My fitness journey
Fitness has been a constant for me.
Fitness has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. The goals have changed along with the methods of achieving them, but ‘working out’ or ‘training’ has been a constant. In fact, in my 44 years of life, I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t ‘training’ for something. I have had varying levels of ‘fitness’ along the way. In some seasons of life, I was much more ‘fit’ than I am now. But ‘fitness’ or the ‘pursuit’ of fitness has been a constant in my life.
In future articles, I’ll try to define fitness (my definition), why it’s important, and how I have gone about achieving it (or at least pursuing it). Today’s article is more about the path I started on, how it’s changed along the way, and what I’m doing now.
It started early for me (Elementary School)
It all started in elementary / grade school. I was in 6th grade and my ‘little’ brother was in 4th. He was already bigger than me and, on his way, to being stronger. I was NOT going to accept that. I realized there was not much I could do to get taller, but I could at least try to get stronger than I was. The tipping point came after a trip to the local archery store. I wanted to buy my first compound bow. To legally hunt deer with a bow, it had to have a minimum draw weight of 45lbs (If I recall correctly, not 100% certain). The salesman took a 45 lb bow off the rack to see if I could draw it or pull it back. I couldn’t…
That bow was too heavy for me THAT DAY, but I was NOT going to accept defeat. For a month straight, I did push-ups, sit-ups, rows on my door jam, and bicep curls with a homemade barbell set consisting of some metal conduit pipe and some sand-filled plastic weights. This was my first experience with ‘program design.’ No, I don’t think the sit-ups helped much. But I also wanted abs!
After a month of TRAINING like this, in addition to all the work I did on the farm, I went back to the archery store with my dad. I didn’t think I would be able to draw it yet. I just wanted to measure my progress. The same storekeeper took the same bow off the rack and handed it to me again. I grabbed it, started to pull, and was AMAZED at how EASILY I was able to pull it to full draw. My little ‘exercise routine’ had worked. It was positive reinforcement at a young age. I learned an important lesson: I may not be very naturally physically gifted, but there are things I can do to change that. I was hooked from that point on!
“Recognize that you are hopelessly average.” – Tom Bilyeu
Tom Bilyeu - Founder of Quest Nutrition and Host of Impact Theory.
It continued into the next phase (Middle School)
In grade school, we were not allowed to use the school weight room. The coaches and PT teachers were worried we’d hurt ourselves. In hindsight, they were probably right. Then, in 7th grade I was FINALLY allowed to use it. I’ll never forget my first ‘group workout’ in that little weight room. I thought for sure I’d be able to ‘bench my bodyweight.’ Boy was a surprised when I couldn’t.
Turns out that doing farm-work might make you strong, but that strength doesn’t always translate to the weight room. The same can DEFINITELY be said in reverse: being strong in the weight room doesn’t always translate to the farm, field (football field or battlefield), or real life.
That didn’t matter to me as a middle school football player. I was going to ‘bench my bodyweight.’ That was kind of the ‘standard’ or ‘goal’ to the coach talked about. Everyone aspired to achieve it. Now I know better. Yes, a good bench press is great, but we should have been doing squats, deadlifts, and some overhead pressing too. That’s an article for later…
Kids all mature at different rates. That difference was VERY pronounced in our 7th and 8th grade classes. There was a group of boys who were much stronger and faster than others. They were all starting to shave. Then there was a group of us who were shorter, slower, and weaker. We were a long way off from needing razors. We were also quite a way away from benching our bodyweight!
“If you put time and energy into something, you will get better!” – Tom Bilyeu
The hard work pays off (Highschool and College)
In high school, those of us in the second group would mostly start to catch up. In fact, some of the best athletes from our 7th and 8th grade football teams just stopped growing all together. They had peaked. More importantly, some of them stopped TRAINING.
Not me. I was determined. I innately knew that if I kept training, I would get stronger. I was also DETERMINED to be a GREAT high-school football player AND play COLLEGE football someday. I trained and trained year long. Eventually I would bench press nearly 345 pounds as a Senior in high school. That max effort lift would not have counted in a power lifting match. I didn’t really pause at the bottom. But, I did lower it and press it back up. By that time, I had also added squats and power cleans to the program (thanks to the ‘Bigger, Faster, Stronger’ book!)
