What follows here is some basic background info on me. I have to say up front even though I have written a book, and enjoy writing; I have very little desire to write (or talk) about myself. Absolutely no subject bores me more. However I do so here to introduce myself and give you some insight into my background, and how it helped develop my ideas on physical training.
I grew up in upstate New York. We lived in the wooded foothills on the outskirts of the small city of Troy. Which is located just up the Hudson River from the state capital of Albany. Sports and doing things outdoors was a big part of my life growing up. Due to the varied climate and geography of this area, there are an almost endless variety of outdoor activities to participate in. Plus with New York City located just a few hours south of where I lived, there’s a huge interest in professional sports, and I remain a die hard New York Yankee, and Jets fan to this day. From all this I gained a life long interest in sports and outdoor recreation, its something that I’ve never lost. Many of my family and friends think this is more due to my ADHD, than anything else. I’ll admit there may be some truth to that.
Right after high school graduation I went to work doing construction work. For the next few years I worked long hours doing heavy manual labor (for about $4.00 an hour!). This first hand experience with hard physical work would also have a big influence on my future thinking about physical fitness. (I witnessed some pretty amazing physical feats by the older men I worked with.) Even though I worked a lot, I had energy to burn, so I stayed busy in my off time training, and some competing in weight lifting, power lifting, running and boxing. In 1981 after about 3 years of it I became bored with construction work (and being punched in the face every night boxing). So I started looking around for new and a tougher challenge, and found (no big surprise here) the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps has always been a home for people like myself. You know the restless, hyper, general pain in the ass type. LOL In any case I very quickly found the challenge I was looking for. As you might guess being a US Marine can be very tough physically, but it was a completely different type of physical requirement than sports, or working construction. From the first day of boot camp, I loved the hard ass life of being a US Marine, I knew this was for me, and I ended up staying for the next 28 years, and I loved every minute of it.
I spent my time as a Marine deploying all over the world, and the United States. (I visited over 30 different countries at my last count). I served first in the Infantry, and then later in Aviation Ordnance. While both are all Marine these are two different (as to their day to day duties), but both very physical military occupations. I slowly learned through much trial and error how to keep myself in top condition regardless of my location, varied work schedule, aboard a Navy ship, or in the field. Whenever possible I continued to participate in sports. I did road races, triathlons, karate, boxing, and bike races to name a few. I also hiked, canoed, lifted weights, played softball, scuba dived, etc, etc. Along the way I became a certified boxing trainer and trained 100’s of Marines to box, running some local boxing teams when I had the chance. I tried just about everything, and anything over the years. I gained a lot of practical experience about PT, and diet. Not just from my own experience, but from the training, and observation of many hundreds of Marines. Well into my forties I was still going strong, maintaining a high Marine Corps physical fitness test all along the way. (I ran my last official PFT two days before I retired, and at age 49 I ran a 273 out of the max score 300. Ok not a 300, but give me a break dog, it was pretty hot in New Orleans that morning). Probably a bigger accomplishment was that I remained virtually injury free all my life, which (knock on my wooden head) I continue to this day.
After about twenty years of service I started to notice many of my Marine buddies were having a very hard time remaining in top physical condition, to include keeping their weight within standards, and staying healthy. Many of these Marines were people I had known for years, and when they were younger they were some serious physical studs. (trust me when I tell you I knew many gifted athletes, and some very tough guys during my time in the Corps) Most were also more athletic than I was. So what was the difference? Luck? Genetics? Maybe, but I also had been experimenting and developing my own personal fitness system (and mindset) over the years and had stubbornly stuck with my own ideas, despite some skepticism (and much ball breaking) from my friends. As time went on, and the longterm benefits of my methods started to become obvious, I started to think that maybe I was on to something. In 2001 I was transferred to run the Aviation Ordnance “A” school in Pensacola, Fl. This is where new Marines learn the very basic’s of the Aviation Ordnance field before going out into the Fleet Marine Corps. The course is about 4 weeks long. While these were for the most part young Devil Dogs (18-21 year olds), many were showing up in relatively poor condition after being out of boot camp for several weeks. Our school had a PT (physical training) program in place, but it was a standard PT program that had yielded little real improvements. As I was the new senior Marine I was determined to fix that issue. I also saw this as a opportunity to test out some of my own ideas on a larger scale, and compare the results to the standard program. So we got some heavy logs, sandbags, and started doing most of our PT in boots like I did myself. I kept records of the students progress, and from the very start we noticed a rapid improvement in the PFT (Physical Fitness Test) scores of our students and the staff.
z
Over the next two year time span, roughly 1200 Marine students increased their PFT scores an average of 24 points in only about 30 days. That was with only on average 12 PT sessions of 1 hour each, with the first and last of those being just a PFT! Ask any Marine you know if this is a good improvement? Trust me, this is a big jump for that short a time, and actual number of PT sessions. Some did much better, but 24 points was the average. Now I will admit, at times these were some pretty intense sessions, In fact I still have Marines come up to me about the PT we did back then, they were tough but not impossible. The key to the program success was not just balls-out mindless intensity, but the structure, makeup and focus (mindset) of the PT. We also made good improvements in weight control and experinced very few injuries.
Not long after that I went to Iraq for a year. (I am no war hero by the way, but I’m proud to say I served with some) My duties in Iraq took me over many remote parts of the country. One unusual aspect of the war in Iraq is the very diverse group of people that serve there. In Iraq you’ll see every branch of the military to include all the reserve branches, older National Guard folks, and civilian contractors of almost every occupation. Besides all the obvious combat related tasks, I observed almost every conceivable type of physical work being done by all different levels of physical fitness, and ages (by both men and women). As I am always curious about what people are up to PT wise, I questioned 100’s of different people about their physical conditioning, how it effected their performance, what were the hard parts (physically) of what they had to do? How were they holding up to the long hours, the heat? What they did (if anything) to stay in shape, what foods did they feel helped them best? I learned a lot, and to be honest much of it just confirmed some of my own ideas on physical conditioning.
I also had many friends who were fireman, and working in law enforcement. I asked them for input on their physical requirements, and had them try out my system. Giving me input and recommendations as they went. From all my years of personal experience, and tons of this gathered data I started to formally put together my system. In early 2009 I started writing this all down, finally naming my system EPRS; The “Enhanced Physical Readiness System”, and wrote my book “Corps Strength” to tell my story and explain my methods.
I retired from active service in August of 2009 as a Master Gunnery Sergeant, and went to work as a physical training, and leadership instructor at the Navy’s International Leadership school located here in Pensacola. I have been married to the same wonderful woman for the last 25 years, and have two great boys.
On my site is a link to my email to contact me. Please contact me with any questions or comments about physical fitness, and physical fitness training. I will personally answer all emails, and will post the most interesting to my website blog for everyone to see. Thank you for your interest in my book, in any case good luck and be safe.
