ANSWER:

Chad,

No, they are not the same. Although, they are also based around the same general premise, each one is unique to the program it’s contained within. [...]]]> QUESTION: Hello, I was wondering, are all the Recovery Routines the same in each TacFit program? R.O.P.E, Warrior, Commando, Spetsnaz etc.? Or, are they all different? -Chad

ANSWER:

Chad,

No, they are not the same. Although, they are also based around the same general premise, each one is unique to the program it’s contained within. However, there is some overlap from program to program, which I will explain here.

First, one of the things that sets apart the TACFIT and Circular Strength Training systems is that each warmup and cooldown is specific to the actual training sessions they are attached to. So, a specific mobility drill will be chosen for each and every work portion exercise. Also, a specific cooldown drill is chosen for each exercise as well. So, there is no general warmup or cooldown contained within any TACFIT programs because general training does not exist in the TACFIT system itself.

For example, if performing a squatting-type movement during the work/intensity portion of a training session, a hula-hoop-style hip circle mobility drill may be used as a warmup and a hip flexor stretch may be used as a cooldown. This way, the working joint and surrounding musculature will be primed before the exercise is performed. Also, the specific tension and over-compensation that develops from squatting will be released from the cooldown. It’s very systematic in its progression – like using a scalpel instead of a pickaxe to perform surgery.

So, naturally, with each TACFIT program – each of which contains a slew of unique exercises – there will be specific warmup and cooldown, which is the primary means of recovery methods in each program.

That said, there will be some overlap from program to program because some programs contain identical or similar exercises. Thus, an identical or similar warmup/cooldown protocol will also be used. However, there are additional recovery routines that some of the TACFIT programs contain, and some of them are included in multiple products. These are bonus programs that you can do on top of your regular training schedule for additional benefits. I’m not 100% sure which ones are included in multiple programs, but I consider these additional bonuses anyways, and not the main reason someone would buy a product.

My advice to anyone interested in going deeper into the recovery methods behind the TACFIT system is to look into the Intu-Flow and Prasara Yoga programs, which serve as the foundation of each TACFIT warmup, cooldown, and recovery routine. You can consider these the rudimentary tools upon which each TACFIT program draws on for specific purposes.

To learn more about the methods behind the TACFIT system, check out this interview with Scott Sonnon about the TACFIT system. To learn more about TACFIT Commando, visit the TACFIT Commando Review page.

-The diet module has become the “TAC-Food diet,” which is vastly expanded from the original 4-day [...]]]> After its initial release, TACFIT Commando underwent an update based on the feedback received from the original customers and was relaunched as TACFIT Commando 2.0 shortly thereafter. Here is a brief description of how version 2.0 has been updated:

-The diet module has become the “TAC-Food diet,” which is vastly expanded from the original 4-day diet plan.
-The recipes included are now the “101 Warrior Recipes” — codified to go with the rest of the diet.
-The TC follow-along workouts videos are regrouped into 9 longer ones instead of the 54 short ones, which is a much cleaner format and ultimately more user-friendly, too.
-There are now technical “how-to” videos on the download page to make the download, iPod, etc. aspects more user-friendly.
-And there were a few other minor tweaks and additions, too.

Basically, the 2nd edition is just a refined version of the first edition with some system-wide improvements.

For all of those who already own the first version of TACFIT Commando (ie 1.0), then you’re automatically eligible to receive the new 2.0 version for FREE. Simply login to the TACFIT Commando customer area and claim your free updates (your login info will be in the email your received with your receipt after ordering – if you can’t find it, you’ll need to contact customer service at: info@tacfitcommando.com).

If you have not yet purchased TACFIT Commando, then all new purchases will be for the new-and-improved second edition: TACFIT Commando 2.0. To learn more about this program, including the differences between the different packages, check out this page: TACFIT Commando Deluxe Edition VS Basic Edition. And to learn about the product, in general, check out the complete TACFIT Commando Review or visit the archive.

