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Working Out Underway When on a Navy war ship (or submarine), you have two issues to deal with: lack of time and lack of space (unless you are on a huge ship, then you will have access to moderate scaled weight rooms -- but you still have the issue of time). This week a Navy Sailor emailed me and got me thinking back to the underway deployments I was on, and what we did to stay fit -- or to at least maintain an advanced level of fitness. He wrote: I'm currently in a deployable billet. I know some people come back a few pounds heavier. I really won't have any control over the food I'm served. I'm going to do pushups and crunches daily, at a minimum. I'm wondering if you have any general suggestions on what I can do to minimize weight gain while I'm on deployment. Stretch - At a Minimum Stay Hydrated See this article on the correlation between drinking water and weight loss:Want to Lose Weight? Food Intake Exercise 20-30 Minutes a Day The superset is a great way to workout if you have limited time. Each cycle
should take you two minutes. If you can do ten cycles of this you will total 300
pushups and 400 crunches. Not bad for 20 minutes! No resting in between sets.
You basically rest by doing crunches. The two supersets you see below are great
to alternate every other day. We would also bring a metal pole and dumbbells with us on ship to use during the workouts. Place the pole in between two upper rafters and you have a pull-up bar. Another fun workout is the Fit Deck made by former Navy SEAL Phil Black. This is a card game that requires you to do a variety of PT exercises every time you flip over a card. Adding a cardio routine is absolutely necessary for fat burning. Walking, jogging, biking, elliptical gliding, and rowing machines are sometimes found onboard ship. If you are so lucky, try the Manual Mode Resistance Pyramid on any cardio machine. Start off at level 1 resistance for 1:00. Each minute, increase the resistance by 1-2 levels. Continue up the pyramid until you can no longer peddle, row, or run and then repeat in reverse order back to where you started at level 1. This is a great warm-up, max out, and cool down routine all rolled into one 20-30 minute workout. Swimming Alternatives Hips/abs - Flutterkicks, leg levers, and scissors will help you keep the muscles associated with swimming with fins and kicking strong and ready for the beach when you arrive in port. Lowerback/Upperback/Hamstrings – Swimmers, birds, arm haulers, and reverse
pushups will help you with the upper back muscles, rear shoulders, lower back
muscles and back of the legs with a mix of isometrics and non-weight exercises.
These exercise also help you balance out the front torso muscles of the chest,
abs and shoulders. I hope this gives you a few ideas for fitting fitness into you busy day underway. Good luck and hopefully you will find yourself in a sunny port, so you can hit the beach for a run and a swim. Email me if you have any questions or ideas you do onboard ship at stew@stewsmith.com. Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL and fitness author certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. If you are interested in starting a workout program to create a healthy lifestyle - check out the StewSmith.com Fitness eBook store and the Stew Smith article archive at StewSmith.com. To contact Stew with your comments and questions, e-mail him at stew@stewsmith.com.
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