Extreme fitness 101: what is Navy SEAL Hell Week?

And what does it have to do with extreme fitness? Why should you care that I'm a former SEAL? On the surface it seems logical – former Navy SEAL writes about extreme fitness. I know a few things about suffering through Hell Week -- we're talking 1,000 situp sets and 20 mile runs with 40lbs on my back and 5 mile open ocean swims in 55 degree water, but honestly, how many people really care about that, let alone would actually do it in their normal fitness routine? Throw in 4 hours of sleep in 5 days and there’s only two kinds of folks that I can think of – sadists and those trying to be Navy SEALs.

SEAL training is certainly not for everyone and it’s not designed to be for everyone, BUT the lessons learned in SEAL training can be for everyone. Though the workouts above sound so extreme they might be considered ludicrous, to all of us going through SEAL training those workouts just pushed us a little further than we had been the week before – they kept us out of our comfort zone. Of course we started training at a certain level of fitness and then each week our instructors pushed us a little more. For example, our first open ocean swim was a mile, then it was a 1.5 mile then 2 miles – then 3 miles and so on…this methodology was applied to every element of our training. Had you told me before I started training that I’d be doing a 20 mile run with 40lbs on my back or 5.5 mile swim I would have laughed at you. But once you started pushing yourself a little more each week, the extreme became the norm, not the exception.

Extreme fitness to one person could be doing ten pushups when they couldn't do a single pushup last week or it could mean doing 120 without stopping. My definition: extreme fitness is "get out of your comfort zone" fitness.

What's your definition of extreme fitness and how do you get out of YOUR comfort zone?

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN

Resources: Hell Week - The Commandos, 1992
Book Excerpt: The trials and training of Navy SEALs, among the toughest of US special operations forces, reported by a Newsweek correspondent who went along. Lieutenant Tom Rancich was featured in the article.