And there are many more positive testimonials out there if you search for them. The bottom line is that this program works. It does fulfill some of [...]]]> In case you haven’t already seen the TACFIT Commando Results that people have sent me over the years, here are some more TACFIT Commando testimonials…

And there are many more positive testimonials out there if you search for them. The bottom line is that this program works. It does fulfill some of its claims and helps people achieve what they’re looking for. But it takes consistent hard work. It’s definitely not easy.

If you’re still undecided about buying, then check out my complete TACFIT Commando Review to get all your questions answered (including which claims is does and does not fulfill), and keep in mind that all purchases come with a 60-day money back guarantee. So, worst case scenario is that you buy it and get your money back if it just isn’t right for you. Any questions, just contact me, and I’d be happy to help you out.

Note: Before I say anything else, let me first say that I’ve received a LOT of questions about the P90X program, and many [...]]]>

No, this isn’t going to be a no-holds-barred cage fight where Scott Sonnon and Tony Horton duke it out – just a simple perspective on TACFIT Commando vs P90X.

    VS

Note: Before I say anything else, let me first say that I’ve received a LOT of questions about the P90X program, and many of them are asking for a comparison between this program and another TACFIT program. I know that you’re probably trying to figure out which one is best for you, or whether either of them is appropriate for your goals at all. I understand that there are a lot of specific factors that could and should influence your decision. That said, this could be a very long and drawn out article (or even a series of articles) to truly compare the nuts and bolts of TACFIT Commando and P90X. So, for the sake of brevity, I’m going to move very quickly through what I consider the most important issues and give you a summary of my opinion on this matter. Thus, the need for a succinct article that compares TACFIT Commando vs P90X.

First, I think it’s a good idea to do a good bit of research on both programs before trying to make any decisions. I have not reviewed P90X (you’ll get my abbreviated thoughts in this article), but I have thoroughly reviewed TACFIT Commando already. You can read that here: TACFIT Commando Review. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get into it.

Disclaimer: I have extensive experience with TACFIT Commando, but I have NOT used the entire P90X program. So, please keep that in mind while reading this. However, I have reviewed the P90X materials, tried out a few of the workouts, and I have discussed the program with several people who have used it successfully (usually losing weight in the form of bodyfat, and maintaining or building muscle).

TACFIT Commando vs P90X – The 5 Major Issues At Stake

1) Equipment Required - TACFIT Commando requires no equipment at all. If you have a little bit of floor space, then you have enough room to do every single aspect of the TACFIT Commando program. Seriously, if you have enough floor space to lay down, then you have enough space to complete all 9 months of the TACFIT Commando Program. If you have enough room to lay two yoga mats side by side, then you’ll be more than comfortable (at least until you start sweating). Every single exercise is a bodyweight, ground-based movement. So, it should go without saying that you can do TACFIT Commando anytime and anywhere. You don’t need an expensive gym membership and you don’t need an extensive selection of home gym equipment. No further investment is required, and you can get started with the program immediately.

P90X, on the other hand, does require some equipment – mainly a pullup bar (or place to do pullups), some free weights (e.g. dumbbells), resistance bands of varying thickness, and a couple other things depending on your conditioning level and training experience. At the time of this writing, you can order the P90x package with all of the above (not including free weights) for $269.70 + shipping. Or, you can collect these things on your own to save some money. Alternatively, a typical gym membership will provide all of the necessary equipment, but you probably won’t be able to follow along with the DVD’s while you exercise.

So, if we’re looking at the initial cost/investment and the equipment required, then TACFIT Commando wins hands-down, but that may not be reason enough to abandon P90X either. Training with equipment does come with some advantages that should not be overlooked.

