Preparing for BUD/S
The PST gets you a contract and a class date. It is also the easiest part of the process to prepare for, which is why the numbers people arrive with say very little about who finishes.
The PST is the entry gate
The Physical Screening Test decides whether you get a contract and a class date. It is five events in one session, in this order, with ten minutes of rest between each.
| Event | Minimum | Competitive | Strong |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500-yard swim — sidestroke or breaststroke | 12:30 | 9:30 | 8:45 |
| Push-ups, 2 min | 50 | 75 | 90 |
| Sit-ups, 2 min | 50 | 75 | 90 |
| Pull-ups, no time limit | 10 | 15 | 20 |
| 1.5-mile run, boots or shoes | 10:30 | 9:30 | 8:45 |
The minimum column is close to irrelevant. Nobody gets a contract at the minimums, and nobody survives First Phase on them. The competitive column is where candidates who get classed up actually sit, and the strong column is where the ones who finish tend to be.
The Navy’s annual fleet test — push-ups, forearm plank and a 1.5-mile run, scored in performance levels — is a different test entirely. If you are already in the Navy, you take both, and only one of them gets you to Coronado. The PRT calculator is here.
Learn the sidestroke first
The single biggest difference between candidates who improve quickly and candidates who plateau is whether they learned the combat sidestroke properly or just swam harder.
The 500 is swum sidestroke or breaststroke, and the combat sidestroke is what the pipeline teaches: a long glide, minimal splash, a stroke built for distance in kit rather than for speed in a lane. It is a technical skill. Two months of coached technique work will take more off your 500 than a year of thrashing, and thrashing has a ceiling you will hit.
If you can get one session with a swim coach who knows the stroke, that is the highest-leverage hour in your entire preparation. If you cannot, film yourself from the side and compare it against the stroke as the training guide describes it.
What the course is
BUD/S runs in three phases after a preparatory course, and each removes a different kind of person.
- First Phase — physical conditioning. Running in soft sand, the obstacle course, ocean swims, surf, boat crews and Hell Week. This is where the attrition is.
- Second Phase — combat diving. Where comfort in water stops being a nice quality and becomes the whole thing. Pool competency ends a lot of courses.
- Third Phase — land warfare. Weapons, demolitions, small-unit tactics, on San Clemente Island.
A striking share of people who leave do so in First Phase, and not because they could not run. Cold water, wet sand, no sleep and no idea when it ends is a different problem from fitness, and it is not solved by another interval session.
A year of preparation
- Months 1–4 — technique and base. Swim three times a week with technique as the point. Run easy and often, building volume slowly. Push-up, sit-up and pull-up volume accumulated across the week rather than tested every session.
- Months 5–8 — specificity. Swim intervals paced off a 500 time trial. Run intervals alongside easy volume. Start doing the PST events in the actual order with the actual rests, because the order is part of the test — your pull-ups happen after 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups.
- Months 9–12 — cold, sand and repetition. Get in open water. Get comfortable being cold and wet without it ruining your day. Run in sand. Take full PSTs every three or four weeks and treat the numbers as data rather than as a verdict.
Do not neglect strength entirely. The people who get hurt in First Phase are frequently endurance athletes with no structural resilience — carrying boats and logs is a strength problem, and it arrives whether you trained for it or not.
The pool and the pavement in one feed
Lensatic’s eight-week swim programme paces itself off a 500-yard time trial and works technique, threshold, speed and long aerobic separately, so you do not end up efficient but stuck in one gear. Open Water proves it outside — sighting, breathing both sides, treading, and cold worked up gradually. The PST Prep plan runs the whole screen, and the standards board shows your five events against the numbers that matter.
See the plans Navy PRT calculatorQuestions
What is a competitive PST score?
Roughly a 9:30 swim, 75+ push-ups, 75+ sit-ups, 15+ pull-ups and a 9:30 run. Candidates who finish the pipeline typically sit better than that.
Which stroke for the 500?
Sidestroke or breaststroke. The combat sidestroke is what the pipeline teaches and what most competitive times are swum with.
How long is BUD/S?
Around six months across three phases, after a preparatory course — and that is before SQT and the rest of the pipeline.
Do I need to be a strong runner or a strong swimmer?
Both, but the swim is the one most candidates can improve fastest, because for most people it is limited by technique rather than fitness.
Is this official?
No. This is preparation guidance published by Deadlift Digital LLC, drawn from Navy recruiting’s published PST standards and the Naval Special Warfare Physical Training Guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Navy or the Department of Defense.