Commando Fitness

What is the most effective “system” I’ve used for fitness?

I’ve bought tons of books, read nearly every article on fitness and health that I can get my hands on. So if I had to give you just one book, one “system”, what would it be?

People will be surprised, because the stuff I’ve used the most for about the last nine years have been gool ’ol calisthenics. Actually, calisthenics on steroids. Back in 2001, I saw an advertisement for a book by Matt Furey, called Combat Conditioning. In the book, Furey told of meeting wrestling legend Karl Gotch, then 76 years old. Gotch did not lift weight during his career. Instead he used the ancient Indian wrestler’s exercises: Deep knee bends, Hindu pushups and the back bridge. Gotch began training Furey, who was a former Division II national wrestling champ, a personal trainer, and certainly not  ignorant of fitness techniques. Furey was amazed at the effectiveness of the exercises Gotch showed him. Instead of the stiffness that sometimes came with weight training, Furey found himself flexible and strong. Furey was also surprised at how much strength Gotch retained in his old age.

I have nothing against lifting weights. But difficult calisthenics are better. Things like one-legged squats, hand stand pushups and other challenging bodyweight drills have a very interesting effect: They provide a combination of balance, strength and endurance difficult to achieve with weights.

Combat Conditioning is filled with exercises that Furey learned from Gotch, some from Chinese martial arts, as well as some Furey learned while training under Dan Gable at Iowa State University. Some of them are grueling, like Hindu jumper squats, uphill buddy carries and bridging. Others are simple. Furey also talks about the sublime effectiveness of skipping rope, hill sprints and calisthenic circuit training. He has several workouts set up at the back of his book. Many of these are very difficult, and most people will not be able to finish them when they first begin this type of training. The 500 pushup workout is very tough. Then there’s the Karl Gotch Bible. Take a deck of cards and have someone deal one card at a time ot you. Black means Hindu pushups, red means bodyweight squats. Do the number on the cards. Face cards equal ten and aces can be anywhere between 11 and 20–you set the number before you start the session.

Another man–perhaps one of the greatest scientists ever produced by Russia–Nicolai Amosov–was a proponent of calisthenics and running. Everyday, he performed his “complex” of calisthenic drills and ran about 5 miles. He began his routine after leaving the Russian army, when he found that he was losing muscle and gaining fat. His energy levels shot through the roof. He wrote a book–Thoughts on Health– in 1965 about health and fitness. It made Amosov a literal hero to the people of Russia. Through his studies on human cybernetics, he developed his theory on human longevity: The Theory of Limit Loads. The theory states that for our bodies to maintain youthful vigor, it must be used–and used a lot.

So, to wrap it up–what should you do if you find yourself in a sad physical state? Start moving! Anything! Too broad? Here’s a place to start:

• Perform calisthenics everyday or every other day. Very the intensity, reps and overall difficulty. Pushups, pullups, situps, bodyweight squats. Oh yeah–and the dreaded squat thrust. If you need help, buy the of the many products out there that give tons of calisthenic variety.
• To maximise athletic benefits, add some kettlebell training. The KB will hit two areas that are difficult to reach using calisthenics alone: Grip strength and lower back strength.
• Massively reduce sugar intake. This means dropping the most horrible “food” ever made by Man: Soda. When you eat carbs, do so in the form of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
• Skip a couple of meals a week.
• Keep a positive attitude about life. Cynics are unhappy people and have never changed the world.
• Challenge yourself. Remember: Progressive overload. Set goals and reach for them. Never give up.
• Remember the words of Nicolai Amosov:

“So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the experiment continues! We are pushing pessimism back. Limits for old men are abolished. Life is a pretty good thing after all.”

Fat, dumb and unhappy.

Wired’s Danger Room reports that most kids are too stupid or fat to serve in the military.

I  can attest that many who do serve aren’t much better. I don’t serve in an infantry unit, but the physical abilities of most of the people I serve with are astoundingly bad. Yesterday, the 66th Military Intelligence brigade commenced a brigade run, so there were a few hundred soldiers that took part in a 4 mile run–very slow–around the airbase. It was pretty cool outside and windy, so overheating was not a problem, and yet as we stood in formation after the run was over and were told by the brigade commander to remove our hats, I felt sweat splash on th back of my leg. I looked back to see who could possibly be sweating that much in cool weather after running for a moderate distance at a near walking pace. To my surprise, several soldiers–including officers–looked like they’d just finished the Battan Death March.

