U.S. Navy Seal Workout

After the successful raid on the Bin Laden compound, I wanted to honor the brave men that we have in the U.S. Navy Seals that put themselves in harm's way to meet the objective and get it done.  It's well known that our Seals are badass dudes that you would prefer to have in your corner, but what kind of physical training do these guys go through to get them in peak physical condition?  I found the following article below that starts to frame out some of the physical requirements that these guys must adhere to...

THE U.S. Navy SEAL Workout
By: Brent Vlcek

Who must be in top physical shape to perform their job? Who must utilize all muscle in order to accomplish their task?

I'm not talking about professional bodybuilders, I'm talking about our nations elite fighting force - The U.S. Navy SEALs. These brave men are not worried about how they look in front of the judges, but how they are judged by their superiors.

Living by the mentality that they must perform to the best of their ability on every mission is why they are so successful. But how do these men get in shape in that short period of time called basic training?

Bodybuilding takes years to come across the perfect physique and even then, some bodybuilders are still not happy with the results. The SEALs take a different approach to training, they are concerned with strength and endurance, not symmetry and hair loss products. In this article, I will outline a Navy SEAL workout someone gave to me.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Navy SEAL?

The Navy Seals focus on 10 General Physical Skills.  These are cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.  Through measurable organic changes in the body, training improves endurance, stamina, strength, and flexibility.  Improvements in coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy come through the practice of activities that improve performance through changes in the nervous system.  Power and speed are adaptations of both training and practice. 

This program is about a nine week long program. During this program, you should notice that your endurance will sore to heights never imagined. However, like Navy SEAL training, this program will break you - only the mentally strong will survive and a new, strengthened man will emerge.

First 9 Weeks:
Week 1:
Running: 2 miles, 8:30 pace, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pushups: 4 sets of 15 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 4 sets of 20 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 3 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 15 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 2:
Running: 2 miles, 8:30 pace, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pushups: 5 sets of 20 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 20 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 3 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 15 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 3:
Running: No Running
Pushups: 5 sets of 25 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 25 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 4 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 20 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 4:
Running: 3 miles, 8:30 pace, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pushups: 5 sets of 25 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 25 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 4 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 20 min. 4-5 days/week

Weeks 5-6:
Running: 2 / 3 / 4 / 2 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr
Pushups: 6 sets of 25 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 25 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 2 sets of 8 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 25 min. 4-5 days/week

Weeks 7-8:
Running: 4 / 4 / 5 / 3 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr
Pushups: 6 sets of 30 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 30 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 2 sets of 10 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 30 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 9:
Running: 4 / 4 / 5 / 3 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr
Pushups: 6 sets of 30 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 30 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 10 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 35 min. 4-5 days/week

Second 9 Weeks:
Weeks 1 & 2:
Running: 3 / 5 / 4 / 5 / 2 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 6 sets of 30 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 35 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 10 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 3 sets of 20 Dips Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 35 min. 4-5 days/week

Weeks 3-4:
Running: 4 / 5 / 6 / 4 / 3 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 10 sets of 20 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 10 sets of 25 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 4 sets of 10 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 10 sets of 15 Dips Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 45 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 5:
Running: 5 / 5 / 6 / 4 / 4 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 15 sets of 20 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 15 sets of 25 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 4 sets of 12 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 15 sets of 15 Dips Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 60 min. 4-5 days/week

Week 6 & Beyond:
Running: 5 / 6 / 6 / 6 / 4 miles, Mo/Tu/We/Fr/Sa
Pushups: 20 sets of 20 Pushups Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 20 sets of 25 Situps Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 5 sets of 12 Pullups Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 20 sets of 15 Dips Mon/Wed/Fri
Swimming: Swim continuously for 75 min. 4-5 days/week

Conclusion
As you can see, this program builds your endurance and your strength. Also, looking at this program, rest days are few and far between. Hence, one should take in an adequate supply of the necessary nutrients and water.

There is no doubt that such a program as this one will work, however, doing this program requires commitment and determination. The exercises are simple - they involve no sophisticated movements or machines.  After the fat has been shed and the muscle is packed on, try out for the SEALs and see if you can make it.

Bodyweight Exercise of the Month!

Chinese Wall Squat

Summary:

I recently started getting more into kettlebell training.  I have to tell you, that stuff is no joke if you know what you're doing!  In the book "Enter the Kettlebell" Pavel Tsatsouline talks quite a bit about the "Chinese Wall Squat" being a required precursor to performing kettlebell swings.  The reasoning behind this is due to the excellent job that this exercise does in training perfect form for squatting exercises.  It forces you to keep your head up with a flat back and pushing your butt backwards while aligning your knees over your feet.  The bodyweight version of the exercise should be perfected with your feet as close to the wall as possible, before adding weight.  Using a kettlebell or other weight is actually easier for form due to the counterbalancing of your body weight (below).
 

