Application of Bodybuilding and Supplementation to the Crunch, by A.T.

I am just beginning my journey into the prepping world and it is amazing when I look back over the last year just how far I have come.  Being only 22 years old, and living on my own since 18 away at school and living in a large metropolitan area, it wasn’t my first priority when I first left home.  I went through my first few years living the typical college life.  However, two years in, traveled to China for a while and it really opened my eyes as to how messed up the government of that country is.  What …




Letter Re: Physical Fitness and Trigger Time

JWR, After reading the recent MBR article by Zorro, it seems that all the amateurs still fuss over the 5.56/7.62 or 9mm/.45 debate. At our police agency here in the Southwest, we focus on increasing our trigger time via the SIRT laser training pistol, practicing fundamentals through live and dry fire, working through scenarios (lessons learned) and practicing “range fitness”. A great resource for range fitness is www.militaryathlete.com. Rob Shaul speaks of high percentage shooting positions based upon the experiences of combat veterans, as well as developing the fitness needed to put the gun in the fight.  It seems that …




Letter Re: Physical Fitness for TEOTWAWKI Preparedness

James: After reading the BYU Kid’s excellent article on physical fitness for TEOTWAWKI, I had to respond.  I had to take exception to his statement that Crossfit wasn’t recommended because it’s “Metabolic conditioning is not conducive to the ultimate goal of being useful, functional and simple.” The heart of Crossfit is in fact functional fitness for Law Enforcement and our Military.  I’ve been involved in fitness all my life due to my chosen occupation as a police officer (now retired) and my current occupation as a protection specialist which is what most people refer to as a bodyguard.  I’ve been …




Letter Re: Physical Fitness for TEOTWAWKI Preparedness

JWR: In his recent article, The BYU Kid offered some pretty solid advice regarding physical fitness, but neglected to mention a couple things that are important for some of the exercises he mentioned.  1.) The pushup should be done slowly – most people when doing pushups tend to rush through them as fast as they can. While there is something to be said for explosive power training, for the purposes of functional strength the pushup should be smooth and controlled – two seconds for the descent, hold at the bottom for a second, then two seconds for the ascent. Make …




Physical Fitness for TEOTWAWKI Preparedness, by The BYU Kid

There’s one thing that’s guaranteed in any SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situation, and that’s the age old adage that only the strong survive. But how do we get to that point? How can we improve our strength with things that will actually be adaptable to a survival situation? I would like to lay out a few selected exercises that have direct carryovers to very important skills and suggest a program for you (not my own) and offer a couple workouts that you can incorporate into your current routine. First, let’s talk about what’s not necessary: any routine found in a bodybuilding …




TEOTWAWKI Vitamin and Mineral Recommendations, By Dr. Bob

Vitamins and minerals are a multi-billion dollar business currently in the US.  Our food is plentiful and fortified, and the use of these pills are generally completely unnecessary.  Medically, the recommendation for vitamins and supplements–from multiple sources–is as follows:  There are no vitamins or supplements needed for typical adults eating a balanced diet with regular sun exposure or consumption of fortified dairy products.  That being said, WTSHTF there will be obvious changes to our typical fattened-calf diets.  Plan accordingly, but there is very little that some people will do, stretching the valuable resources of the rest of us.  Depending on …




Avoiding Heat Injuries, by Dr. Bob

As it is affecting so many of us right now, seems like a good time to give you some information about heat-related problems and preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Heat Exhaustion most often occurs when people work or play in a hot, humid place and body fluids are lost through sweating, causing overheating of the body.  Usually a person is dehydrated to some degree, from mild to severely.  The person’s temperature may be elevated, but not above 104 degrees.  Now, most of us can go inside a cool down either in air-conditioned vehicles or homes.  Even the movies are a great …




Letter Re: How to Live Longer Now and After TEOTWAWKI

James: I love the blog and a lot of the articles. I am a dermatologist and wanted to comment on the Vitamin D article posted on July 21, 2011. Despite what you might read on the Internet, you cannot get a significant amount of Vitamin D from sunlight. This is a huge misconception. Even if you tanned for 8 hours, you would only get about 3% of your daily Vitamin D. You would also cause a lot of sun damage which increases your risk of skin cancer. I realize a lot of information says otherwise, but if you check with …




How to Live Longer Now and After TEOTWAWKI, by Kevin D.

