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The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

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Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#71

Post by pc86 »

beachstartup wrote: post #46
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A technique I used was called "20-rep squats." It's been written about in a few places. Simply put, you choose a weight that you can do 20 squats with using good form. Next time you add weight to the bar and do 20 again, lather, rinse, repeat every week or whatever your interval is. It works well for working out alone because the goal is simple: do 20 reps with more weight than last time, even if it's just 1 lb more.…

my coach makes me do 20-rep squats and also 10x10 with less weight once every 6 weeks or so. that's the closest i've ever come to really giving up in the middle of a set.

10x10 is brutal. We usually do a strict 2:00 rest between sets, but one time tried dropping that to 90 seconds and it was at least twice as bad.

Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#72

Post by jo6gwb »

armitron wrote: post #4
smileysteve wrote: post #2

One reason Navy Seals need to be good at this is that they are swimming 50m underwater in one breath. When swimming while holding your breath, your brain is telling you, stop, you're low on air, indeed, you can ignore than and swim the rest.

The urge to breathe doesn't come because one is low on air, but due to CO2 buildup in the blood. Humans have no physiological detectors for blood oxygen levels, they can only detect CO2. Normally CO2 buildup response is calibrated to be "early" in terms of oxygen, but the calibration can change (e.g. through hyperventilation) which can lead to blackouts and drowning since blood oxygen levels can drop below ones neede…

There have been Navy SEALS who have died because of this: http://www.13newsnow.com/story/news/military/2015/04/24/inci...

Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#73

Post by mrbill »

crikli wrote: post #64
mrbill wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got to work my way up to the 5K and then to the Light; a Challenge/Tough (or Heavy) isn't on the radar right now due to some physical handicaps and limitations (google "subglottic stenosis").

Well that's a whole different deal there. :) When you do the Light, the Cadre ask "does anyone have any medical conditions we should know about". Speak up, or at least talk to the Cadre before the event so he's briefed on the likelihood of incidence as well as treatment. Also, some of the Cadre were/are 18Ds, e.g. medics, and depending upon the severity of your condition you may wish to seek out an event run by one o…

Yeah, I have no intention of doing the Light until I know my condition won't be a problem or I won't be a hindrance to the rest of my team.

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.

Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#74

Post by smileysteve »

eric_h wrote: post #21
pc86 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to see a source for this that thinking about something uses more oxygen.

a meditative state is definitely helpful in reducing the body's consumption of oxygen. I got my open water scuba certification many years ago from a former Navy SEAL. At the time, I was 4' 8" and weighed 85 pounds. The Navy SEAL was about 5' 10", 200 pounds. Every single dive we went on he used less than half the air that I used, and I used less air than the rest of the dive group (because I didn't need as much given…

+ 1 for relaxed scuba diving. If you're swimming hard, you're doing it wrong.

Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#75

Post by late2part »

mapt wrote: post #34
eric_h wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a meditative state is definitely helpful in reducing the body's consumption of oxygen. I got my open water scuba certification many years ago from a former Navy SEAL. At the time, I was 4' 8" and weighed 85 pounds. The Navy SEAL was about 5' 10", 200 pounds. Every single dive we went on he used less than half the air that I used, and I used less air than the rest of the dive group (because I didn't need as much given…

Your incorrect assumption is that you're supporting the same hardware with different software. Drastic changes occur with aerobic training and hypoxic stress in the red blood cell count & blood volume, blood pressure, heart stroke volume & lower resting heartrate. He has more muscles, more energy stored in glycogen in those muscles, and swims faster. The person you learned from was likely not physiologically capable…

How do you think that happened? He learned to push himself beyond his comfort zone.

The earlier poster wasn't that he was inferior, but that he saw how training and pushing yourself beyond comfort can change you.

Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#76

Post by gmarx »

aws_ls wrote: post #70
gmarx wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People assume they can tell the difference but the kind of chronic inflammation you get from overuse can sneak up on you. I saw a story about a concert pianist many years ago who was having trouble with his wrists. At the time his doctor or maybe it was teacher treated it like a muscular problem and told him to keep training so his wrists would get stronger. Eventually he built up so much scar tissue on his tendons t…

>I'd fear what that guy would be like after 40 years Curious, what you imply by that. I have read about the skin (mostly the face) of runners not so great, because of exposure to so much weather. Did you imply something along these lines or something else?

joints tendons and so forth. Pounding your knees that much without sufficient recovery could be bad. Not for everyone mind you. I've read that old age involves much more pain for retired pro athletes, for example

Re: The 40% Rule: A Navy SEAL’s Secret to Mental Toughness

#77

Post by scott_s »

pc86 wrote: post #42
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A technique I used was called "20-rep squats." It's been written about in a few places. Simply put, you choose a weight that you can do 20 squats with using good form. Next time you add weight to the bar and do 20 again, lather, rinse, repeat every week or whatever your interval is. It works well for working out alone because the goal is simple: do 20 reps with more weight than last time, even if it's just 1 lb more.…

20-rep movements are great for hypertrophy/building size, but are not going to do nearly as much for strength and the 3-8 rep range. And squatting once a week will do even less than that.

Many of the elite powerlifters of today squat, deadlift and bench multiple times a week, so we know that doing all multiple times in a week can be great training. But I think your conclusion is not warranted. A few decades ago, the elite powerlifters were squatting and deadlifting once a week. And they were also crazy strong.
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