I don’t often hear about this in the prepper world, we often focus on the beans, bullets, band aids, barter and alternative energies, however much of that is useless in the long run if your in horrible shape.
I’m not one to act as though I am some Spartan Warrior off the set of 300, rippling muscles and six-pack of abs, not at all! I have been in great shape in my life and not so great shape, as with most people i fall in and out of regimented physical fitness.
Only 40% of American exercise on a regular basis, with only 7-8% participating in at least 20 minutes of exercise 3+ times a week, which one can think that this fits most preppers as they are a good slice of Americana, coming from all walks of life, from veterans to lawyers to stay at home Mom’s.
I want you to realize a few things, that may sound harsh but you need to hear them.
- If you are obese or overweight your chances of survival go way down, perhaps even more so than someone less prepared than you
- You will not be able to bug out effectively if you have to
- You will not be able to react to situations where you will need to defend yourself, and you may die, along with your loved ones
- Grid Down living is not easy, it’s not little house on the prairie, wood doesn’t magically appear stacked, deer and moose don’t wander up to your front door and trap lines don’t walk themselves in.
- The coming economic climate will require more DIY and physical activity, the type of activity you have not prepped for, and will be at a disadvantage
- Being obese and even somewhat overweight can highly increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes, two things you do not want in these situations
- Whats the point of prepping if you are going to drop dead a few years from now
- Why would you put away years of food, and set up alternative energy platforms TO PREPARE, but think that life will somehow not require physical activity or you will just RISE TO THE OCCASION?
I don’t say this to be a d*** I do so to help you realize the folly of preparing material goods, while ignoring the most important tool and weapon you have…your body.
The human body is a wonderous machine, one that functions perfectly for all kinds of environments and laborious activities but will only function correctly when you treat it so. In the past Man had to chop his own firewood to stay warm and cook, tend his own animals, plant his own crops, travel miles to hunt, walk many more miles to trade and participate in social activities. Now you can pretty much do everything you need with a cell phone and an internet connection in most modern cities. However we still continue to operate on a basis that takes in massive amounts of calories, once needed for optimal efficiency, but don’t output barely any energy (no walking around the fair grounds will not work off the corn dogs and beer you flush in all day!)
Once again I’m not some big dude, but i do realize the need for physical fitness in my preps and am starting to implement them back into my daily routine. Previously I used to work out 5 times a week, using free-weights and Crossfit. Our small Gym in Afghanistan was outfitted over time at our own expense with a small but functional variety of equipment. However if money is tight you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get in shape, you don’t need a personal trainer and you don’t need $150 gym fees a month (Alaska Club is such a ripoff!)
GYMS-
CROSSFIT
If you have a little spare cash per month for this I would recommend CROSSFIT this is not a Arnold type gym/workout where you get so muscled up you can’t wipe your own but, yes you look big but being “big” often restricts your movement as well as your combat efficiency. What you want is a good mix of strength and endurance, often the free weight muscle heads can bench 300+ pounds but can’t run 5 miles to save their life, why? because they focus on size and not efficiency, Crossfit is a great way to do this, it’s an asskicker but worth it. I can’t recommend this enough and if you find a good instructor running a good gym (there are some crappy crossfit gyms out there) than i can guarantee you, you will notice massive changes in just a month, and you will be in top physical shape of your life in 6+ months.
Other Small Gyms
There are a lot of small gyms, some sole proprietors and some chains that cater to the we don’t want to “pay for spas and massages” type of crowd, they are lower cost some as low as $10 a month, With these all you need to do is go in and work on your endurance first, that is Treadmills, Ellipticals and Stationary Bikes. Now if you are very overweight you should probably start on the Bike and work your way up, Ellipticals are excellent if you have bad knees (often associated with excess weight, and you will notice a massive reduction in this pain as you lose weight). The biggest thing is to push yourself, and MAKE YOURSELF GO, often people start going, then hit a wall, skip a day saying “I’ve been going for 2 weeks now, i deserve break, im wore out!” Next thing you know its been a month! I said you don’t need a personal trainer but if they gym has someone that can give you a basic workout then go for it, just don’t pay for it. Work on small amount of freeweights, hit the resistance training and don’t forget to do leg exercises, they release a lot of Testosterone that helps build muscle.
