Security Halt!

Green Beret Strength: Kevin Edgerton on 18 Alpha Fitness, Military Resilience & Training for Longevity

• Deny Caballero • Season 7 • Episode 357

Share episode

Let us know what you think! Text us!

What does elite-level fitness look like beyond the battlefield?

In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Kevin Edgerton, founder of 18 Alpha Fitness and former Green Beret, to explore the evolution of military fitness—from the grind of selection to long-term health and performance.

Kevin shares:

  • The physical and mental journey to becoming a Green Beret
  • How military training shapes resilience—and where it falls short on longevity
  • Why nutrition, recovery, and adaptability matter more than ever post-service
  • His transition from operator to elite-level coach and what drove him to launch 18 Alpha Fitness
  • How he's building training systems specifically for special operations veterans, active-duty warriors, and those seeking real-world performance that lasts

Whether you're in the military, a veteran, or just chasing peak performance, this conversation offers real talk on how to train smarter, recover better, and build a body and mindset that lasts a lifetime.

 

🎧 Available now on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts
 📲 Like, share, follow, and subscribe to support the mission of authentic veteran storytelling and mental health advocacy.

 

SPONSORED BY:

 PURE LIBERTY LABS

Use code: SECURITY_HALT_10

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purelibertylabs/

Website: https://purelibertylabs.com/

 TITAN SARMS

Use code: CDENNY10

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titan_performance_llc/

Website: https://www.titansarms.com  
 
 PRECISION WELLNESS GROUP
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/precisionwellnessgroup/

Website: https://www.precisionwellnessgroup.com/

SPECIAL FORCES FOUNDATION
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/specialforcesfoundation_/
Website: https://specialforcesfoundation.org/
Request Help: https://specialforcesfoundation.org/get-support/

 

 Looking for hand crafted, custom work, military memorabilia or need something laser engraved? Connect with my good friend Eric Gilgenast.

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main/

Website: https://www.hausgilgenastwoodworks.com/

 

 Instagram: @securityhalt

X: @SecurityHalt

Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod

LinkedIn: Deny Caballero

 Follow Kevin Today:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-edgerton-9771a730/

Website: https://www.18afitness.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/18a_fitness/

Support the show

Produced by Security Halt Media

SPEAKER_00:

Petition Walmart Group and Pure Liberty Lab. You have to look at functional fitness. You have to look at things like what's going to keep me around my kids and my wife and make me feel better. Like it uh can I fall back in the running? Can I can I get back into like doing the gym workouts that I enjoy, but in a smarter way. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's where uh I'm I'm trying to like gravitate towards just because uh, you know, you know the numbers in soft are going down dismal. You know, it's dropping. Um my numbers have dropped exponentially in the last two years. And uh, you know, since I am older, I'm I'm gonna start hitting the veteran and older population just because of my breath work and mobility work that I do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's important stuff like that that we don't we hyper focus on the way we used to work out when we were kids, when we were like brand new on a team, and we think like that's that's what working out is. Like, yeah, I'm gonna go in there, I'm gonna do a million reps till I uh cough up blood, then I'm gonna, you know, drink some more pre-workout and hit the, you know, get back to the house and do some work. And it's like, dude, Nick, no, like that's not reality.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not even uh I don't even do pre-workout, I can't stand pre-workout, not at my age. When I was younger, I don't know if you remember a thing called Ultimate Orange back in the day.

SPEAKER_00:

Dude, that was the bomb diggity. My my favorite was Jacked 3D, the original formula, because it was methamphetamines. A whole generation of military dudes jacked up off meth and they didn't even know it.

SPEAKER_01:

Didn't even know it. I think that's what uh Unkleman Orange was, too. You know, I mean they got banned, like it got taken off the shelf. It was so bad.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, do you remember steer nutrition's uh at Bragg? I I heard of it, but I never never went there. No. It was just like the the mecca for supplements and uh other supplements. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That dude's in a cue course waking up like, I'm blind, I can't see. What are you on? I'm on steer nutrition's ultimate stack of workout products. Yeah, not not not a good not a good fit. Oh man, yeah. That's um, but yeah, dude, uh today, Kevin Edgerton of 18 Alpha Fitness. I want to dive into your journey, man. I want to dive into everything that made you want to do this and you know, start it off, man. Take us back to that young, uh, you know, bushy, bushy-eyed, just seeing the world full of wonderment as he's coming into the regiment. Wow, coming into the regiment, huh?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that journey in itself to get to the regiment was a long and ardaceous one. It was man, I went to selection in 95, didn't make it, broke every metatarsal in my foot and both feet. Holy shit. Uh I mean, every one was destroyed. I was I came out of first calf, so I didn't really know what rucking was. Death before dismount. Death before dismount, right? And so I trained up all wrong. I had a big old, you know, a Gucci, uh literally a nice really rucksack. And I was rucking with 85 pounds on concrete. And uh, you know, when you get the brag and you go to selection and it's nothing but sand, man. Golly, that sand broke me off. And then uh what I call my Cadillac rucksack, I got demoted to a pinto, you know, with the old Alice pack. And God, you know, if you just don't train with the right equipment, it breaks you off. And you broke off, and I came back, you know what I mean. The doc was like, hey, you can continue, but both your feet are gonna be broke and you're gonna have to wait like 18 months to even start the Q course, or you can come back in a year. And I was like, Well, what would you do? He's like, I'd come back in a year. And I was like, okay, so I went back back in '96. And got select, finally got selected. But then uh go to airborne school from first calf after you tell everybody in first calf, fuck you, I'm done. I'm going, I'm gonna be a green beret. And I'm at the airborne school, jump, night jump, I broke my left ankle. Yeah. Fuck and you know what I mean? And I go I I even had it was so bad then that I had my orders and my jump log in hand. I had them. And you know what I did with my integrity? I was like, hey, like I didn't do this last jump, man. He's like, oh, really? He took the certificate and uh he's like, hey, go see the S1 guy. I went and talked to him to operations. The guy took a black marker, crossed the fifth jump. And I was like, Well, what am I supposed to do now? He's like, Oh, just go to Bragg. You can do your your sixth fifth jump at Bragg within six months, and you're good. So I drive up to Bragg with the casting, and you know, I'm like three days into in processing, and at this time I was gonna be a Delta, and uh, you know, get a knock on the door, it's a green beret, and you know how that pucker factor is, right? And this is the new, that's when the 18 Delta compound had just gotten built. You know, that's yeah, you know what I mean? That's it, that's how long ago it was. That thing had just gotten built. So I go down and I see that lady um on wherever it was at, and she's like, I got bad news and I got worse of news. I'm like, what? Bad news and worse news. I was like, okay, she's like, What do you want here for? I was like, Well, uh, it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? Bad news worse than me. So just shoot. And she's like, Well, the bad news is you can't start the Q course. I'm like, Well, I legs broke. I got it. I'm it's in the cast, I got that. She's like, the worst of news is since you are TDY en route from one school to another school, and since you didn't complete the school prior, you can't start this one, which means you have to go back to your original duty station. I cried right there. I was like, no way. And so I got back to hood, and three and a half years later, after two surgeries in my left ankle, uh finally got on my got to the Q course. And uh finished uh with finishing up uh right when 9-11 happened.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, dude, I I gotta ask, were were you a man of faith back then?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh not so much, not as much as I am now. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh a lot of choice words for God back then I can only imagine. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I did. Yeah, yeah. Dude, well, how how did you persevere? How did you develop resilience in those three years of waiting, man? Like, I know a lot of friends that went to the Q course, had an issue, they weren't airborne, something happened, and they just gave up. They just gave up. Like, what kept you in that mindset of like, I'm gonna see this thing through? Have you ever been in first camp?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I have not. I did six NTC rotations every year. The year we'd start off, we would do squad sticks, platoon sticks, company sticks, battalion sticks, and then final evaluation was NTC. Every year, clockwork, heavy mechanic, and I was a combat engineer at that, and I don't know if you know what that means. That means that means laying out minefields for infinity and beyond. I mean picket pounding to death, you know, every time you're in the field. So yeah, no, thank you. I was not doing that no more. That that's what me motivated, bro. I just could not, could not do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Man. Gosh, that must have been a relief finally getting that uh that that cleared hot, getting the training.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I did. It was it was a good, it was a uh a great feeling. Uh, you know, got up the first group though, uh, put me right into the SIG debt, you know, was working out there and uh got uh you know, I was a senior E6 at this time. Like I'm six years in, six years as an E6, getting, you know what I mean, get to finally the group. And uh the E7 list just came out and my name's not on it. And I go see my sergeant major and he's like, hey, I was like, hey, how why? You know, he's like, bro, you just your clock just started all over. I was like, what? He's like, yeah, you you're you're a brand new 18 echo, you you're not jump master qualified, you're not ranger qualified, you're not Halo, you're not scuba, you're not anything. So he's like, he's like, you basically just started over. I was like, what? You know what I mean? And yeah, this is one of those years it was like it wasn't gonna be another board for three years or something like that, because it was at like 2002, and he's like, it's gonna be, you know what I mean? You just knew, you know, when you first come and put the put the memo out, and so it was gonna be 18 months, 18 months, and then the sequence number could be 18 months, so a total of three years, you know, before I pinned on E7, I was like, nine, you know, mm-mm. And I already I had college, so I went ahead and dropped my OCS packet at that time.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, and that's that's a gut check too. Like understanding that, like, okay, I can sit here, I can wait it out, I can just buy my time, or I can go an extremely long route.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I was just doing the math. I finished a Q course at 40 the second time. Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Holy cow. So, you know what I mean? These young guys that's on here on these fitness, you know, new new regiments that they got. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And they're they're showing off. They look great. You know, they look way better than I do. I'm 56 now, they're still like 20 years junior to me at minimum. And um, I would have murdered each one of them at 40. I'm just like literally, that's that's my I was the like the second fittest uh 18 alpha, you know what I mean. That those guys were 10 years junior to me, but those, you know what I mean, you know how some alphas are are fucking fit, right? Yeah, there was only like one guy that could beat me in every, you know what I mean, like crossed hand, like gotcha. But and in a jiu-jitsu fight out of them, beat the shit out of them. Cause I've been I've been doing jujitsu uh since 2001. I've been wrestling since I was eight years old. Yeah, I'm a black brown, you know, finally it's just like it's just those things, that's just my competition, competitive nature.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And and take us through that, man. What was it like going back to the Q course? Like that's something that you know, I became a warrant, but I didn't have to go back to the Q course to be a warrant. I went, you know, warrant officer basic course, uh, and then you know, we have our own we have our own course, so it's just different phases, and you know, go right back to a team. Right, not so fast for for an 18 series that wants to be an 18 alpha. There's there's a good amount of guys, and there's not a lot, there's there's a good good amount of dudes, but that's a whole other amount of commitment. Like you've got to go through everything all over again.

SPEAKER_01:

More than you know, right? Yeah. So sorry about my son just started his Mustang outside. He's gotta go to work. Uh so you know, uh to dip back onto a team, you gotta wait three years. You you know, you don't go until you're a captain. People don't realize that, you know. Yeah uh it's three years minimum. And so uh, oh it then I went to OCS as well, so that's 16, 16 lovely weeks at Fort Benning, Georgia. Fun times, right? Fun times wearing this ascot and a helmet and marching everywhere. Yeah, then and then when you get when you when I arrived, I had you know my two black boots were which were jungle boots, right? And they're like, nope, they gotta be all leather. And you're like, leather fucker. And so I had to go buy two brand new pairs of black leather boots, break them in, and it's not OCS, they people think, oh, that's a piece of cake. Nah, it's it's physically wise, it's it's it's not as hard as the Q-Course or you know, selection, but it is no walking.

SPEAKER_02:

It's no joke.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's no joke, right? People fail the physical part. Uh and so that was you know, in its own. Then I became a chemical officer.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you they branched you chem oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, I don't know how they do that, right? But in the long run, Danny, it it was it was uh uh it was uh a pot at the end of the rainbow, though, in in in all actuality. Really? Because you know what I mean? I you I'm at OCS and I was like, oh, I want to go infantry, you know what I mean? There's no wanna be camo, you know? And I, you know, so you put your name in a hat and you know, people come up to you like you can switch while you're at OCS. If one person says yes, then you could switch there. And so this Ranger dude from regiment comes up to me and he's like, hey bro, I heard you want to switch. You know, I'm infantry, I heard you got camo. He's like, I'll switch with you right now. I was like, you know, I found that odd. I was like, yeah, why would you do that? He's like, because as a chemo, I can get into Ranger Regiment, I can get into SF regiment, I can get into, you know, any other regiment as a chemo. It's hard for uh an 18 alpha to get into back in the special operations community. I was like, oh, I was like, oh, thank you for that tidbit.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you for that title. Thank you for being honest, right? For being honest, right? I was like, woo.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh I had already you already have orders for where you're going, and I was going to Carson, so 10th group was right there. You know what I mean? So when I got done with OCS and OBC, uh I went like the first stop, you know, when you the 10 days before you you go sign into your unit, you know. I I signed in and I got my 10 days to go find my house and stuff like that. I first line beat line, the 10th group was like, hey, I got one of those tabs. You need a camo, right? And one of you, one of you, please. And he's like, it's a major, a regiment. The whole group is downrange. It's OIF3. He's like, but I'll get in touch with you, man. He's like, give me your number, I'll call and I'll see. And he's like, call back at 48 hours. I call back at 48 hours. He's like, Who's this again? I was like, uh, that lieutenant long time. Oh, yeah, haven't heard anything. Call me at 48 a more hour. Call him, nothing, nothing, nothing. The night before, you know, I got a sign back in. I called him. He's like, man, I haven't heard anything. I was like, fuck.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what I mean? Just like fuck, fuck. This episode is brought to you by Pure Liberty Labs. Quality supplements designed to elevate your health and performance. Check out their full line of quality supplements, whether you're looking for whey protein, pre-workout, creatine, or a super greens drink. Pure Liberty Labs has you covered. Use my code security hall10 at checkout today.

