Reddit reviews Breaking BUD/S: How Regular Guys Can Become Navy SEALs (formerly The SEAL Training Bible)

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The Relationship Guy. Jack was my best friend at OCS and a physical stud. He was the ideal 5′10″, 200 lb, thick-necked, strong legged, Academy guy. He was raised in Maine as a member of the Polar Bear Club, so icy water didn’t even phase him, and he knew a great deal about BUD/S, SQT, and the Teams. We all, Jack included, thought he was a shoe-in. While under a boat in Indoc, Jack actually choke-slammed a pathetic member of his boat crew into the sand a few times until that guy (who we’ll talk about in a minute) quit. Jack was legit until he quit 3 hours into Hell Week, during a short Surf Torture after the last Log PT ever, of all things. Because of his girlfriend of 3 months (who had recently promoted herself to fiancee). Rewind a few months.

Jack was a great guy until we got a cell phone access at the end of OCS, when he ceased to exist. He was on the phone with this girl constantly, having the most emasculating phone calls one could ever imagine:

“What did you have for dinner?” “Oh, was it good?” “What did you have for desert?” “Well you should get ice cream then” “What flavor? I don’t know. What flavor do you want?” “Then you should get chocolate.” “One scoop or two? I think one.” “Okay, then get two scoops honey.” BARF.

I shared a room with Jack in BUD/S and spoke to him less in a month than I had in any given day of OCS. No joke. The kid was beyond reclamation and it showed. By the time we started First Phase, Jack was talking about marrying this girl during SQT. She came out to visit from the east coast on a regular basis, draining his bank account at an alarming rate. He proposed and they set a date for sometime in the middle of SQT when he thought he might be able to get a weekend off. He was so distracted that, at the beginning of Hell Week all he could think about was that she was too high-maintenance to deal with him being a SEAL. So he quit.

He was processed out of the Navy and got married while his class was in Kodiak, AK. (If he hadn’t quit, he would’ve got married while his class was in Alaska during his wedding, for which he’d already paid non-refundable deposits at his new wife’s insistence. Which shows he - at least subconsciously - knew he wouldn’t make it). After months and months of feigning happiness, he finally came to terms with his regret and is trying to join the Army Special Forces. I hope he makes it, but I can tell you one thing for sure: if it wasn’t for the woman, Jack would be a Team Guy already.

What do we learn from Jack’s failure?

• Get your household in order. BUD/S is enough on its own. You don’t need to add anything more to your plate. If your girlfriend can’t deal with the hours, stress, or you absence, get rid of her. Despite how awesome you think your girlfriend is, this probably (statistically) applies to you. I’m not saying don’t have a girlfriend when you’re going through. I did, and she was wonderful. She made me food at all hours and helped me prep uniforms for inspections. Good women do exist, but yours probably can’t handle BUD/S. And if she can’t handle BUD/S, she most certainly cannot handle life in the Teams. Save yourself the stress and heartache and do some honest thinking about her expectations and needs. If she’s not going to make it, cut her off now so you don’t have to deal with THAT on top of the stresses of BUD/S.
  
  
• Fully understand your commitments. Jack was dumb in any number of ways, not the least of which was his expectations of life after BUD/S. he scheduled his wedding for a weekend when we’d probably be in SQT. He scheduled it during Basic Orientation/Indoc. See any glaring problems with this? One: how did he know he wouldn’t be rolled once or twice along the way, resulting in his being in BUD/S when he was supposed to get married? He didn’t. Two: how did he know that weekend, even if he HAD made it to SQT, would be available? In reality if he hadn’t quit or been rolled, he would have been on Kodiak Island in Alaska on the day he’d reserved that adorable little chapel in Cambridge. There is no excuse for this level of stupidity. Either he subconsciously knew he was going to quit, or he had no grasp of the commitment he was going to have to make in order to become a SEAL.
  
  
• Don’t make big decisions during BUD/S. BUD/S is mental; it is the world’s most effective mindfuck. You will not be in any condition, despite what you think, to make a big decision. You’re not even going to be in a condition to decide whether you ‘actually’ want to be a SEAL, which is why I’ve told you to make your mind up Before you get to BUD/S. If you can’t even make a good decision regarding the very thing you do all day and night, how do you expect to be able to make a good decision about anything else? Do not get engaged. Do not ask for a divorce. Do not try to have a child. Here are the decisions you WILL get to make: What should I eat for breakfast? What should I eat for lunch? What should I eat for dinner? How long should I stretch before I got to bed? How much more water should I drink? What should I do this weekend to recover and decompress before next week kicks me in the teeth? If you try to make a decision beyond the scope of these questions, you are wrong. Being wrong very often results in ringing a bell three times and hanging your head for the rest of your life.

[Here!] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00AY59OS0/ref=aw_ls__8?colid=Q1SMEPUA12S4&coliid=I1VI0VOX9UF32Q)

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What kind of facilities do you have access to bud? Any weights, or is it all bodyweight?

Stew Smith is the man with all things prep-fitness-related.

You may check out Military Athlete as well; they have programs for literally every school on the planet. The unscrupulous may be able to find some of the PDFs online without paying for them.

Finally, Tactical Barbell is pretty cool.

I'm not familiar with BA Airborne pipeline or what's emphasized. US Airborne School is running and pullups, basically. It's not a particularly physically demanding course. There's also jumpmaster school which has one of the highest attrition rates for schools, but that's not physically taxing, it just requires 100% scores.

But any of those resources should help you find a workable program. Pretty much any 3-day strength/resistance training program followed by 30-60 minutes of HIIT should plug into your schedule fairly well.

Finally (and obviously) – don't drink. Drink to celebrate after you've finished. You don't want to get run down, fuck your times up, get sick, or not be on your game. Beer will still be there in a month.

Keep at it and keep your head down.

EDIT: Somebody here can probably say with more certainty but when I seem to remember something about staying in shape during fleet basic in the excellent but fairly obvious Breaking BUD/S.

If no one mentioned, and you haven't read it - you HAVE to read and internalize this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-BUD-Regular-formerly-Training-ebook/dp/B00AY59OS0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415927753&sr=1-1&keywords=breaking+buds