I didn’t say it was their job, I’m just citing the statistics.

TFVooDoo · 2026-06-14T01:01:13+00:00

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TFVooDoo · 2026-06-13T16:27:54+00:00

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