SPEAKER_01:

So the next morning I go in to you know, the end processing reception station and sign in because I got an appointment. And uh the lady, I'm sitting in there and I have my phone rings and it's my wife. And I was like, excuse me, ma'am. I step out, my my wife's like, uh, hey, that major from 10th group just called and he said to call you. You know what I mean? Call him. And I was like, and I called the step through, I mean, I immediately called him. He's like, hey, I got a buy name and memo request for you. I was like, Yes. All right. So I go back into the lady. I had already signed my name. I already signed in. She's like, that's fine, but now you got to get released. So I had to go beg at the brigade commander. Then that that brigade was third, third ACRC and at Carson. They were heading downrange uh in 05 to uh Iraq. Good thing they were 140% strength on officers. Nice. You know, and then I had to wait. I had to talk to the talk to him and stuff, and uh, you know, he's like, hey, at the end of the day, I'm gonna I'm gonna leave it up to you. And uh, you know, we would love to have you.

SPEAKER_02:

And I did the let me check this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm going back to fence group, bro.

SPEAKER_00:

There's no way I'm going to after speaking with you, I have changed my mind.

SPEAKER_01:

There's no way. I'd rather be in a in a soft SF unit all day long over going to a conventional unit. I did all I could possible to get out of first calf and you think I'm gonna go back to a regular armor unit? No way.

SPEAKER_00:

Nah, I'm a bass, dog. Yeah, I'm a bass.

SPEAKER_01:

So I did my time in 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, uh, got to do my degree completion, then went to uh the Captain's Career course for six months at Venning, and then you go up, you know, to to back up the brag to start the 18 alpha course, you know, and that's that was uh that was that's it's no joke, you know what I'm saying? I'm sorry. There's nothing easy about becoming an 18 alpha.

SPEAKER_00:

No, there isn't. It's like we you know, our as NCOs, like we're you know, your the concept theme is your learning. Um it's like uh drinking from a fire hose. It's extremely difficult to and it it's they they make it that way on purpose. They want to see if you can retain this knowledge, and they they don't want you like you're you're gonna forget. Eventually you can only take so many back-to-back tests. They're waiting for you to pass, they want to see you pass under the stress. You're gonna get to your unit, you're gonna learn that. When it comes to being an officer, it's the same methodology of training. You're taking in so much content, you're drinking from a fire hose, but you have to retain it because you're a command. You you are a commander. At the end of the day, like there's no, there's not one single cadre at the 18 alpha course. It's like, oh yeah, they'll forget to learn a job. Like, no, you have to retain this. You have to take all this data that we're throwing at you from day one, and you're gonna have to beat it in your school. Because when you show up to the team, you're the only one that doesn't get any grace. Your battalion commander, your company commander know that you have a team starting to warrant. If you're lucky, that will help you learn. But at the end of the day, like you're gonna get thrown into situations right off the fucking bat, man. But I feel like at you had a leg up because you must have been the most popular 18 alpha in the course with all the other guys.

SPEAKER_01:

But there was uh I know there's at least there's one other guy that was prior service, you know what I mean. Alpha during my whole time. There was eight of us at OCS, but you know, I didn't see him all during, you know, back at on the Q course. But the other guy was a like, he's a rock star. He's still in. He's a full bird, probably gonna pin on a star here shortly. Damn. Yeah, uh, he's that he's he's smart as a whip, really good guy. Um, but yeah, so it was going back to the to Robin Sage, though, you know what I mean, for the second time. That's a you know, and I could just see, you know, when I'm up there briefing MDMP, these guys are like, what the hell are this guy talking about? You remember that look that you gave your captain when you guys were at Robin Sage?

SPEAKER_03:

You're like, Oh yeah, what the fuck is this military lines of operation? Who what who who do you want me to kill? Just right, let me know. No, right? All this paperwork stuff, that they know what this is. I with and through?

unknown:

What?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so yeah, after doing seven full mission profiles, you know, as an alpha, I could teach that, you know, at the time. I could woo-doo. Well, anyway, you they team us up with, you know, there was two alphas and the Robin Sage team. They made the young the junior uh alpha the in charge during mission planning, and they made me the warrant, so I had to do all the your stuff, you know, the the E and E stuff, right? I had to go in, they've infilled me 72 hours prior so I can set up the rat lines, right? Of course. And you know, and then like two days later, after we get there, that you know, like the first big mission, right? And they're like, you're in charge, you know, put me in charge. And so I went in there and I, you know, I did all my stuff, my train model, da-da-da-da-da, set my recon element in 24 hours later, did a link up eight hours before the the hit, and my recon element came back, and they're like, Hey, there's a hole in the fence. I was like, Oh, because they had it to where they you know what I mean, they have those lanes set up where you have to hit it right there at that one spot, right? And I was like, Oh, let me go see with you, you know what I mean? And went down there, and sure enough, there was a hole there, and the walkers there, you know what I mean? So it wasn't like my guys did it, right? And we so we came and we hit from the from another angle, bro. It was like, you know, it was fucking they'd never seen it done like that. But right when it was all over, we're doing our AAR, the the you know, the the actual cadre, not the walker, was like, did you guys cut a hole in the fence? I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Ask the ask the walker, you know what I mean? The walker was like, no, the Did you destroy civilian property doing this exercise? Yes, yes. No, we did not. He was like, Wow, that was you know what I mean. They were like, that's amazing that you you you fragoed a mission, a big mission on the fly with like 30 minutes left to fucking change the whole thing and did it like that with execution. So me and the other alpha, we were done for the last 12 days. We just sat in the G base, you know, chit-chatting with the G chief.

