MJ HEALTH & FITNESS: The SWAT Fitness Plan

The SWAT Fitness Plan
You probably don't kick down doors for a living, but this do-it-anywhere WORKOUT can give you the same explosive power of the guys who do.

Conditioning isn't about how many push-ups you can do," says Orlando-based swat commander Tom Stroup. 'It's about preparing for everything else you do in life." In his line of work that means anything from rappelling down office buildings to bailing out of speeding boats. For us civilians, being conditioned means we can lug a 70-pound backpack all day or skin up that powdery slope -- and have energy left over when we're finished. Stroup's SWAT workout (swatworkout.com) builds cardiovascular and muscular strength in one intense 15-minute routine. Interval workouts burn calories faster than your average cardio workout, and the high reps tone muscles and abs.

THE CIRCUIT
Start with 70 jumping jacks to get your heart rate up and your body warm. Then run through the following series of exercises once, ideally resting only a few seconds between sets. Adjust the intensity and number of circuits based on how you feel.

1. AB bicycles 25 reps
2. Boxers 30 reps
3. AB bicycles 25 reps
4. Push-ups 30 reps
5. AB bicycles 25 reps
6. Side leaps 30 reps
7. AB bicycles 25 reps
8. Swat push-ups 20 reps
9. AB bicycles 25 reps
10. Mountain climbers 50 reps
11. AB bicycles 25 reps

ABDOMINAL BICYCLES
Muscles worked: abs, obliques, and hip flexors
• Lie on your back in a sit-up position, with your hands behind your head. Raise your legs off the ground and bring your left knee to your right elbow while extending your right leg straight out. Change sides and repeat.

BOXERS
Muscles worked: abs, obliques, hip flexors, quads, calves, and hamstrings
• Assume a boxer's stance, knees bent with fists in front of your face and elbows bent. Shifting weight to your right leg, rise and lift your left knee to your right elbow. • Squat and repeat with your right knee/left elbow, for 30 reps on each side.

SIDE LEAPS
Muscles worked: inner and outer quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves
• With legs together, jump from side to side, high and far enough to clear a basketball. • Squat on the landing and push off hard in the opposite direction for 30 leaps to each side.

SWAT PUSH-UPS
Muscles worked: complete upper and lower body, abs, and obliques
• From a standing position, drop to a push-up plank position, scissor your legs out and in, do a push-up, rise to standing, and repeat 20 times. (Do 100 of these in less than 10 minutes and you're an honorary SWAT commando.)

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS
Muscles worked: calves, quads, glutes, back, chest, triceps, abs, and shoulders
•In a push-up position, keeping your back flat, pump your legs as if running in place. Try not to brush the ground with your toes as they come forward. Do 50 right-left reps.

By: Dave Herndon
Photographs by: Monte Isom
(December 2006)