2) Functional Training Program VS Physique Training Program - This is where we really get down to the type of goals that each product tries to address. P90X is decidedly a physique training program. It is meant to help you lose fat, build muscle, and ultimately build a better “beach body.” That is P90X’s ultimate purpose and this is quite evident from their marketing. TACFIT Commando, on the other hand, is a movement-based, functional training program. Yes, TACFIT Commando will absolutely help you burn fat and build muscle, but this won’t necessarily be “show muscle,” but more like “go muscle.” It might get you laughed off the stage at a pro bodybuilding competition, but TACFIT Commando will produce the hard-body physique that most people would generally consider attractive. That said, this is not TACFIT’s primary purpose. It’s a health-first conditioning system – NOT a physique-first body transformation program. So, if you’re going for a particular look, and something along the lines of an amateur bodybuilder or fitness model, then P90X may be the way to go. On the other hand, if you want to feel better, move better, and improve your conditioning, then TACFIT Commando is probably the better option.

3) Built-in Injury Prevention VS “History of Injuries” - Maybe I’m biased, but this is a big one for me particularly because I know several people who have been injured using P90X exactly as outlined. For me, an exercise program should not regularly and repeatedly create imbalances and injuries in peoples body’s. Just like medical doctors agree to “first, do no harm,” I think that fitness programs should be created under the same guideline. With almost everyone I’ve talked to about their experience using P90X, this has not exactly been the case. They’ve usually been very pleased with the body composition improvements (less fat, more muscle), but they’ve also worked their way into pain or injury.

It could be as simple as achy knees, a shoulder that just won’t stop bothering them, or lower back pain, but regardless of what it is, it’s often a direct result of using P90X. There’s a very specific reason for this: P90X requires high-frequency, high-volume, and high-intensity, specialized training. Most people do not possess the conditioning level necessary to take on this type of program, and on top of that, the program itself does not address the over-specializations that develop as a result of using it.

One of the major reasons why I can’t officially endorse P90X (apart from not actually going through the full program myself) is because it’s a physique-first program, and while it does have some recovery-based training strategies, they are just generalized and not specific to the program or the individual needs of each user. Each persons experience will vary, but if you follow the P90X program as-is, then you will very likely get injured directly from using it. It’s only a matter of time, and the duration will be dependent on the individual.

So, in essence, while you’re burning fat and building muscle, you’ll also be slowly wearing away at your joints and connective tissues. This is not so much a flaw in the P90X programming, but rather the nature of physique-first training (the Achilles heel!).

On the other hand, if you use a health-first fitness program,such as TACFIT Commando, then you’ll build an impressive physique without necessarily hurting yourself, because health comes before everything else in the TACFIT training hierarchy:

1 Health
2 Mobility
3 Functionality
4 Attributes (strength, endurance, etc.)
5 Physique

The way that TACFIT Commando presents itself as a health-first system is in its recovery strategies and prehabilitation protocol. Every single workout has a movement specific warmup and cooldown that is meant to prime the joints, connective tissues, and muscles for the work about to be done and then also compensate for the specializations that occur in the body as a result of the training during the cooldown. On top of that, there are specific low and no intensity training sessions that are designed to further reinforce injury prevention and consequently boost your overall results.

4) Time Required - Strictly speaking, TACFIT Commando also wins on the time issue, too. All TACFIT sessions take less than 45 minutes, and some days take even less than 20 minutes to finish the workout – start to finish. With P90X, you’re looking at spending at least an hour or longer, almost every single day (I think that 1 day per week is optional for rest). So, if you have a lot of time available, then P90X might be a good option.

5) Intensity Level - I consider both of these products high intensity training programs. The difference is that TACFIT Commando was designed to wave the intensity level of each workout to optimize recovery. That’s a fancy way of saying that the intensity of each session will vary to help you maximize your results without burning yourself out. While P90X isn’t necessarily as extreme as the marketing makes it appear, the general level of intensity will be higher and you’ll have to self-regulate your energy expenditure (you’re on your own, and this definitely can work for some people – not necessarily a bad thing). However, with TACFIT Commando, you will have specific days where the required intensity level is already laid out for you in advance. You’ll have high intensity training sessions, moderate intensity sessions, low intensity sessions, and even no intensity sessions. It’s all designed to help you maximize your results while minimizing burnout, excess fatigue, and over-training.

