Survival UK Forums

I've read several articles recently about the benefits of fitness. All of them were in some way centred around work-outs at the gym or on home equipment, or involved some sort of roadwork. It got me thinking. We're all going to need to be "fit" to cope with the aftermath of any disaster, but how fit and fit for what?

I personally couldn't run a mile - I have boobs (ouch!). Jog a mile (possibly), or walk a mile (no sweat). So does that make me unfit?

I'm in the process of breaking an eejit of a pony to do some work for his living. This involves quite a lot of work. Now, to break a pony in you have to somehow kid him that you are stronger than he is and so it is better for him to do as you say. Half a ton of horse that suddenly decides not to cooperate is difficult to cope with and no amount of human strength will stop that animal taking off if he feels like it. I have the knowledge to deal with it, but it does not involve any physical strength beyond actually holding reins and keeping my wits about me. No amount of pumping iron in a gym would help here (sorry Scythe 13!), and it's not muscle but brain that is going to complete the job. Does that make me unfit?

I can garden all day and still be upright at the end of the day (maybe a twinge in the bum area...), but OH can't do it. He doesn't have the technique to protect himself from all that bending, digging and raking... but does that make him unfit?

My OH does a lot of the hard physical work around our place. I can hoick feed sacks and throw hay bales around (they're not light), but I've learned how to do it without hurting myself, and it's more technique than physical prowess. OH is a whizz at cutting up the logs to stack and store them. He makes it look so easy - heft the axe, a short swing and chop and done! I can do that too, but I use far too much energy and it leaves me breathless after a couple of minutes. OH won't let me do it now - he says I'm a danger to myself and the logs. But does being breathless after that exercise make me unfit, or is it just that my fitness is reserved for other activities?

So, when are you "fit", or is it just a question of being "fit for that particular purpose"? Perhaps we need to decide what we are likely to be involved in doing and concentrate of dealing with that in the most efficient manner, and of course with the least harm done to oneself.

I understand what you are saying about technique and being fit for purpose and this does have a vital importance

sometimes it's about the tools too. If I had to any serious digging I would not be using a spade I would be using my Azadas

I think the thing about increasing fitness is all about get yourself into better physical condition so you may be able to cope with unexpected situations in your example say your OH has twisted his ankle and can't cut the wood if you've got a better fitness you maybe able to step in and filling the cap until the OH is better. Some may live in cities and look at fitness as important just to give them the egde in terms of getting out of danger areas quicker than the rest.

Me I need to work on my fitness but my first goal is to quit smoking and part of this will be pounding the streets when it getsto the more difficult spots in the quitting

For me my fitness has slipped significantly over the last few years of being office based - this is something I am actively starting to correct but it is a long road ahead.

I can walk for England, including with kit but ask me to run more than 100m and I'm buggered so its my cardio-vascular I am working on at present (swimming, running machine, rowing machine, x trainer).

I have always believed you need overall fitness - a lot of people either focus on cardio-vascular OR strength/endurance but I believe you need a good mix of both.

Personally I am trying to get to a similar mix as we had in the military so fit-for-purpose really! Now as to what the purpose is well that is a different matter! Is it purely survival postSHTF or longer term and maintainable is the question only you personally can answer......

Good luck to all though!

I can walk at about 3 MPH all day carrying 50 pound rucksack, but I could not run more than about 50 yards. I can lay still in a hide on OBS for hours on end but cannot sprint !!!

(22 June 2013, 21:21)NorthernRaider Wrote: [ -> ]I can walk at about 3 MPH all day carrying 50 pound rucksack, but I could not run more than about 50 yards. I can lay still in a hide on OBS for hours on end but cannot sprint !!!

I can do all the above, including the sprinting and laying in a hide. Can even sprint with a 50lb rucksack and lay in the hide with a 50lb rucksack. It is only 50lbs though, just above 20kgs. WOO, 10 points for fitness! You can do more stuff while fit, than you can while unfit. Just think of something you can do unfit. It you're fit, you can still do that, but you can also run. Therefore, you can do more with a good level of fitness than you can without. If someone speaks about being stealth, you can be stealth when fit, but you can also run haha.


Okay, on with the initial reference.

Breaking in a pony....damn right strength won't win. Unless you weigh more than the horse, and it's all muscle, of course the pony would win. With things like that, it's all about technique, and you know that technique. A friend of mine has a beast of a horse called Sunny. He once decided he wanted to walk out of the gate, as soon as he got out his stable (someone, not me, left the gate open). I pushed him, on his chest, to the side (turns out that was the right thing to do) so that he wouldn't get out the gate. He changed course, and that bought enough time for someone else to close the gate. There is no way I could push that horse with brute strength, if I hadn't accidentally pushed his chest, even though that's what I did from reaction. With many things, technique is key.