SPEAKER_00:

Success, early success, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Do it all the time. You know what I mean? But it was you'd learn a lot. Oh, I'm telling you, it was it was a lot to learn and you know, to see the younger guys uh, you know, having struggling, you know, trying to help them, uh, you know, just helping them develop an op order because most of them have never done that before.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, it's it's gotta be crazy being able to come back and see it from the other perspective, um, from the lead from the command, the leadership, the 18 alpha side, and being able to see that young green brain be like, oh my god, like that was me. That was literally me.

SPEAKER_01:

No, there's I had an echo that couldn't make fucking comms, and that was not me, bro. That was not me. Sunspots!

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, sunspots.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, bro, but there's no there's I I would still make I would fucking throw my giant jungle antenna up and cut that damn thing to a freak. I have shot. I did a eight I did a uh jungle antenna from this place in uh in Nepal to Cat Man Dude 350 miles away on an HF freak and made the fucking shot. My Sig Signet Sigda Signet N C Y C was shook that I was on the fucking mic talking to him. Couldn't believe it. I had to throw a rock probably 100 meters up in the air to pull my jungle antenna up. So I I can make my shot when I need.

SPEAKER_00:

I gotta imagine it must have been so fucking difficult being your your 18 echo on a team. Can't get away with fucking anything. No, no, no. You ain't you better dip that fucking shot, buddy. What was it like to finally get on a team after going through all of that and and finding out, like, you know, doing everything you can or you could have uh done at the time to find your way, to make your way into the regiment, knowing that like you had barriers getting in. Once you got there, you had other obstacles. Now finally it's like, okay, maybe this was my path. I'm on my path. This is what God, this is what the the universe, so to speak, was was navigating me towards. Then you make it to the team. What was it like to finally walk in there and be like, fuck, I'm an 18 alpha?

SPEAKER_01:

It was a good, you know what I mean? I went to one one, and I I'm not I don't know if you ever heard the horror stories about one one, but I stepped in and straight to Oki, holy shit. Yeah, yeah. I was going back to 10th group. You know what I mean? I had though I left a wife there, we had bought a house, uh, you know, left the wife and kids there, and I went to Benning, I went to Prag, you know, and they just stayed there. And I when I was at Benning, though, the the you know, branch manager was like, hey, I see you were in first group, I can get you to Oki, and I you know what I mean, like, oh done. I called, I literally did call the boss, you know what I mean? I was like, hey, you know, she's like, I know you want to go back. You know what I mean? She's like, she knew I wanted to go to Oki. Uh yeah, so bad. So we got there. And I mean, I we landed with the family with, you know, they got a wife and three kids, and a thousand, each kid has their own little suitcase, and these are they're a little three, five, and seven, and we're rolling to the airport. We get there, put they put us up at a hotel right across the street from Tori Station. Seven, not even no, 48 hours later, I'm gone. Gone already. Like PDSS to Guam, PDSS to the Philippines, PDSS. I was like, and it didn't stop for the whole time. I went, you know, we came back from that, we did a train up for the Philippines, did a seven-month deployment for the Philippines, came back from that, went on four back-to-back to back-to-back J sets, went on JCS, two JCS exercises. Yeah, it was gone. I was in Okinawa for three and a half years, and I was probably on island for 10 weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people forget that that time period. Um there like our GWAT wasn't just I Iraq and Afghanistan, the Philippines.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, nobody knows about the Philippines, you know. Uh and at the time, right? So when I did their like land, you know, in Okinawa, uh 30 days later, we're doing a body exchange for our fellow two fellow Chris and Jack. They got killed in Holo, island that we're going to, right? Uh, we, you know, we changed them from one aircraft to another, had the whole battalion out there online, and I'm like, fuck, you know what I mean? It's like, God, yeah. You know, you know, like I thought we were going, you know, it's advising assist. How can the fucking people get blown up in in Holo, right? IEDs, yeah. Yeah, IEDs. Uh, so one like I guess my one glory story that I do have, because you know, everybody everybody's got those Afghanistan and Iraqi stories. When I was in Iraq, I was a chemo. I I wasn't going out, right? And I and I didn't go to Afghanistan uh because first group just wasn't in the game. And uh but uh Chris and Jack, when they did the well, we we got there in January 2010. He got they got blown up, I think 1st of October 2009. And uh, you know, like 30 days in, 20 days in, we're they're we're they're the Marines, we're co with the Filipino Marines. They're in charge, and they gotta go do the operations. We just advise and assist them, right? And we're not the farthest we can go is the battalion, where the battalion commander goes, that's as far out as we can go. We're not walking the lines, we're not online, you know, so we we do a mission, we're going uh after Albeda Perad and his cronies, which where their their AOR of operation was where Chris and Jack got blown up. Yeah, so we're going after them. And you know, they go, they execute the mission, dry hole, right? 30 days later, they're like, hey, let's, you know what I mean? They like pulled out the playbook and like let's do this again. And I was like, eh, hey guys, you know that time we went out, we went out, we all like drove the same way, you know, and just probably like a hundred vehicles going down the same road. Probably not a good idea. How about if just take this for brand? You know what I mean? Yeah. We do have wild idea. Wild idea, wild idea. Why don't you take the assault force, you know, uh, you know, about midnight or so, put them on a boat, drive them around the island and drop them off on the south side. And then the command staff, we all just drive the next morning and go pretend like we're doing a command visit to the base. And they're like, oh, okay. Lo and behold, eight guys. We got eight. We got Albeda Parade, he was a number five at the time. Fuck yeah. Eight of his guys. Uh you know, my my my warrant, he was in, he was at that LLC. He was a command, you know, great this like a god in SF type guy. He he was an E8 mate, E9 promotable, he was an E8 promotable and dropped his warrant packet in type guy. Yes. You know what I mean? Yeah. Steve was a you know what I mean, the best warrant that you could have, somebody like that, that much experience on a team. He was in a ranger regiment, then went straight to SF. Fuck yeah. You know, like 30 straight years in soft uh before he retired. Uh so yeah, he was down there. And uh yeah, so another story about Steve, we were in Nepal once and uh this is doing our first J set together, and I shot the message out, and he comes back and he looked at the message and he's like, Don't you ever send that fucking message again until I read it. I was like, What?

SPEAKER_02:

He's like he's like, bro, you write like shit.

