To whoever picked up this book,

Thank you.
We hope you find answers in these pages.
-The Combat Fitness Team
@cmbtfitness

1
 SOME LEGAL STUFF

This book, including all content, materials, and information contained within it, is
provided by Combat Fitness Inc. for general informational and educational purposes
only. The information and guidance provided in this book are not intended to be, and
must not be taken as, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Readers
are encouraged to consult with a licensed healthcare provider or nutritionist for
personalized medical advice or regarding any specific health concerns or dietary
needs.

The views expressed in this book are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the official policy or position of any health agency, medical association, or
governmental body. Combat Fitness Inc. and the author(s) make no representations or
warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy,
reliability, suitability, or availability of the content. Any reliance you place on such
information is strictly at your own risk.

By reading this book, you agree that Combat Fitness Inc., along with its directors,
employees, and affiliates, will not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising
from, or in any way related to, the use of this book or its content. This limitation of
liability includes, but is not limited to, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, and
punitive damages.

Copyright Notice

© 2024 Combat Fitness Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

2
 WHY WE PUBLISHED THIS

This is maybe the single most valuable guide we will ever

publish.

There is a lot of information in here that people pay a lot of

money for every day – like thousands.

We’re doing it for free, so here it goes…

The goal here is to condense the never-ending swamp of

information spread all over the internet,

And condense it into one short, easy to follow guide,

That contains only the most important information,

And none of the other garbage.

No fancy designs, no make-believe graphs, no fad-diets, no

sales pitches, no affiliate marketing links, just facts.

Sound good?

Let’s do this.

3
 INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wondered why fitness and nutrition seem so

wildly complicated? The fitness industry is notoriously
brutal for making everything confusing.

We’re writing this out of frustration, and out of desire to

create a bit of change.

We want our athletes to succeed. Period. Even if you aren’t

training with us yet. Your own well-being is not something
that should be intentionally complicated.

As a team that has been there and done that - we know the
difficulties all too well. 100 different YouTube videos telling
you 100 different things about fitness, weight loss, muscle
growth, diet, HIIT training, intermittent fasting, etc.

You get the idea.

It sucks.

You start one thing, and 7 days later you get a suggestion
from somewhere that there is a better, faster, cheaper, more
effective option.

4
You switch, follow that for another week or two, before the
same thing happens again. Rinse, dry, repeat. No progress -
ever.

Just “new, better” information that never works.

Just like the finance world, the fitness industry uses words
that only it comprehends, to keep you confused, and to keep
you seeking from fully understanding.

It is confusing by design. It is confusing, to keep you buying

more “solutions”. In this article, I am going to tell you the
truth.

The real truth.

I’m here to tell you the secret that the fitness industry doesn’t
want you to know.

And the truth is, it isn’t that complicated.

I know…

That sentence is going to frustrate a lot of you.

It is going to piss off those of you who “have tried

5
everything” and “nothing has worked”.

If it made you mad, then you - more than anyone - should

keep reading. Because you’ll soon see that it is the truth.

In the next couple of pages, I am going to quickly explain

everything you need to understand, regarding the basics of
fitness.

No fluff, no sales pitch, no confusing words without

explanations.

It’ll be broken into 3 main parts: Diet, Exercise, and

Recovery.

If you are going to read one thing to try and understand how
to “get in shape” or understand fitness as a whole, then let it
be this.

It will be simple, fast, easy to understand, and 100% true.

That, I promise.

- Scott

Director, Combat Fitness

6
 PART ONE: DIET

Diet is easily one of the most over-complicated things in the

world.

There are a lot of terms and expressions you may have heard,
like “tracking macronutrients”, “tracking micronutrients”,
“intermittent fasting”, “carb cycling”, “keto”, “dirty keto/low
carb”, “high carb, low fat”, “caloric deficits and surpluses”,
and probably a few dozen more.

90% of it is completely irrelevant.

Here is the breakdown of the few things that actually matter.

Calories:

A calorie is a unit of energy.

That’s it.

Your body burns a certain amount per day (roughly 2000 for
an average sized adult male) just by existing. You will burn
additional calories when exercising, and it will vary
depending on the intensity and type of exercise (generally
300-700 calories/hour of exercise for the same sized adult
7
male).

If you want to lose mass (fat), you need to eat less calories
than you burn.

Calories in < Calories out = Weight Loss

You can literally not exercise at all, and still lose weight as
long as you are eating less than you are burning. This is
called a “caloric deficit”: consuming less than you burn.

For traditional fat loss, diet is much more important than

exercise.

