The fundamentals of each FTX Mission pillar — enough to start with good form. The full method, weekly programming, progression, and scaling live in the plans.
Hands a little wider than your shoulders, body in one straight line from head to heels — squeeze your glutes and brace your stomach. Lower until your chest is a fist off the floor with elbows tracking back about 45°, then press all the way up. The two faults to kill: hips sagging, and partial reps that never reach the bottom. Too hard on the floor? Put your hands on a bench or counter — the higher the hands, the easier.
Hang with shoulders pulled down ("blades into your back pockets"), then pull your chest toward the bar with no swing, and lower all the way to a full hang. Can't do one yet? Two builders: negatives (jump to the top, lower as slowly as you can) and rows (under a waist-high bar). Those two are how almost everyone earns their first strict pull-up.
Most of your running should feel easy — conversational pace, able to speak a sentence. New runners start with run/walk intervals (e.g., jog 30s / walk 90s) and stretch the jog over time. Speed and distance come later, and never both at once. Soft surfaces (track, trail, grass) spare your joints.
Rucking is just walking with a weighted pack — the military backbone of FTX Mission, and remarkably low-impact for the fitness it builds. The rules: start lighter than your ego wants (10–15 lb to begin), weight high and tight to your back, walk tall with short steps, don't run under load, and add distance before load, load before speed — never all three at once. Care for your feet from day one.
Warm up before every session (5–10 minutes of easy movement and joint circles) and cool down after (easy walking plus gentle stretching of what you trained). On dedicated mobility days, spend 15–20 minutes on hips, shoulders, ankles, and upper back. It should feel good — never forced. This is the work that keeps you training instead of healing, and it matters more with every decade.
No supplements to buy and nothing to weigh to the gram. The whole game: eat mostly whole foods, get enough protein (roughly 0.7–1.0 g per pound of bodyweight), fuel your hard sessions with carbs, hydrate, and sleep 7–9 hours — that's where you actually adapt. Be consistent, not perfect.
Every plan comes two ways: a clean, print-ready PDF, and an open-in-browser web version you can save to your phone and read at the gym — no internet needed once it's saved. One payment, yours forever, including future updates.
These plans work at any age. Over 40, you start with reduced volume, warm up a little longer, progress by recovery rather than the calendar (repeating a week is encouraged), and use joint-friendly scale-downs freely. Every plan and every exercise spells out exactly how to adjust.
Each tier has verifiable entry and exit standards, so you always know when to start and when to advance. The included Progress Tracker gives you printable logs and test records to watch the numbers climb. Down the road, the verification system will let you unlock earned tier badges by proving you passed the standard.
The fundamentals get you moving. The plans get you results.
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