You're wet,
sandy,
and shivering from the cold.
Your feet and hands have blisters,
every muscle on your body hurts
and your eyes are closing.
But if you sleep, you drown.
This is not a real battle,
but you can still die here.
Welcome to Hell Week.
Every aspiring Navy SEAL
needs to go through a
six-month training course
called Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL,
or BUD/S.
The first phase ends with Hell Week,
where individuals learn to be
effective team members
under mental and physical stress.
According to the Navy,
there have been 10 BUD/S training-related
deaths since 1953.
The most recent was Kyle Mullen,
who died of bacterial pneumonia
on September 2022.
Today we'll take a look at
what each day holds for you
and how you can make it
out of Hell Week alive.
Be prepared to follow
your instructors' orders.
If they say jump, you jump.
If they say crawl, you crawl.
And if they tell you to click
that subscribe button,
you better click it.
The night before the first day,
instructors will shoot blanks
and simulate explosions
to mentally throw you off.
Then they get you to do
hundreds of reps of push-ups,
flutter kicks
and running in and out of the surf zone.
Don’t think about it as a week,
it will become easy to feel overwhelmed.
Try to keep yourself focused
on short time frames,
like the fact that you get to eat
about every six hours.
They need to feed you
because that is the only thing
keeping you alive.
Eat everything on your plate.
You're gonna need those extra calories.
This exercise starts
with you and your teammates
picking up a 68 kg (150 lb) log.
You'll need to carry it over a sand berm,
drop it,
pick it up again
and put it over your head.
Then you'll run into the ocean
and carry it back to the start point.
Finished?
Great,
now do it again.
And again.
You don’t know how long it is going to be
and this uncertainty
will mess with your head.
When your muscles are burning
and the log starts feeling heavier,
look at your teammates.
If they can still do it,
then you can too.
You'll need to communicate
and work together.
If Hell Week doesn't teach you
to be a team player,
nothing will.
You'll have to paddle several hundred meters
to a large rock formation
and land on the slick rocks.
You must do everything you can
to keep your body out of the space
in between the rocks and the boat.
This is easier said than done.
Before you know it,
you'll be slammed into the rocks,
and the boat will be slammed into you.
Prevent falling by staying low to the ground
when you are on the rocks
to keep your center of gravity low
when the waves break into you.
Some trainees will likely drop out
due to sustaining injuries after this task.
At this point,
you're likely going to be hallucinating
from lack of sleep.
The bad news is you and your team
now have to go on a 12-hour boat race.
The good news is the winning team
gets some extra sleep.
So keep paddling,
and keep your teammates awake.
If you fall,
and you probably will,
focus on holding on to your paddle
and getting back to the boat
as fast as possible.
If you're the first team to finish,
you'll get to sleep on the beach
until the last team arrives.
Cuddling with your teammates
will be the best way to stay warm.
You're so physically exhausted
that you don’t know how much longer
you can go.
But you have to use your brain
to hide from the instructors
in a stealth game of hide-and-seek.
If they can't find you and you win,
you can hang out by a bonfire.
After four days of being wet and cold,
being by a fire will feel like heaven.
Let's hope you have some funny stories
because instructors will let you
stick around longer
if you can make them laugh.
Many people are gone by now
but you still have one more test.
You must carry the 120 kg (265 lb)
inflatable boat on your head.
And each part comes with its difficulties.
If you're in the middle
you will have constant pressure.
But at the front or the back,
you'll have constant bouncing on your head
as you're running.
A good way to be prepared
for this punishment
is to do neck exercises
and core workouts for months or even years
before going to Hell Week.
Finally, Friday morning.
You have made it through the training course.
On average,
only 25% of the candidates
succeed in this training,
so this was no small achievement.
You've learned that your body is stronger
than you ever imagined.
And the teammates you've succeeded with
will likely be your friends for life.
A Navy SEAL could possibly survive
the most gruesome scenarios.
Like being trapped in the Andes.
But could you do it?
We have a video to help you with that.
Before you leave,
did you know that we’re making
YouTube shorts now?
It features new, original stories
as well as the survival tips
you know and love.
They’re hosted by Shayne,
our short form producer
and resident survival enthusiast.
Join her for bite-sized stories
on YouTube shorts.