Work Out at Home with Special Forces Fitness Training

Want to get fit, improve your balance, flexibility and reflexes but don’t have a gym membership? No problem. All you need are a few minutes a day, a good exercise program and the motivation to work out – and stick with it – and fitness is in your future.

I can’t help with the former or the latter but I’ve got the middle covered with Special Forces Fitness Training, a new book from Augusta DeJuan Hathaway, a former collegiate student-athlete and fitness coordinator for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps who now serves as strength and conditioning specialist for the U.S. Special Operational Forces at Fort Bragg.

I know what you’re thinking. “I’ll never be able to keep up with this type of workout – and why should I anyway?” I’m not going to lie. The workouts outlined in the book are tough but isn’t that what working out is all about, challenging yourself to get stronger by working harder? The program is tailored to three levels of fitness – beginner, intermediate and elite – so you can easily track your progress as you become fitter.

One of my gripes about fitness books and DVDs is that the author/instructor assumes that you know how to perform the exercises using proper form and therefore bashes on without teaching you exactly how to do each move. This is not so with Hathaway’s book which is loaded with written instructions and photos to show you just how to do each exercise with good technique. (Proper form is important as is helps to prevent injuries.) Hathaway also stresses the need to stretch and warm up before jumping into the program and being evaluated by your doctor to ensure that you are able to exercise to begin with. I do wish the photos more closely corresponded with the workouts, however, so that each day’s workout was all in one place. As it is, I had to flip from the workout schedule to the page for the specific exercise. This is a small gripe, however, although it does serve to slow down momentum.

Most of the exercises in Special Forces Fitness Training are based on bodyweight movements but some require equipment that are already de rigueur in a home gym such as a kettle bell and weight plate.

The Special Forces Fitness Training program begins with a self-evaluation to determine your fitness level. (Note: There is a separate test for men and women.) The meat of the book includes 30 different workouts based on how many days a week you want to work out.

Boredom is the enemy of any workout program. If you’re bored, you’re not going to do it. Special Forces Fitness Training doesn’t allow you to be bored. It includes warmup and stretching exercises and with more than 100 exercises to perfect and perform, you’ll hit all the major muscle groups. (I recently broke my foot, twice, and had to wear a boot for weeks upon weeks. I wasn’t able to work out the way I liked and my body suffered for it. My balance was compromised and, happily, after only a couple of weeks working out with Special Forces Fitness Training, balance was one of the first things I regained.)

If you like to work out at home and challenge yourself while doing it – and isn’t that the point, really? – Special Forces Fitness Training is for you. I recommend it to anyone interested in and self-motivated enough to get fit, regardless of fitness level or gender.

Get your copy of Special Forces Fitness Training here:

Ed. Note: I received a complimentary copy of Special Forces Fitness Training for review which in no way colored my opinion of the book. 

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