Final Thoughts

Now, those are just FIVE comparisons between the two products, and there are a ton of other factors that could and should be taken into account before buying. I didn’t even touch on the types of exercises, the program design itself, or the overall value of each program, among other things. TACFIT Commando and P90X do share some similarities, but they are also like night and day in some ways. Each program is very unique, and one of them will likely be much better suited for your goals than the other.

By now, you can probably tell that I’m not a big fan of P90X, and that I am a big fan of TACFIT Commando – with one disclaimer: I don’t think that TACFIT Commando is right for everyone, and for certain people, it could be their worst nightmare. On the other hand, and all flaws aside, for the right type of person, P90X could be just perfect. That’s why I think it’s important to get all your questions answered BEFORE you pull out your credit card. Lucky for you, I’ve already written up a very detailed product review designed to help you figure out if TACFIT Commando is right for you. So, if I perked your interest, feel free to check out my complete TACFIT Commando Review.

If you have any other questions about TACFIT Commando vs P90X, please contact me. You can also find many of my thoughts to common questions about TACFIT Commando if you search the archives of this site.

Really enjoying doing the program. Just finished day 7. I have a few questions if you do not mind. Do you recommend doing the program as is, or maybe adding in a max strength routine possibly on the low intensity day? Also, is the program building the back enough or should [...]]]> QUESTION:

Hi John,

Really enjoying doing the program. Just finished day 7. I have a few questions if you do not mind. Do you recommend doing the program as is, or maybe adding in a max strength routine possibly on the low intensity day? Also, is the program building the back enough or should I add in pullups, if so when? Lastly, my form on the tripod extension is dowright horrid. I am a 50 year old CPA aka stiff. Any ideas?

Thank you, Ron

ANSWER:

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your questions. Sonnon would likely tell you to do the program as is, and I understand where he is coming from. The program was designed to be complete, and needing nothing else. It is certainly a comprehensive program, and that may be reason alone to not play around with the programming. That said, TACFIT Commando was created for a very specific purpose, and sometimes that purpose doesn’t fully align with a trainee’s goals – especially when most of us aren’t tactical operators, Navy SEAL’s, secret agents, etc.

Most people that I deal with want some of the benefits of TACFIT Commando, but also want some other fitness training benefits that TC does NOT provide. So, I can totally understand why you’d want to include some max strength work or also supplement the routine with additional exercises like pullups, and I would tell you that this can certainly be done – and should be done if it aligns with your goals. So, it becomes a matter of the best way to do it, and there’s no easy answer to that question. As is often the case, it depends on a lot of factors. So, take my advice with that in mind.

If I was going to add in an additional exercise like pullups to the routine, then I would sub that at the end of a moderate intensity session, and I would keep the total training intensity and volume at or below 80% of maximum (no max effort work on a moderate intensity day). Other than that, you could do it any way you’d like – 3 sets of 10, a pyramid, density training, etc. That’s an easy and straightforward inclusion.

Regarding max effort lifting, this is where it gets a little more complicated. Firstly, I would advise against doing any max effort training on a low intensity or moderate intensity day unless you have drastically changed the training schedule. If you did this on the 4-day wave as outlined in TACFIT Commando, then I’d assume the training volume would be far too much and you would quickly end up burnt out, over-trained, or injured. It would probably be too much to recover from on a 4-day basis.

Now, if you’re using an adjusted routine such as the 7-day wave or another schedule that you create yourself, then I think it could absolutely be done. It just comes down to creating a program that will take you right to your edge and no further. You want to be able to fully recover from your sessions to avoid the risk of over-training. If this is the type of thing you’d like to experiment with, then I’d recommend starting with 1 max effort lifting session per week, and 1 high-intensity TACFIT Commando session per week. Try that out for a few weeks, and if you don’t see any signs of getting burnt out, and all of your results are otherwise positive, then either keep it up, or consider adding a little bit more training volume. Naturally, there are a ton of ways to program this, which is why I’m leaving it amgiguous. Just try to find the best schedule for you, and then become very meticulous about your progress tracking.