I wasn’t sweating at all. I considered not even taking a shower before changing into my combat uniform, but I went to the gym after the run and did pushups, pullups and one-legged squats. Then I showered and felt great.

According to the Danger Room report:

75% of people aged 17-23 are incabable of serving in the military due to physical weakness, obesity drug use or  can’t pass the mental aptitude test.

Nearly one quarter of those people are classified as obese, compared to only 6% in 1987.

Though I have some significant problems and questions concerning the effectiveness of Basic Training, one thing I did not question was the need to get soldiers physically ready. It seemed many of them needed to be screamed at and humiliated into moving and trying. This astounded me at the time. I used to think most people “got it” when it came to team work and effort. Seeing what was going on around me actually made me depressed; I felt like I was weird in that I didn’t need anyone screaming at me to get me to run hard.

A lot of soldiers here try very hard to get out of morning PT. They go on “profile” (medical orders restricting them from certain physical activities) immediately upon reaching the unit. It’s disgraceful. They have no shame. I’d be embarassed to show up to a new unit and try to get out of PT. The same soldiers can be seen swigging away from cans of soda and always have snacks handy. Guess they just don’t care. It’s tough to make people care.

World class America hating

Ah yes, Gore Vidal. Flaming? Oh yes, and liberal. Now he says he missed the chance to murder George Bush. And Obama is too smart for America.

Video Here.

And we’re really, really uneducated according to Vidal. Classic liberalism and it’s why I hate it and always will: It’s based not so much on progressiveness, but on the singular destruction of Americanism. Oh, Mr. Vidal? America is ranked 3rd in the world in its percentage of 25-64 year olds with bachelors degrees, behind only Canada and Japan. So much for Europe.

Then there’s Joy Behar: “He (Barack Obama) is a little too smart for America in a certain way.”

See, America. These people don’t like you. They think Barack Obama is too brilliant for you, even though you put him in office. I suspect you’re smart enough to remove him after he proves himself to be of perfectly average capacity.

My thoughts exactly

Diplomat to Afghanistan resigns over war there:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009102603447

Excellent article: Is Obama Carter or Truman?

Read it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704335904574495141362744118.html

Obama left with no good options in Afghan war, political or military

A wise man once said that you should never enter a war that you don’t have the will to win. President Obama finds himself the unfortunate elected of a party which hasn’t possessed the will to win a fight since WWII and that thinks the only good war America’s ever fought was the Civil War.

Obama is now left with no good options. Should he escalate the troop levels in Afghanistan, he will anger a large portion of the people that voted for him–about 51% of Democrats are strongly against another surge in Afghanistan.

More troops would be good–if we planned to use them correctly. We won’t, because we don’t believe anymore that we can win wars by killing the enemy. So we’ll again win virtually every tactical engagement and lose the war. We want true fairy tales: We can win wars by just talking. No, we can’t. The talking’s long been over by the time bullets start flying.

We’ve surged three times since the Afghan war started, and Obama can still only blame Bush for the situation there now. Obama must take responsibility for this war. The Bush administration rightly placed Afghanistan on the back burner, while continuing to fight in Iraq. There’s simply almost nothing to be gained by an over application of resources there. Using Afghanistan as a vote-getting pry bar has backfired on Obama: He’s now locked in to a war that he cannot escape from. His hyperbole has him trapped. The only chance of ending the war–short of simply removing all US involvment (not an option), is politically incorrect warfare–the only kind that’s ever proven effective against hardened insurgents.

And here’s the kicker: Other than Iraq, the only full-scale insurgency that America’s fought–The Philipine-American War– points in the exact opposite direction of the one our fighting forces head in now: Brutality works. Sad but true. When the First Philipine Republic’s insurgent muslims commenced to guerrilla warfare, America upped the ante and revved up her gatling guns. American soldiers stopped taking prisoners and started burning villages. After hearing of American ferocity, many Filipinos began surrendering instead of fighting. And the Filipino insurgents outnumbered today Taliban by 3 or 4 to 1. Yet we won that war in 3 years.