Then I went to college. As I’ve written before, during college football practice I realized that God did not give me the physical traits necessary to play football at a high level. I was plenty strong, but I wasn’t big enough or fast enough. At my size, I could have been a safety if I was faster. But the linemen were all faster than me on a 40-yard dash. I tried to gain weight to play linebacker. But it was nearly impossible to put and keep weight on. When I did get bigger, I was still too slow. Ughhh…
Eric Frohardt, NIACC Football, fall of 1997.
Major pivot: from a football team to a SEAL Team!
As the door closed on my ‘football career’ (ha ha), another one opened: becoming a Navy SEAL! I joined the military on a bet that I would not make it through training. Someone told me I wasn’t ‘big enough’ or ‘tough enough’ or something like that and I enlisted the NEXT DAY.
My training changed IMMEDIATELY. I went from lifting heavy and sprinting to bodyweight circuits and long runs or long swims. My body changed too. I lost a LOT of weight, and my joints didn’t hurt from constantly lifting heavy. Plus, I seemed much more naturally gifted at doing long runs than sprinting.
The recruiter gave me the SEAL Challenge ‘Warning Order.’ I followed it to the letter. Training started while I was still in college and continued when I got back home on the farm. I still have this printed document as a keep’s sake. Would the program work? Would it get me ready for the gauntlet that is BUD/s? I’d find out soon enough…
BUD/S Warning Order from 1998
Then I went to bootcamp. Physically, bootcamp was easy. I did have a medical issue towards the end, but the workouts were a cake walk. In fact, I got out of shape in boot camp compared to my Rocky style training I had been doing on the farm.
SEAL Training was VERY different and VERY challenging. Enough has been written about it so I won’t belabor the point here. There was a LOT of running. We had to run to and from ‘chow.’ It was 1-mile to the chow-hall and another mile back. That accumulated to about 6-miles of running daily…just to eat. This was on top of the timed runs, ocean swims, grinder PT’s, obstacle courses, surf passage and other such ‘evolutions.’
We started with nearly 190 students (I think it was 187 to be exact). That number went down quickly. By the end of training, there were only 19 of the original 187 remaining. Pretty high attrition rate. If you had tried to guess who was going to make it based on appearance, you would NOT have chosen me!
BUD/S class 225
Most would agree that BUD/S is more mental than physical. I agree, for the most part. Everyone who started should have been physically capable of completing the training. Not everyone was mentally capable. You can measure someone’s run times and push-ups, but you can’t measure heart.
That said, if you were more physically capable, it was easier. I did not struggle with any of the timed runs, timed swims, timed obstacle course runs, or even grinder PT’s. I was by no means the best at any of these. But I was in the top 5-6 on most of them. Somehow, I made it through BUD/S without failing a single timed or tested event. My program along with some good luck had gotten me through the training. Once again, positive reinforcement for having an exercise program and following it!
“We do not rise to the level of our expectations.
We fall to the level of our preparation.” - Archilochus
Archilochus Sculpture
The battlefield is different than the football field!
One of the FIRST lessons I learned in the SEAL Teams was that BUD/S fitness was NOT = to Operational Fitness. In BUD/S, you must be able to run a LOT, swim far, and do a TON of bodyweight exercises. It is DESIGNED to 1) Weed people out and 2) Be easily administered. There is no ‘fitness equipment’ that comes does this as well as the cold Pacific Ocean, soft sandy beaches/berms, and simple blacktop ‘grinder’ where we did most of our calisthenics. BUD/S is a selection course. It beat me down. When I got into a SEAL Team, I needed to build myself back up.
My training in ‘The Teams’ changed a bunch. I still tried to maintain my running, swimming, and bodyweight fitness. We did still get tested on this stuff at least 1x / year. But I would also add in some basic weightlifting and rucking. This became even more important before deployments. After 9/11, most of the ‘work’ we did (combat operations), involved body armor. You needed to be able to MOVE wearing body armor. I learned quickly that running, swimming, and calisthenics did not sufficiently prepare me for these ‘combat operations.’ I needed to be able to ‘move under load!’
