Fitness & Health for Survival

Living well—and surviving well—requires a certain level of fitness. Being fit will help you with attitude, strength and endurance in either sphere (living or surviving well). It is, therefore, an important part of personal sustainability.

My own fitness story, brief version

When my house was threatened in a wildlands fire, there were many preparations we made as the fire came.

In short, I spent a few hours cutting brush, which amounted, in exertion terms, to mowing heavy grass. I found myself exhausted and having to take breaks way too often.

Once upon a time, I had been a pretty competitive cyclist, so this condition I found myself in was simply unacceptable. I hated the unfit slob that I had become.

So I set myself to getting fit. I had to take it slow, since I was so morbidly out of shape. I’m just under six feet tall, and at that time weighed in at a sloppy 220 lbs.

Last I checked, I was down to 190 lbs. Still not ideal weight, but when I had an employment physical, my blood pressure was 120/80, my pulse at 65 beats per minute. This is pretty good condition, for a 46-year-old. I also noticed that a lot of aches and pains had gone away, and I felt at least ten years younger.

And it had paid off when we had our flash flood eight months after the fire; I found that I was able to do the sometimes very heavy work that was required to put things back to functional status on my property and help others.

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Fitness for survival isn’t very concerned with bodybuilding or even weight loss, although they’ll tend to happen, to one extent or another, as you work out. The goal is strength with endurance.

Amazingly, you don’t have to buy a bunch of gear or spend gobs of time on it, although time helps. And it doesn’t have to be a killer workout, either. Work up to something, especially if you’re as out of shape as I was. It’s just important to get going, for now...

Health of course includes nutrition. But the focus here will again not be weight loss or counting calories, but building strength, stamina and energy—and knowing what foods to eat under what circumstances.

And there are some food supplements I just have to talk about...

If you’re faced with a genuine, life-or-death survival situation, having a good foundation of fitness may just make the difference between a good and a bad outcome.

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