What Do I Do if I Don’t Have Access to a Pool?

just got this question… Coach Brad, what do I do if I don’t have a pool to train for swimming at BUDS?

Well, first – if you are serious about training you will find a pool or move closer to a pool.

In the mean time – go on a trail run or hike with a weighted backpack/ruck to the gym.

If you were going to swim for an hour then go and ruck or trail run for an hour. We also like the exercise “arm haulers” in the video further below.

Question: Coach, I don’t have a rower what do I do?

Answer: If you were going to do a 500 meter row then do 2 minutes of burpees. If you were going to do a 1000 meter row then do 20 burpees and then bear crawl 10 meters forward then backwards for a total of 5 minutes. Get creative and make it work.

Question: I don’t have access to a pull up bar what do I do?

Answer: Ruck or hike to the local playground and work out there.

Check out this video on Arm haulers

Question: I live in downtown New York city and can’t ruck – what can I do?

Answer: There are numerous GORUCK events that happen in metro NYC. You can ruck too – quit being a wimp.

Question: What is a typical day like in BUDS?

Answer: We got up early about 4:30 am or so and make sure we have our uniform squared away and clean our room. We then went out for 5 am grinder PT. After that we jogged to the chow hall and then jogged back. Check out the book below for more info.

Question: What is a good book that tells about day to day life at BUDS?

Check out the book Breaking BUD/S: How Regular Guys Can Become Navy SEALs. This will give you a good example of what to prepare for at BUDS.

Question: I live way out in the flat country of Kansas and have no training partners.. what do I do?

Answer: You don’t need training partners – you need to get off your ass and start running and doing pushups in your barn.

Question: I don’t have access to a local playground so there is no way I can workout.

Answer: Have you ever heard of parkour? Check out the video below for suggestions to help you workout in an urban setting.

Question: What is the best thing I can do to build my core for training?

Answer: Before you go to bed do a 10 second plank. Next day do 20 seconds. Next day do 30 seconds. Keep going each day till you almost reach your max. Rest a day. Start back at 20 seconds first day. 30 seconds next day. rinse and repeat.

Question: My Navy recruiter is giving me the run around – what do I do?

Answer: First of all talk to a SEAL recruiter motivator. You can find one by using Google and typing in “SEAL recruiter motivator, your local area”. Google is your friend.

Question: Hey Brad, im training for bud/s but i dont have any nearby places to swim, do you know of any exercise that will help me to get better swim times when i can rarely get to a place to swim. and also if i get my cardio and endurance up enough will the 500 yard swim be much harder than say a 6 mile run.

Answer: Read all of the article above.

Question: Where can I find out more info about signing up for the Navy SEAL teams?

Answer: Check out the website here:

In the end there are no excuses. You have to find a way to train hard and get to the next level.

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