It was only when I was dealing with the Covid crisis that I understood that fitness is a resource. Far from being a happy insight, I only realized it was a resource because I was rapidly running out of it. It was sort of like realizing your car runs on gasoline because the Low Gas Light came on; somewhat less than an ideal situation.
Great time to start working out, yes? Well. Yes and No. Exercise damages your body initially, it’s the recovery that builds you back stronger. Sticking with the analogy, that’s like your gas light coming on while you were being chased. Yeah, you need to stop and fill up. Yeah, the people chasing you are going to catch up while you do that. Keep going without filling up and you will run out and your pursuers catch up.
Unlike other resources, you cannot panic buy (or obtain by other means) fitness at the last minute. By the time you realize you need more of it, then it’s probably too late. Fielding three kids, one an infant, while your wife struggles to breathe is not a time where you get to institute an exercise routine. You’ve got what you brought.
Thankfully, my reserve saw me through. Got away from the pursuers before the car ran out. In that situation, you immediately start looking for a gas station. What does that mean in the real world? It means instituting a healthier lifestyle that will allow you to build up an adequate reserve of fitness for your next test. Whether that test is trying to get out of a warzone, fighting to defend your family, or staying fit enough you can take your grandkids fishing, the test is coming. Now is the time to build your reserve.
In this article I’m going to go over mistakes I’ve made in thinking about fitness, mistakes I’ve made in training, and will end with resources and principles that I think will help you get where you want to be. All the normal caveats apply, this is not medical advice, I am not a doctor, consult your doctor to make sure you’re putting in place a good exercise regimen for you and your situation. Depending on where your health is your starting point and path forward may be different but we all have a path forward. We need to make progress on it. Go talk to your doctor and get working on progress.
My wandering path to fitness
When I was a teenager my older brother gave me a weightlifting book and I started following it. No real thought beyond “here’s the routine, I follow it”. Fast forward a few years and I paid for a body composition analysis. I got my numbers and I asked the coach who administered it if I was fit. He kind of sagged in his chair, shrugged, and asked: “What’s fit?”
I didn’t know what to say. I don’t remember what I did say. What I realized afterward was that I had poorly defined my goal. I wanted to be “fit” but had no idea what that meant.
What that coach taught me after my stunned silence was that my body would adapt to the training I was giving it. If I ran marathons, I would be more able to run marathons and I would look more like a marathon runner. If I started powerlifting, I would be better able to powerlift and I would look more like a powerlifter. My body is not equally suited to both but whichever one I practice is the one my body will adapt to do. Ultimately that gave me my answer to the coach’s question: “Fitness is what you can do“.
So what does a prepper need to be able to do? The answer is “a lot” and “it depends what you foresee”. Only you can answer those questions but your answers are going to fall into two categories: generalized fitness and specific training.
Specific training means there are no substitutes. Some exercises like running and rucking you have to start small and build up slowly or you will get an injury. You have to accustom your body to those repeated stresses over time or your body breaks. Other things like swimming are so unique that there is minimal carryover. It doesn’t matter how good your general cardio is, if you haven’t gone swimming in years you’ll be unpleasantly surprised what a couple hundred yards of breaststroke does to you. If you foresee specific needs you need to determine if that specific need needs specific training to avoid injury.
Generalized fitness on the other hand are things you will benefit from regardless of what happens. The ability to move well (climb, crawl, run, walk), a strong and efficient cardiovascular system, good range of motion, injury-resistant joints (shoulders, knees, ankles), the ability to lift and carry everyday objects, these are things that we will need no matter what the future holds.
Once you have an idea of what your needs will be you can focus on balancing the specialized training and the generalized training. Again, consider this time spent building your health as a preparation. If fitness is meaningless drudgery then we bump it with things that we think are higher priority. When you see it as building a health reserve so that you can handle whatever is coming, I think that reveals its importance. This is one more reserve you need to lay in and again, you can’t leave it to the last minute. It’s a free reserve but you need to lay it in, rep by rep, week by week.
My litany of mistakes
It would be nice to say that after that experience with a coach that I made good fitness choices. I did not. In the hopes that you can benefit from my mistakes, here are some of my biggest ones:
I ignored warmups.
My testosterone-addled brain said: “if I ever have to run for my life or fight for my life or act in an emergency I won’t have time to warm up.” That is a true statement but what my younger self missed was that those are the tests we mentioned earlier. The tests draw upon your fitness stockpile. Those warmups are there to help you build that stockpile while avoiding injury. Y’know: injuries. Those things that will deplete your reserves and cost you valuable time.
I ignored cooldowns.
I didn’t feel bad when I skipped them and I told myself I had no time. So of course I skipped them. What I didn’t understand was that especially after strength training if you do not stretch as part of your cool down you will lose mobility. Mobility that took months and even years to build back.
I half-followed programs.