Something important to keep in mind is that there is no perfect program. Every fitness program, TACFIT Commando included, is designed to work for a broad range of people. So, naturally, it isn’t perfectly suited for any one person. Even individually tailored programs will have flaws. Of course, there are ways to get around this and provide within-program customization, but my point in saying this is that ultimately your results should dictate your approach. If you measure and track your results on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis, then you will know what is working and what is not. Whenever going into “uncharted territory” with a fitness program, I always recommend getting serious about your results tracking because it’s easy to get off course and do more harm than good. I hope that all makes at least some sense!

Regarding the tripod extension exercise that you’re having trouble with (note: this advice applies to anyone struggling with a specific exercise technique), I would try to identify what is giving you trouble. Is the movement just beyond your skill level, and it’s simply a matter of more practice? Is your mobility limited, in which case you simply cannot achieve the required range of motion for the exercise until you improve your joint mobility? Do you have tension in or around your shoulders, spine, ribs, hips, knees, etc.? Whatever is holding you back, identify it and work on improving that specific thing. If you’re not sure exactly what it is, then just make the best guess you can and take action on it, or try to find a local coach to help. In my experience, it’s usually an issue of limited mobility and/or excess muscle tension, combined with an exercise that is either completely new and thus, unpracticed, or a movement for which your body isn’t yet ready to tackle, in which case, you’ll need an easier progression. Whatever the case, do whatever it takes – daily mobility, a few targeted yoga poses, targeted strength work, etc. Don’t lose hope, the tripod extension can be done!

For anyone looking for more information about the complete TACFIT Commando Program, check out my comprehensive review here: TACFIT Commando Review. Also, for anyone who is over 50 and still not sure if this program would work for you, see here: Is TACFIT Commando for people over 50?

TACFIT Commando looks great and I’m definitely interested, especially because of the lower time commitment than P90X requires. My question is, I’ve read in several places that bodyweight-only programs [...]]]> Will TACFIT Commando help you build strong, powerful legs – or is it mostly an upper body training program? Find out in the Q+A below…

QUESTION:

TACFIT Commando looks great and I’m definitely interested, especially because of the lower time commitment than P90X requires. My question is, I’ve read in several places that bodyweight-only programs are great for the upper body but leave something to be desired when it comes to the lower body. If this is true, why? Does TACFIT avoid the problem, and if so, how? – Joel

ANSWER:

That’s a really important question because there are so many myths surrounding bodyweight training that are circulating around the Internet. And I happen to have a very strong opinion on this one. Anyone who says that body weight exercises are only great for the upper body clearly don’t know about such exercises as bodyweight squats, forward lunges, reverse lunges, lateral lunges, walking lunges, plié lunges, diagonal lunges, forward and lateral bench step-ups, single leg squat variations (ie pistols and similar), dragon twisting squats, among many other exercises for lower body strength training that are all done with absolutely zero equipment. There are dozens of basic lower body exercises and hundreds of variations that can all be done with little more than some floor space.

I think this type of myth arises because the traditional bodyweight exercises are: pullups, pushups, situps, and dips, etc. These are all staple upper body exercises and very common in a bodyweight training program. But these are only a small sampling of what bodyweight training offers.

Honestly, I think bodyweight training really shines when it comes to lower body strength and conditioning, and the TACFIT Commando program is no different. Every single TACFIT Commando workout is a full body conditioning session that will absolutely challenge the legs just like the rest of the body – just try out the warrior lunge series or airborne squat series if you doubt it.

To learn more about the full body workouts contained in the program, check out my complete TACFIT Commando Review.