How to Lift for Strength While Maintaining Your Fitness with Calisthenics and Cardio

Whether you’re preparing for boot camp or already serving, you’ve probably noticed the military provides ample opportunities for physical training. In preparation, training or everyday fitness, you will want to add exercises that will prepare you for your military career. This could be passing a fitness test or getting accepted to a particular job. It might even just be preparing you for the tasks of your profession.

If you have a goal that requires a heavy lift to get stronger but also need to maintain your calisthenics scores and cardio times, consider the following workout suggestions.

Warming up with calisthenics is a great way to help you maintain your calisthenics testing scores while at the same time preparing you to lift heavier-than-average weights to build your strength. This classic half-pyramid of pull-ups and push-ups, followed by a 5x5 push-pull is a combination of events to help you do both.

Push-up pull-up run pyramid 1-10 warm-up with 100-meter runs in between, plus 10 minutes of biking or a one-mile run: If you have a place to run next to a pull-up bar (outdoors), this warm-up is excellent for getting ready to lift.

Do one pull-up/push-up and jog 100 meters (or 20 jumping jacks or jump ropes). Then do two pull-ups/push-ups, and so on until you reach 10 pull-ups and 10 push-ups. This is a total of 55 reps of each exercise and about 1,000 meters in warm-up jogs that can be used as dynamic stretches.

If you find 55 pull-ups or push-ups too difficult as a warm-up, simply stop on the pyramid when you feel warmed up. Then bike for 10 minutes or jog one mile to complete the warm-up. Stretch as needed.

Build strength with the 5x5 workout, mixed with opposite movements or bench presses and rows:

Repeat five times.

• Bench press: 5 reps
• Dumbbell rows: 5 reps per arm (heavy, slow reps)
• Rest as needed between sets

The lifts above aim to build up to as much weight as possible while still doing five reps of each exercise.

Run one mile or ride 10 minutes on the bike; this is a transition bit of cardio to shake off the lift and get ready for weighted repetitions of calisthenics and dumbbells to top off the push-pull workout.

Repeat three times.

• Weight vest pull-ups: max
• Weight vest dips: max
• Dumbbell biceps curl/military press: 10
• Dumbbell shrugs: 10

Run 400 meters or bike for two minutes at an easy pace. This is an active rest to shake off the reps. Do not run with a weight vest. You can remove the weight vest once you finish the pull-ups and dip during each set.

Top it off with an isometric flex with weight, the weight-vest plank pose with push-ups:

• Get into the plank pose with a 20-pound weight vest. Build up to five minutes, but you must do 10 push-ups every minute on the minute (EMOM).
• 5-minute weight-vest plank: 10 push-ups EMOM. Stay in the plank or up push-up position throughout.
• End the workout with a bike and run cardio session, followed by an easy stretch and foam roll cooldown.

Cardio/stretch:

• Bike 10 minutes + run 1.5 miles timed.
• Stretch/foam roll for 10 minutes.

This differs from your typical strength workout, requiring other fitness elements besides strength. The primary goal is strength training, followed by secondary muscle stamina and endurance goals. You only sometimes have to do a workout arranged like this if you want to just focus on your primary goal.

Still, if you have the time and know you need to maintain other components of fitness besides strength, this is an effective way to do it: A warm-up with calisthenics/cardio, lift heavy, add supplemental heavy calisthenics, then cool down with cardio.

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