Macronutrients:

Macronutrients is a collection of… nutrients. Macronutrients,

or “macros” consists of protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

At the risk of over-simplifying, of these three, for the average

North American, protein is the most important to track.
Generally, when eating a reasonably balanced diet, the carbs
and fat will fall into place, but most of people don’t eat
enough protein.

In the simplest terms, protein is responsible for maintaining

8
and growing muscle (more on this in the exercise section),
and is key for recovery and sustaining a high-output lifestyle.

Protein intake is measured in grams.

On average, a good target is 1 gram of protein per pound of

bodyweight, per day.

So, if you weigh 180lbs, aim for 180 grams of protein a day.
You can see the protein content on the label of your food
(where is says “protein” under the serving size), or usually
just by doing a quick google search of what you’re eating and
how much.

For example, if your can of tuna has 15 grams of protein, and

you eat the whole can, you have consumed 15 of your 180
grams for the day.

Hope that makes sense!

If I haven’t lost you yet, another point I really want to

emphasize: it is possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the
same time.

Eating sufficient protein, while in a caloric deficit will do

9
this. This is what you may have heard be called “body re-
composition” or simply “recomp” for short.

There is a common fear/concern that if you eat in a caloric

deficit, you will lose all of your muscle mass - this is where
the traditional “bulking and cutting” phases come from.

In truth, your body worked very hard to build your muscles,

and it will do whatever it can to not lose or consume them.

As long as you eat enough protein, your deficit isn’t super

large, then your body will generally not consume much of
your own muscle mass – if at all - when losing weight in a
caloric deficit (again, this means eating less calories than you
burn). You will shed body fat, without losing muscle
(provided you keep training them as well - more on that in
the “exercise” section)!

“Bulking” refers to eating more than you burn (a caloric

surplus), with the hopes of growing muscle mass. Though it
does work, it has to be done very carefully, and often the
body fat gained during a bulk disproportionately outweighs
the muscle gained. We generally don’t recommend it.

If you don’t want to lose bodyfat, and just want to gain

10
muscle mass, you should eat at maintenance or a small
surplus (eating the same amount of calories you burn in a
day, or just a bit more), eat sufficient protein, and train your
muscles, and you’ll accomplish your goal.

One last little point - alcohol. Alcohol is fun. But in excess,

alcohol can massively slow/prevent muscle growth, increase
body-fat storage (by inhibiting the processing of other
nutrients consumed while the body metabolizes the alcohol),
and can ruin sleep. Realistically, one drunk night can cause
3-4 days worth of ramifications.

It is generally awful for fitness and health.

Keep all this in mind next time you find yourself stumbling
into an Uber after seven $3 pints at Buffalo Wild Wings.

So, to recap diet:

If you want to lose body fat, eat less than you burn.

Always eat enough protein (roughly 1g per pound of

bodyweight, per day).

If you want to gain more muscle mass without losing fat, eat

11
at maintenance with sufficient protein, while engaging your
muscles in progressive overload (more on that in the next
section).

Skip the “dirty bulk” altogether. The cons usually outweigh

the pros. Keep alcohol in moderation.

12
 PART TWO: EXERCISE

People love to overcomplicate exercise.

In fact, overcomplicating exercise may just be one of the great

American pass-times.

Here is the bottom line up front (BLUF, for you military

dudes):

If you are moving your body and getting your heart rate up…
you can’t really go wrong.

Everything else is just dependent on what you want to get out

of it.

For the sake of simplicity, there are two main types of

exercise.

There are strength focused movements (lifting weights, for

example) that target various muscle groups, and there is
“cardio” (or aerobic training) which targets your
cardiovascular system (like running, walking).

It is possible to engage both systems at once. CrossFit is a

common one that is a perfect example. Even hiking with a
13
heavy load can do this. Many activities can and will.
Anytime you can feel that muscle “burn” while your heart
rate is up, and you’re moving your body - you are hitting
both.

Let’s talk strength first.

The foundation of any strength training is what is called

“progressive overload”.

All this means is you are working your muscles harder over
time. This can be through an increase in repetition, increase
in resistance (weight), or both. Even doing multiple sets of
the same number of repetitions at the same weight will
engage progressive overload for that workout, as you are
stacking the total number of reps.

In simple terms, progressive overload is lifting more weight,

more times, or both. It exists both on a micro level (during
one workout) and on a macro level (increasing your load
over weeks/months).

This is how muscles grow. Progressive overload.

You literally work your muscles, they break down (which is

14
what makes you sore), and they build back stronger.

