Stew Smith Fitness News

Pushup improvement can come in many different shapes and sizes as we all may have different reactions to certain methods.  Some methods will work better for you than others. But it also depends on your current fitness levels, recent workout methods, workouts per week, arm / hand placement, body weight, and even arm length. These things matter when asking questions on how to improve your PT scores.  Here is a question that required some follow up questions to figure out a path for this person to see improvement in pushup training. (Note, the following methods will also work for pullups)....

Best of 2018 – Here are the articles that got 2018 moving in the right direction, made the most impact, and created some ideas for people to use in their own training plan. Check out the best articles of 2018 and see if you can take what you learned this year and apply it to 2019!  Let’s get after those goals! 1 - Crawling into 2018 – We started off the year crawling into 2018. The first article in January of 2018 was a piece about crawling as a progression from planking and other core exercises but as a fundamental...

Looking back 15, 20, even 30 years ago for some of us is not an uncommon activity.  Thinking “had I known then what I know now” or “if only I would have done this” what would I have become. But a fairly common question young students will ask their instructors, mentors, and teachers is “what advice would you give 21 year old yourself as you prepared for your next challenge?” Here is a question recently asked that I thought was a fun mental challenge and journey through time: Stew, My goal is to get to and through BUD/S and serve...

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...

Life gets in the way of the best intended plans to exercise often enough that it is not uncommon to miss a few days of training. When life happens, and you absolutely miss the full workouts you had planned there are some ideas that will help you get back into it depending on the amount of time in between workouts. If just busy and not ill, the challenge to get back into the weight room is typically a battle of the mind and balance of mental stress. Getting over this hump quicker than not can prevent a downslide of your...