Stew Smith Fitness News — tactical fitness

Near daily, I receive emails from young people seeking to serve and I am so grateful for a new generation seeking to serve, but there are things that you need to learn, practice, and master prior to joining - it may not meet your self-imposed deadline.  See question / answer below: I just finished my freshman year in college but decided the better option for me was to withdraw, and join the Navy - since I am looking to make this my career, and hopefully become an officer later on.  I just got PRK surgery last Thursday, so I am...

(Part 2 of this article - What is Good Enough - Strength Numbers) Throughout your journey into the military and perhaps as you move into a special ops selection, you will hear people describing their PT scores as “good”, “great”, “optimal”, or even the occasional “PT animal”. But what is “Good Enough”? Of course, all of these scores are relative to the person, programming, branch of service, and the person evaluating these scores and abilities of candidates.  As a tactical fitness trainer with decades of this type of training, this article is going to try to add some objectivity to...

In the tactical professions, fitness can be the difference between life and death and we will be older for a longer period of time than we were younger. Learning how to progress into those decades smartly with added longevity training - typically in the form of active recovery days and mobility days is going to increase your abilities and decrease your pain. The following series is a new programming focused on an often neglected age group of active duty and retired veterans of the tactical professions who need to rebuild and take their fitness to the next level in order...

When it comes to the relatively new term, “tactical fitness” or “tactical athlete”, you have to realize this has been a long time coming. For decades, training staff has had a goal of creating a mindset that every active duty / reserve military, police, and fire fighting member of a unit think of themselves like an athlete would.  That mindset is still evolving in all the tactical professions and moving faster in the units that spend money on experienced training staff.  The below diagram is an attempt to explain to operators and those considering the profession the needs and challenges...

As a military, police, and fire fighter fitness writer for over 20 years now, the term Tactical Fitness did not exist when I started. Now, in the last decade resources have been spent by all elements of tactical fitness and a new fitness genre has been born. The following is my current library of Tactical Fitness Programming to include books, ebooks, and online coaching products and services:  Tactical Fitness - At the core of this program is the Tactical Fitness Test which measures 12 standards for your physical capacity, including: cardiovascular conditioning, strength, muscle coordination, and stamina. Tactical fitness means having...