This repeats over days, weeks, and months.

This is also why sufficient protein is important - in simple

terms, protein is responsible for the rebuilding of muscle
fibers. You need enough protein in your diet to grow the
muscles you are working.

As we mentioned earlier, if you are eating in a caloric deficit

and don’t want to lose muscle mass, it is important that along
with sufficient protein intake, you stimulate your muscles
through progressive overload semi-regularly (most studies
suggest around twice per week for maintenance) to avoid
losing muscle mass.

You may have heard the word “hypertrophy”. Hypertrophy is

simply the enlargement of your muscles. Unless you’re into
competitive bodybuilding, you don’t need to really worry
about “optimizing” it, or any of those buzzwords you may
have heard. For the most part, standard progressive overload
will naturally lead to hypertrophy overtime.

Sound good? Onto cardio.

15
Cardio

Cardio, short for cardiovascular training (also referred to as

aerobic training) is good for your health, and overall fitness.
We preach cardiovascular endurance pretty hard at Combat
Fitness, because of the nature of what we do and what most
of our athletes do, and the lives we live.

Strength is one thing, and it’s incredibly important, but

cardiovascular endurance is the backbone of all actual
fitness.

Period.

A heavy deadlift is great, but if you have to run, hike, do a

ruck march, or do a jiu jitsu tournament, or get into a street
fight, or you’re roping out of helicopters and climbing
through buildings… cardio is the base of it all.

There are many forms of cardio, that can all do pretty much
the same thing.

The big difference here is what is called “heart rate zones”, or

just “zones”.

16
See, “cardio” (your aerobic spectrum) is actually broken into
FIVE different Heart Rate zones, depending on how hard
you’re going.

Again, at the risk of over simplifying, we’re going to reduce

it even further into just 3 main categories:

Endurance, Threshold, and Maximum.

These are the main principles and targets behind our world-
renowned Mixed-Interval running system used across all of
our programs, including the 35 Minute 5 Mile.

Here is a quick breakdown:

Endurance: Somewhat self explanatory.

This is a zone you can hold, theoretically, forever - as long as

you keep fueling your body with food and water.

Depending on your fitness level, this can range from a slow

walk, to a moderate run pace. It completely depends on the
person.

Threshold: We’re going to use a couple complicated terms

here, but I’ll explain them after, I promise.
17
Threshold is the zone right before your body crosses from its
aerobic function into anaerobic.

All this means, is that it is the limit of what your body can
physiologically sustain.

When you cross your aerobic threshold, your body stops

using carbohydrates, fats and oxygen to fuel its cells, and
instead burns stored sugars (called glycogen stores) and
creates lactic acid faster than the lactic acid can be
metabolized (absorbed).

Lactic acid is what causes that muscle burn, and will

eventually cause the muscles to slow and seize if produced in
excess.

All that means, is once you cross the threshold, you body
starts using a whole other system that physiologically cannot
be sustained.

The “Threshold” zone sits just below that level, but is a much
harder effort than endurance.

Maximum: As outlined in “Threshold” this is the zone

above, which your body cannot sustain for longer than
18
around one minute (slightly different for everyone – and
completely trainable).

With the right training, you can increase your limit (how hard
you can go before crossing this threshold), and increase your
tolerance to lactic acid and decrease your lactic acid output,
allowing you to sustain this for a bit longer.

Again, apologies for the use of a few big fitness words. To

put all that as simply as possible:

Endurance can be held for hours.

Threshold is harder, but can still be held for longer periods of

time (10-40 minutes, depending on how badass you are)

Maximum crosses into a whole other physiological system, as

such can only be used for roughly one minute.

So… what does this mean for training?

A productive, complete training system should

incorporate all 3 of these training zones.

That’s pretty much it.

19
You should do some long, slow days like walks, jogs or
hikes. This will cover your endurance zone.

For threshold, do some longer, harder efforts: for example,

one of our favorites is a 15 minute easy warm up, an 8
minute hard run, two minute rest, then another hard 8 minute
hard run, followed by a cool down. Short, sweet, and
effective.

For your Max zone, go hit some hill repeats, wind sprints,
burpees… anything that really jacks your heart rate up.

With these harder efforts, you will need rest in between (30
seconds of burpees, 30 seconds off - or - 3 hill repeats, two
minute rest)… that kind of thing.

The need for rest is because, as mentioned earlier, your body

produces a lot of lactic acid during these efforts, which is
what causes that burning feeling in your muscles.

The rest periods will allow your body to reabsorb this, before
starting again.

