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Buying Toughness, Mental and Physical, From a SEAL

by Peter Shankman
Sun, 2 Dec 2007 at 4:31 PM
updated Sun, 2 Dec 2007 at 4:36 PM

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I'm lying in the volleyball courts inside Central Park around 72nd Street. My stomach is on fire. My legs are like cement blocks, and my breathing is labored. I'm being called a "lazy maggot" by a screaming man. It's not even 5 in the morning.

I've paid $695 for this.

Contrary to earlier times in my life when I might have been watching the sun come up while slightly dizzy, this time has nothing to do with alcohol. This time, I'm one of about 40 victims being tortured by an ex-Navy SEAL for two hours a day, for two solid weeks, from 4:45 a.m. to 6:45 a.m., rain or shine, all in the name of fitness.

This is my 14th class. I never said I had much common sense.

Retired Navy SEAL Jack Walston started his "Navy SEALs Bootcamp" class 10 years ago near his hometown of Houston, Texas, as a way to share what he'd learned about fitness and dedication with civilians. The class proved so popular in Texas that it was suggested he start branching out. The New York SEALs class was born.

There's no question that you have to be a little insane to do this. The simple act of walking into Central Park as a group at 4:30 in the morning takes guts and determination. But it's nothing compared to what we're feeling now, as we "bear crawl," on our hands and feet, the length of a football field and back, several times. After this, perhaps he'll have us run the Central Park loop, or, for the group of us that can't run that far, power-walk it. The SEALs have never left a fellow soldier, living or dead, behind on the battlefield. "YOU'RE ONLY AS FAST AS YOUR SLOWEST MAN." Mr. Walston makes it clear that we, too, won't be leaving a teammate behind.

Following a roll in the volleyball court sand ("I WANT EVERY SQUARE INCH OF YOU TO LOOK LIKE A SUGAR COOKIE!"), we make our way to the basketball blacktop for "eight-count bodybuilders," each of which combines a pushup, a squat, a jump, and a few other fun movements that sane people wouldn't do at 5:15 a.m. in Central Park, let alone do 50 times. As the cool darkness of morning gives way to an eerie glow of sunrise meshed with the yellow incandescent glow of the park lights, Mr. Walston scampers around, improving our form, with no shortage of verbal assaults when he believes we can work harder than we are working.

"Mental toughness doesn't come in a can. You can't buy it at the grocery," he says. As our abdominals burn with our 10th set of leg levers in the past hour, he chants what becomes a familiar cadence, "One, two, I'm so happy … three, four … you're so sad.…" Over and over again. "Mind over matter, people, I don't mind, and you don't matter."

Did I mention we paid for this?

The original Navy SEALs bootcamp class is available three to four times a year in New York City, and daily in Houston, Texas. More information can be found on their Web site, www.sealpt.com.

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