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SEAL Team PT pushes past the individual's physical plateau

20.05.12

By the time I finished a mile-and-a-half run an hour later, my head and shoulders hung as I tried to catch my breath. My arms and legs were covered in grass and dirt, my shirt and shorts soaked. After dismissing all of us for the day, the fitness program’s instructor and founder, John McGuire, pulled me aside.

“I read body language, and I like to think I’m good at it,” he said, standing beside his black Hummer. “You shouldn’t let it get you down that you can’t do certain exercises as well as you’d like.”

He was right. I felt defeated. I could only manage 20 sit-ups in a minute, for instance, and the last three felt like someone was sitting on my chest, but I wasn’t aware that my frustration was obvious. Was he that intuitive? Had my body betrayed me?

I studied him for a second. Unlike the stereotypical image I had of a Navy SEAL —big, brutish, and bald—McGuire is a small, neat man with close-cropped brown hair. With his blue STPT shirt tucked into his running shorts, he looks more like an accountant than someone who used to risk his life protecting the country. But his reserved demeanor doesn’t hide his intensity, maybe it even enhances it. I felt like he was calling me out, and as I got back in my car, I was determined to come back and conquer the next day’s session.

Source: C-Ville Weekly