stress

How to use stress to your advantage by changing your stress mindset

How to Use Stress to Your Advantage: Stress Mindset

By Craig Weller / October 11, 2021 / 1 Comment

We don’t perform at our best or live to our fullest by simply eliminating stress. Our stress responses are what enable us to focus and perform. Stress pushes through difficult situations and, in the right amounts, enhances our ability to think and learn. Periodic physiological stressors are important not just for physical fitness, but also […]

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Concurrent Programming: How to Organize Training for SOF Selection

By Jonathan Pope / August 16, 2021 / 0 Comments

Programming is tough. It is hard to figure out how to organize training for SOF selection. There are a lot of things you could do each day: run, ruck, swim, lift weights, water confidence, calisthenics, metcons…..the list goes on. Obviously, you need to do many of those things, because they are what you’ll be screened […]

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Adaptation Principles

By Jonathan Pope / June 1, 2021 / 0 Comments

In order to understand programming, you first have to know how and why your body responds to training. When you internalize that framework, things like how much running to do, how fast, and how often become much easier to program and adjust.  Just like programming, adaptation is a complex subject that people spend their entire […]

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Visualization

By Jonathan Pope / May 27, 2021 / 0 Comments

Visualization, like segmenting, is exactly what it sounds like – the practice of mentally rehearsing something before you do it.  Researchers use the acronym PETTLEP to break down the components of a visualization exercise that should be accounted for: Physical, Environment, Task, Timing, Learning, Emotion and Perspective [1,2].  Skills are contextual. When you’re practicing something […]

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stress inoculation through cold water exposure

Stress Inoculation in Practice: Cold Water Exposure

By Jonathan Pope / May 27, 2021 / 0 Comments

“It is according to opinion that we suffer.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca One of the main things setting special operators apart from those with less rigorous training is that they don’t break down as much when things go sideways.  It’s not so much that they possess amazing YouTube trick shooting skills, it’s that they don’t […]

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Self Talk

By Jonathan Pope / May 27, 2021 / 0 Comments

We’ve all got a running commentary in our heads throughout much of the day–scientists call it an “internal monologue”. During intensely challenging workouts or events in selection you’ll find out just how loud this voice can get, and it’s totally inescapable. It can be a force for good or an agent of your destruction. Learning […]

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Reimagine, Revise, Re-store

By Jonathan Pope / May 27, 2021 / 0 Comments

Scientific studies of memory are a little scary, because the evidence is in, and your memory sucks. Memories are not objective recordings of our experiences. They are colored by any number of distortions and biases, even when they’re fresh. Each time we recall a memory and re-experience it, we’re also updating it. Memories that are […]

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Segmenting

By Jonathan Pope / May 27, 2021 / 3 Comments

A little-appreciated fact about selection is that a surprising amount of the quitting happens on a Sunday night or Monday morning, not in the middle of training evolutions. That’s right, GI Jane was a lie. It’s not the immediate prospect of doing push-ups for another hour that really messes with your head, it’s reflecting in […]

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Quit Tomorrow

By Jonathan Pope / May 27, 2021 / 1 Comment

“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius Most people have heard sayings like “You are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with.” This is one of the advantages of belonging to […]

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lifestyle assessment tool building the elite

Lifestyle Assessment for SOF Selection: Sleep, Nutrition & Stress Guide

By Jonathan Pope / April 12, 2021 / 0 Comments

The first step in creating a robust training program is understanding where to focus your efforts. Of course you’ll have to ruck, run, swim, and do pushups and pullups. But, you probably have some other questions: What about strength work?  How many days per week should you run? How far?  What should my pushups and […]

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