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Anyone who’s familiar with the Navy SEALs knows members of that exclusive group do not mess around when it comes to their conditioning, and some players on the lacrosse team at Tufts University learned that the hard way after attempting a workout inspired by the special operations branch.
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the vast majority of people reading this aren’t intimately familiar with the lacrosse program at Tufts, but the Jumbos have won four DIII national titles since securing their first in 2024 and are currently the reigning champs thanks to their win over RIT earlier this year.
The program is obviously doing something right when it comes to ensuring its players are equipped to handle the challenges thrown their way, but it’s safe to say a number of them were not prepared for a recent workout that led to five members being hospitalized after a dozen guys were treated with a potentially life-threatening condition.
According to Boston.com, a Tufts alum who endured the grueling 56-week training regimen prospective members of the Navy SEALs are required to complete recently headed back to campus to give the lacrosse team a taste of the conditioning workouts he was subjected to during that stretch.
The first step in the journey is the two-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (a.k.a. BUD/S) curriculum that culminates with an impressively taxing Physical Screening Test that requires participants to swim 1,000 meters in less than 20 minutes before banging out at least 60 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, and 60 sit-ups prior to a four-mile run that must be completed in less than 31 minutes (those who fail to pass are removed from the SEAL training program).
That served as the basis for the voluntary 45-minute workout the Tufts lacrosse team was invited to participate in last Friday—one that ended in disaster when 12 players were treated for rhabdomyolysis (a.k.a. “rhabdo”), a potentially fatal condition where damaged muscle releases a substance called myoglobin into the bloodstream that can trigger kidney failure.
Five of those players needed to be transported to the hospital for treatment, and a spokesperson for Tufts told the outlet they were launching an independent investigation into the incident to “determine the circumstances surrounding the situation.”