Technique is key for splitting logs. If you just swing and hope for the best, you'll soon find that wood vs axe doesn't always go the way you're expecting haha. Same as with a fight, yes you can swing as hard as you can, and you may well get lucky (10 points if you do), but learning technique saves a lot of effort, and scars.

The basic principle of working out for fitness, is to help build muscle. I also highly endorse running (I'm a fan of barefoot running techniques and the Pose technique of running) if it's done correctly, to help build cardiovascular fitness. But the reason for doing them is more important.

As I-K-E said, fitness is useful for when you are required to do things you may not be as good at. Think of it this way, fitness is a tool used as compensation for when technique is not fully learned, or is in the process of being learned.

I always imagine the possibility of carrying your BOB and needed to get away from an area. Are you going to walk out of there with your pack, run out of there without your pack, or will you have the fitness to be able to run out with your pack and not be totally goosed for the next 10 minutes?

Another possibility, imagine you're away and something goes wrong! EMP! Nothing's working. Go to the car, get your GHB, how would you want to get home? Averaging a walking pace, or being able to interval running and walking to average a much higher speed to get you home in half the time?

What about a situation where someone is injured or there's a problem you need to help with? Maybe the OH or a child, is in a burning building and you are in there too. They're unconscious. Could you get them out via a fireman's carry? If not, could you drag them out? You can't always rely on adrenalin to kick in though, so what do you do?

What about a deer you've shot? Could you lift it from the floor to your shoulder? Could you carry it in one move back home? Could you run a part of that distance? Could you lift it up so that you can hook it for butchering? Damn it, the stupid winch system broke! Got to lift it by hand.

Yep, time to chop those logs.

Damn it, I have to jump start this car.

Damn it, I have to push this car out of the way and the battery is missing.

Damn it, the pony has been stolen and I now need to plough the field by hand.

Damn it, the tree has fallen over and I have to cut it up and move the heavy branches out of the way ASAP.

Damn it, I have to pose in little Speedo's, covered in fake tan, and do a posing routine to classical music....urm.....ignore that haha.

Do you get where I'm coming from?

It's difficult to decide what you need to be fit for, because you don't know what you will come up against. Learning technique is the best thing, but there are a lot of techniques to learn, and not much time to learn them. Fitness is my personal panacea. It covers more bases than a simple skill set, and for some things, strength wins, and others, cardiovascular fitness wins. At least by having cardiovascular fitness, as well as strength, they add to your capability to do regular tasks.






Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention. Being in the gym (for me at least) helps to reinforce the mental discipline element of survival. I push for that one more rep. When running, I have to force myself to sprint for that next lamppost and not quit when it hurts. I have to run past the road where I live, to push for that one more mile. Fitness is also about positive mental attitude and pushing your limits. Damn right I can carry your 50lb pack and mine at the same time.

Getting fitter also makes you feel better. A few years ago I was walking my dogs on a 5 mile route daily but didn't seem to be getting any fitter, so I simply started walking faster until I was doing it at a fast march. I didn't lose any weight ( I'm still fat ) but I did feel better all day.

for post shtf, I don't think we are talking "marathon" fit or "bodybuilder" fit, we need to be fit enough for the tasks we will have to do post collapse, that'll be mostly manual labour..digging ditches, gardening, looking after animals, hunting, foraging, fishing if near the coast,cutting down trees, cutting up firewood, that sort of thing. we'll also be having a better diet..none of that junk food rubbish.

I was always a defender in rugby, too big too sprint...

Don't get me wrong my legs go faster its just my body doesn't...

My son calls my fast walking " crack head walking" like a druggie walking for his crack!! 3 miles in about half an hour ish that's empty with no pack etc...

I think it'd be more like N.R.'s 3 miles an hour with pack or load that seems a pretty decent walking loaded pace.

That "crack head walk" seems to be not to be far off what i start running at, just a tad faster and I'd be running...
Cant stand running.... not my favorite game at all.

I prefer fast walking to running seconded to bike riding...
Skate boarding, roller skating ANYTHING but running...

3 MPH with a ruck on a GOOD day for me, 2.5 at best with a loaded ruck on a normal day I'm no rambo besides I like to be very situationally aware when bugging out so chances are if I was sneaking out of town for real I would be luckt to do 1.5 MPH in all honesty.

I used to be able to walk..on a road with no pack at 4MPH...I timed it once to a village I knew was 4 miles away from where I started, but these days its more like 3mph, and off road WITH a pack?..more like 2 MPH I should think, that's on my own, in a group will be going at the pace of the slowest so could me more like 1.5 MPH!