Many people take a multi-vitamin.  Some people take multiple supplements.  However, an often overlooked vitamin deserves your closer scrutiny – vitamin D.  New research indicates that vitamin D has holistic effects on the body that cannot be replicated by any other supplement.  These positive effects include, but are not limited to, reduced cancer rates, reduce incidences of heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduced incidences of influenza, and more.  Best of all, for most people, obtaining the proper dosage of vitamin D is incredibly safe, simple, and inexpensive.  In fact, some researchers believe so strongly in the benefits of vitamin D …




TEOTWAWKI Preventive Medicine, by Dr. Bob

There have been many article about medical advice and certainly there is no shortage of information available in SurvivalBlog. But as a good old-fashioned country doctor I hope to give you some solid, comprehensive information that you can use now to prepare for WTSHTF.  There are some basic assumptions about TEOTWAWKI that most people have pondered.  Let’s go over the lists first.  It will be darker, colder, hotter, wetter, drier, and dirtier.  There will be less safety, less clean water, less food, more danger, more work, more exposure, and more pain.  Sounds like a bad camping trip. The difference is …




Raising a Healthy, Happy Infant in a Survival Situation, by Brittany B.

Humidifier – check. Electric fan – check. Lullaby CD – check. Nightlight – check. Final kisses and whispered prayers, and at last you’re ready to lay your tiny baby down to sleep. Modern convenience makes caring for a little one easy as pie and exhaustingly complicated at the same time. Our parents muse, “How did we ever get by without that nursing pillow/bottle warmer/Sippy cup tether?” Yet somehow, the human race got this far without all of today’s fancy gadgets designed to ease parents through the baby years, and we would be wise to consider how it used to be …




Two Letters Re: The Case For Silver Spoons

Hi Jim, I wholeheartedly agree with using silver spoons daily. At issue with the article is the fact that many people have misconceptions about colloidal silver including F.J.B.  It should not be consumed internally.  Gargling or swishing around the mouth is fine, as is using it in a nasal sprayer for the sinuses and nasal passages.  Swallowing colloidal silver, however, is not advised.  The problem is that the elemental silver reacts with the hydrochloric acid in the stomach to produce silver chloride which does not have any of the sought after properties the the metallic silver has.  It will however …




The Case For Silver Spoons, by F.J.B.

Most folks today would agree that we live in troubled times. At any moment, a single event could change the balance of our society for the worse, taking us back to what some might call the dark ages. Predicted solar flares, EMPs, earthquakes, or  even terrorist activity today could lead to a complete infrastructure failure that would affect every aspect of our future. During such a grim event, our personal health would be a great concern. Without refrigeration, many medicines would spoil. Without power, pharmaceutical plants shut down. The few hospitals that have back-up power will soon run out and …




Minerals, Nutrients and Essential Oils for Survival, by M.G.M.

As my husband excitedly plans how to care for our family if disaster strikes and  how to live on bare minimal amounts of food, I am preparing my heart for caring for my family during hard times.  I know that my job is maintaining the emotional presence of my family during the hard times that we may face. These are things that we can all inexpensively incorporate into our lives now and reap the benefits from.  I am also happy to tell you that these are things that you can use around your house every day, and will also bring …




No Cost and Low Cost Simple Beneficial Habits, by L.L.V.

There are some no nonsense, low-cost hands on things that we can do right now and daily to become more prepared in a slow and steady, simple manner. I recommend using Regularly Unavoidable Training Triggers (RUTTs). Getting in a RUTT could save your life. We all know people that are in a rut.  Some people like to smoke their cigarettes and some spend hours a day in front of the television.  Some people without even thinking about it pick up a little bit of candy or junk food when standing in line at the grocery store.  The truth is that …