Mark Lauren – You Are Your Own Gym

“Mark Lauren puts the strength-training techniques of SpecOps into a comprehensive and easy to understand program that can be done by anyone, anywhere, anytime, paving the way for anyone looking to get into the best shape of his or her life.”—Gregory Peterman, sergeant, Green Beret

“Gain control of yourself through your own body’s gym!”—Mike Fisher, commander, 82nd Airborne Division; U.S. Army Ranger; colonel, U.S. Army

“Perfect for our mobile age of road warriors, this terrific book lets us carry around a full gym in our heads!”—General James Abrahamson, U.S. Air Force

Mark Lauren spent fifteen years as a military physical-training specialist for the Special Operations community. Now a sought-after personal trainer to civilian men and women of all fitness levels, a triathlete, and a champion Thai boxer, he is the author of the internationally popular body-weight bibles You Are Your Own Gym, Body by You, and Body Fuel. He lives in Tampa, Florida, and Phuket, Thailand.

1. Mission Success: Lean, Strong, and Confident

I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND, unlike many other fitness authors, I do not train movie stars, television celebrities, models, or other personalities whose livelihoods hinge on being fit. I train those whose lives do. For a decade I’ve used bodyweight exercises to create the leanest, strongest, most confident people of our civilization.

I honed the programs and myriad exercises in this book while preparing hundreds of trainees for the extreme demands of the most elite levels of the United States Special Operations community. I have spent years developing new training principles, and observing the results. A stellar record led the top command to buy into my system. The military’s most advanced forces–from Navy SEALs to Army Green Berets to Air Force Special Tactics Operators–use these exercises as the backbone to their strength training, and now I bring them to you. Now, for the first time, men and women outside SpecOps have the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of fitness, with an amazingly small sacrifice of your time. Clear, concise, and complete, I bring these exercises into your living room, bedroom, hotel room, garage, yard, office, wherever you like. They are for people of all athletic ability levels, tailored to suit the needs and lifestyles of today’s busy women and men.

No book like this has existed before. Yet for thousands of years–from Ancient Greece’s Olympic athletes to tomorrow’s Special Operations forces–humanity’s greatest physical specimens have not relied on fitness centers in their towns or dumbbells in their homes.

What if I told you that you already have the most advanced fitness machine ever created? Your own body. And what’s so great about this fitness machine is that it’s always there. It is the one and only thing you are never without. And now you’re holding in your hand all the additional exercise equipment you’ll ever need again. It’s no longer necessary to spend hours and hours at a gym. In fact, you won’t have to go to a gym at all. The time spent training, wherever you may be, will be minimal.