Are you overtraining in your workouts?

Overtraining has been a hot topic in fitness world for the last couple of decades and there is a lot of confusion surrounding how much training is enough and how much is too much. In the SEAL Teams we had sayings like, Training is never over and Pain is good, extreme pain is extremely good.

Here are three schools of thought on overtraining:

1. It doesn't exist and the more training you do the better.

2. Everyone is overtraining and we all need to drastically reduce our training volume.

3. Some people (like myself) believe that it is an individual thing and we all react differently to training volume.

You can't simply look at someone's workout routine and tell if they are overtraining or not. It depends on the individual person. We all have different work capacities and some people can handle more workout volume than others and still make progress.

Another very often overlooked factor when it comes to overtraining is your lifestyle outside the gym. Do you have a stressful life or a physically demanding job? Do you get enough sleep?

The best way to know if you are overtraining with your workouts is to do a self-evaluation of yourself and your overall workout progress. I'll talk about that next.


But all you "CHARLIE MIKE" human racers -- here's a picture of my 83 year-young mom as my workout partner! Getting close friends and family involved is easy and makes working out more fun as you enjoy the journey towards "Perfect"tion.

Mojo Frog aka Marcus Colburn

Jim's Extreme Fitness Workout

Teammates, last week I asked, "what's your definition of Extreme Fitness and how do you get out of YOUR comfort zone?" Here's what Jim had to say. "I totally agree Alden. Although it may be really uncomfortable pushing oneself for that extra rep or mile it really gives you a nice feeling of accomplishment (at least it does to me) in the end.

My personal fitness goal is staying SEAL fit. I'm into running, at least 10km at a 7 min/mile pace, calisthenics, and swimming or spear fishing.

I've done 4 cycles of Stew Smith's "Grinder PT" e-book, (it's really intense), and I still keep searching the internet for innovative ways to spice up my workouts.

Getting beyond one's comfort zone is hard and usually should be done with at least one person standing by in case something goes wrong, but so far I think I've done pretty well on my own.

Recently I came across some very interesting workout videos on YouTube which I'm sure will push most people beyond their limits. The channel is called "xtremeoutdoorfitness". My regards to Mike Brower and his buddies for the awesome workout challenges they've posted so far.

HOOYAH!"

CHARLIE MIKE Jim! ALDEN

Spear fishing photo taken at the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

CHARLIE MIKE Summer Reading List Part IV

The Fall of The Human Intellect by A. Parthasarathy – An Indian philosophical approach to how the mind and intellect work; ways to use this knowledge to improve learning and focus; and how to use your intellect to control stress and improve productivity. Reviewer: Mark Friedman

Two choices from Coach Marty Heilman: The Four Agreements by Juan Miguel Ruiz, 1997. I live by this book -- it's like my Bible. The Four Agreements are ...
(1) Be Impeccable With Your Word.
(2) Don't Take Anything Personally.
(3) Don't Make Assumptions.
(4) Always Do Your Best.

Core Performance: The Revolutionary Workout Program to Transform Your Body and Your Life by Mark Verstegan, 2004, great functional fitness book.


Sean Glass, Around the World in Perfect Form

Non-fiction: Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman - Written by the founder of Positive Psychology, it helps gives you a baseline understanding of what has been discovered about happiness since this field was launched by Dr. Seligman and his colleagues.

Fiction: First Family by David Baldacci - just finished reading this and it was a fun, fast paced read. It was the first title I read on my Amazon Kindle too :-)

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell

Teammates -- Lone Survivor is the go-to book for the CHARLIE MIKE round-up!

Riveting firsthand account of a SEAL team fighting for their lives in the mountains of Afghanistan where a single, very lucky survivor lives to recount the story. Mark Friedman

Best Spec-ops (let alone SEAL) survival mission I've ever heard about. Alden Mills

Awesome. Best one to date for me. Stew Smith

Summer is no excuse to stop your fitness regime

After years of training folks to help them take control of their bodies, you’d think they’d understand by now that weather is not an excuse to stop your fitness regime. Winter weather should actually be the bigger excuse for not working out but the motivation of a “clean slate” (New Year’s) always wins out. Don’t get lulled into complacency this summer – TAKE ACTION! Most importantly, take action that’s FUN! One thing's for sure, if you can’t figure out a way to link pleasure with your activity, then you’ll be hard pressed to turn your activity into a habit.