SPEAKER_01:

And he was true. And I did, I at the time I there was no Jat GPT, you know what I mean? Shit, I I would have been I'd be a rock star if I had Jet GPT because I knew what to say, but I just couldn't articulate it right. You know what I mean? So I would write it up, give it to him, you know, fix it all up, and then then he's like, let me read it, and I might go I'd go back. I can there fix a couple things and send it off. But yeah, after that one, first shot of a report. He's like, don't you ever send that report again? I was like, got it, Steve.

SPEAKER_00:

This episode is brought to you by Titan SARMS. Head on over to TitansArms.com and buy a stack today. Use my code CDny10 to get your first stack. I recommend the Lean Stack 2. Start living your best life. Titan SARM. No junk, no bullshit, just results. That's a good warrant. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Motherfucking the best, best fucking warrant. And then my team sergeant was Bruss Bannister. He was a big six foot six Cincinnati Golden Gloves guy. Of course, Steve had a PCS finally after eight years in Okie. Imagine that. You know what I mean? He had the PCS when we got back from uh you know his last uh J Sent was in Thailand, which he ran the whole thing, of course. And uh then so I didn't have a warrant, and they moved Russ from uh one team to another because he was just an E7, moved him to another team so he get his you know official team time in. Uh and then they put in another guy, and uh I don't even want to mention his name as a team sergeant that bad. I got one of those too. Yeah, I won't even mention his name, you know what I mean? My team, my whole team knows. Matter of fact, it's so bad that we're having like a team reunion here next month. Uh I'm not I won't be able to make it because my dad's not doing too well, but uh they didn't even invite this motherfucker, you know what I mean? You don't invite the team sergeant, you know you're a sorry motherfucker, right? Like my guys used to beg me. We did that old school push up run, sit-up bullshit run every day. And I was and we had just gotten our, you know what I mean? We're not gonna go to talk to fitness, we've just gotten a strength coach in, and I'm like, bro, why aren't we using this motherfucker? You know what I mean? I I know I know what I'm doing, but Jesus, this guy, this is his profession. He's been doing this his whole life. Why wouldn't we take his knowledge and experience and go do it? And I was in there every day, and only time I would go work out with the team was on Friday, you know, when they go for their longer run. That was my run day. And uh yeah, so I'd go and see Mike Hall every day and was lifting with them, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Dude, that's that's one of the that's a perfect segue because we're we gotta talk about the fitness side. That's that's something I didn't understand. I had I had the hesitant hesitancy too, but when Thor three first came into the groups, there was a lot of distrust, there was a lot of hesitancy. And a lot of the old heads, a lot of the older team sergeants didn't see the value of it. And I think when I left, teams were 100% almost all the teams are 100% bought in because if you look at the competitions, if you look at the best ODA competitions, if you look at throughout all the groups, I I think that the best performing teams were the ones that were going in and getting the workouts, getting the actual nutritional support from the staff. I mean, it's a weapon system. It literally is uh an enhancement to go in there, sit with these professionals, and they're not slouches, they're not just some, they didn't go to just a community college to get a degree in friggin' nutritional studies. No, these they work for professional uh teams. Some of them like had insane um friggin' backgrounds working with friggin' football teams, like you name it, these guys like NHL, and they have all this experience, all this background, and you don't have to pay for it. That's a great part of it. No, you don't have to pay for it no more, right?

SPEAKER_01:

I we had to pay for that shit back in the day when I was growing up. We had to pay for it ourselves.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And it was like around the same time frame, like um, you finally started seeing programs that were built for the individual and built for performance, our performance, not performance like freaking bodybuilders, performance for what your actual job is. Um, quick shout out to SoftLeet. They were one of the first freaking guys out there or companies. Um, Doug and his boys were putting out programs. Like I remember the first programs, like you just download them in the PDF form and print them out, and you take them on deployment, but they were specifically built for what you were doing. Like, hey, what are you doing? You're gonna be rucking with large metal weight on your back, you got to work on your endurance, you gotta work in cardiovascular fitness. This is the program you want. We're not trying to, like, you will look great, but that's not the priority. We want you to be able to get that ruck on your back and move. And that's something that I realized like we train for what we need to do. What how are we performing? I'm not going to a friggin' bodybuilding competition and posing. No, I've got to be able to run five miles in time. I got to be able to do all these movements. And uh, we give it a lot of uh we we shit on all the time, but the book came out, Supple Leopard. I remember that first came out, and that that was like at first I was good, it's fucking stupid. At the end of my career, I was like, somebody give me a copy of that book because I want to place I want to figure out what I need to do to stay in here longer.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh so that you know what I mean? Just that little tiff that I had with my team sergeant, you know, really, really made me deep dive even more. And at the time, uh we're gonna dip dip back a little bit. So after when I was injured, when I broke my ankle and stuff like that, I became a personal trainer at at Fort Hood, got my personal training certificate. That's when it started. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's when it, you know what I mean? Because I was when I went to selection the second time, bro. You know the sand man, you know, where you had to get in and out of that thing. Oh yeah. So I it didn't bother. That was easy to me. I could press that motherfucker overhead, slide the whole team in and out, you know what I mean, with no problem. And the you know, the cadres like good gold. You know, it didn't bother that didn't bother me, you know. Uh having heavy weight at that time just didn't bother. I was probably 215. Uh, you know, I could uh you couldn't get on my bench unless you're doing 225 repped out at you know 10 to 20. Uh work all the way up to 345, no problem. Deadlift, squat, all you know, just high real high numbers. Run, run, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? Yeah. There was a there's a time that you know that happened, uh, and you realize like, oh, the because I was doing that body building stuff at that time, you know what I mean? And then uh when I was in Iraq in 05, we're you know, I'm working out with these these two other guys, and his name is Kevin Graham, and Vince. You know what I mean? That Kevin was like, hey, we're gonna do this workout. And he's like, I was like, well, okay, what is it? Because by that time we're doing all doing men's muscle health fitness, you know, whatever we can get our hands on. That's the workout we we we would do. Soft fleet wasn't around yet. Nobody was around, nobody was, you know, in this space. And so, you know, he's like, Hey, we're gonna, I was like, Well, what is it? And he pulled up on the computer and it was like what that's easy. 20 minutes, five pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats for 20 minutes, as many rounds as you can do, crossfit, right? And I was like, get the you know what I mean? And I was like, Well, who's who's your buddy that recommended this? And he's like, uh BJ Penn. I was like, get the fuck out of here. You don't know goddamn BJ Penn. He did like his name, isn't it? He did. Fucking he was a this guy was a brown belt jujitsu in 05, which there was it's a white guy, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. So he grew up in uh whatever place that uh where the in in in California, right? And he trained, he used to train with BJ. Uh and uh so we that first workout after that, bro, I was like, this what the fuck just happened in 2005? What the fuck is this? What the hell is this, right? And went like deep dive hard in the CrossFit. Like me, that whole deployment, I came back, ran my fastest two miles in 1216 at altitude in Colorado Springs. Damn. You know what I mean? Uh that's cooking with Greaseford, and I think at the time, oh, what was it was I like 36, you know what I mean? 37, you know what I mean? That's and so that was sh and just took me off on a plateau. And when I got back, I was uh emailing Lauren Glassman, uh Greg's wife at the time, and they sent over some rings, they sent over some Dynamax balls, they sent over, you know what I mean, any equipment that they could ship. Yeah, you know, and and at the time Rogue wasn't around either, so they didn't have no, nope. Nobody wasn't, you know, whatever you can get your hands on, you made it work. And but we had to steal, you know what I mean? We had the gym, and we were at RPC at the time. But man, I was man, I went down a rabbit hole with CrossFit. Uh right when we got back, I went to a level one course. Uh, then I tried to get uh like like 20 guys from 10th group up to Denver to uh a level one course up there as well. Uh so that's where I, you know what I mean, started really, and then I was just working out. I'd be like every Friday here, meet here, because I was I was in the S3 shop, you know, how you know let's let's work out, you know what I mean, and work I work guys out. So yeah, I was like in like in phenomenal shape. We didn't have Instagram at the time.

