Being a trainer I hear a lot about having a hard time staying motivated to come in and workout and stay fit. I often get asked what is my goal or motivation for why I train so hard and to be honest my answer changes every day almost. One day it will be zombie survival. Another day it will be to be like Batman and after that it might be just because I had nothing better to do. Now I can give all the suggestions in the world on why you should stay fit but sometimes it is just not enough to know that exercise will benefit your health and longevity or help you get to the size of pants you want to fit into. For me, a good amount of motivation did come from myself albeit most of it was to just look better. However it wasn’t until I joined the Air Force when I found what real motivation for me really was.
    I joined the Air Force to be part of an elite search and rescue team called Pararescue.  There was a 3 month selection course that everyone must go thru called Indoc. We would start off our day by waking up at 4am every morning. From there we would eat chow from 4am-5am. Get ready and in inspection order from 5am-6am. Run non-stop from 6am-7:30am. 7:30am-9:00am we would spend practicing team building with a log above our head or in full camo doing Grass and Guerilla drills (a workout consisting of buddy carries, tactical insertions, exfiltration, and enemy evasion). 9am-9:15am take a nap on the bus ride to the pool on the other side of base, if we had time. 9:15am-11:30am we would spend doing fin training (swimming with fins and basic dive gear on). 11:30am-1pm LUNCH!!!! 1pm-about 4pm, most of the time we stayed till 6pm, water confidence training. Water confidence training was by far the worst part of the day every single day we were there. It mainly consisted of different pool exercises that were meant to get your heart rate up and then force you to lower it really fast so you don’t pass out from lack of oxygen and someone is usually trying to drown you thru the whole thing. 4pm-6pm was debriefing and gear exchange. Our briefing room was in the center of our school house. The thermostat in the room was consistently set to 55 degrees and they had put in a special industrial air conditioner so it could be 55 degrees all the time. 6pm-7pm DINNER!!! 7pm-9pm Free time. 9pm Sleep, unless it was extended training day.

Every time we would run thru the school house to our briefing room you would pass a wall of Air Force Crosses. An Air Force Cross is the highest medal you can achieve in the Air Force and the second highest medal of honor you can receive in the nation. Most of the men who actually got them died in combat. Each Air Force Cross had a story of how it was earned. One story in particular stood out to me and to one of our Cadre members, Mr. Oldchild (not his real name). That was the story of William H. Pitsenbarger.

"Pits", as he was known to his friends, was nearing his 300th combat mission on that fateful day when some men of the U.S. Army's 1st Division were ambushed and pinned down in an area about 45 miles east of Saigon. Two HH-43 "Huskie" helicopters of the USAF's 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron were rushed to the scene to lift out the wounded. Pits was on one of them. Upon reaching the site of the ambush, Pits was lowered through the trees to the ground where he attended to the wounded before having them lifted to the helicopter by cable. After six wounded men had been flown to an aid station, the two USAF helicopters returned for their second loads. As one of them lowered its litter basket to Pitsenbarger, who had remained on the ground with the 20 infantrymen still alive, it was hit by a burst of enemy small-arms fire. When its engine began to lose power, the pilot realized he had to get the Huskie away from the area as soon as possible. Instead of climbing into the litter basket so he could leave with the helicopter, Pits elected to remain with the Army troops under enemy attack and he gave a "wave-off" to the helicopter which flew away to safety.

Pits continued to treat the wounded and, when the others began running low on ammunition, he gathered ammo clips from the dead and distributed them to those still alive. Then, he joined the others with a rifle to hold off the Viet Cong. In the morning, after a night of intense fire fights another Huskie returns to a now quiet battle site. A1C Harry O'Beirne is lowered by hoist to evacuate the few remaining survivors. He finds Pitts lying across a deceased soldier to whom he had been administering medical aid. In his hand was his weapon, aiming out into the now silent jungle. Airman Pitsenbarger is awarded the Air Force Cross posthumously. He became the first publicly announced enlisted recipient of the AF Cross in its history.

    Little did I know that Mr. Oldchild had actually served with William Pitsenbarger and was friends with him as well. Mr. Oldchild told us that if we had been thinking about finding motivation to keep ourselves going that we were wrong (Mr. Oldchild was awarded the Air Force Cross as well in Vietnam). It wasn’t about suffering thru hellish training to say, “Look at me I’m tough.” It was about going thru all this training to make sure that when the time came we could really save all those people on the battlefield or die trying to get every single last person to safety and that is was kept me going. Even out of the service I look at myself and ask, “If I really needed to, could I still save someone?” and every time I feel motivated to run farther, lift more, or move faster because when life hits me hard one day I want to be able to knock it out.

