Being a Navy SEAL is an accomplishment very few will ever achieve. It takes an insane level of discipline, dedication, and skill. So it stands to reason that the level of training one needs to endure would match this level through a series of challenges and scenarios. Navy SEALs Hell Week is a culmination of this intense training combining high-pressure situations, physical exhaustion, and sleep deprivation into a crucible designed to sharpen skills and determine who's capable of the task at hand. Only about 25% of the military personnel who take on this challenge are able to pass it. Here’s what you need to expect before you endure your Hell Week.

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What Is Hell Week for Navy SEALS?

Hell Week is in the third week of the First Phase of your Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, a 24-week long course designed to hone your leadership, physical, and mental skills. The training will get progressively harder each week and will put you in the midst of some of the most grueling military training out there. Each week will provide harsher physical time restraints, and Hell Week is where everything becomes all-out chaos.

What Do Navy SEALs Do During Hell Week?

During the Navy SEALs Hell Week, you’ll be required to perform many operational tasks for 20+ hours a day. This leaves you with less than four hours for sleeping during the five and a half days you’ll be in this part of your training. Your environment is often cold and wet and is built to develop and test your mental toughness as well as your physical abilities, leadership, attitude, communication skills, teamwork, and more. Remember, this is the same group responsible for the operation that took out Osama Bin Laden. Being a Navy SEAL comes with a necessity to overcome a unique level of difficulty for a reason.

How Many Miles Do Navy SEALs Run During Hell Week?

Prepare to run over 200 miles in the five and a half days you are participating in Hell Week. Combined with the other rigorous physical training you’ll be enduring, as well as sleep deprivation, it's fair to say that these will be the hardest 200 miles that you’ll run in your entire life.

How To Prepare for a Navy SEAL Hell Week

There are very few places that can prepare you for what Hell Week has in store, but we’ve got a few important tips on what you’ll need to do to endure the toughest week of your life:

• A lot of this is mental. Start preparing your mind that it’s going to suck now, and there’s just no way around it. You have to be mentally strong, and the earlier you embrace it, the better.
• Speaking of mental toughness, thinking about the end isn’t going to bring it any faster. It’s over when it’s over, and until then, try not to focus on when it’s going to end.
• You are going to need to be in tip-top physical shape. Train for strength. Train for endurance. You’ll be running, swimming, jumping, lifting… train, train, train.
• Calories are your friends here. While food will be provided at times, you are going to want to eat and eat a lot. Especially high-calorie foods, as you’ll need them to keep you going.
• Jellies and ointments are also your friends. You are going to chafe and bruise, so be prepared to combat these side effects as you face rough terrain and an even tougher schedule.
• Teamwork is going to be necessary, so encourage your fellow troops as you go.

But don’t just take it from us. Former Navy SEAL Frumentarius has devised 10 tips to survive Navy SEAL training's 'Hell Week' that can help you make it through without allowing quitting to even become an option.

Going Through Hell Week and Back

Making it through Hell Week for Navy SEALs is a rite of passage, a great achievement, and the beginning of what could be an exclusive, exciting career. The standards set are insanely challenging because the jobs at hand require the very best of the best to get them done. Keeping America safe from a variety of high-level threats is exactly what Navy SEALs Hell Week will prepare you for. If it's a career path you're choosing to pursue, suck it up, and the best of luck to you for one hell of a ride.

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Image: U.S. Navy via Getty Images