This is what it’s all about: relentless perseverance with focused violence of action on the objective: HOOYAH SEAL TEAM! Teammates, the mission may change but SOP for the SEAL Teams never does! From taking out a terrorist on the sea or Osama Bin Laden in his compound, this is what we train for. HOOYAH! Alden Mills

Let’s look back to the last successful SEAL mission that made it on to the front page remembering that 99.9% of SEAL missions are below the radar!

CM Teammates – talk about Be Strong, Be Ready (our motto at Team Perfect) – So damn proud of our forces (and for that matter our Commander in Chief who had the guts to authorize the mission) for yesterday’s successful rescue of Captain Phillips – HOOYAH SEAL TEAM! Read more…

Teammates, Joe Gunter needs no introduction! He has been a Perfect Swim Buddy since 2008 — and his life-changing journey can be summed up in one word: EXCELLENT! Bravo Zulu Joe! Thanks for sharing your story to date with the CHARLIE MIKE Teammates. AMM — Teammates, back by popular request, here’s Joe’s story of perfect success! Joe, thanks for everything you do for the Perfect Fitness team!!

The year was 2008 and the person was Alden Mills. I was reading a blog post he wrote, where he made reference to the transversus abdominis – the muscle below your belly button. (It gets hard as a rock when you do a sit-up.) Having recently studied a basic Latin course, and remembering my younger years when I worked as a landscaper and learned Latin botanical names, I had one of those Eureka moments when you don’t necessarily shout “Wow!” but you realize you just learned something very, very important. Read more…

As 2010 drew to a close, I was looking for a resolution that if carried out would be the resolution to end all resolutions. It had to be awesome. Or impossible, and therefore excusable to break. 

With a tinge of jealousy upon reading someone’s Facebook update of “just did 100 push ups” I decided that doing 100 push ups would be nice.  100 would be impressive, clearly, as I had just been impressed, but what if….What if I did one for every day of the year?

Starting with one on January first and adding one each day, would I be able to do 365 push ups on 12/31? That became the goal.  Read more…

Hart Perry + Rowing = is the reason I am who I am today. 

Recently, the rowing world lost one of its greatest coaches, William “Hart” Perry, Jr. He was more than a great rowing coach, he was a major mentor to hundreds of young men. His efforts as rowing coach and mentor directly changed the course of several hundred high school boys’ lives. I’m living proof – he forever changed my life.  

Now, if he were here today, he’d laugh and say: “Mr. Mills, I appreciate your kind words, but I didn’t do anything, you did all the work.” (He always addressed his oarsmen as Mister.) Okay, so maybe he has a point from the “work” perspective, but had he not helped me understand the “why”, and assisted me in learning the “way”, I would have been a boat without a rudder.  

Through my years in high school he instilled an unstoppable work ethic in his “boys” to pull hard, go fast, and win at everything we did. Though rowing was his passion – and his metaphor for most everything in life, he always tied the purpose of our pain (the long exhaustive workouts) back to the bigger picture – to him, and consequently to us, life was all about rowing, and rowing was all about life. From teamwork to work ethic, from taking one stroke at a time to chipping away at our goals to never, EVER giving up – he used the principles of rowing to teach us the principles of success in life. I can honestly say, if it weren’t for Hart entering my life, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. During some of the darkest moments in my life – from SEAL missions to start-up challenges, I could hear his voice firmly encouraging me to press on. His impact in my life is and will be a life long positive impact for me, and I will do my very best to pass down his teachings to my boys, and anyone else who has the courage to reach for their dreams.  

Thank you Hart – you will never be forgotten. 

Alden Mills

KSBC 1987

Picture of Coach Perry is from The Kent School archives.

Do you have the RIGHT TO BARE ARMS this summer? Teammates, be honest when you ask yourself this question – will you feel comfortable wearing a sleeveless shirt or no shirt at all this summer? If the answer is no – THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Good news – you have time!! But you need to start this month and getting started is easy…real easy…drop down and start pushing Mother Earth. Start now and you’ll be getting high fives and “congrats” by summer!

That’s right, I’m talking push ups. Look, I promise you, if you do the work you will feel proud to  Bare your Arms this summer – male or female – push ups work.

Here’s the drill – do them every morning except Sunday (or whatever day of the week you don’t want to do them – but you only get 1 day off).

• April – knock out 25 a day – anyway you can – don’t care if you do them in sets of 1 on your knees!
• May – double it to 50 a day – same rules apply
• June – ramp it to 75 a day – same rules apply
• July– by now you’ll be doing a 100 a day and I promise you’ll want to only wear sleeveless shirts all summer long…even if your job wouldn’t allow you to go shirtless, think about it for a moment, not that you would, but how would you feel if you could??? 

GO FOR IT – GET STRONG!

CHARLIE MIKE – ALDEN

Alden Mills here, with Part II of my advice on mixing it up to keep your boredom at bay ~ The other physiological fact you should be aware of is you have lots of muscles in your shoulder/chest/back and arms (and abs!) that get engaged when you perform a push up. By switching positioning, you’re not only “tricking” your brain into more muscle challenges but you’re also building a more balanced and stronger upper body.

I’m a big believer in form follows function – don’t worry about how your body (form) looks right now, worry about how to move (function) it right! Trust me, if your move your body in the right ways, you’re gonna love the way it looks! Not to mention, you’re gonna love what you can do with it to – done the right way, there’s no obstacle you and your body cannot scale!  Read more…

Perfect Fitness CEO Alden Mills with a message for everyone who is challenging themselves to push out more push ups! “Becca (and Annie) – first and foremost, I LOVE your Push up Plan – it’s simple, easy and challenging – IT’S BRILLIANT! 

Now let’s talk about how to keep the boredom at bay – I get it, boredom is without a doubt the biggest challenge you and your teammates are up against…and using different movements does two things:

• Dramatically reduces boredom
• Improves your “Right to Bare Arms” 

The first benefit is obvious; the second one is worth a little discussion. Your brain and body are an interesting system when it comes to achieving fitness goals. You see we’re hard wired to avoid pain and pursue pleasure – and doing lots of push ups to change the look (and feel!) of your body requires work which your brain will register as pain. As you work out, your brain is working out ways to reduce your pain – it’s constantly searching for the path of least resistance – to make the next repetition just a little bit easier than the last one. This little fact is one reason why it’s so important to switch up your push up positions as you pursue your 2011 challenge goal. 

Part II: Trick your brain into muscle challenges

As a token of my enthusiasm for you to achieve your goals, I’m sending out a few pairs of our latest Perfect Pushups to keep you and your teammates Fired UP!!! ”

CHARLIE MIKE! 

ALDEN 

CM = CONTINUE MISSION in Navy SEAL speak!

Meet Becca, the co-captain of the 2011 Push Up Challenge. The title and inspiration of her blog is: Giving Myself The Right To Bare Arms.

I have been doing pushups since January 2^nd. One pushup for each day of the year, done on every even day. On January 2^nd, I did 2 pushups. On February 1^st I did 32 pushups, as it was the 32^nd day of the year. On December 30, I’ll do 364 pushups. Make sense?     

1,260 pushups so far. It’s called the #2011PushUpChallenge, and started as a “What if…” from a friend of mine on Twitter. I agreed to the challenge because I want to wear tank tops this summer without worrying about how much my jiggling arms are offending onlookers. Read more…