Burn the Ships: March 2026

Part III of the 3-month mountain (and life) ready protocol.

Welcome to Part III of a special 3-month Burn the Ships series. Read Part I here, and Part II here.

It’s the first Friday of the month—which means it’s time to Burn the Ships.

On the first Friday of every month, we publish a new Burn the Ships workout for Members only.

If Two Percent is a cult, these Burn the Ships workouts are our Kool-Aid.

Members of the Two Percent community do the workout every weekend—a bunch of us satellites, spread out across the world, all sweating and improving together as one extended network.

Burn the Ships workouts are hard, safe, and effective. They improve your strength, cardio, movement quality, and mindset—and, in turn, your life.

We’ve provided scaled versions and exercise swaps, so anyone and everyone can do them. That is to say, you.

• We’re pushing edges and improving safely. It’s easy to be hard but hard to be smart.

Burn the Ships: March 2026

Spring is coming. Daylight saving time is Sunday.

I love this time of year because it sharpens my focus. I use January, February, and March to prepare for spring and summer outdoor adventures. And without fail, that training puts me in the best shape of the year.

If you asked me the best way to live well, live long, and stay capable, my answer is simple: Train like an outdoor athlete.

Humans evolved to move across the wilderness, using our bodies in different ways along the way. We’re adapted to it—and it can still help us today.

Outdoor fitness will help you develop the exact capacities that keep us alive, independent, and able to handle what life throws at us for decades.

Outdoor training demands:

• Enough muscle to lift, carry, climb, and protect your joints—but not so much that you’re slow and fragile.

• A high strength-to-weight ratio, which matters far more in real life than max strength.

• Endurance that can go for days—the ability to keep moving for hours, especially when the going gets tough.

• Durability and resilience, so you don’t fall apart when conditions get uncomfortable or unpredictable.

That combination is what actually matters in the long run.

A hill I’ll die on: Being able to hike a mountain near your home is far more indicative of how long you’ll live than a lab-based VO2 test.

Research across physiology, psychology, and neuroscience shows that outdoor-style training delivers outsized benefits for the body and brain.

A new Burn the Ships experiment

We’re now in the final month of our three-month Burn the Ships workout plan. Each month builds on the last. Now we’re at the grand finale.

If you missed January and February, start with January now and work through the months. The three-month plan leans into the essentials of outdoor training and lays the groundwork to get you ready for an epic spring and summer.

• January: The Approach (read it here)
  Build a broad base of endurance and resilience. I.e., create an engine that can go for days and that won’t break when the going gets tough.

• February: The Crux (read it here)
  Add strength and uphill power. I.e., add more horsepower to the engine and load tolerance to the frame.

• March: The Summit Push
  Convert it all to real-world outdoor performance and readiness.

By April—or June if you’re starting now—you’ll be mountain-ready and mountain-tough.

And even if you never leave the gym or pavement, you’ll still be more holistically fit, stronger, and more durable.

Here’s our roadmap:

• First, we’ll cover the science of why one tough weekly workout is the non-negotiable sweet spot for both physical and mental health.

• Then, we’ll unpack the story behind The Summit Push. You’ll learn why it works and how it will improve your fitness and resilience.

• Finally, I’ll give you the complete The Summit Push workout, with exact steps, full videos, and scaled versions and exercise swaps to get it done anywhere.

Thanks to our partners

• During this workout, I’ll wear Janji, an independent running brand making gear built for ultra-distance pursuits. They’re the only brand making gear specifically for long adventures—my favorite kind. Find Janji at Janji.com and at REI stores.

• Maui Nui Venison, the healthiest meat on planet Earth. The research on the nutrition in axis deer is incredible, and Maui Nui might be the only company harvesting meat ethically. Right now, Maui Nui is offering a free 6-pack of their venison jerky sticks with your first order of $79 or more. Go here to get it.

The case for one tough weekly workout

• Section summary: One challenging workout per week is ideal for health and fitness.

There’s magic in pushing it once a week. First, there are the brain benefits.

Scientists at King’s College London analyzed 58 studies on intense exercise and mental health. They found that harder efforts led to:

“Improvements in mental wellbeing, depression severity, and perceived stress compared to non-active controls, and small improvements in mental wellbeing compared to active controls.”

Translation: hard exercise doesn’t just beat doing nothing (duh). It often beats doing only moderate exercise.

Intense exercise also comes with physical upsides.

It has an edge over less intense exercise for increasing VO2 max—one of the strongest predictors we have for longevity and disease resistance. A rule of thumb: the higher your VO2 max, the farther you are from death, disease, and decay.

In sum: All exercise helps. But going hard—sometimes—matters.

What’s “sometimes?”

The smartest trainers I regularly speak with suggest that one tough workout a week is the sweet spot for health and performance (info on that here).

More than that, and we tend to get burned out and beat down. Less than that, and we miss out on some health and performance upsides.

Enter Burn the Ships.

This month’s workout: Summit Push

Why it works

• It builds real-world endurance and strength

  • The first two workouts built the engine and added horsepower. Now we’ll pull it all together and push the distance.

  • In the mountains, the summit push is the long and hellish grind. You have to keep moving for hours with tired legs and gear on your back. This workout recreates that demand.

• It teaches pacing

  • Most workouts are short bursts of effort. Real outdoor objectives aren’t. In the mountains, the biggest mistake people make is going too hard too early.

  • Move steadily. Knowing how hard to push and when is often the difference between reaching the summit and turning around.

• It helps you find the breakthrough

  • I’ve found that longer workouts give me a moment. The beginnings are rough and hard—but eventually, I have a breakthrough where I suddenly feel like I could keep going for days.

  • We often miss that in shorter workouts. At some point in this workout, your legs will feel heavy, your shoulders will ache, and the voice in your head will urge you to stop early. Keep moving anyway. Don’t quit until the moment happens.

• P.S. You don’t need perfect terrain or expensive gear for this one. Throw some weight in a backpack—books, water bottles, a bag of salt—and head out the door. Hills are great, but flat ground works too. What matters is a pack and a path ahead.

Equipment needed

• A backpack with weight in it.

Time commitment

• This workout should take you 70 to 130 minutes, depending on which version you do. (I recommend doing the 130-minute version at least once this month).

• I’ve also included ways to shorten the workout in the Questions and Substitutions section.

What I’m listening to as I do this workout

• This is a long one. Might as well settle in. Might as well play a live Grateful Dead show.

• My friend Graham Callaghan, a fellow Deadhead and a Dean and English teacher at Avon Old Farms boarding school, texted me a great show—09.16.1987—yesterday. That’s my pick.

How to do it

Start with any warmup that helps you. Or don’t if you’re short on time. This workout warms you up as you go.

From here, you’ll learn:

• Exactly how to do The Summit Push workout.

• The full breakdown of reps, rounds, and times for your fitness level.

• Complete videos for each exercise in the workout.

• Substitutions and scaled versions of the workout so anyone can do it, no matter your equipment or fitness level.