Customer Reviews

The Navy SEAL Physical Fitness Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off this book is not a "how to" manual with carefully laid out programs. It does have some suggestions on how to build up running distance but don't expect much more. What you can look forward to is a great basic reference for exercises and related inuries and their treatment. Very basic. If you read it carefully you'll find valuable information and it will point you in the right direction in terms of specialized training (basics of plyometrics, weight training, importance of stretching etc), but you'll need to get some other books on these subjects to fill in the gaps. This is not something for a complete beginner.

If you are new to working out consider Stew Smiths'Maximum Fitness or The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness, you will not be disappointed, both excellent books. From beginner to advanced you can't go wrong, you will have to adapt the plans in the books to your own level though. In response to those who may say the workouts are too difficult or take too much time; what did you expect from guys who operate at the level of elite athletes and are paid to keep themselves in top condition? Like I said, adapt to your own level and strive to improve!

Actually I bought The Navy Seal Workout by Mark DeLisle way before I ever came across these other books and consider it OK but not great. It's a thin book padded with pictures but DeLisles' pyramiding scheme for chin ups is excellent and it has good upper body workout plans but no lower body(leg)workouts.

After working out for many years I considered myself in good shape in terms of strength and endurance, these books proved how wrong I was.

This book provides a practical, user-friendly introduction to exercise physiology. The author provides tables and formulas to help the reader calculate how much, how far, and how often to work out. Also included are basic exercise physiology principles to help readers understand the how and the why.

There's a lot of useful general information, though the book also contains specialized stuff not relevant to civilians (like training for extreme combat conditions, or how to customize training for different mission profiles.)

If this had been my first and only SEAL fitness book, I would've been disappointed and bored. But after watching SEAL fitness videos, reading the other books, and trying the PT exercises, merely doing was no longer enough and I wanted to understand more.

In particular, I wanted to go beyond the standard "beginning - intermediate - advanced" classifications. I wanted to find out how to really customize the exercise routines for my own needs. I also wanted to discover how to set personalized goals. Deuster's book provides the answers and the quantitative tools to boot. Combine this book with Deuster's other book on nutrution, and you have a complete customization tool.

My only gripe -- Deuster's suggested PT routines seem too tame. In the interest of preventing injuries, she builds in so much stretching that the exercise tempo gets slowed way down. Other than that, I found this a very useful book.

Using Stew Smith's excellent examples in his Navy SEAL Fitness Guide (ISBN 1578260981) as illustrative examples, this book will assist new instructors in teaching comprehensive, total body fitness performance.

While it doesn't serve as a traditional textbook with 500+ pages and an extensive bibliographic stew, it does have uniquely qualified and credentialed authors contributing key chapters throughout, making this a terrific reference guide and course builder for any new instructor or instructor looking for new direction.

I have two criticisms, minor and not enough to reduce the star ratings.

One, there should be at least two more pages of material in the estimation of VO2(max) for trainees. What is written can be figured out, but it can be re-written for clarity, and given two more pages, it can be broken down a little more to see the numbers transform.

Two, the typesetting is terrific for handouts, but the layout breaks across page boundaries in weird places. This is, after all, printed matter bound for publication and distribution to the public as a book. It should be laid out like a training manual with better formatting and page breaks, and given a keyword index at the back of the book.

In all, this is a very helpful guide for PE instructors of all kinds. While its basis is primarily for training SEAL teams, there is wide appeal to any athlete looking for a disciplined, scientific approach to realizing one's full potential.

This book has loads of calisthenic, strength training, and plyometric exercises in addition to pre and post workout stretches and information regarding load-bearing and swimming. It goes over in detail training for different enviroments as well as how to take care of training related injuries and what "enhancement" substances to avoid. There is a training regimen included as well that is a good base for keeping your body in "ready for war/the end of the world/everyday living" shape. Great to have as a reference book if you are looking for a specific exercise or way to do something.

Hooyah!!

This Kindle "ebook" is completely unlike any other Kindle ebook I have purchased before. It is a poorly done scan, presented as half-pages of images, with the text hard to read on the newest model Kindle. The text size can't be changed, photos are split between one page and the next, and not at all what I expect from a Kindle ebook.

There is another Kindle title of what may be the same SEAL Physical Fitness Guide along with a nutrition manual, The U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition. This has the normal attributes of a Kindle ebook.

Based on buying many Kindle ebooks, I did not download a sample chapter first, assuming the quality would be normal. In this case, the Amazon policy of no returns on ebooks is not a good policy. I trusted the Kindle brand when I purchased it, but found my trust was misplaced.

Excellent book. Very detailed outline of everything one would want to know about the conditioning of Navy SEALs. Very pleased with the book, and use it almost every day.

This is a guide for beginning in the world of athletics and fitness.
It's written in a very simple way, with large text and bold catch-phrases.
Nevertheless, it provides you all the info to become a great endurance and basic strength athlete.
There are new approaches to strength like 5x5, periodization and weightlifting, which this book lacks of.
Buy it if you want a good reference on the main topic, without much insights.

I was stationed with Mark on the USS Duluth in 1994. I was part of a marine corps unit back then and worked out with him and a fellow shipmate. He got me in the best shape of my life during those 6 months out to sea. Thanks, Mark!