SEALs hone fitness skills with help from fitness lab

NORFOLK

Turns out maybe you can teach an old SEAL new tricks.

Sports medicine experts from the University of Pittsburgh have begun fine-tuning the fitness routines of the Navy's toughest warriors at something called the Human Performance Research Laboratory.

The lab, which opened recently at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, is the first of its kind in the Navy. The goal is to minimize SEALs' injuries and, by extension, maximize their time in uniform.

For one East Coast-based SEAL with 23 years of experience, the Pitt presence meant changing the way he does squats. Shawn, 42, learned he was leaning too far forward, instead of finishing on his heels.

The SEAL, identified by only his first name for security reasons, said Wednesday that the tips aren't complicated but do help.

"It's simple things, like how to use your back and legs properly," he explained.

Capt. Chaz Heron, the commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group 2, thinks the new arrangement is already making a difference.

"The guys, I think, have been mentally benefiting from it," Heron said Wednesday as Pitt experts and commandos demonstrated futuristic gear they use to test lung output, strength and body composition.

The sailors who support the SEAL teams already are performing better on mandatory physical fitness tests, Heron said. The SEALs themselves are motivated by the extra attention.

Staying buff isn't just a matter of pride. Heron estimated that at any one time, up to 10 percent of the SEAL community is sidelined with injuries incurred while training or performing missions.

The most common injuries - to shoulders, backs and knees - come from repetitive training, riding in fast boats with heavy gear in high seas, and jumping out of airplanes.

In the back of an aluminum hut, two full-time Pitt researchers put commandos through more than two dozen tests, measuring everything from strength and lung capacity to flexibility and body composition.

Shawn was one of a handful of SEALs demonstrating various tests. His legs were decorated with small reflective globes, tracked by six cameras as he jumped off a 50-centimeter stool. He landed on two "force plates" that calculated the ground force reaction.

Seconds after he landed, a computer monitor nearby replayed the jump and landing, rendered digitally from the waist down.

Tim Sell, a professor of physical therapy at Pitt, said that landing in a certain manner makes SEALs more prone to injury.

At another station, a SEAL in swim trunks and a special cap sat in the Bod Pod, an egg-shaped chamber that measures lean body mass and body fat. (For a visual image, think of Robin Williams' module in the 1970s television series "Mork & Mindy.")

Pitt research assistant Greg Hovey explained that the Bod Pod measures air displacement, a more accurate assessment of body mass than a pair of calipers on a fold of skin.

Another group of the university's clients - Pittsburgh Steelers defensive backs - typically measure between 12 and 13 percent body fat, Hovey said. The 30 or so SEALs he's measured so far are in that range.

The partnership also focuses on the other side of fitness: diet.

Lori Tubbs - an awful name for a dietitian, she acknowledged - has been working directly with the SEAL teams for a little more than a year.

They're model students, she said, except for all the Red Bull energy drinks they consume.

Tubbs developed a "recovery meal" that team members eat after working out. It's mostly stuff you can buy at any supermarket, costs $5, and totals about 1,100 calories: a fresh orange, 100 percent fruit juice, tomato juice, a small can of seasoned tuna, almonds, yogurt and a nutritional bar.

Eventually, Tubbs would like to have a cafeteria cater to special warfare members, similar to "training tables" for college athletes.

The base cafeteria has too much processed food, she said, and its requirement that sailors be in regular uniforms - not workout gear - reduces the commandos' incentive to eat there.

"These are Ferraris," Tubbs said of the SEALs. "We have to put high-octane fuel in them."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com