SPEAKER_00:

Think of all the sponsorships you could have had. Right? Oh 36 year old or something. Dude, that that's um that's honestly one of the the the best ways to fall in love with fitness is like the deployment. And if you can keep it going, man, like keep it going, it's like did you is that the when you look back on your journey, is that the the beginning for 18 alpha fitness?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah, yeah, most most definitely. So that was that like that that kind of pulled me into a whole thing. And you know, it there was a time so when I went to college, I had that break in service, um, I was going, I went to college and I was gonna I was trying to become a nurse, which I totally fucked that up. That's a whole nother story. Totally bombed that. That's in a different podcast. But uh, you know, so I had all the all the you know, the anatomy, physiology, uh chemistry classes and stuff like that. And so, you know, when I was when I became an 18 alpha and I we finally got our Thor three guys, I I had made a goal when I um joined back up to go SF, become a officer, and go PA school. Oh okay. And so, you know what I mean? When I was finishing up becoming an uh 18 alpha, I was I I dropped a packet in for PA school. You know No shit. Yeah, because I didn't want to I didn't want to do the staff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. You know why you don't want to do staff. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. But they came back, they're like, you're too old. You know what I mean? I was like, whatever, you know what I mean? I was like, okay. And then my you know, my strength coach was like, bro, just go back and get your master's degree. You're a shoot. You're like fucking, you know what I mean? You're it. You're like what all of us strength coaches would love somebody in the in this profession to be is somebody who's got actual experience doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Dude, a hundred percent. That's one thing that I never understood why that didn't. I think there should be a pathway to it. Right. Because even though some of these coaches are jacked or fit, there is a hesitancy and there's sort of the like, well, you've never done the job. Um, some guys break through that barrier, they're able to connect, they they bridge the divide, and and guys trust them. But if a green bray shows up after his service and he's lethal, he's got the background, he's got the identity, he's got the know-how now. Like, dude, he's gonna be it's gonna be bought in. Like you, you're gonna be able to walk in the team and be like, hey, look, I was just like you a few years ago, got my degree, now I'm in this bitch, I'm your third three coach. Let's get it. Like, fuck. That would be fucking awesome. Like, I don't know why more guys don't find that. And I think I think it's changing. I think it's changing. There's a couple places. There's that UHP Academy that's now actually doing a pipeline for guys, not just soft guys, but all veterans, to uh be able to go through their training and become a certified coach. I think that's those are some of the guys that need to get brought into the uh the Thor 3 program, have a special coach. Yeah, the culture coach.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So you know what I mean? I'm I at that time, this is 2012, and I got told in Okinawa I was gonna retire out of Okinawa. Uh but you know, the battalion commander that was there, he promised it, and then we got a new one, and that guy was like, Yeah, bro, you got to go. You know I'm I'm 42, I'm older than I'm gonna. I don't know what that guy was saying, but uh, you're going. Yeah, yeah, you're going, you're going back to Bragg, I'll process the army. You and I was like, you know what I mean? I was like, motherfucking, you know the so uh it worked out though. So I went back and I got my degree uh all online, American Military University, got my house blessed master's degree, blast. I mean 18 months, I blasted hard. I was going hard in the plank to get my master's degree. Right when I was finishing up, I was working a job at North uh UNC Chapel Hill as ROTC instructor. No way. First job, first job out. USA jobs. There was a position at Lackland Air Force Base to be a strength coach. I applied, did the interview, went back to my ROTC guy, the the lieutenant colonel was like, hey, I'm gonna, you know, I just did an interview for this job, but I'm not gonna take it because I don't, I didn't want to move my family again. You know what I mean? I was like, I just don't want to do it. And about a week later, the contracting company got back to me. It was like, hey, your position just ended that you've been only been doing for like three weeks. And I was like, what the motherfucker, you know what I mean? So I was like, hey, babe, I guess I'm going to Texas. I'm going to become a head head strength conditioning coach at Lackland, where you train all PJs, tech Ps, combat controller, special reconnaissance. And uh I got here, and you know, that was the this is the look that most of the where what were you? I was like, motherfucker enlisted Green Beret in, officer Green Beret, and I got a master's degree in this stuff. They're like, what do you need? You know what I mean? They're all on board. What do you need? And uh when uh when I got down here, it used to be the 342nd training squadron. There are 78 of us that ran that the whole pipeline. And when I got there, I was baffled that there was only 78 people that ran this monstrosis of a pipeline. Because you got the PJs that they ran indoc, right? That's an 11-week course. Once they get done with that, they'll go to pre-dive, and in between there, they got to go to SEER and airborne school, combat controller, same thing. They got their little two-week, they had their two-week uh selection course, do that, then they go to Keysler to go to ATC. They'll come back to us and they'll go to airborne and search school. And uh what I didn't like about them at the after they did all that training, then they would like go back to their uh another selection at Bragg, a final one. And I was like, this is dumb. You know what I mean? After this is like eight uh 12 to 18 months in. But anyway, that those were my guys. I was called the red team guys. I had those guys the longest. And I mean, I made I used to make monsters. Then I made monsters, you know what I mean. I made motherfuckers if you if I have you for eight hours a day, five days a week, you know what I mean? I can, you know, that's and when I got there, when I showed up, uh, you know, the they had NCOs that were running it, and I was like, hey, let me can I check out your workout plan? You know, and I when I got there, I was like, hey, I'm just gonna I'm gonna observe, I know I'm just gonna observe for like 30 days before I implement anything. And I got there and I was like, and they gave me the workout, and I you know did like two days of them working out. I was like, all right, that's it. You guys are fucking done. We're changing this all up. You guys are like eight hours, they they're working them out for like the whole full eight hours every day. Oh shit. I was like, bro, you guys are killing these guys. You're killing them. Rest is just as important as all his workouts that you're doing. So yeah, I'd like Sir, my teeth hurt. Yeah. And they still swimming every day, running every day, working out every day. I'm like, no, no. So you know what I mean? I I dialed, I mean, dialed it in very detailed, you know what I mean, put just as much rest as the work. And at the time that the cut those combat controllers, when I first got there, it was 18% pass rate. And that's after they got selected, went to ATC for six months, did airborne school, serious school, and then they go to Bragg, and only 18% are passing. Come on, man. Uh work on that. Yeah, so we got them. I got them up to like 66% passing. Hell yeah. You know. And so, and then then it just evolved into what it is now, and uh it got too big too fast, in my opinion. Like it became from a from a squadron, then it became it's not a wing. It came, you know what I mean? They gotta have two squadrons to become a wing. Oh, they became a group, that's what it was, a group, and then it gotta be a wing. And it just now there's 550 people there that does the same amount that 78 used to do. And then when there's 550 people, and you used to being at the table, at the dinner table, and now you're sitting back there with the little kitty kids, you know, and you have no input, you know, your relevancy, you know, I it's just it was time for me to step away. And then, you know, I had a test bed for seven and a half years to figure out what what these guys needed. So that's when 18 alpha. It was clicking during that time, you know what I mean? Because there was other other companies out there that was doing it. Uh, you know, SoftLeak was that one. Yeah, there was another one. I'm not gonna mention it, you know. That was like and it was like, you guys have, I'm sorry, you guys did you guys are operators, you know what I mean? You did the job, granted, I love it, but you have no education doing it, you know. And then I already know which one you're talking about. And then you guys didn't try and test it on real people. You didn't this these these programs you're doing were not your programs, these were somebody else's programs that you're doing. This is mine, you know what I mean? This is my program, so I know how to get guys ready for selection.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And what's your um what's your approach to to fitness now versus you know looking back to where you were back in the day?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I spend about 30 to 40 minutes a day doing mobility and breath work. I do a lot more body weight exercises and movements. Uh when I lift, I don't, I don't lift heavy. Like I benched two days ago. I was doing, you know, 135. Woo! You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Nothing, nothing crazy, but I was still you, I still need you still need to move weight. Right. Just some weight. Uh I was, and then I did, you know, a superset with bench and cleans, and I was just doing five reps of cleans, hand cleans, not a full clean. And I'll never do a snatch anymore because of my soul shoulder. And snatching and in in a tactical element is not there's no relevancies to it. You know what I mean? Operationally, you're not gonna, you're not hitting anything overhead. I'll tell you that right now. You you need to be able to explode. Get into the snatch real quick. Save our lives. No need, no need for me to go into that. So those are the things that you learn, though, as a strength coach. You're because when I got there, I'm a CrossFit guy. So I'm thinking, I have these, you know what I mean? When I first got there, we were doing fucking snatches. And then I was like, this is fucking, you know what I mean? Just like that's this is not this is not what these guys need. Um, and then uh handstand push-ups as well. I had them doing those, and then you realize that a lot of these kids don't know how to even flip up onto the wall and hold their arms out. You know what I mean? It just different different things that you learn. That's like that, yeah. They why don't we just do wall walks where you walk your feet up and touch your nose, you know, back and up and down the wall. And that's just as that's probably harder than doing the actual handstand push-up. You know what I mean? So little things like that.

