How SOFLETE CEO and Marine Recon Vet Brent Phillips
is Bringing World-Class Training to America’s Tactical Athletes
There’s a specific level of frustration many of us have felt when trying to formulate a very specific training plan. Be it strength building, weight loss, or mental conditioning, so many training plans feel like they were designed by someone else for someone else – and that’s because in most cases they have.
For the Special Ops community, the discontent is felt tenfold, as contingents of transitioning and recovering veterans get stuck in the mud trying to find a plan that works and yields results. As a veteran himself, former Marine Brent “Fish” Phillips has dedicated the better part of the last decade to changing the status quo for military fitness training and delivering strategic workouts through his subscription app, SOFLETE.
Available to anyone with a smartphone and access to an app store, Phillips was kind enough to stop by GOVX and fill us in on what SOFLETE is all about.
ON HIS GYM AND THE POWER OF THE PDF
There was a period not too long ago, where eBooks in the form of easily downloadable PDFs were all the rage. Any upstanding individual with a smartphone, tablet or iPad could educate themselves during their downtime on any variety of subjects. For Phillips, it provided a gateway toward promoting his then fledgling gym and beginning to address the gaps he saw in pre-existing training programs.
“In 2012, I went through the process of becoming a Raider in the Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC). After I was selected and when I started my service, it hit me that there was no adequate gym where I was going to be stationed,” said Phillips. “So, I took my re-enlistment money and started a gym right next to Camp Lejeune. After watching guys in my unit get hurt during conditioning programs, I knew something needed to change. Initially, they avoided my gym because it was CrossFit-affiliated, so I had to convince them that we weren’t going to do CrossFit -- we were going to strength conditioning specifically suited to tactical athletes.”
With a clear direction and a game plan, Phillips got the push he needed after consulting with a friend and Minneapolis-area gym owner.
“I got the idea from my buddy for the name SOFLETE, and bought soflete.com and started selling PDF training plans,” added Phillips. “From there, I put together a press release and sent it out to a few veteran organizations and charities. We officially launched it and it did more business on the first night than my gym did in the previous month. When I got out of the Marines in 2017, I went full bore into SOFLETE.”
ON VIETNAM DEATH CARDS AND THE LOGO
What you may notice from the get-go is the intimidating yet familiar logo of SOFLETE. The crossbones, the skull, the spade. It was all strategic.
“The logo is based on Vietnam death cards,” explained Phillips. “Special Ops would drop one on the deceased enemy after engagement. We needed something that represented all branches of Special Operations and to me, the death card was the pinnacle of that cross-representation.”
ON CHANGE AND THE A-HA MOMENT
It’s common sense that you wouldn’t go to a chiropractor for knee issues, or a dentist for a stomach ache, or a therapist for a stubbed toe, right? Despite the obvious, the fitness industry has traditionally been plagued by setting people up in programs that don’t address their specific needs.
“I had one friend from the Marines who was recovering from his second spinal surgery in as many years,” said Phillips. “They had him doing a program that was meant for mountaineers. Like for 165-pound super-endurance athletes, which is just wrong. The ‘a-ha moment’ came from military training adage that you must be strong enough to pick up the heaviest guy and run with him. You start with that.”
ON METRICS AND THINKING DIFFERENTLY
In fitness or in life, it’s integral to have the right data available to back-up your work The insight to factor in strength, endurance, when to rest, how to recover, and when to grind hard to drive consistent results.
“In the military you have to be strong, fast, and have endurance,” said Phillips. “We started to look at not only the activities that were taking place, buy the attributes as well. The Canadian Joint Task Force put out a study and deemed that the two criteria that led to, or could predict positive results was a high back squat at a three-rep max and a high Vo2 max. So, you’re talking a strong posterior chain and a good aerobic output. We started to dive into these attributes and learn how to effectively train."
ON DOWNTIME AND THE DIE LIVING MOTTO
The term that powerful can easily be misconstrued. That’s a fact that isn’t lost on the SOFLETE leader.
“Specifically, during wartime, we saw a lot of Special Operations guys intersect physical, mental, and spiritual activities to increase performance,” said Phillips. “I don’t know if it’s still the case, but these same operators would really get into adrenaline sports during their downtime, so ‘DIE LIVING’ became all about pushing yourself when you’re not at the gym or work. It makes you question whether it can kill you or if it’s challenging enough to keep you dialed in. Think racing cars or dirt bikes.”
ON GOALS AND STRENGTH VERSUS STAMINA
Planning goes a long way towards hitting your goals. It all boils down to what do you want to get out of your fitness? SOFLETE assists its members in identifying the right workouts for each person.
“All we ask people to do is bucket our primary programs into either a strength-focused program or a stamina-focused program.” said Phillips. “Our assessment of the community we serve, which is like active-duty military, is they typically fall into a bucket of like, I'm the strong guy in the team, but long rec runs are not my forte. Or, I’m the really fast guy in the team, but when it comes time to lift something heavy, nobody looks at me. Those are kind of the two buckets that we typically saw people put in that were, you know, still higher performers. So, we asked people to self-assess what they are weaker at. Are you weaker in the strength department or are you weaker in the stamina department? And then you jump on the program.”
ON THE FUTURE AND THE NEXT STEP FOR SOFLETE
Over the last four years, Phillips and his team have worked diligently in preparation for the timely launch of the all-new SOFLETE app. In a case where the technology has officially caught up to the efforts, the app will utilize AI to more accurately match users with fitness plans and better integrate with smart watches.
“The tentative release date is March 1st, 2026,” said Phillips. “What our next app does is take your wearable data to synthesize your recovery, and it weighs that against your prescribed workload. So, it uses AI to change your workload based on your recovery. It also changes what your prescribed workload is based on your body's previous recovery. We think it’s really going to be a massive step forward for users.”
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