The Four Pillars

Todd Bumgardner is the founder of Packmule Training Co., where hunters train year-round to be season-ready. He’s been a human performance coach for 20 years, including 8 years with a tier-1 unit. Todd owns a gym in Northern Virginia, currently resides in California, and spends more time in the mountains than is likely responsible.

In Part 1, we did a critical needs analysis for crisis-level endurance. We also covered building an aerobic base, improving your movement for efficiency and durability, and building strength endurance. And we learned why each of those components of crisis-level fitness is, well, a component of crisis-level fitness.

Now, we’ll carry on by lining out the training that takes care of the rest of our needs analysis — efficiency under load, power, and repeat sprint ability. I’ll also hit you with a bonus workout that prepares your body and your mind for uncertainty.

Efficiency Under Load

How fast can you move with a pack on your back or weights in your hands without your heart rate shooting into the stratosphere? It’s one of the first things I test with the hunters I train. They’re heading up mountains or into the backcountry with decent weight on their backs, and hopefully more on the way out. If carrying weight crushes them, they’re in for a real bad time.

Even if you’re not a hunter, it could be the same for you. It could be that you have to haul a kid on your back for 10 miles to reach safety. It could be that you have to carry all the resources you’ll need for a couple of weeks because the guano really slapped the fan.

We’ll start your efficiency under load development with a test. (Typically, only our Packmule training clients get access to this test, so keep it on the DL.) I want you to ruck for 3 miles on flat ground with 20% of your body weight in your pack at your fastest sustainable pace. No running — one foot must remain on the ground at all times. You’ll need a chest strap heart rate monitor for this, because we’ll need to know your max and average heart rate. If you can ruck those three miles in 45 minutes or less while keeping your average heart rate in Zone 2, you’re solidly efficient under load.

If you’re not as efficient under load as you need to be, you’ll change that by doing a few things:

• Ruck regularly with ~20% body weight at Zones 1–2 pace.
• Build relative strength and endurance so body weight becomes less of a limiter.
• Run easy — it improves rucking economy when paired with strength work.
• Add carries — heavy/short and light/long. They train shoulders, grip, core, and resilience for hauling gear.

Traditional Power Training

Power is the rate at which work is done. In training, it’s how quickly you can apply strength: jumps, throws, Olympic lifts. You never know when you’ll need to move yourself or someone else quickly — developing power prepares you for those moments.

Building power isn’t complicated. Strength is the base, then add jumping and throwing. The best time for power training is at the beginning of a strength session, after mobility prep but before strength lifts. It taxes your nervous system, so freshness matters.

Guideline: Do 3–5 sets of 3–5 reps each of a jump and a throw.

Repeat Sprint Ability

You need the ability to sprint, stop, recover, then sprint again — potentially many times. This might mean running back and forth in a crisis to help others. To train this, choose a full-body, high-speed movement:

• Air bike sprints (6–12 sec efforts, 45–75 sec rest).
• Hill sprints (safer than flat sprints, less decel risk).

Do 5–10 sprints per set. Rest 3+ minutes between sets if doing more than one. Warm up thoroughly — mobility, 15 min of easy aerobic, and a few bursts.

Bonus: The Coin Game

Crises are uncertain, just like special operations selection. To prepare body and mind for uncertainty, try this open-ended workout from Building the Elite.

Instructions:

• Wear shorts/pants with pockets. Grab a handful of coins (don’t count them).
• Each coin = one set of 1–3 dumbbell step-ups per side + 1–3 pushups.
• Keep HR under 150. Rest until HR ≤130 before pulling the next coin.
• Continue until ~10% of coins remain, then lay them out for the “endspurt.”

This uncertainty trains your mind as much as your body. Plan plenty of time — it can last a while.

Under Load Efficiency, Power, Sprints, and Uncertainty

In times of crisis, you need to go long under load. Rucking and carries give you that. But you also need power, and you need the ability to repeat powerful efforts — jumps, throws, sprints. And you must train for uncertainty. Combined with Part 1’s aerobic, mobility, and strength-endurance work, this makes you prepared to endure any crisis.