Joe Harker
Footage of the US Navy Seals infamous 'Hell Week' has revealed just how horrifying it really is.
You've probably heard of the Navy Seals, the US Navy's cream of the crop when it comes to special forces, but special forces require very intense training.
It's five and a half days of training in cold, wet conditions with minimal sleep which is meant to test the limits of endurance of the mind and body.
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Footage of exactly what that entails has shown just how punishing a training regimen it is, as it shows a series of testing physical exercises through the early hours of the morning where the recruits are given no time to rest.
It's hour after hour of exercise, knowing that you've got more days of this to get through than you do hours of sleep before Hell Week is over.
Other videos of the training show the recruits getting no rest while covered in freezing cold mud as they attempt to complete the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S) of which Hell Week is a part.
Former Navy Seal Remi Adeleke told the Anything Goes with James English podcast that Hell Week was 'just straight torture'.
He revealed that the whole thing goes from a Sunday night through to Friday morning and those taking part get the grand total of about four hours of sleep in that time.
He said: "They keep you cold and wet the entire time, to the point that towards the end of Hell Week you’re hydrophobic - you’re terrified of the water.
"You get tortured even further. They strip you, you get beaten. You get starved, you’re in a cell that’s miserable."
The former Seal said recruits wanting to make it through the week needed to have a 'deep rooted emotional reason' to keep going despite the torment.
Hell Week has become a controversial aspect of training after some recruits have died because of it and others have ended up hospitalised due to the punishing regime.
24-year-old Kyle Mullen died of pneumonia after completing Hell Week, while one of his fellow candidates had to receive emergency care.
Only about one in five trainees actually make it through the course, which is held in the third week of the first phase of training to filter out those who aren't going to make it at an early stage.
It's described as the toughest training anyone in the US military can go through, designed to test whether someone has the mind and body to become a Navy Seal.