Training like the SAS, at least in a civilian gym, is less about theatrical suffering than about power, repeatable effort, and refusing to bargain with a rowing machine.
Jason Fox’s current routine combines plyometrics, sprints, strength work and a six-round conditioning finisher — a demanding template for readers who want to copy the former UK Special Forces soldier’s workout without pretending they are preparing for military selection.
The SAS training principle: build useful fitness
Foxy does not cling to one sacred session. “It varies,” he said, but the variation has a purpose: power first, then speed, strength and conditioning.
A recent workout began with plyometrics. “I did some plyo stuff – high box jumps, loads of sets.” He followed those with a “vertical jump into a broad jump” and weighted jump-offs intended to get “your joints used to jumping off platforms.”
Then came eight sets of sprints and upper-body accessory work. The exact loads, distances and rest periods were not disclosed. Copying the architecture is sensible; guessing the dosage and launching oneself from the nearest wardrobe is not.
How to copy Jason Fox’s workout
The session breaks into five blocks:
- High box jumps for multiple sets
- A vertical jump into a broad jump
- Weighted jump-offs from a platform
- Eight sprint sets
- Upper-body accessory strength work
The order moves from explosive power to running speed and controlled resistance work. It also puts the most technical exercises first, before fatigue turns athletic ambition into furniture removal.
Use a box height, sprint distance and resistance suited to your training history. Plyometrics are not decorative cardio: landing quality matters. Anyone with joint pain, a long lay-off or a relevant medical condition should seek qualified guidance before adding impact.
Foxy’s six-round ‘spicy finisher’
Fox ends some sessions with what he calls “a spicy finisher.” The circuit is:
- 500-metre row
- 24 burpee box jumpers
- 30 calories on the assault bike
- Repeat for six rounds, using programmed rest periods
Preserve the three-station format but reduce rounds or repetitions until technique stays tidy. The target is repeatable work, not a magnificent opening round followed by five rounds of correspondence with one’s ancestors.
Why the burpee remains his favourite exercise
Despite the boxes, sprints and machinery, Fox’s favourite movement is the burpee. “I feel more benefit from it and there’s a bit more strength involved,” he said.
It packs several demands into one movement and needs little equipment, making it useful on the road. Fox still avoids random punishment. “I get a PT to programme me; they don’t train me,” he explained. In hotels, he adapts: “If I’m in a hotel, I use a load of resistance bands and TRX suspension training, then they’ll tell me what to do.”
His view on automated plans is blunt. “Although you can go on ChatGPT and get a programme, don’t do that. How good it is, people don’t know. People shouldn’t be doing that. Employ people and keep them in work.”
The useful point beneath the job-preservation campaign is personalisation. A generic schedule cannot assess movement quality, injury history or recovery. Fox’s workout is a framework to discuss with a qualified coach, not an instruction sheet dropped from a helicopter.
Training hard in your 50s
Fox has become more conscious of age only recently. “It’s only now that I’ve become more conscious that I’m getting older. I’ve never felt like that before.” He believes his fitness held up across the decades: “I’ve probably been just as fit in my 40s as I was in my 30s, and in my 30s I was better than my 20s in a way.”
He has been receiving testosterone replacement therapy through Voy for around nine months, having started the previous October. Fox attributes changes in mood, recovery and training confidence to the treatment.
“[Since the treatment] I am probably, as far as people that live with me are concerned, a better person to be around. Everything is better now. The mood’s better, I’m feeling great, my wife’s happy, I’m training, training hard – I’m loving life.”
He added: “I ache less – I ache a lot less. Today I went and did a plyometric session, and that would have, last year, filled me with dread. Now I’m doing it, and it’s fine. It’s been a game changer.”
Those are personal observations, not a universal prescription. Testosterone replacement therapy is a clinician-led medical treatment, not a shortcut to box jumps.
The real lesson from SAS selection
The most transferable SAS training principle is consistency. Fox’s advice is deliberately broad: “Movement’s good – any movement. Start doing more than you’re doing today, then next week do more than you did the week before, whatever that looks like, whatever you enjoy. It’s got to be personal.”
He is equally clear that his present fitness should not be confused with readiness for selection. “There’s no way I’d pass selection now. I’d like to have a go unofficially.”
The gulf is endurance. Fox described “Eight hours a day carrying heavy packs, navigating 20, 30, 40km.” He also recalled the emotional toll: “I’ve seen blokes sit on their bergen and start crying and saying, ‘Fuck this, I’m not doing it.’, “I’m unsure how I did it because it was an emotional rollercoaster.”
Training like Fox now means borrowing the principles — explosive work, strength, conditioning, adaptability and steady progression. It does not mean recreating selection between breakfast and the school run.
His final rule is the one most likely to work because it asks for no costume and little drama: “Just do something and be consistent. I do something every day – even if it’s a press-up and squat circuit.”
Consistency is rarely glamorous. It is merely the answer still standing after the fashionable ones have gone home.
