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Stew Smith is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a former Navy SEAL, and author of several fitness and self defense books such as The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness, and Maximum Fitness. As a military fitness trainer, Stew has trained hundreds of students for Navy SEAL, Special Forces, Air Force PJ, Ranger Training, and other physical law enforcement professions. His eBooks at Military.com can help you achieve your fitness goals, whether you're a beginner or an expert. For more info on his books, visit the Military.com eBook Fitness Store.
Military.com has agreed to let me post some of the many emails that I receive on a daily basis. I will post a few select emails on the new Ask Stew Smith column twice a month. Keep the questions flowing and good luck with your fitness and military goals.
-- Stew Smith
Hey Stew, I am a senior in high school and going to enlist into the Army to go into the Rangers. I do about 60-70 push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts and run 3 miles every other night. On the night that I dont do that, is it not good to bench and curl? Your response would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Daniel
Yes - that is fine but I would get a more intense program after 1-2 months of what you are doing -- in the future you should be doing workouts where you get a total of about 200-300 pushups and situps (even more) and up to 100-150 pullups. And you should try to run your 3 miles as fast as you can and build up to 18 minute 3 mile run.
Good luck.
Dear Mr. Smith,
I am 16 years old and considering joining the military. My hope is to be accepted into West Point. My military goal is to be in Special Forces, more specifically Delta Force. I consider myself to be in OK shape at best, and am sure that you know that OK doesn't cut it. I was hoping that you could give me some advice as to helping me increase my pull-up reps (4-5 good ones), push-ups (40 in 1 min), and overall strength and endurance. I play baseball year 'round, despite the weather in Michigan. I would greatly appreciate it if you could e-mail me back as soon as possible because I really need to get going on my training.
Thank You, Arthur
Arthur,
Of course you can keep doing push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Take a look at some of the free workouts in the Military.com Article Archive for assistance. BUT if you want to go to West Point -- start here first:
Get good grades 3.5-4.0 at least
Keep playing baseball and strive to be team captian one day (leadership)
Go for community service projects too ... Do all this well and you might get into West Point -- then worry about SF and workouts required ... for now do workouts that will help your baseball and maybe you will play baseball for Army (West Point).
I'm in relatively good shape -- can do 30 push-ups -- spend 20 minutes on stationary bike and do rather traditional gym routine. I have 100% VA disability -- a neuro-muscular condition that brings muscular atrophy to hands and feet. My legs have gotten weaker due to illness early this year when I was unable to exercise. Until a year ago I was biking 20 miles per week and wish to regain that again.
Dan
Dan,
Thanks for your service to our country. I think swimming is the answer ... zero gravity activity would help you tremendously. Aqua-jogging is a great activity that is a great rehab for the legs. Many cross-country athletes do this to stay in shape.
Good luck.
Stew,
I am going to be enlisting soon and am going to pursue airborne infantry hopefully with the 82d with the goal of someday sporting the De Opresso Liber crest on my beret. I was wondering; In your opinion would I have a better chance at fully completing the SF training if I were to immediately attempt to go into SFAS after boot camp or if I were to wait and get experience under my belt first?
Thanks, Nathan.
Nathan,
It depends really. I think I would get some experience first, but the Navy SEALs have done it the quick way (out of bootcamp to BUDS) for years and it works well for them ... It really depends on your maturity level, age, family situation etc. ... If you are under 20 I would go Airborne and get the experience, if 20+ go Boot SFAS.
My opinion.
Hi Stew,
My name is Joel and I live in Switzerland. I have a double citizenship (American-Swiss). In the last months I have seriously been considering joining the American Armed Forces. In my fitness program I go running regularly and do weights in the gym. My question is if the weight lifting actually helps me build up functional strength? Will it help me on PFT or in normal military life? Do you think I should be doing calisthenics?
Thanks a lot - Joel
Joel,
There are no weights in military training only calisthenics ... so cals is the best way to prep for the PFT ... lots of cals organized in a good program so that you will reach muscle failure often will increase your numbers in these exercises.
Good luck.
Mr. Smith,
I e-mailed you a couple months ago asking for advice on how to raise my PAE scores for the service academies. I have since gotten a Letter of Assurance from USMA so I wanted to thank you for the help you and your books have provided. I am now looking ahead to my physical preparation for Beast. I know I will be fine on the PT part (I'm using Maximum Fitness) but I was wondering about rucking. There are only 6 marches in 6 weeks with the longest being 15 miles. The load is only 10 lbs. How important is it in your opinion that I practice rucking? Will being in good overall shape be enough?
Many thanks, Brad
I would not sweat it too much -- you will be in the top 5 percent if you can do those workouts I recommended ... also, I would try one or two rucks just to fine tune the little things like blister prevention, chaffing protection, etc.
Good luck, and thanks for your service to our country.
Stew,
I was recently at your camp for a weekend. The swimming video worked great. My strokes are down to a strong 6 now. I need to ask you about the running though. I feel I need to improve on my running more. I just started your Maximum Fitness book last week. I noticed there's not a lot of long distance running in it like your 12 weeks to Navy Seal Fitness book had. What would you suggest that I do . How many miles should I be running a day to have a good running base for BUDs?
Thanks - Landon
Landon,
Do this workout in conjunction with Max Fitness:
Week 1 - 1 mile a day 5 times as fast as you can
Week 2 - 2 miles a day x 5 as fast as you can
Week Three - take off from running - swim extra this week doing the CSS/hypoxics workout we did at my swim camp 100m CSS / 100m Hypoxics pyramid x 10
(see CSS video article for more details in the Military.com archives)
Week 4 - same as week 2
Week 5 - 3 miles a day 5 days a week fast as you can
Week 6 - four miles a day x 5 fast as you can
Weeks 7 - maintain 5 days a week of running totaling 15-20 miles a week
The goal of these short distances is do them fast as you can maintaining a good 6-7:00 per mile pace.
Thanks for sending your emails to me. Feel free to email me anytime and I will answer your questions, or may even post them online in my bi-monthly Ask Stew Column.