AT HOME WORKOUTS
I’ve never tried P90x but i have heard good things, however i think this is inferior to Crossfit, by the way crossfit can be done at home for $25 a year you can get access to their WOD (workout of the Day) log your progress on the online journal and they have video tutorials on how to do the exercises correctly. There is also a program called SEALFIT which is based on Navy Seal training, but you wont want to get into that right away, It works very well and is basically the same as Crossfit, but a little more intense. However that being said if you want to go P90x, go for it, whatever works for you, and if your more comfortable with it, hell yeah!
For the Ladies, Crossfit works as well, there are thousands of women and even grandmas doing Crossfit workouts, Don’t worry, a lot of women think that it will make them “bulk up” that’s not the point of Crossfit, not at all, in fact you will need to add a lot of protein and carbs into your diet as well as freeweights to “bulk up”
However My wife is a huge fan of “Jillian Michael’s” Brand of DVD’s, often she just lays down a mat in the living room, pops the baby into the jumper seat and gets in the 30 minutes (baby dictated) of workout right in the living room, it’s a great way to tone, lose fat and up your endurance levels.
As far as equipment you “should” have that of course is all dictate by where you live and the space available. If you have nice areas to run in most of the year don’t buy a treadmill, run outside, get fresh air, and then pay for a low pay gym membership in the winter months, you’ll still save money over buying a treadmill.
As far as “weights” and other accessories
- Kettlebells are an awesome set to have as they are great at building “explosive” strength and you can use them for your biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs and back doing a number of exercises.
- Bench Press. If you have the space get a cheap one, if you don’t but live in California put it in the backyard, if you don’t have the space no worries, you don’t have to have one, this builds muscle, but does little for endurance other than conditioning your muscles against fatigue.
- Rubber Bands. Not the office ones! These are great for shoulder workouts, which i use to help restrengthen my bad shoulder, as I can’t do too many shoulder presses with free weights since my left shoulder tends to just collapse randomly due to an old injury.
- Dumbbells. Great for a lot of the same things as kettle bells, but are used to isolate a few different muscles, they both have their pros and cons
- Ab Roller. Basically just a wheel with two handles you sit on your knees push out on the wheel and pull back, will kill your abs!
- Pushup Bars. You can buy the “Perfect Pushup” bar, but I think those are overpriced, you can even use dumbbells for this as long as they aren’t circular, basically it allows you to go further down in your push up isolating the back and chest more.
- Weight Vest. Basically just a vest you put on that you can slip in weights in various increments (often 2.5 pounds) to run in or do pull-up, or chinups in. This will increase your running endurance and is great if you have a smaller area to run in and don’t want to loop around 50 times, you can slip in the weights and continue to run but get a more effective workout in. For Chinups and Pullups it helps to “drag you down” and you will be amazed after you do this for a while when you jump on the bar without it, how many you can do!
- Pullup Bar. Simple well-known, i have never used the doorway ones, you can just screw in a few pipes onto the rafters and have the same thing, all depends on what you have available for space, but these will help build your chest, arms and back
Why is this so important?
In a bad situation, such as a grid down scenario or economic collapse, a lot of the things we take for granted that are “given” to us will become great feats to accomplish, such as providing food or warmth.
- Stoves need firewood, to get that you need to chop down trees, cut up the log and split it, if you havent done this for an extended period (say to cut more than a few pieces) its hard as heck and not a fun chore, and very hard on your shoulders and back if you are not in shape.
- Food needs to be provided. Game is not easy to come by often so you will have to trek out for miles to stalk and hunt your game. Even with trap lines you have to walk miles and miles and miles to set the traps and check them often, not an easy chore if your winded after half a mile with no pack! Once you get that game you will have butcher it on the spot, quarter it and haul it back to your home or camp, and not in just one haul, you can’t leave that other meat out there so you may have to make 3,4,5 trips!
- Getting water is easy, now. If you have a solar backup for your well pump or for some awesome reason a hydraulic ram with a cistern (see my water preps page about 3/4 the way down) then you will be ok, but if not it’s not a fun chore. Even if the creek is only a few hundred yards away, hauling 5 gallon buckets of water will beat the crap out of you, even if you are in good shape, imagine if you are not! To test this fill up a couple 5 gallon buckets in your garage and walk to the edge of the driveway and back in 10 times, and see how that feels!
- Gardening and raising even just a half-acre of crops and tending animals is very strenuous, our ancestors didn’t start using tractors because they just felt like it, its hard hard work, and your back will let you know after your stooped over for even just an hour.
