Tacfit Commando Review

 I have been teaching and coaching a long time now. As a result I often get asked by trainees at Krav Maga Bristol about  various training packages or programme on the market. One such package is Scott Sonnons’ ‘Tacfit Commando’’.

As I get older,  I value anything focusing on joint mobility and athletic longevity. As a coach there is also the motivation of wanting to share things I 'wish i knew' 20,30 or even 40 years ago when I started out training. 

In spite of my dislike for cheesy american style advertising, and healthy skepticism about anything using the term 'special forces" I took the plunge and bought Scott Sonnons Tacfit Commando programme. As a professional trainer - it's got to be worth a shot. In fact if you train here at Krav Maga Bristol you would have been doing much of this over the past 12 months with us.

Tacfit Commando in a Nut shell

Bodyweight and mobility programme using wave periodisation. A series of downloadable work outs (with variations) with pdf manual and diet.

 How much and what's included.

It's not cheap.  $99 USD or £70 GBP. That's around $40 cheaper than P90 X and comparable with various fitness programmes available from Amazon. Tacfit Commando is a series of downloadable videos an eBooks and e calendars. The whole package makes a 90 day package iand delivers 3 progressive levels of training via a series of "Missions" (work outs). There are no physical package or goods.

How does the programme work…

The programme is broken down into 4 phases.

1. No intensity Day - (joint mobilisation only)

2. Low Intensity Day – (joint mobilisation and Prasara Yoga exercises)

3. Moderate Intensity Day – ( the low intensity day with the Tacfit work out at moderate intensity)

4. High Intensity day - – ( the low intensity day plus the same Tacfit work out at high intensity)

In summary, that’s 2 days active recovery and 2 days bodyweight metabolic conditioning using the Tabatta protocol (that’s 20 seconds effort – 10 seconds rest and repeat 8 times).

The Tacfit Workout

This is where the fun starts. These are clearly explained, and simple to follow. You can download them to phone/ipad or desktop. Read the manual (it’s pretty detailed explaining training rationale and programme structure). Watch the Instructional video, and follow along with the work out.

Whilst it is simple to do the workouts, simple and easy are not the same thing ;-).

Workout outline

Each training session - Imean erm... ‘Mission’ :-), has a mobilisation based warm up and cool down with the meat of the session being a core of 6 movements, each repeated for 20 seconds with a rest period and then done again for 8 cycles. Allow around 30 minutes for the workout. The missions feature some clever programming, really cool moves and a great backing track.

 Tacfit Commando Verdict

Firstly it's quite expensive. But if you actually do it - it's great value. On the plus side, I really liked the programme, as a coach it's well structured, well delivered and well explained - always a good sign.

Furthermore it’s unique. Importantly, focusing on real world movements stressing lateral and rotational movement as well as more conventional movements. This is great for people like me with an interest or job teaching/training in martial arts where rotation or resistance to it is critical to performance.

This is also quite important as it will help address many of the imbalances and aches and pains experienced by your typical western European. As a culture we sit down to much and move around to little.  Tacfit is multi planar work out stressing ‘complex’ movement patterns and this is a good thing as and is not simply another rehash of push/pull cardio movements.

I also like the incorporation of different intensities in training with a strong foundation of mobilisation in work outs. Great job on that part Mr Sonnon.

The programme contains lots of pushing and rotation but no pulling movements at all. This is an omission but in fairness it is an equipment free bodyweight only programme – so we’ll let that slide.

The downside for me is the marketing.  2 words. Cheesy & Overhyped.

The whole overhyped “special forces’ marketing gets in the way of what is essentially a really smart programme. I think this is an intelligent and truly unique programme that has clearly been well thought out. But the stress on all things military undermines a quality programme with cliched marketing that takes away from what is in effect some very smart programming. A lot of professional trainers I have spoken with use Scotts stuff but wont attribute it due to the overhyped marketing and not wanting to be associated with it – interesting…

Would I buy it?

Bottom line – would I spend my own hard earned cash?  Yes.

Was it worth it? Yes.

Why?

I loved the programming, the exercises and the emphasise on active recovery – in fact so much I ran the sessions in my own conditioning class. I loved the drama of the backing track – it was great and the evoloutions were great – highly recommended. And there is countless research emerging about the value of complex neural movements and their benefit in terms of strength, performance and athletic longevity.

In short Tacfit could, in my view at least, help you perform better, avoid injury, develop functional power on top of the usual benefits associated with training.   Shame about the cheesy advertising though….

The full programme details can be found here if you want to take a look  Click Here!