Lewis HowesYour Personal 24/7 Greatness Coach

How NYPD Finds The STRONGEST Officers

9 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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1:02

In this segment, a former NYPD recruit recounts the grueling physical regimen designed to weed out weaker candidates. He describes the "green lane of death," a mile‑and‑half run repeated 25 times, where anyone who falls behind is yanked out and forced to do endless "suicide" runs across the gym. The atmosphere is brutal: recruits vomit, are pulled back into the line, and are constantly reminded that the goal is to make them quit. In the first month, about 300 trainees quit. A fellow recruit explains that the system is intentional – it wears down the weak so only the strongest remain. The speaker decides not to quit, endures the escalating hardship, and eventually leverages the experience to become a Secret Service agent, illustrating the program’s purpose of producing elite, resilient officers.

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When I joined the nypd, the gym had this green lane of death, and they would have you run this line 25 times. 25 times was a mile and a half. If you fell back a little, they would pull you out. They would yank you out, put you in the middle, and then they'd have you run suicides back and forth across this huge gym. I mean, I would see grown men go over to the trash can, puke, and then they'd be like, get back in there. My first run, I fall out, and they yank me out. I'm doing my suicide runs. I'm heaving. And then they have me and the other fall, fall out, stand in the middle, and you're looking at about maybe 500 people. They get in there, and they're like, do you see these people here in the middle? They're gonna get you. So when you all go in the locker room downstairs to change, you tell them they need to quit. First month, 300 quit. I had one friend, and he said to me, don't quit. It's a game. And I'm like, what do you mean, it's a game? I didn't understand. He's like, that's what they do. They wear you out. And they want people to quit. They want the weak to quit so the strong stay. Don't let them win. And I stuck it out. And every day got a little bit easier and a little bit easier and a little easier from that, I became a Secret Service agent.