BUGGING OUT
As I mentioned on My Bug out Bag Podcast you will want to load up your bug out bags with what you think you need and then test them and yourself, I would start with 1 mile and work your way up to 5. If you can’t even walk 5 without the bag you need to work on yourself first, if you are in decent shape but it’s kicking your butt you need to look at redoing the bag and maybe improving yourself, if you are in good shape and it’s kicking your butt, the bag is the problem.
however the main point is, Bugging out usually means loading up the car and going to your retreat place, or family/friends spot, however you NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN, so you MUST PLAN FOR A ON FOOT EVAC! With this you need to realize you may be walking 30+ miles with 50+ lbs of gear. In the case of a on foot move, i would bury some excess stuff along with whatever you had planned on taking in the care, but the point is most if not barely any people can walk 30,40,50 miles even without a heavyish bag. You need, no YOU MUST be one of those. You can have the most in-depth bug out plan in the world, but if your winded after a mile, whats the point? You may be having to move very quickly to get out of dodge or to get away from some “hostile” group.
Home Defense
As much as I hate talking about the “shoot em up” scenarios as i see them to be very…unrealistic, or improbably, they are also still a possibility. Even just a group of 3-4 looters or just plain old dirt bags trying to get into your house or attack it, will cause a heck of a lot of problems for you. This situation is Combat, pure and simple and you need to be able to shoot and move quickly and effectively. One of the big things that leads to missed shots is the crank up in adrenaline when this situation occurs, it happens to Marines and Soldiers overseas and Cops here on the home front, and will happen to you to. This can be mitigated by training (Podcast #10), live fire if possible at a range or on your property. Adrenaline kicks up your heart rate, this is unavoidable especially if this is your first or even 10th “Rodeo” However being out of shape will make you breath harder and your heart beat faster on top of that. This will cause your hands to shake and the weapon to rise and fall more while you are trying to “aim in” on the target. If you are in shape you are “prepping” your body for this scenario, and it could be the difference between life and death.
I hope that this was a good primer for Physical Fitness for all of you, and that it included a few more reasons to incorporate this into your preps. Too often this is overlooked, and we concentrate on the pails of food and the solar panels, but in reality it is one of the biggest lifesavers you may integrate into your preps. Even if nothing EVER happens, being physically fit will improve your life immensely. You will feel better, you will be happier, you will be more productive and more of an asset at work and at home. You will wake up refreshed go to sleep without problems and will live a heck of a lot longer than you would if you didn’t. I’snt that the point of all of this? to improve our lives now and in the future? To be happy, secure and confident no matter the situation?
Interesting premise. No offense, but it’s survival of the fattest, not fittest if the world goes awry. Stock up and sit back. In a year, all the skinny folks will have died off and you can start worrying about your heart health. As a side note, when you’re starving, the heart isn’t working quite so well and your physically fit muscles, devoid of any fat around them to burn calories, will begin to waste.
If youre truly asking a “real” question youll get an answer if you were just trying to illicit a response, you won, youll get one!
By this statement you are banking on alot of starts aligning and things to go the way you think to get to the point where the “skinny people” die off and your fat ass is living pretty.
1) Whatever collapse happens, happens soon
2) Whatever collapse happens, it is total and absolute
3) no despot rises up and consolidates power, or the government doesnt keep moderate control
4) you dont have to do anything other than “sit back”
5) You dont have any health problems arise from being “survival of the fattest”
6) No one notices that you are much heavier than they are
I know a collapse is coming, economically, its simple math, however neither I nor anyone who is credible can say what this will look like or exactly how its going to pan out. It could be a major event, stocks take a dive, there is not recovery in sight, its all over, done. the world descends into anarchy for decades +. It could be a slow (overall) up and down cycle till that day that it goes down and doesnt come back up. This could be in 1 year or 5 years, i feel, without hard facts that it is in 3-5, but i know we are in the beginning stages of it now, but it could still take 2,3,5 years until it gets to that point.
You are betting that the collapse is mad max, that its total and everyone is killing each other, and you are on some tower in the middle of nowhere where NO ONE every could find, or ever know about. The government with all its preparations and military power has no way to secure certain areas of the coutnry which you and apparently everyone else lives in, and no despot could ever find, because every prepper lives in remote wherever like you.
