Mission-Specific Activities

Mission-Specific Activities

What sort of physical activities will SEALs be required to perform in the course of

their missions? To answer this question, the types of missions that you perform need to be

examined. A partial list of these missions is shown in Table 2-1, and a brief description of

these missions is provided below.
 

Small Unit Patrolling

 

 

One capability that will be needed in almost all SEAL land warfare operations is the

ability to carry a substantial amount of weight over long distances. You will typically carry

two weapons and a supply of ammunition. There is no good way to know exactly how much

ammunition you will be required to carry for a particular mission and SEAL operators tend

to pack heavy in this category. In addition, your loads will often include explosives and

specialized items. Water needs to be carried in the loadout and, if the mission is a sustained

one, rations must also be included. Loads of 70-80 pounds are standard in the community

and much heavier loads are not uncommon. How far must you carry this load? There is no

one distance that can accurately be used as an upper limit, but certainly 10-20 miles in a 24

hour period, depending on the difficulty of the terrain, may be required for some operations.

Walking long distances with a heavy load is a significant challenge in itself, but you may

also be required to run and scramble over terrain features, walls, and fences.

 

SEAL Mission-Related Physical Activities

 

The primary goal of SEAL physical fitness training is to

maximize mission-related performance. SEALs need a physical training program which

encompasses all of the various mission-related tasks that need to be performed. Thus,

before deciding on a physical fitness training regimen, the specific types of athletic

activities involved in your missions must be clearly defined. It is important for you to

establish specific goals. An athlete training for a marathon will want to train such that he

will finish the race in the shortest possible time. Everything else in your program will be

secondary to the primary objective of maximizing lower extremity aerobic performance.

Likewise, a kayaker will maximize his aerobic performance by focusing on upper extremity

conditioning. A competitive weight lifter, in contrast, will strive to maximize the amount

of weight that he can lift, with little or no emphasis on endurance training.

What are “mission-related tasks?”

As an illustration, let's consider bicycling. Cycling is a superb way to obtain an

intense aerobic (or anaerobic) workout and is very useful in promoting general

cardiovascular fitness, but SEALs do not cycle during missions. No mission scenarios

require you to hop on your bike and ride 25 miles. In contrast, a two mile swim in fins also

provides an excellent cardiovascular workout, and more closely approximates activities

required on Special Warfare missions.

Although a good cardiovascular workout on a bike will confer a training benefit for

SEALs, cycling is not the preferred substitute for mission-related training. Being in shape

for one activity does not necessarily translate into being in shape for another activity which

uses entirely different muscle groups. Training by running or biking to perform a long

distance swim will result in a high incidence of muscle fatigue and leg cramps on the

mission. Some swimming must be incorporated into a training program. Moreover,

swimming with fins on a regular basis will ensure that the operator is comfortable in his

fins and wet suit booties, and prevent the development of painful blisters on the mission.

Thus, there are many reasons for specificity of training.

Swimming is not the only mission-related task. The goal of this chapter is to present

mission-specific activities and determine the physical tasks associated with these missions.

The doctrine that you should train as you fight is also true for physical

fitness training