Mistakes I Made Training for BUD/S and How I Corrected Them

At the age of 18 I became inspired to become a Navy SEAL after I read a chapter in a book called the “The Green Faced Frogmen”

I was mesmerized after reading this and began to read everything I could about becoming a Frogman.

Back then there were no books that I knew of about training to go to BUDS.

So I read “The Education of a BodyBuilder” by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I joined a local bodybuilding gym – you know the ones with all the mirrors and guys posing in speedo trunks. I did all of the exercises in the book like preacher curls, dumbbell chest flyes and even worked out on a pec deck.

Most of everything I did was all wrong.

MISTAKE #1
My first time through BUDS — I was not running and rucking and swimming and doing body weight workouts.

All of my workouts were inside in the air conditioning with machines and barbell weights.  I did not get dirty and muddy at all.

I did learn discipline in the gym – so that was a good building block.

I went to BUDS and you can imagine what happened.

I got my nuts kicked in daily and found myself in the Goon Squad.

That is when you don’t make the cut on the group run and you get tortured on the beach doing mountain climbers and jumping jacks and bear crawls until your body is smoked.

As an instructor yelled to me “Boy, you can either speed up and catch up and have a little pain – or fall back into the Goon Squad and have a lot of pain”.

I got kicked out of BUDS half way through after I failed a math test.

I was crushed. I went into a dark fog.

But a week later I shook it off and had glimpses of going back and trying again.

I wrote down all of my mistakes which were a full sheet of paper.

MISTAKE #2
I barely ran before I went to BUDS the first time. I was ill prepared. I completely changed all of my training the second time around to do this….
I would run long distance on the beach and find sand berms to bear crawl up and over. I bought a cheap bike and began riding long distance on the weekends to build up my endurance. I wanted to be durable and used the bike to build up my hip flexors and legs for the long haul.

I would do only body weight workouts and try to do them outside in the mud and rain.  I avoided a gym with air conditioning and mirrors. I found a local playground and acted like it was my obstacle course swinging and climbing through it. I finished with burpees in the sand.

MISTAKE #3
Before I went to training the first time I had never held a sand bag or hiked with a ruck. I changed up my training to do this…
I trained with a sand bag to mimic hold a boat overhead and hiked with it down the beach on my shoulder. I grabbed a backpack full of water and food and rucked high in the SoCal mountains or for miles down the beach.

MISTAKE #4

Before entering the Navy I had never used a scuba rig or dove for objects. So, I took a diving course from a local instructor and he made us tread water with weights and breath dive down and collect objects on the bottom of the pool in the order he told us. Our divemaster continued to make these exercises harder and harder every week.

MISTAKE #5
I did not have a clear “why” I wanted to be a SEAL. But I did have some core beliefs.  I continued to work on my mindset and reinforce my “why” – which for me meant my family being proud of my efforts. I could not let my family down like I did the first time through training when I failed.

TIP #6
I improved my nutrition and cut out extra sweets like ice cream and replaced them with better food choices like boiled eggs and green vegetables. My first time through training I ate everything I could get my hands on including tubs of ice cream and whole pizzas.

My hand scribbled notes and goals were coming together as a journal.

I felt like I had shed my old skin and old ideas of what it took to train for BUDS.

I now had a new body and fresh mind and was ready to go back and conquer.

My second time through I passed and graduated Class 132.

No it was not easy…it was still hard. But I was far more ready for the task.

On May 3rd, 1985 I graduated from BUDS Class 132.

A major dream in my life that would stick with me like glue for the rest of my days.

I want to share those notes with you that became a journal.

I have put them all together in an Ebook that even comes with interviews from other Navy SEALs as they tell their story of hardship.

Lean more about the mistakes I made and how to avoid them.

How to train right the first time so that you can succeed at BUDS/ Special Forces/ GORUCK, Spartan Race or SEALFIT 20X.

The Freak Frogman Workout Ebook is 40% off now at only $17.

It is fully guaranteed 100%. If you don’t like it I will refund all of your money.

Also – I answer all email questions you have 24/7.

That is a major deal.

Train Hard!

RELATED ARTICLES:
How I Changed My Life Forever and Made it Through BUD/S ​​​​​​​
How Do You Deal With the Daily Grind at BUD/S Training?