SPEAKER_00:

This episode is also brought to you by Precision Wellness Group. Getting your hormones optimized shouldn't be a difficult task. And Dr. Taylor Bosley has changed the game. Head on over to Precision Wellness Group.com, enroll, and become a patient today.

SPEAKER_01:

I just, you know, you just learn over time when you're doing it with actual students. And these are students that are going soft. It's not like these are students that are not going soft, these are people that are actually going soft.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's important to understand too, like your fitness is going to change throughout your life. Oh, yes. Um, and the other factor, and we don't talk about enough, is uh nutrition, like the diet, the the importance of making sure that you're putting good quality stuff in your body versus dog shit food from a gas station or a gut truck.

SPEAKER_01:

Or any fast food restaurant for that matter.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. If you tell yourself that it's healthier at Chick-fil-A, spoiler alert. Yeah, it's not.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't I don't drink pop anymore, really. Like maybe like once a year. Uh that's like that doesn't we don't even have any in this house. My wife's my wife's from the islands. She's a St. Lucius, so her stuff is all like all organic, and she's the really good cook. So, you know, I got I'm pretty fortunate with that. Um we put we have pizza once a week from a New York style pizza. You know, you got to.

SPEAKER_00:

You got you gotta find like that's the one thing I did realize. Like you everything in moderation, right? Everything like you you gotta have like we eat clean. Um, my wife and I, like I do majority of the cooking, so it's like if if I'm on my uh chicken and rice bullshit, sorry, babe, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02:

We're doing it, right? Chicken and rice bullshit.

SPEAKER_00:

