Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Exchange the techniques and skills needed to walk the shadows. Post your guides and how-tos here.
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Xanatos
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Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Xanatos » Mon May 14, 2012 2:30 pm

Is this post tl;dr? Fuck you, read it anyway. If you don't have time, put a reminder somewhere to look at it when you do have time.

We operatives are a dark lot in the sense that our lifestyle revolves around the night. However, each of us have a day life too that we have to maintain. This daily life often gets in the way and prevents us from opping as often as we'd like. And on the rare occasion we have the time to do an op we either lack the motivation, are out of shape or simply can't get into the "zone".
But just because we can't op enough doesn't mean we have to fall completely out of touch with ourselves. So for the next few weeks I'm going to be setting homework tasks that I expect each and every one of you to complete. Just simple exercises to help you stay sharp and in shape.
These assignments also extend to you visiting guests and silent lurkers - yes, you, the reader - I want you all to participate as well.


Lesson:

Continuing on from last week's lesson on fitness, it's also important for an operative to be agile and dexterous. As mentioned last week it's important for an operative to be fit and ready for action and I had you doing pushups to facilitate that. But being able to punch down a brick wall doesn't serve one very well when trying to remain hidden. Perhaps the only thing more important than good muscle development is having good muscle control.

When it comes to climbing over obstacles and generally moving about on an op, movements have to be done in a very slow and deliberate manner - an operative does not vault a fence on an op at night the same way they would do in a park during the day. Vaulting a railing, climbing a fence, hopping up onto or down from a ledge, going prone and generally moving about on an op requires a great deal of control to pull off quietly. Even simply shifting weight from one foot to the other while in an awkward crouched position takes a great deal of precision when compared to normal walking. Particularly when it comes to crouch walking it's difficult to keep low and move steady enough if one is not particularly agile.

Homework:

In addition to the pushups from last week I'd like you all to do some stretches as well. These stretches come from a military endurance manual for conditioning recruits that come in a handy 5 day workout routine. Of course you don't have to do all of that, unless you want to, but I'd like you to focus on a few of the daily stretches focusing on legwork. In particular the lunges (forward & rear), windmill, overhead arm stretch, thigh stretch and (of course) keep up with those pushups. In addition to these I'd also like you to do one additional stretch where you sit on the ground with your legs straight out in front and try to touch your toes. This will stretch your lower back and hamstrings, vital areas to keep in tune if you do a lot of crouch walking.

Do about 10 of each stretch and do about 30 seconds of the thigh & 'touch-your-toes' stretches daily, in addition to the pushups. Let's start now.

Brotips: * Again, try doing all the exercise just before going to bed. Your tired muscles will help you get to sleep easier.
* Pain is your body's way of telling you not to do something. Don't strain yourself if any of these stretches become unbearable as pulling the wrong muscle can be a real setback. Of course a bit of pain is to be expected (that's how muscles develop after all) but don't overdo it to the point of injury.
* If you already go to the gym or have some other exercise routine, try focusing on workouts that involve a lot of legwork. If you do Parkour I find precision jumping a great way of stretching the hamstring and developing better leg control.
* If you don't do Parkour then I highly suggest you start learning. It's easy to grasp and is invaluable to the operative.

Class dismissed.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Neurotic Anomaly » Mon May 14, 2012 10:49 pm

Awesome. Every bit of this is what I need to get my motivation back.

I found this very lengthy dirt road earlier this week that I've started doing my running down. It's also a divine opping location for all kinds of things.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Xanatos » Tue May 15, 2012 4:29 am

Excellent. In the coming weeks I'll do more on fitness but next week's lesson will be back to sensory perception (trying to mix things up a bit). But for now we'll just focus on joint & muscle stretches this week.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Xanatos » Thu May 17, 2012 9:56 am

Hope you're all keeping up with your routines. One stretch I forgot to mention is the side lunge; performed like a forward/rear lunge except you lean out to the side almost as if you're doing splits. Kind of like how Garrett peeks in Thief: Deadly Shadows while crouched.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Nukes » Thu May 17, 2012 2:30 pm

I don't think you mentioned this in the first post, and I didn't feel like going back to read it (sorry) but when doing lunges or squats your knee shouldn't go out beyond the end of your toes. It does more damage than good, although I know when on an op and you're walking around in a squatting position it's hard not to, but when exercising it's important not to unless you want to have shit knees later on. (too late for me!)
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Xanatos » Thu May 17, 2012 3:21 pm

Ah, so that's why mine sound like ratchets when I walk.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Nukes » Thu May 17, 2012 10:39 pm

yeah, it puts a lot of unnecessary added stress on your knees and wears away at your joints.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Pontifleviticus » Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:59 am

The link to the excercises is dead

Ill probably sub it with this if anyone cares to take a look http://www.hornlakemcjrotc.org/05%20-%2 ... rds%20.pdf

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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Wind » Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:24 pm

To get the Army's October 2020 edition of The Holistic Health and Fitness System, go here: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs ... -WEB-1.pdf

Looks pretty interesting. I'm going to give it a read this week.

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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Wind » Sun Dec 06, 2020 4:56 pm

Assignment Week 4: Agility

While continuing the pushup program and my personal workout schedule as described in my Week 3 reply, I did 20 minutes of stretching a day to complete this assignment. On Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I did 20 minutes of yoga, mostly the sun and moon salutations. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I did 20 minutes of general stretching that I have picked up over the years, holding each stretch for 60 seconds. On Saturday, I completed the following stretching routine for hard to hit areas: https://greatist.com/fitness/stretching ... y-and-hips

Additionally, I found another resource that I plan to use in the future. It a video about how to "scientifically" achieve the splits, and the concepts and approach can easily be adapted for other flexibility goals. In case anyone is interested, here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq6_DzukdCU&t=1s

Happy training, everyone!

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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Bruce Wayne » Wed Dec 09, 2020 12:50 am

Very nice! Stretching is my weak point. I need to put more time into it.
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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by NewGuy » Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:53 am

The military manual is not loading for me, i'll just continue my normal exercise routine, I already do the stretches they taught me in martial arts growing up before I exercise, I assume that's good enough.

In a week or so I'll move onto assignment number 5

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Re: Night Ops: 4th Homework Assignment

Post by Xanatos » Fri Oct 01, 2021 9:09 am

Ah, link expired probably. But I'm sure all of us are familiar with various stretches to enhance our arms, legs & torsos.
We are all books containing thousands of pages and within each lies an irreparable truth.
What is locked, can be opened. What is hidden, can be found. What is yours... can be mine.

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