Apparently You have everything covered. You have a large impenetrabel complex, that you can handle all by yourself, from defense to food cultivation. You are a mechanic, doctor, soldier, plumber and farmer, who can fix the solar panels on the roof, the wind towers when they break in teh courtyard, defend against the looters from every angles and fix every pipe when it breaks. You will need no one ever for the future whether its 3 years or 20 years. Because when you get Type II diabetes and need insulin, or have hypertension and cant do physical work somehow you as a doctor will fix that and chop wood to make a fire to cook, and heat water. Because of this you will never need to walk the 25 miles into the nearest town (or more, which you cant because you are “survival of the fattest”) to get a doctor or trade for this with hat when you run low on something because you have 30 years of food stocked away as well as a full complement of livestock that cares for itself and gardens to feed the livestock that grows, cuts, threshes and walks itself to the livestock.
And even if you did go into town no one would notice you are still fatter than them, and if they did notice this wouldnt say “hey this fat shit must have food wherever hes from, lets go get it” and because this wouldnt happen, you woudlnt have to worry about defending yourself against numerous attackers which you couldnt because you couldnt run in full kit to mopve and evade a larger attacking force. but you dont need to worry about that. And apparently when all the skinny people get hungry or the fat people get skinny and then hugnry they wont come to the house that still looks lived in to see if that person has any food, and because this wont happen you wont have to worry about the fact you couldnt defend the whole place because you cant run from room to room picking the attackers off, bceause your blood pressure is up and you have become shaky and unable to accurately fire at them, and when they get in the house can evade your shots because you are huffing and puffing from running up stairs.
you also beleive that being a healthy weight carries heart risk, while being overweight somehow keeps you from it. yes starvation will diminish your ability to fight but so is your lack of endurance being overweight. that somehow being of a normal weight means you will die, will being fat in a house eating cans of vegetables will make you the next warrior of the apocalypse if push comes to shove.
ALSO because we as preppers know exactly whats going to happen also know that if we just become overweight and stock up on food we will NEVER have to leave our homes no matter what the reason, the fire in the neighborhood, or forest will never touch our house because fire recognizes the pinnacle of human preparedness “survival of the fattest” and will not touch the house as well do earthquakes, hurricanes and loots. So you will never have to worry about bugging out, and on foot and not ahve to worry about collapsing after 5 miles because you cant even walk 5 miles without a pack.
But good argument. Sorry if i was harsh but its a fucking stupid argument and point to try to make, and one that YOU KNOW would have to have a harsh response. One cant preface a dumb argument with “thats a interesting point but…” Give me some evidence as to why you think being obese or overweight will put you at the #1 spot in any situation that will acutally happen, without being a multi trillionair and we can have a real talk. because i know if i was of lesser ethics with a gun and saw a fat ass in town i would follow them to their home and then take whats theirs because as all as i just keep them running, it wont take but a few minutes until they are combat innefective and then bust in the door.
You know its said there is no such thing as a dumb question, thats not true, but we have just shown there definitely is such a thing as a dumb statement!
Dear Sir,
You are spending too much time on physical education. I never said I was fat. I was making a scientific statement of fact.. And yes, those who are well fed and stay out of sight will be the ones who survive. Anyone who isn’t armed and who doesn’t know how to defend themselves obviously, faces other obstacles. And I guarantee if you are “fat” and go sauntering through a town where other people are starving, you won’t live ling enough for them to find your food. And yes, I can do all of the things you mentioned, so my bases are covered. You’ll find all of the healthcare providers living amongst the well-stocked preppers.
AKGARDEN,
I apologize if i was seeming to harsh you caught me at a bad moment, I wasnt specifically referring to “YOU” as anything more I was referring to the individual you were talking about that was, in your words “survival of the fattest” it was not an attack on you yourself, but the position you held and idea that a overweight individual was more suited to the coming collapse, etc. So we agree on a few things. If you are “fat” or at leas more “healthy” than others and come into town you will stand out and be an obvious target. An i am glad that you are able to cover all the bases i mentioned that is fricken awesome! however my point is that most people cannot, nor can I so that makes you an abberation, one that someone would love to be come the collapse, but an aberration nonetheless so making a public statement that one would be better off overweight is not a good blanket statement to make that applies to preppers at large but one that applies ot you and only a few others nationwide. My attack (in writing) was on the idea that this could be a example for others to follow, which it is not, the amount of knowledge to cover all the bases i mentioned are ones that woudl take someone decades to master, as well as the physical preparations. So although i am happy for you to have all this covered, it still isnt something that you can go. “You all do this and you will be fine” and know that the majority of the audience could do in the time we have left. However I will say that even the idea that if you dont have much physical activity but are well prepared sooner or later whether that is 5 or 30 years, will have to enter into society, one that is based more around physical labor and thus you will still be at a disadvantage!