But one of the things that I've realized too is like you gotta be able to enjoy it. My wife loves pizza. So one of the things the break oven pizza is one of the things that we do, and she loves pasta, so like programming that stuff, things that and you can make it healthy. Right. You can figure out what works best for you. But when you eat Subway, Chick-fil-A, Burger King 24-7, and you're telling yourself that a protein shake in the morning is gonna cancel it out. Like, dude, like I think a lot of it comes from how we used to live as younger men, that we could get away with it, like, oh my metabolism's not gonna look true. You you're 46, Steve. Yeah. It's true though. It you gotta figure out what works for you. And and the thing that um I really love about the content that you put out there, it's uh it is encouraging everybody. It's not just for the guy in the pipeline, it's everybody. Like we started talking earlier. People tend to think that veterans and soft guys, like, oh, they're they always rant, so they're gonna get out of the military, they're gonna always be in shape. That's not the truth. Guys are now more than ever more susceptible to things like diabetes, freaking heart issues. Like, guys get out, they get comfortable, guys and gals. Um, everybody's guilty of it. You get comfortable, you sit out there, and then you don't go after something. Um, and it's it's important to remember like fitness was part of your life, begrudgingly for some, but every day you showed up formation, every day you went out for a run, you went out and you did something physical. Don't stop. Find out the movements you enjoy, figure out the things that you like doing and keep doing them because maybe you won't have the rock star body that you had when you were 25. But it would be nice to freaking lose a little bit of weight, get back in the in a little bit better shape so that you can live longer because you should be enjoying this chapter in your life. You should be going after it, enjoying life. And the last thing that I want to read is another freaking obituary from a friend that died of a friggin' heart attack, or something that they could have easily maintained and and taken care of themselves just a little bit better.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so another thing that I besides my workout stuff that I do at home, uh, I found and fell in love with like three years ago. Uh jujitsu's off the table for me now. I had total disc replacement last jump that I ever did in Australia. Messed me up. That was 11 years ago when I had the surgery, and now it just it just infuriates this side. Yep. Same here. Fusion bros. My total discs. I got I got a I got a ball in socket. No way. Yeah, oh man. I got to still compete at a high level in jujitsu. Yeah. But at recent this last year, I my wife was like, okay, you're you're gonna have to pick between jujitsu or tennis. And tennis is where I fell in love with that like three years ago. No way. It's the worst than love-hate relationship that you could ever have with a sport, man. Because you gotta move, be able to move, hit a ball with the racket, and you know what I mean, and put that thing over a net into a very very detailed spot, you know. Uh and the hand-eye coordination on that is insane. And so I that's what I like. And then uh for veterans that's still out there that want to get out, you don't have to start with tenant. That new game called pickleball is a is a good maneuver to get out there, get out there with some friends. It's always better to work with friends, work out with friends than it is by yourself. You just go to an open court and you know, you just drop your paddle in there, and you four people just go on the court each time. I did that. Uh I was I just did some contracting work this summer, and I was in the Philippines, and I that's the most pickleball I ever played in my life. You know what I mean? I was kind of bored, so I'd go there for three and four hours at a clip and then play pickleball. Uh yeah. It was good, you know what I mean? It's just a good, good, good workout.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Dude, I uh I used to talk a lot of shit about golf, and then uh I went to my first tournament and I found out that uh if you just refuse to just drink all day and you just enjoy the game, you actually play it and you walk, or maybe pick up, you know, the I've read uh there's a few people that will jog from hole to hole, and I'm like, you know, like fuck it, let's do it. The most fun I've had in a long time. Like just jog from hole to hole. And I'm like, dude, now it's like, okay, if I'm gonna go play golf, I'm not gonna get a golf cart. I'm gonna walk it. If I get a wild hair on my ass, friggin' jog a little bit. Um, get you out there. You move, you're doing something. Like, try it, man. I think I think that's the one thing that I I want more people to understand. Like, fitness can be redefined at every stage of your life. Don't and I know a lot of people are dealing with issues, ailments, bad back, shoulders, knees. Figure out what you can still do. Challenge yourself. Pain will dissipate. You'll wake up with a bad back, stretch out. Home roll. Don't tell yourself the same lie over and over again. I can't do this. I can't do this. You can. You can get back in the gym. There's so many trainers out there that will write up a professional plan for you, so many programs. There's one guy right here, 18 Alpha Fitness, he uh will literally hook you up. Um be willing to go out there and try again. That's something that uh I've realized. Like, if and it's it's not just our older veterans, even our younger ones are falling to the wayside because you know the VA gives you a rating for how broken you are, then that's what you you tell yourself, I can't do that. It's like challenge it. Challenge it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I'm I'm I'm a Hundy. I'm sure you are too, but I'm I'm not I'm a Hundy, but I'm still gonna challenge myself. I can't I want to be able to pick up my grandkids, you know what I mean? That's my ultimate goal. I want to be able to still play with my like whenever my kids, whatever my grandkids get here, them motherfuckers better be ready for fucking tennis. Because I am I'm gonna be like Mr. Williams on their eyes.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, Kevin, tell us a little more about 18 Alpha Fitness. How can we uh like what uh what programs do you offer? How do you go about coaching? What's your methodology? Do you are you app based? How do you work it? So all my stuff is all online.

SPEAKER_01:

I have my majority of my programs are for special operations selections prep. All right, so I got SFAS, Ranger, Special Warfare, which is all the branches of the Special Warfare PJs, tech, not the TAC Ps, PJs, combat controllers, and special reconnaissance, because their water con is a totally different, it's a lot arduous than everybody else's. And then I have a TAC P1 that's which is more focused on land base, but they do have swimming as well because they do have a swimming test in it. Uh, I have a Navy SEAL program, uh, and uh the other program. And if you can't start off, those are some high-level programs. So if you're just straight off the couch, I highly recommend you start off with my soft prep program that's gonna walk you into one of those higher level programs. Uh, then I have a uh kettlebell for BJJ program. So since I've been doing BJJ for you know forever, more than half my life, uh pretty, pretty good with that. And then I have a just a the general, it's called the general program, and that's a four day a week uh kettlebell, a lot of mobility work and core work uh program. And that's that's that is really dumbed down uh compared to anything else that I have. And if you're a veteran out there, a soft guy, hit me up if you want something like that. I'm always willing to help you guys out if you. guys are in a mind or something like that. I can it's it's not it's not gonna hurt me to uh help you out.

SPEAKER_00:

And so you can find all my programs on WW you know 18A fitness but that means alpha fitness dot com okay it's 18 alpha not 18a I know that I I just did a podcast on went on on Friday and the guy was like 18A I was like bro it's alpha that that A means alpha and I was like B means Bravo and he's like oh I was like you uncultured swine yeah had no idea these these guys' eyes were like this when I told him to talking to him about stuff they're like oh my god you did some shit like yes yes oh man yeah I got I gotta love the uh the civilians that don't know phonetic half of it huh Kevin thank you so much for joining us today if you guys are listening do me a favor pause go to episode description click those links and uh follow Kevin on Instagram all those links are right there and do me one last favor head on over to securityhall.com check out our new gear and our new swag and don't forget to support our sponsors new one just just added today putting it out there pure Liberty Labs supplements if you're tired of low quality protein I got the answer for you right here check them out use my code security underscore halt security underscore 10 for 10% off when you check out on the the old uh website so check them out their information's also in the episode description I can't thank you enough enough Kevin for being here today for doing what you're doing and helping the next great generation of Americans earn their beret whether it's a scarlet one or a green one um thank you all for tuning in and we'll see you all next time. Till then take care.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Deny Caballero

Host