CDQC Combat Dive Qualification Course Preparation (12 week program)

Combat Diver has one of the highest attrition rates in the Army, and most of it happens in the pool.

CDQC does not fail people for slow swim times. It fails them for the moment underwater when the body demands air and the task is not finished. That tolerance is built over months, not talked into existence the week before Key West. This is twelve weeks of building it — combat sidestroke volume, structured CO2 and O2 tolerance work, running, and a barbell base underneath.

The engine behind it

You test once, the workbook does the rest. Enter a lift for weight and reps and it estimates your one-rep max, sets a training max from it, and calculates every prescribed weight for all twelve weeks as a percentage of that number, rounded to the nearest 5 lb so it matches the plates on the bar. Enter a timed run and it builds your full pace table — Zone 2 endurance through anaerobic capacity, from 200 m out to marathon distance — plus treadmill speed and grade conversions. Nothing is generic. Every number on the page is yours.

The breath-hold tables are the part that matters here, and they are not guesswork. Every hold and every recovery interval is a calculated percentage of your own max static hold, and the whole system rebuilds when you retest.

What is inside

• Twelve weeks, five training days a week, in three four-week phases. Each phase tests, builds for two weeks, hits a max-effort week, then deloads and retests.
• A five-day testing block that seeds everything: squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press for a rep max; max pullups, dips and toes-to-bar; a 500 yd combat sidestroke for time; a 5-mile run; a max static breath hold taken after twenty minutes of genuine rest; and timed pushups, situps and burpees over the bar.
• Combat sidestroke and freestyle interval programming — ten pre-built swim sessions building from 800 m to 1,300 m of volume, running 50 m and 100 m repeats through 200 m and 500 m efforts up to a continuous 800 m. Every target time is generated from your own 500 yd test.
• A complete swim pace table for combat sidestroke and freestyle, Zone 2 through max, across 50 m to 1.2 miles.
• Four types of breath-hold table — general and specific CO2, general and specific O2 — run five days a week and scaled entirely from your max hold. CO2 tables keep the hold steady while recovery shrinks; O2 tables keep recovery steady while the hold grows. The specific tables replace clock recovery with breath counts to mimic a real surface interval. You retest the max hold at the end of each phase and the tables rebuild.
• Breath-hold safety stated in the workbook: dryland only, never within thirty minutes of a workout or swim, and if performed in water — which the program does not recommend — only with a safety in position to pull you out.
• Running from 4 up to 6 miles with a 5-mile time trial, plus mile, 800 m and 400 m repeats, treadmill grade guidance, and a full pace table out to marathon distance.
• The four-lift barbell core — squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press — on percentage-driven loading with a week-three AMRAP that recalculates your max from the reps you actually got.
• Weighted pullup and dip progressions, plus a video library covering combat sidestroke, freestyle, and every barbell lift.

The standards printed on the sheet: 500 yd combat sidestroke under 10:30 · 70+ pushups in two minutes · 10+ pullups · 60+ situps · 5-mile run under 37:00 · 3:00+ breath hold · 1.5-mile under 10:30.

Hybrid Strength Index. The workbook scores you on RLP's own metric — deadlift strength divided by mile pace — and benchmarks it against the field: special operations 70+, infantry, firefighters and MMA 60+, police 50+, climbers and triathletes 40–50, runners 30+. One number that tells you whether you are strong, fast, or actually both.

Who this is for

Special Forces, Ranger and other Army candidates with a CDQC slot, and anyone preparing for a combat diver pipeline who needs water confidence and CO2 tolerance developed methodically rather than by thrashing.

One honest note. This program builds the swim fitness, lung tolerance and strength that CDQC's pool events sit on top of. It does not rehearse subsurface skills, ditch and don, or pool competency — those must be practiced in a supervised pool with qualified oversight.

Specifications

• Format: Excel workbook (.xlsx), auto-calculating. Printable.
• Length: 12 weeks · three 4-week phases · 5 days per week
• Tabs: program · Run Table · Swim Table · Breath Hold Daily Workouts · How To Video Links
• Equipment: barbell and rack, pullup bar, dip station, pool access, and a track or measured route
• Delivery: instant digital download

This is a training tool, not medical advice. Breath-hold training carries real risk — perform it on dry land, never alone in water, and never within thirty minutes of a workout or swim. Clear hard training with your physician if you have any reason to.