The simplest way to structure it, is dedicate one training day

per week to each of these zones.
20
That is all!

Have a healthy mix of these three, and your cardiovascular

system will start to improve rapidly.

21
 PART THREE: RECOVERY

Let’s clear this up right away.

“Sleep is for the weak” is bullshit.

It’s an outdated military-ism.

We’ve all been in those positions where you don’t sleep for
days on end, you hallucinate, you have those sweet, beautiful
micro naps where dreams blend into reality…

It’s good to know you can do that when you need to;

But it sucks. And it is not something you should regularly

practice. Your body needs sleep - badly, actually.

Think about it this way:

Consider what an absolute weakness sleep is, evolutionarily.

You literally have to lie down, unconscious, for a third of
your life… just waiting for some animal or person to come
attack you. All so that you can recharge your batteries for the
next 14-16 hours of living.

You would think if we didn’t need sleep, it would have been

22
the first thing we would evolve away from, right?

But here we are 600,000 years later, and we still need our
eight hours per night.

So it’s obviously pretty fucking important.

Sleep is easily the most overlooked recipe to athletic success.

Not enough sleep will make you weak.

Take that, CSMs everywhere.

There are many factors that contribute to successful rest and

recovery, and we’ll outline them now.

Sleep is everything. If you start training your body without

sufficient sleep, everything will start to fall apart in 5-7 days.
You’ll get extremely fatigued and lose your desire to
continue training.

It’ll be over before it started.

Depending on your age and output level, aim for 7-9 hours a
night if possible.

I can hear a lot of you groaning that that is impossible… it’s

23
not.

Check your phone screen time - you’d be amazed at the

amount of time we waste in a day.

Streamline your life, and prioritize sleep… everything else

will fall into place. With good sleep, you’ll also get more
efficient at everyday things. You’ll be much happier, you’ll
remember things better, do better at work, etc.

Excluding the 0.5% of the population that legitimately has a

modified genetic make-up and only requires 3-4 hours of
sleep (like my old man – too bad I didn’t get it)… You really
need to trust us on this one.

Sleep is not for the weak. Long-term lack of sleep literally

causes weakness. There are a few things you can do
immediately to improve your sleep:

Keep your room cool. Aim for 66F (19C) or cooler.

Purchase an eye-mask ($5-10). This will create a total
blackout around your eyes and allow deeper sleep in longer
cycles.

Avoid screens and work for an hour before bed.

24
Try and take time to relax (I know, I know the demographic
I’m talking to – “we don’t relax”. But try.)

Don’t ever do anything in your bedroom except sleep (minus

maybe ONE other thing… haha!). But avoiding working,
watching shows, exercising, etc. in the same room you sleep
in, if at all possible.

Absolutely avoid all caffeine and alcohol for many hours

before bed. Caffeine will make falling asleep more difficult,
and alcohol will ruin an entire sleep all together, preventing
REM, limiting deep sleep, and triggering more frequent
wake-ups.

Try and avoid alcohol within a reasonable metabolization

period (1 hour, per unit of alcohol) before bed.

Anyone with a smart watch with sleep-tracking abilities can

tell you how terrible a sleep is, even if it doesn’t necessarily
feel like it, after a night of drinking.

It destroys your sleep cycles, and largely prevents you

entering deep sleep.

Lastly, aim to go to bed earlier, and wake up earlier. So that is

25
sleep, what else?

Nutrition

Nutrition, which we discussed earlier, is also very important

to recovery. Aim to consume 20+(ish) grams of protein and
some carbs (if you want to get super science-y, have a 3:1 carb
to protein ratio) within 15 minutes of finishing a workout.

This will allow a more rapid reabsorption of nutrients and

kick-start the recovery and rebuilding process.

Eat a well balanced diet, as mentioned already, high in

protein.

Rest Days

These are totally dependent on your body, your lifestyle and

your training process.

In general, listen to your body. If you are starting to feel

exhausted, take a whole day or two off.

When we create programs, we usually incorporate 1-2 rest

days per week, but it is largely depending on the individual.

26
If you have an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and your training
is not very intense, you may not need any rest days.

Rest days can vary, from taking the day completely off
exercise and sitting on the couch with your legs up
(sometimes very necessary), or it can be more of an active
recovery like going for a walk, easy swim, hike - that kind of
thing.

Proper rest and recovery is as important as the training itself.

Without it recovery, you won’t develop, and you’ll burn out.
Fitness is balance.

27
 BONUS SECTION: THE COMBAT FITNESS
SUPPLEMENT GUIDE

Whoa, didn’t see that coming, did you?