If we’re won’t fight to win–and we won’t–we should pull out most of the troops, stop telling lies about building a better Afghanistan, and be done with it. We should never again enter into a war that history tells us only overwhelming force can win.  

It appears 25,000 poorly trained and equipped fighters will defeat this administration. Hillary in 2012?

Have joy and never quit

Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy ~Sir Winston Churchill, 1941

My favorite statesman, Churchill,  at his heart was a warrior. He refused to leave London at the urgings of his advisors when the Germans commenced to bombing it night and day. Churchill struggled with a melancholy disposition his whole life, and yet something seemed to awaken in him when it came to a good struggle. A demeanor of joviality.

To keep our faith and humanity while carrying on with tough tasks is the mark of high maturity. To keep our joy is a mark of the divine:

The Apostle Paul writes in  I Thessalonians 5:16-18:

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

As Christians, we are ordered to pray continually, and to maintain a positive attitude. If we have grief or doubts, we should let God minister to them. But in the end, we can rest assured that He will take care of us, and even when we face death, we know that while man can kill the flesh, only God can touch our souls. (Jesus–Matthew 10: 28-31).

If you’ve tried “pretending” things are ok, even when most people would say a disaster’s occurring, you know that happiness if the face of adversity actually helps you to make your thoughts a reality. There are those who will pout their way through tough times, waiting for others to fix their problems. Thank goodness there are those that can remain joyful and continue to work things out.

The Old Testament’s greatest warrior–David–faced off mano-a-mano against the Philistine champion, Goliath. Goliath stood, terrorizing and taunting the ranks of Hebrews, when David, a boy, steps forward:

“Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

King Saul has little faith:

“You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”

One can imagine a wry smirk on David’s face as he confronts an impressive foe. He then let’s Goliath know of his impending doom:

“Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.  All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

The writer of  I Samual records what happens next:

David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.  When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.

There was no logical choice but to remain confident in the face of overwhelming odds. David knew that the Israelites were too afraid to fight. They would likely break ranks and be slaughtered by the pursuing enemy. But David remained confident and joyful.

David came before al-Qaeda when it came to beheadings for terror's purpose.

The British Royal Marines must endure one of the longest and toughest training programs in the world. 32 weeks of arduous and stressful operations that determine if recruits have what it takes to be part of an elite fighting force. The program is devided into 6 “modules”. It’s interesting to see that the purpose of Module 5–The Commando Course–is described as the following:

“To confirm a recruit is professionally prepared for service in an operational unit, is at a Commando level of fitness and has the requisite qualities of determination, courage, unselfishness, professional skill & cheerfulness under adversity”

 

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

British soldiers are well known for remaining chipper in bad situations. It’s part of their military’s culture. And it shows in their performance.

So, keep your chin up, and drive on. Things are never quite as bad as we imagine them and you can get through anything with the right mindset. Some Shakespeare dude said that that there’s no evil but thinking makes it so. He was on to something.

Afghanistan is not Iraq, but let’s fight to win anyway

The Taliban is indeed a threat to the human rights of the people of Afghanistan. But let’s be honest and clear: It is not to be a Neo-Caliphate.

Upon the invasion of Iraq al-Qaeda committed itself to a type of war that America was ill prepared to wage: A public, full-scale insurgency designed to leach the will from each of our citizens who saw the body counts scroll-daily- across the bottom of 24 hour news channels. Everyday, America lost hope. With each deadly IED blast, our soldiers left earthly confines, civilians shook their heads and questioned if the fight was worth our blood.

Al-Qaeda almost won.