Pararescue Motto: “It is my duty as a Pararescueman to save life and aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, putting these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do, so that others may live.”

Round 1

Lower Body

TRX Squat

8 Reps

TRX Front Squat

8 Reps

TRX Step Back Lunge

8 Reps

(repeat)

Round 2

Upper Body

TRX Chest Press

30 Seconds

TRX Row

30 Seconds

TRX Curl

30 Seconds

TRX Chest Press

30 Seconds

TRX Row

30 Seconds

TRX Tricep Extension

30 Seconds

Round 3

Core/Shoulders

TRX W Fly

8 Reps

TRX Y Fly

8 Reps

TRX T Fly

8 Reps

(repeat)

By Whitney Provost

You're ready to get in shape. You've committed to an exercise program and stocked your kitchen with healthy food. Now it's time to see results. Other than working out consistently and sticking to your nutrition plan, what else can you do to increase your chances of success?

While there's no magic fat-loss fairy who'll grant your wishes overnight, there are a few proven techniques you can use to boost your results and lose weight faster. Check 'em out.

Burn more fat during your workouts.

1. Crank up the intensity early. A study from the College of New Jersey found that people who work out harder during the first half of their workouts and ease up a bit in the second half burn up to 23 percent more fat than people who start out slowly. What does this mean for you? After you warm up (never neglect this or you may end up injured), bump up your workout intensity and give it your all. You don't have to pace yourself so you can make it all the way through; take breaks as necessary later in your workout.
2. HIIT it hard. By now, you've probably heard that the one of the most effective ways to burn fat is with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). This involves short intervals of maximum intensity cardio, followed by intervals of low intensity cardio or rest. Researchers at Laval University in Quebec have discovered that people who do HIIT can lose 3 times as much fat as those who do steady-state moderate cardio. 
3. Lift heavier weights for fewer reps. Boost your metabolism long after your workout by training with heavy weights. As researchers at the Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education have learned, the heavier you lift, the greater the rise in your metabolic rate and the longer the boost will last. The result? Increased fat loss. For amazing body-reshaping results.
   Special note for women: Don't be afraid to increase the size of your dumbbells! You don't have enough testosterone to bulk up like the Incredible Hulk, and a lean, strong body will help you burn calories around the clock. Plus toned and shapely muscles look beautiful and give your body symmetry. 
4. Lift lighter weights for more reps. Wait . . . what? Didn't I just tell you that you have to lift heavier to burn more fat? It's true that training with heavy weights for fewer reps will burn more calories post-workout and give your physique a much more dramatic transformation. But there's also a benefit to using lighter weights at higher reps. For one, you burn a lot of calories during your workout. And if you're very out of shape or haven't lifted weights in a while, going lighter will help you condition your muscles and joints and help you prevent injuries. 
5. Stay in shape. Once you become physically fit, keep it up. The more active you are, the better your body is at burning fat. According to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, you can avoid regaining belly fat by exercising as few as 80 minutes per week. Keep stoking your fat-burning furnace with regular exercise and good nutrition, and you'll be lean for life.
   Let your kitchen help you burn fat.
6. Get your omega-3s. Fish and fish-oil supplements are helpful fat-burners because of their high levels of omega-3 fats. Two recent studies in Iceland and Australia demonstrated that people who consume fish oil burn more fat than people who don't. Additionally, the Australian study showed that when fish oil is combined with exercise, the results were even better.
7. Don't cut calories too quickly. You know that in order to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories. But dropping them too quickly can cause your metabolism to slow down, because your body thinks it's starving and desperately holds onto fat. A dramatic reduction in calories can also lead to what author Martha Beck calls "famine brain," a condition in which your poor starved brain starts to freak out and all you can think about is food until you go nuts and eat everything in sight. The stress makes you much more likely to binge and end up fatter than ever. So what's the easiest way to cut calories gradually and keep your sanity?
   Start by swapping your usual breakfast for a protein shake. From about 140 to 250 calories and they taste great, and you can add healthy ingredients like milk or a dab of peanut butter and still keep the total calorie count low. Next, try cutting your total calorie intake by 250 calories per day. Give it a couple of weeks and see if you like the results. If you're losing weight, stick with it, and if not, cut out another 250 calories and reevaluate a couple of weeks later. If you're already doing everything else I've mentioned in this article, you shouldn't have to starve yourself to lose weight.
8. Drink green tea. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that the catechins—antioxidant flavonoid compounds—found in green tea may stimulate the body's fat-burning activity. You'll get the most benefits from about 4 cups of green tea per day, but if you don't want to drink that much, green tea extract supplements appear to have similar benefits. It's kind of cool to think that you might be able to relax with a cup of green tea and burn fat at the same time!

Give these tips a try, and let us know how they work for you.