Stew Smith Fitness News

There is a Fine Line Between Mentally Tough and Stupid... There is a fine line between pushing and building your mental toughness with hard gut check style events and stupidity.  Mentally Tough or Stupid?  That is the question a young man recently asked me about his preparation for one of our nation's special ops programs.  Here is his question: I am joining the Marine Corps this year with the intent to go infantry, RECON, and later into the MARSOC community.  Do you think it is smart to start running longer physical fitness evolutions, building up to 24 hour events?  My...

Are Your Struggles Really Road Blocks or Internal Problems?  We all have faced unforeseen challenges when on a journey to achieve a goal. You being able to quickly adapt and handle that situation will be a life skill that you rely on the most in your future no matter what you do in life. The question is however, are these challenges you are facing caused by your failure to do research, failure to have contingency plans, and/or lack of preparation? If so, then these "roadblocks" are not an institutional process to see that you fail, it is an internal problem...

A Common Story About Three Different Spec Ops Candidates– Different Situations With Similar Outcomes -  Let me tell you a quick story.  I have been training people for decades.  All types of athletes and non-athletes, but many go onto to do a variety of special ops programs in all branches of military service and police SWAT / Hostage Rescue.  It has been an honor to help prepare people for all these groups for over 20 years. This is a story about three different spec ops candidates who all went to BUDS to test themselves and were faced with the question...

The Winter Lift Cycle for the Tactical Athlete  Check out the NEW Block Periodization Cycle we did Winter of 2020-21:Increase Strength & Crush the PST / PAST3 Weeks Strength - 1 Week PT / Cardio Focus (16 weeks) You may have seen my Winter Lift Cycle that I discuss in the Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization article as well as have our actual lift programs we have done over the years in the following books.       See - it is not all just calisthenics and cardio at Stew Smith Fitness Tactical Fitness, Tactical Strength, Navy SEAL Weight Training Workout, Weight Vest Workout,  Stew Smith's Fall Winter Cycle,...

Streamline Glide Position, Stroke Technique, Conditioning (1,2,3)  Streamline glide, tight arm recovery, power kick and pull = speed I train many athletes who have spent a lifetime on land as they prepare for military and special ops professions that require swimming, diving and other pool skills. It’s important for them to learn the sequence and timing of each stroke. Getting in swimming shape is really important, but learning how to properly streamline your body in the water is critical to making progress as you build speed and overall efficiency. If I had to categorize the three most important abilities in the water it...