Target:  legs and butt (quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus)

Count:  2 count
 

Description:  Start in a standing position facing a wall.  I started by using a 2 x 4 board flat against the wall with my toes right against the board.  Once I perfected that, I turned the board on end to make it thinner and worked on that distance.  Eventually, you can strive to get your toes right up against the wall.  The exercise starts with

your feet shoulder width apart and toes turned out slightly.  With your hands pointing downward in front of you, push your butt backwards and squat down as low as you can go with good form.  Keep your knees over your feet and don't let them bow outwards.  Return back to standing position and repeat for reps.

Not Enough Time???

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Something is better than nothing!  I hear excuses all the time from people about not having enough time in the day or week to workout?  Really?  So if you do 1 set of pushups every day, or every other day... taking maybe a minute of your time... you don't think that you'll get stronger and better at doing them?  You will!  And this can be said for many different bodyweight exercises that can be performed with little to no equipment and with little time requirement.  Something is better than nothing!

So what kind of somethings should you start with?  Well personally, one of the best bang-for-the-buck exercises in my opinion is the burpee.  This exercise is close to a total body exercise and will also get your heart rate up.  You can add push-ups to it, do a full burpee pyramid, or mix it in with jump rope or stairs for some serious interval training.  But I don't want to get carried away... we're talking about not having enough time, right?  While typing this paragraph, I just took a 45 second break and pumped out 15 burpees.  I spend more time taking a bathroom break!

Ok, so let's back up a bit and go through the body parts... there are a HUGE number of pushup variations that should provide more than enough options for everyone from the novice to the elite athlete.  Most pushup variations will target the chest, shoulders, and triceps, with stabilization of the core required.  Variations can target some of these muscles more than others, as well as adding more butt or ab work by moving your legs as well.  Ok... just took another 40 second break and ripped out 50 pushups... whew, writing is hard work!

Sticking with the upper body, I'll move to the back.  Back exercises are one of the more difficult to do with just body weight.  Chinups require a bar or place to hang from in order to do them, and they are tough!  Still, the chinup is one of the best back and bicep exercises there is (just took 30 seconds to do 10 of them).  If you have difficulty with chinups, you can take it down a notch and do some inverted rows (15 in 25 seconds).  The picture below shows me sneaking some in on our dining room table... shhhhh!

Moving down the body we go to the core area.  Sure you can do the standard crunches that everyone knows and loves ; ) or you can do any of the hundreds of ab exercises that are out there.  I have a bunch of them featured on my abdominal page.  If you really want to work your entire core, just make sure to add some oblique exercises (your sides) as well as a few lower back exercises like supermans, bird dogs, or hyper extensions.

The lower body also has a wide assortment of exercises.  Body weight squats for high-fast reps are going to work a good portion of your muscles, as well as get your heart-rate up.  I really like step-ups (one legged box squats) for blasting the butt muscles.  Speed skaters are an excellent exercise for outer thighs and hips and also very good for athletic agility.  Let's not forget calf raises which can be done pretty much anywhere, just by standing up on the balls of your feet.

Does that sound like a lot of exercises to you?  If you keep it moving and go from one to the other, you can knock it all out in under 10 minutes.  If it's tough to even get in 10 minutes (doubtful) you can just focus on 1 exercise at a time throughout the day.  The bottom line is that you want to make time not excuses!  Get off the couch and move!  J
 

It's Go Time!

So during the month of June, I challenge you to include 30 minutes of physical activity each day.  Physical activity not only increases your chances of living longer, it also reduces your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and some types of cancer. In most states many people do not get enough physical activity.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week. Moderate activity includes walking fast, dancing, or raking leaves. Do strengthening activities, like situps and pushups, at least 2 days a week. By getting active, you will sleep better, strengthen your bones, and lower your risk of depression.

Contact the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports at fitness@hhs.gov for more information and materials.

For prior issues of this eNewsletter, to subscribe, or unsubscribe, please visit the following link --> todayfitness.net/news. 

"I'm going to stop procrastinating ... once I
get around to it”

youtube of the month --> Furniture Sliders Exercises
This is a great collection of exercises that could be performed with the very affordable sliders that are used to move furniture. (Exercises start at 2:40 into the video)