Login | June 03, 2026
Incorporating tactical training into your fitness program
PETE GLADDEN
Published: June 1, 2026
What with the important role fitness plays in occupations such as the military, police, firefighting and first responding, strength and conditioning professionals have found it necessary to develop programs and criteria to better suit individuals where traditional fitness protocols don’t apply.
And traditional protocols don’t apply to these “tactical” individuals because their occupations don’t entail phases, in-seasons/off-seasons, event peaking and tapering and event-day prep strategies.
Indeed, tactical occupations require its personnel to be ready to work at optimal intensity, peak performance and with a high degree of mental acuity at a moment’s notice each and every workday.
Thus, fitness programs and protocols have been developed to cater to this ever-growing population of tactical individuals.
So what is tactical training about?
It's about occupational training via real-life movement patterns - lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, crawling, running, rucking etc - often using nontraditional equipment or just body weight.
And if you think about it, this is precisely the reason why some you workout, to be fitter such that you can simply accomplish everyday movement tasks - like house/lawn/garden work - with more vim, vigor and confidence.
Event prep isn’t your motivation, nor is being able to improve your bench press or to run a six-minute-mile.
You simply want to feel confident and competent engaging in everyday physical activities.
So for those of you falling into this category, here’s what incorporating a few tactical drills into your fitness routine can do for you.
1) Strengthen movement patterns that are applicable to your real-world situations.
2) Provide more bang for the workout time you invest by coupling exercises in circuits.
3) Offer adaptable drills for any fitness level.
Pete can be reached at pjgladd@aol.com.
4) Minimize the need for fancy exercise equipment.
4) Improve your mental toughness and confidence.
Now one of the first things you’ll notice about tactical workouts is that many of the exercises are ones you’re familiar with, but ones you don’t do.
We’re talking about push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, walking lunges, split squats, jumping split squats, farmer’s walk and suitcase carries, all exercises that can be done with one’s body weight and/or a few common household items.
Also integral to tactical training is agility and power.
In this case drills like step jumps, jump squats, and shuttle runs are used to help improve explosive cardiovascular power and muscular coordination.
Then there’s the aerobic components of tactical training like rucking (walking with a weighted pack), running, jogging, swimming, rowing and cycling.
Now some of the more unique strategies employed in tactical training include:
Cluster sets
These entail three-five set clusters where each cluster has a predetermined rep and rest scenario between sets.
So instead of doing something like three sets of 10 continuous reps/set in which technique typically diminishes on the last few reps, the cluster set would break up each set into a more qualitative range, say four or five reps, with shorter recovery between sets.
EMOM (Every Minute On The Minute)
This is a great endurance/stamina drill where a set is undertaken at the beginning of each minute for a predetermined amount of minutes.
Total Rep Sets
Here you choose a number, let’s say for instance 40, and then you strive to hit that 40 with as few sets of you can.
Cardio-Strength Coupling
Combing strength and cardio exercises into the same set.
For example, put a pack on your back with a bit of weight and walk a predetermined distance (like a quarter mile or more) and follow that up with push-ups, pull-ups, squats and/or overhead presses.
Doing such a workout for two-three sets provides an amazing cardio/strength workout, and you can literally choose any of a myriad of strength and cardio exercises to construct such a workout session.
What’s great about tactical training is that it allows you to think outside the box such that you can construct workouts that have relevance to your everyday life activities, this as opposed to working out for the sake of getting better at working out.
Heck, I did a tactical workout just yesterday - a long cardio-strength coupling set - where I used my push mower to cut the lawn while shouldering a 30-pound backpack.
My girlfriend called me crazy while my neighbors looked at me askew, but wow what a great workout!
So be creative and have some fun with this stuff.