Most of the people of the world and especially Americans are urban dwellers. We commute to an office every day and sit at a desk. Just as the skills needed to do this don’t prepare us for a shortage of water or food, they don’t prepare us to evacuate on foot or run from danger. But unlike other parts of preparedness, they actually work against us in a future survival situation.
When I was a freshman in college I was returning to school in Oklahoma with a friend. About three miles outside a little town in the middle of no where, my check engine light came on the car quickly stopped running. It wasn’t going to start again because the engine was frozen solid and would have to be replaced.
Here we were stranded in the middle of nowhere. This was in the age before cell phones and we couldn’t call for help. My friend said “We’re only three miles out of town. I’ll just jog there and get help.” I thought he was crazy, but that’s just what he did and returned with a tow truck in under an hour.
You can see how easily this type of situation could happen. And the only thing you need to have to overcome it is the ability to jog, or walk, a few miles.
What if there is a chemical spill in your town and your car won’t start. How are you going to get out of the danger area? Walk, jog, run. Aerobic/Cardiovascular fitness isn’t the only type of fitness. How much weight can you lift? Can you lift it without hurting yourself? Could you pick up your unconscious child or spouse and carry them out of a burning building? Your in a storm and a roof falls on you. Can you bench press a fallen joist off yourself?
In my opinion, these are the things you need to be able to do at any time:
– Run full out for 200 yards
– Jog for two miles, preferably over uneven terrain
– Walk for 20 miles in a day
– Hike, with a pack, for half that, 10 miles a day.
– Swim for 300 meters
– You need to be able to lift 25% of your body weight over your head
– You need to be able to squat half your body weight.
This isn’t as hard as it sounds. When I turned 40 a couple of years ago I realized I needed to get into shape. I had never in my entire life ran more than 1/2 a mile. My birthday is in January. In May I ran my first 5K and in July of that same year I ran a sprint triathlon, 300 meter swim, 12 mile bike ride, 5K run. I wasn’t fast but I finished, as a matter of fact I finished 298 out of 300 in the tri, but I did it and I was in good shape.
The biggest problem we have when we want to develop a skill is motivation. You are being called on to do something you don’t have to do, but you need to do. The first thing you can do is set goals. There is the list above as a long term goal. Along the way it is good to have shorter term goals and events that will motivate you. For instance I found planning to run a race like a 5K at the end of a 9 week running program.
For the purposes of starting a running program, I’m going to recommend the same program I used CoolRunning.com’s “The Couch to 5K
in 9 weeks”. It is an easy program that only requires you to run for 20-to-30 minutes, three times a week.
Now for strength training. This is a little more complicated because it requires some equipment. The program I recommend is Body for Life. Buy the book, ISBN 0060193395, and avoid the supplement hype. It is a well balanced program that includes diet, weight training and cardiovascular training. You could use the above running program for the cardio portion or stick with Body for Life‘s High Intensity Training (HIT).
For the weight lifting part you’ve got a few options. You can join a gym which has the advantage of lots of different equipment and a social atmosphere that some people thrive in. It has the disadvantage you have an on going expense and have to go somewhere three days a week to workout. Another advantage in the overall program a gym brings is they probably
have a swimming pool and if you want to work toward your swimming goal, you’ll need that.
Instead of a gym, you might just buy some simple equipment and work out at home. What my wife and I did was to buy a set of PowerBlocks, which are just fancy dumbbells, and simple weight bench. They take up less room that a rack of dumbbells or even plate weights. You can work nearly all of your muscles with just dumbbells.
No matter how you choose to integrate fitness training into your lifestyle and preparedness program it is a survival skill you’ll benefit from even without a TEOTWAWKI situation. Physical fitness gives you more energy through out your day and lowers you risk for all kinds of diseases and injuries. So make a plan and start moving toward it today.
The Forgotten Survival Skill: Physical Fitness, by Ron D.
