Exercise Scientist Critiques Navy SEAL David Goggins’ Training Routines

David Goggins has become a mythical figure in the fitness community, routinely testing the bounds of his strength and endurance for the world to see. His efforts have caught the attention of exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel, who took to a recent YouTube video on September 13, 2024, to critique the extreme training of Navy SEAL David Goggins. 

Goggins is a highly successful ultramarathon runner and accomplished Navy SEAL, but before he reached these summits, he was overweight, spraying cockroaches for Ecolab, a pest control company. He decided to transform his life through fitness and strict dieting with a pipe dream of becoming an accomplished military service member. 

Goggins lost 100 pounds in less than three months en route to fulfilling his dream. Now, he has continued to pursue physical fitness with long runs alongside servicing fires in Canada as a smokejumper. From testing his strength, willpower, and pain tolerance to inspiring others as a motivational speaker, Goggins has become an unparalleled role model for men and women around the world. 

Often running over 20 miles a day with some races exceeding 100 miles, Goggins understands how to push his body. He’s worked out seven days a week for decades, which has led Dr. Israetel to weigh the merit of such intense training practices. 

Exercise Scientist Critiques David Goggins’ Extreme Workout Regimen

To begin, Dr. Mike Israetel critiqued David Goggins’ tendency to perform extremely high repetitions during his workouts, often utilizing pull-ups, chin-ups, and push-ups. 

“I guess he engaged in resistance training for high repetitions and that is not the most efficient way to build muscle. I think anything roughly over 30 or 40 or 50 reps, if you can do them continuously is so low of a load, it’s such small weight that your muscles don’t get this overwhelming signal to grow, but it will cause growth, especially in beginners and folks that aren’t super jacked yet.” 

“If you happen to be genetically pretty well gifted, a lot of rep ranges can cause growth though not at their best. So as you probably will hear me say a few more times in this critique, Mr. David Goggins is an unbelievable specimen of willpower, does that mean he’s absolutely the number one go-to guy for the technical elements of how to train? Maybe not? Maybe,” he shared. 

While Dr. Israetel doesn’t think this is the most efficient approach, he does advise most lifters to stick between five and 40 repetitions when they train, ideally 2-4 times a week. 

“Is this the most efficient way to train? Probably not, you’re probably better off doing sets of five to 40 reps two to four times a week in the gym,” he adds. 

Israetel also examined Goggins’ intensive cardio and affinity for taking part in high-endurance sports like ultramarathoning. 

“Light day, seven miles… no, I mean I suppose he doesn’t need defending he’s kind of the man. If you’re doing high-level endurance training, yeah a light day is seven miles, and don’t ask me what the hard day is, 15 plus some crazy shit, two-a-days. This isn’t for everyone. It is absolutely for high-endurance people.” 

Dr. Israetel’s Advice for Getting Your David Goggins’ ‘Spirit Energy’ Going: 

• ease into training (light day: 1/2 mile//hard day 2-mile run/ take 1-2 rest days each week 
• watch for wear and tear injuries 

“A lot of people who start running for a long time they start to get these injuries and they’re kind of like ‘I’m tough I can work through it.’ Do not try to work through nagging aches and pains, try to intelligently work around them often by switching modalities, modifying distances and just being smart.” 

For those who are ready to ‘carry the boats and the logs’ like Goggins, Dr. Israetel laid out why hydration is paramount. 

“If you’re training as much as remotely close as David Goggins, you’re probably sweating a lot and that’s really cool. Typically people think when they sweat a lot they just drink water and it replaces the fluid and they are absolutely right. But you don’t just lose fluid with sweat.” 

“Salt, many different types of electrolytes come out of your sweat and they have to be replaced. If you have a drink like LMNT (electrolyte solution), what you do is unzip the salt flavor patch and you put it in your water, which all of a sudden makes your water taste sweet and salty, which is really nice. If you have that during or after your workout then baller things again because not only are you replacing fluids but you’re replacing electrolytes as well.” 

He also examined Goggins’ two-hour daily stretching routine at night. 

“If I had to rank sleep versus stretching on a scale of what matters for any kind of fitness goal pretty much short of like you’re an Olympic-level gymnast and you have no flexibility and that’s the only thing you lack, I would say sleep outranks stretching by a factor of 10.” 

Although Dr. Israetel contends that David Goggins’ fitness routine isn’t ideal within a muscle-building context, it certainly has merit when it comes to high-endurance sports. He also can appreciate the mental fortitude and discipline Goggins has when it comes to testing his physical limits. 

Watch the full video from the Renaissance Periodization YouTube channel below: 

RELATED: Jeff Cavaliere Breaks Down Navy SEAL David Goggins’ Workout Routines: How Effective Are They?

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