Guide to physical fitness for average preppers

An Army Ranger turned personal trainer and a Doctor + Ironman triathlete, both preppers, put together this one-page guide to survival / SHTF fitness.

Have any of you integrated Intermittent Fasting into daily life because of a prepping motivation? Or changed the weight load in your BOB/GHB because of trial hikes?

Covers a wide range of 101 stuff, like:

• Fitness goals in prepping
• Functional training
• Eating well, losing weight, vitamins and supplements, etc
• Intermittent fasting
• Stretches, agility, posture, counteracting sitting all day
• Bodyweight and gym/machine exercises

The two experts are hanging around if you have any questions!

 

I need to do longer hikes. I have tried different BOB's though and they DO make a difference. Need to do more stretching. The weight of the BOB is more of an issue of what exactly are you trying to do? Get home is one thing, all out survival in the boonies is another, two or three days until help comes is another. Boflex and I are friends and my wife makes me eat well, but I have to say, being an antique, that I'm in pretty good shape but I'm sure not 20 anymore.

 

Had a good convo about this recently — there's a degree of relative fitness within an age band. Some people think "oh in a SHTF situation I would totally ditch all old people". But there are plenty of people/situations that don't think that way, however they might choose to bring in one older person over another due to one being relatively more fit than the other. So focus on being meaningly more fit than your peers.

 

Intermittent fasting, no. I eat when I am hungry and don't when I'm not. This may mean one meal a day...or one meal ALL day. Weight stays pretty consistent and younger folk often refer to me as "freakishly strong" so it works....for me.

Someone with a different metabolism may (will) experience different results.

 

Good on ya for having that level of discipline! We make mention of it in the post, but 99% of people don't have that willpower.

 

We looked at exercise machines yesterday. It is hard to find one that will meet the needs of the family. Currently we like the Trio trainer because it has 3 functions and doesn't take up too much space.

@The_Prepared I really like that article. The Asian squat may look simple and even babies can do it but it requires flexibility.

 

Thanks! I'm happy with it too, came together well — we've already had a few people say it was a wakeup call, so that makes it worth it.

At-home machines are tough. IMHO a rower + dumbbell set or simple bar/bench/plates is better than a bowflex etc.

Yeah the Asian Squat is deceptively painful in the beginning. I've been working on it for a few months off and on, and it's improving.

 

Best advice I could give, is pay attention to what your body (and especially, your back!) is telling you. I discovered, nearly 18 months ago, that my two lowest lumbar discs were severely compressed, in the front of my spine (inner side, not outer). Really limits what you can and cannot do, even if you're doing strength training for back & trunk, to help support it. Like when I went out, this past Saturday, and spent an hour, bent over most of the time, weeding one of the garden boxes! Yeah, I've been paying for that bit of foolishness, for 2 days, now!

If you're friends with a general physician or chiropractor, or even a good physical therapist or trainer, pick their brains a bit, and find out the worst things you can do, to wreck your back.....and then make sure you DON'T do those! Trust me, bad habits are easier to slip back into, than good habits are, to remember to do!

 

What @natshare said. To each his own body type

I have never been able to do an Asian squat, my body isn't built for it. I do the 90 degree squats, and a little deeper. There is no difference in degree of fitness. I have powerlifter thighs, (thick muscle thighs, long thigh bones, short calf bones, makes my but dip to the floor so my balance is off with Asian/Hindu squats) so sitting squat isn't possible.

A better test is how easily to you get up and down from the floor, can you just stand up just using your legs? does it take you a hand and both legs? or does it take both hands and both legs to get off the floor?

 

Here's A Netflix Workout You Can Do On Your Couch

 

Those are great. One would have to have good balance to so the lunges.

 

AND
Some days I'm cranky when I work out

 

Wow! So many new exercises. I had to try the sofa lunges, and was surprised to find that I could do them deeply with both legs. I do incline pushups a lot, since my shoulder is torn up, it makes that a little easier. I try not to do them like that in public. (Long undercover cop story there, that I'm not telling.)

I probably get up off the deck more than most folks, and I crawled 100 yards this evening and yesterday evening without using my left arm. It carried a basket that gradually increased in weight as I picked up the brass in front of the firing line. This activity, and the daily contortions of an automobile technician have both helped and hurt me. Too much of a good thing and joints get pulled out of alignment and become impinged.

I have old guy workout equipment. A walk behind lawn mower, a wood pile that needs constant maintenance, exposed beams everywhere that I can hang from or pull myself up onto whenever I feel the need, plenty of heavy junk to carry around or lift, and a strand of beach to run on year round.

I do have an exercise bike that somebody threw away. It has an enormous flywheel with a wide flat surface that I'm sure I can adapt a car serpentine belt to drive the lathe and bunches of other stuff if people power is my only option.