I followed a pullup program that specified that I should be doing a certain amount of pushups. I skipped said pushups and kept doing the pull-ups. Shockingly, this led to an imbalanced pair of shoulders which led to…you guessed it: injury. I screwed up both of my rotator cuffs and rehabbed them for two years. So. Don’t swap out aspects of workout program unless you’re very sure you know what you’re doing.
I dropped cardio training first.
Theoretically, I was doing cardio twice a week with my program. Realistically, I was doing a cardio a couple times a month. “I just don’t have time” is what I said when in reality I was spending it on other things. But cardio pays the bills. Your ability to keep walking or keep working is related to your cardio level. Your ability to deal with an adrenaline dump that spikes your heart rate is related to your cardio level. Your ability to generate large amounts of power in short time is less directly related but still closely related to your cardio. Cardio starts taking over really quickly, if you’re fighting for more than 20 seconds, your aerobic system is kicking in, and you get to hope it’s adequate. You’ll find out.
I didn’t do any core-focused training.
I wasn’t looking to build a “beach body” so building “six pack” abdominal muscles wasn’t on my to-do list. That sounds smart. I was focusing on capability not looks. What I didn’t realize was how central your core is to a lot of the things I wanted to do. You want to throw a solid hook? You need a strong core. You want to throw a strong knee strike? You need a strong core. You want to sprint short distances? You need a strong core. You want to climb well? You want to grapple? You want to carry something heavy over a long distance? You want to shovel your walk without throwing your back out? Dig a garden? Avoid hernias later in life? Stand upright and walk well in old age? For all of those things: You. Need. A. Strong. Core. It’s not vanity, it’s practicality itself to train your core.
I went hardcore or not at all.
I couldn’t sustain a hardcore training regimen and when I tried I gave myself injuries. Then I wasn’t in a rush to jump back in or I jumped too soon and gave myself another injury. I learned that too much is bad but I didn’t fully understand that a little is in fact better than nothing. Going slowly and consistently and building volume and intensity is not weakness it’s wisdom. Yeah, running a mile to begin with seems like nothing compared to what I used to do. Running two miles to start will put me out of training for a week, that’s a net loss. Far better to run 3 miles over the entire week as I focused on sustainability. It was a false sense of pride to only go full bore.
Debunking excuses
In addition to making mistakes I also made a lot of excuses and heard them from others. They will all lead you to a place where you don’t want to be. So let’s hit a few of these excuses, head-on:
“Yeah, I know I’m carrying around a few extra pounds but it’s not that bad.”
Realistically, the risk factors for something like diabetes are quite modest. SurvivalBlog author Scott M. points out the risk factors he had “a sedentary lifestyle (I had episodic exercise but nothing regular), overweight by 20-25 pounds, stressful work schedule and irregular sleep patterns.” That describes a lot more of us than we’d like, and it is not hard to be there.
“Nobody lives forever I’d rather die fat and happy.”
Well the fat part is achievable. I don’t think the fleeting repeated pleasure of over-eating will outweigh the guilt of knowing I’ve become a burden on my children. I don’t think failing as a parent and grandfather because I wanted more grease and sugar yields “happiness” in any meaningful sense. To say nothing of the fact that modern medicine means I can be kept alive in physical misery as my body pays for my gluttony. Oh, and the medical bills eat any inheritance I would have left my children.
“No pleasure is worth foregoing for an extra 3 months in the geriatric ward.”
I recall more chilling numbers but I learned that a healthy lifestyle gives you on average 7 years longer life and delays a disability onset by 6 years. Maybe 6 years fewer of not being a burden on my family is worth some lifestyle changes. Maybe those extra 7 years (perhaps the difference between seeing your great grandchildren, or not) are actually worth foregoing a few fleeting pleasures.
“If I start working out I’ll be sore and weaker for a good while before I start seeing results. I won’t be as able to do anything if an emergency happens tomorrow.”
Yeah, there’s some truth to this. If we knew for sure the balloon was going up tomorrow, I would not advise you to go hit the gym. The problem is we don’t know. If you use this excuse you will never get in better shape and you will be a net drain on your family and neighbors. Take the gamble that’s low risk and high reward. This excuse is really your ego trying to save face. Show courage instead.
“What’s the use of trying at my age?”
You’re right. We can’t win. That doesn’t mean we lose, in a rout. We ought not cede an inch more territory than we must and we must launch counter-offensives to take back what we can. Jack LaLanne towing rowboats with his teeth when was 70 may be a level of success we can’t match but we need to be closer to him than the guy who gave up on exercise in his 30s. Otherwise, we might wind up housebound in our 60s.
“Great, so I’ll have a decaying mind trapped in a fit body.”
Physical training will help you delay your intellectual decay. Even if you are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s physical exercise is recommended because it seems to slow the progression of the disease at all stages. If you want to keep your mental faculties sharp physical training is indicated.
(To be continued tomorrow, in Part 2.)