Operational fitness required the ability to ‘move under load!’
Enter the Kettlebell… The kettlebell changed EVERYTHING for me. I first saw it used in a CrossFit work-out. Then, I saw some teammates using it as their primary form of exercise. I’ve written about my path to the kettlebell elsewhere (link to SF) and won’t expand much on it here. The kettlebell checked a LOT of boxes. It helped me w/strength, cardio, and the ability to move under load. It did all of that without bulking me up. I would use it to train for all my deployments and all my adventures including Denali and Aconcagua. Yes, I would design specific programs for those big climbs with additional endurance training. But the kettlebell was a cornerstone of all my exercise programs.
There were other advantages to kettlebell training: I could do it at home (vs at the gym or team), I could have kettlebells on deployment (very portable). I’d often keep a kettlebell in the car and go train outside. It took up very little space and the workouts took very little time. Most importantly of all, they worked. Kettlebell training was very effective at improving my strength, cardio, and operational fitness. I’ve written about the ‘What the Heck’ effect of kettlebell training before. If I haven’t convinced you yet, go check it out here. (link)
Life AFTER the SEAL Teams
My time in the SEAL Teams would eventually come to an end. I found out shortly after summiting Denali that I was ‘no longer fit’ to operate as a Navy SEAL. This was the result of various combat and training injuries and the fact that I lost a kidney (also a story for another day). So, I was medically retired.
At first, my training sort of mimicked the training I would do before deployments. Then I realized, I wasn’t going to deploy again, and that training was HARD on the body. So, I needed to do something different.
For a while, I didn’t really have a goal. I just ‘worked out’ to ‘work out.’ Then, I found new reasons to train and started training for specific events or seasons. I would train for hunting season (which was very similar to combat missions in Afghanistan). I would do 12-week blocks of training to get ready for ski season. I even did a 12-week block to prep for a ‘Tough Mudder.’ In all these instances, the ‘programs’ I designed served me well. Plus, having a specific ‘thing’ to train for helped with my motivation. Sometimes, you just need a good REASON to do something!
My priorities NOW!
Now, I’m nearly 45 years old. I try to follow programs, but my body can’t usually do what my mind thinks it still can. I must train differently than I did just 5 years ago. Maybe I’ve learned from my mistakes. My body does have high mileage!
My PRIORITIES are now more centered around LONGEVITY and DURABILITY. I also want to find ways to train or exercise with my kids. I will take it a little easier exercising, skiing, or training martial arts NOW so that I can do all of those things still in the FUTURE. I want to be able not only to take ski trips with my kids when they are in college. I also want to be able to go skiing with my grandkids in my 80’s and beyond!
New Fitness Goal: be able to ski with my kids when they are in college!
I also have some more specific/measurable GOALS that help me track towards these PRIORITIES. My new FITNESS FRAMEWORK begins with PRIORITIES, then identifies a few GOALS to help me stay on track. Then, I have a simple daily/weekly/monthly schedule designed to help me achieve the GOALS and track towards my long-term PRIORITIES. I’ll write about this FRAMEWORK in the future.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it’s not the same river and
he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus
Heraclitus weeps over the world, by Johannes Moreelse.
Summary: Fitness is important, but make sure you ADAPT!
To wrap this up and summarize: I’ve ALWAYS been passionate about exercising and being ‘fit.’ I believe strongly that fitness is closely correlated with physical health and mental cognition. Throughout my life, I’ve had different goals or objectives. Along the way, I’ve had specific programs that were designed to help me achieve those objectives. The programs have mostly worked and there’s something very rewarding about working hard and achieving a physical goal. Now, the objectives are a little different, but I still have reasons to TRAIN. Now, my schedule is a little more hectic, so I can’t always follow a very specific program. My answer to this was to develop a new fitness FRAMEWORK, which I’ll write about later.