Usually this is it’s own entire entity that we give to our

athletes, but we decided to add it in here for you as well.

This is a fast and furious run through of some of the most

common supplements, without getting too lost in the weeds.

For legal reason, we are not recommending you take any of

this – this is merely a list for strictly informational purposes.
Consult your doctor before starting any supplements.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Oh – and super quick – supplements are not steroids, or

performance enhancing drugs.

They are two very different things.

I need to make sure that is super clear.

Don’t ever take PEDs – seriously.

28
Protein Powder:

Protein powders are a fast, easy way to increase your protein

intake, which is essential for muscle growth and recovery.
Simply, it is used to help build and repair muscles after
workouts, but also just to top up daily intake of protein
(remember roughly 1g/lb body weight).

Creatine: Creatine is a compound found naturally in muscle

cells that helps with energy production during high-intensity
exercise. Athletes may use creatine to increase their strength
and power output, and to improve their overall athletic
performance. It is found naturally in meat and fish, but in
relatively low levels.

Pre-Workout: These typically contain a combination of

caffeine, amino acids, and other ingredients designed to
increase energy, focus, and endurance during workouts.

BCAAs: Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are a type of

amino acid that is essential for muscle growth and recovery.
These are amazing for reducing muscle soreness/DOMS
(delayedonset-muscle-soreness). You can drink these during
a workout, or just throughout the day.

29
Fish Oil: Fish oil supplements are a good source of omega-3
fatty acids, which have been shown to have numerous health
benefits, including reducing inflammation, improving heart
health, and boosting brain function.

Beta-Alanine: Beta-alanine is an amino acid that helps

increase carnosine levels in the muscles, which can improve
endurance during high-intensity exercise. Athletes may use
beta-alanine to delay muscle fatigue and improve their
performance during prolonged bouts of exercise.

Glutamine: Glutamine is an amino acid that plays a role in

muscle recovery and immune system function. It can also
help reduce muscle soreness and aide recovery.

Caffeine: The old classic, that needs no explanation. Here it

is anyways: Caffeine is a stimulant that can increase energy,
focus, and alertness. NOTE: Caffeine is actually a diuretic,
which basically means it will pull water from your body and
dehydrate you. Avoid caffeine if working out in heat.

Vitamin D: Vitamin D is important for bone health and

immune system function, and may also play a role in muscle
function and athletic performance. This is just more of a

30
general supplement for overall health.

Multivitamins: Multivitamins are supplements that contain a

variety of vitamins and minerals that are essential for overall
health and wellbeing. These are always good to take (similar
idea to veggie greens) to make sure you're getting enough of
all of those micronutrients!

31
 SUMMARY

We covered a lot in this.

Our hope is that at least some of it made sense, and that you
will walk away with a whole lot less confusion regarding
fitness and nutrition.

The industry is confusing on purpose. Hopefully this

simplified the things that are actually relevant, and helped
you realize what isn’t.

Please, feel free to keep this and come back to it, re-read it,
take notes whenever you need.

To recap everything (whew, here we go)…

Eat your protein - 1g per pound of bodyweight, per day. Eat

in a caloric deficit (less in than out) to lose fat.
Eat at maintenance, or just above (same in as out, or slight
surplus) with sufficient
protein to grow mass and not lose weight.

You can grow muscle in a caloric deficit, as long as you have

sufficient protein intake, and progressive overload!

32
Exercise your muscles (progressive overload) to grow them,
or at the very least to prevent their loss.

Use “cardio” to increase overall health and fitness. This is the

backbone of everything.

Sleep 8-9 hours a night, and optimize your sleeping

environment.

Schedule rest days. These are important too!

That is it! Pretty easy, hey?

Hopefully this helped some of you.

If you ever have any other questions, or need help with

anything, you can always reach out dedicated Athlete Support
Line (by text) at (866) 968-3239, or by email at
contact@combatfitness.co

If you need more help with any of this, we work 1-on-1 with
a handful of individuals who care deeply about changing and
improving their livse – and we are very fucking good at
doing that.

If you’d like to learn more about that, feel free to book a call
33
with someone from our team – worst case, we will run you
through a ton of solutions to the issues you may be facing,
and things you can actually do to change them.

Like this book, we are all about simple, fast, effective, “no
BS” answers to problems.

Just text us at (302) 244-7361 and say “MORE.”, and we will

take it from there.

This book is just the tip of the iceberg of what we do here at

Combat Fitness.

Hopefully it helped.

Go crush it, and remember:

#DoHardThings

Scott,
Director
Combat Fitness

34