Summer is the best time to create new calorie-burning activities that don’t resemble regular fitness routines in the slightest but can be much, much better for you than going to a gym. So what am I talking about? Who’s up for body-surfing or hiking a mountain or a group bicycle trip? Are you a parent? Perfect! Grab the little monkeys and take’em on an adventure in the woods, hunting for frogs and turtles. How about river rafting or even a tubing experience?? The point is GET OUTSIDE and get moving!


After all, what’s the point of building a better body if you can’t use it?! You are only limited by your willingness to try new things, and I guarantee you that if you do exactly what you did last summer -- and you weren’t happy with your body by summer’s end -- then your results will be much the same, except you’ll be a year older! Do not miss out on the best weather of year – TAKE ACTION and make it FUN Action! Do this, and New Year’s Day this year will be a time to party, not a time to make resolutions for a better body!

CHARLIE MIKE - ALDEN

Body surfing Photo courtesy Newport Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau

Are you thirsty? H20 advice from Mojo Frog

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

Let's think about this...your body is mostly water. Water covers 2/3rds of this planet. If you're getting thirsty, you're already dehydrated.

Stay clear of all other types of drinks and drink lots of pure H2O! Regular plastic bottles get old and can cause foreign bad juju to harm you whereas bottles made out of more permanent materials (like steel) can be washed and won't leak bad juju into your blood stream!


We used to have a saying in BUD/S (because water is so heavy). Whenever someone tried to lighten their load by carrying less water, we just said when they complained, after they were warned to bring more water, "Are you thirsty? DUDE, IF YOU DIDN'T BRING IT, YOU MUST NOT NEED IT."

Summer is here and it gets wayyyyyyyyyyyy hot. So keep up with your fluids. Stay strong and ready!

Mojo Frog

Picture used with permission of Dreamstime.

What does a SEAL know about Extreme Fitness?

And why should you care? Two good questions and ones that I asked myself when examiner.com contacted to me to write about the subject. They felt I was the “perfect” writer (no pun intended since I created the Perfect Pushup) because of my Navy SEAL background. On the surface it seems logical – former Navy SEAL writes about Extreme fitness. I know a few things about suffering through Hellweek or 1000 situp sets or 20 mile runs with 40lbs on my back or 5 mile open ocean swims in 55 degree water, but honestly, how many people really care about that, let alone would actually do it in their normal fitness routine? There’s only two kinds of folks that I can think of – sadists and those trying to be Navy SEALs.
SEAL training is certainly not for everyone and it’s not designed to be for everyone, BUT the lessons learned in SEAL training can be for everyone. Though the workouts above sound so extreme they might be considered ludicrous, to all of us going through SEAL training those workouts just pushed us a little further than we had been the week before – they kept us out of our comfort zone. Of course we started training at a certain level of fitness and then each week our instructors pushed us a little more. For example, our first open ocean swim was a mile, then it was a 1.5 mile then 2 miles – then 3 miles and so on…this methodology was applied to every element of our training. Had you told me before I started training that I’d be doing a 20 mile run with 40lbs on my back or 5.5 mile swim I would have laughed at you. But once you started pushing yourself a little more each week, the extreme became the norm, not the exception.

Let's define Extreme Fitness – extreme fitness to one person could be doing ten pushups when they couldn't do a single pushup last week or it could mean doing 120 without stopping. The concept I shared with you yesterday is that Extreme Fitness is "Get Out of Your Comfort Zone" fitness.

Teammates, I want to hear from you! What's your definition of Extreme Fitness and how do you get out of YOUR comfort zone?

CHARLIE MIKE -- ALDEN