Tactical Fitness Report with Stew Smith Podcast · Stew Smith

Training the Untrained, Older Athlete, and More with Jeff Nichols

·48 min·3 clips

The first class they formally trained shipped 17 days later after crushing the PST and got breacher and comms.

1. Tactical Fitness Report with Stew Smith and Jeff Nichols focuses on training people who want to serve but start untrained, overweight, or older. 2. Stu Smith is the host, Jeff Nichols is the recurring guest, and both draw on coaching experience with candidates for military and law-enforcement paths. 3. The episode asks how to build a realistic fitness foundation for someone whose body is not ready for the job yet. 4. Stu separates untrained candidates into three examples: people who never worked out, college athletes with gaps like no swimming background, and older return-to-service applicants. 5. Jeff says the first task is a timeline based on physical reality, not wishful thinking or character judgment. 6. Stu and Jeff say PSTs exist to show where an applicant stands in upper body strength, lower body strength, endurance, and other basics. 7. Jeff adds that younger applicants can still build a base through calisthenics, basketball, trail running, and other active work. 8. Stu notes that some candidates may need to shift from the military to law enforcement or another agency if the age window is too tight. 9. The discussion turns to an untrained mid-twenties, 150-pound candidate who cannot bob in the pool. 10. Jeff recommends a little of everything at first: swim practices, fins and no fins, rucking, running, and resistance training. 11. Stu and Jeff treat swimming as a trainable skill, not just a body-type issue. 12. They say weak swimmers need comfort in the water, better breathing, and repeated exposure to different swim variations. 13. Rucking appears as a major correction because many applicants over-focus on running mileage and skip weighted movement. 14. Jeff warns against jumping straight to 50- or 80-pound packs and instead prefers a progression. 15. Stu says beginners often improve quickly, with visible gains in four to six weeks. 16. The speakers connect shin splints, soft-sand stress, and lighter rucking as ways to manage impact without removing training entirely. 17. Their coaching style is direct but encouraging, and they say honesty about limits can build more buy-in than false reassurance. 18. The conversation stays practical and conversational, with Stu and Jeff trading examples, corrections, and stories from prep work. 19. People preparing for BUD/S, special operations, law enforcement, or firefighter pipelines would get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want entertainment without a training-planning focus may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical look at building a durable starting point for underprepared candidates and returners.

Stew Smith and Jeff Nichols zero in on a familiar coaching problem: someone wants to help, but does not have much training yet, or is coming back after time away with some rust.

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Why you'd press play

When you need to build a fit plan from zero, listen here.

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