Stew Smith Fitness News

The Transition from Winter to Spring is the Best!  After a Winter Lift Cycle, you may be ready for a change?  Are you ready to get outside and run, PT, and swim more? Every year at this time for the past 22 years I have been doing Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization, it has been one of the best changes to our routine - not only for over all attitude but for our performances increases in muscle stamina (calisthenics tests) and endurance events (timed runs / swims).  We have one more 3:1 Lift Cycle before we move into a more Spring...

When You Need to Make a 180° Turn Around- All It Takes is Two Right Turns -  No one wants to hear "you are going the wrong way - turn around", go back to where you started, or start a new path, but sometimes when on a journey or on the constant journey of life, we need to make a course change. In this dead end road metaphor, the two things a new direction needs is two right turns and sometimes that means going back to where you started.  In fitness, health, and overall human performance, these two right turns...

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...