We almost quit. Politicians scurried to the media cameras as quickly as a long-lost relative emerges from anonymity to claim his part of a dead cousin’s will. Shameless populism became the order of the day. The country almost collapsed into civil war. Some say it did. The semantics matter little.What matters is the destruction wrought. The Left gained the impetus it needed to ensure victories in the House, Senate and Oval Office. The Uber-Left blamed Bush and the cliche’ Military Industrial Complex for millions of deaths. In reality, it was Al-Qaeda’s terror regime and resultant disruption of Law and Order that killed so many Iraqis. America’s armed forces scurried to be strong everywhere and got strength nowhere. We needed more war fighters. Patraeus stepped to the front with a plan, which to this day many Democrats  deny determined the outcome of the war. It was the Sunni Awakening they claimed. The people had seen enough violence from Al-Qaeda and dropped the dime on Terror Inc.  they said. It’s senseless though to claim that more of our men on the ground could have not had an impact.

In Iraq, defeat  was never an option. Had America–at the urgings of the Democrats and now-President Obama–retreated, the American global colossus would have collapsed.  Al-Qaeda would have gained a firm, oil-rich foothold in the heart of the Middle East. That’s bad.

Republicans and Democrats have Afghanistan both right and wrong. The Republicans want more troops, but deceive themselves into thinking that Afghanistan is of global importance. More troops will help in warding off the Taliban, but more soldiers on the ground will not make Afghanistan an important place to fight a major war. Wasting the lives of soldiers on marginal strategic endeavors is stupid. And we don’t even have the excuse of “you broke it, you fix it” like in Iraq. Afghanistan has always been broken.

The Democrats, too have an incomplete vision of the war. Many oppose more troops, while supporting counter-insurgency. Counter-insurgency will not work, even with 40,000 more troops. It’ll be that much worse with current troop levels. To support McChrystal’s brand of war without massive amounts of troops is an impossibility, especially give the fact that Afghan President Maliki’s government is terminally corrupt–just as one would expect from an Afghan government. No rule of law equals no counterinsurgency equals no democracy.

Positivism moves the world. Pessimists sit in dark rooms wondering, angry at God for not existing. I appreciate Oliver North, General Patraeus and others who, given a mission, set about to make it happen regardless of the odds. Giving up always means failing.

But shouldn’t unbridled positivism be tempered with realistic expectations and cost-efficient strategy? The question is not always Can I? but Should I? There are better ways to do things than what we’re doing now.

An American retreat from Afghanistan would inevitably lead to a declaration of victory by the Taliban. Were it not for the media, their cries of triumph would mean nothing; they would still exist in a country where held-held radios are state of the art technology, possessing little education, and unable to threaten America. And now we do have a responsibility to the people of Afghanistan who we’ve promised American protection. America should not break her promises.  But the Taliban is a  far cry from the well-funded and educated al-Qaeda network. Hydra-like and possessed of a fervor alien to comfortable, agnostic Westerners, al-Qaeda presented a formidable post-modern foe.

So, stay in Afghanistan but attack known Taliban strongholds with full military operations. Special Operations cannot win this war anymore than airpower can win it. It’s a full-spectrum operation, and that involves moving in Tanks and Strykers that are resistant to IEDs and small arms fire.  We have once again committed to war on an unproven premise, but it’s better to win than lose, regardless of the reason for being in the fight in the first place.

America’s military has never failed when their chains were removed. There is no political reason, as in Korea or Vietnam, to hold our men back. Only wrong perceptions by our politicians who fear CNN’s cameras more than our enemies fear M-16 assault rifles keep us from ending this quickly.

Foster tolerance, friendship and cooperation amongst those who desire it. Punish and relentlessly pursue those who refuse peace. It’s a simple formula that Rome practiced for 700 years with unmatched historical success. Should we find a leader with courage, America would have little difficulty in convincing the Taliban that peace is better than war.

Special Forces Assessment and Selection

Tomorrow, I will be promoted to the rank of Specialist. I received a “time in service” waiver, which means I’m getting an accelerated promotion, cutting the time to E4 down by 6 months.

This makes me eligible to attend SFAS–Special Forces Assessment and Selection. 18 days of hell at Ft. Bragg, intended to assess a candidates physical capabilities as well as problem solving and leadership abilities.

There are no guarantees, regardless of how I perform. Of course, it’s not even a guarantee that I will pass the initial physicial screening given my past injuries. I’m sure I can perform physically, it’s just a matter of convincing others that I can.

Green Berets at Firebase Cobra, Afghanistan

America’s Special Forces fight a semi-covert war inside Afghanistan. National Geographic follows them.