# Fitness and survival



## roy (May 25, 2013)

When shtf the weak will die first. You can improve your odds and your general quality of life by being fit. Most folk tend to ratiionalize their fitness level. Here a few simple guidelines to determine your fitness level objectively.

You can be fat and fit but it is like starting a race carrying your ruck when everyone else isn't. According to the CDC you are overweight when you Body Mass Index (BMI) exceeds 25 for a man and obese when it is over 30. The army has its own standards and allows a body fat level of about 20% for men. For me (5'9" male) this is 186 lbs or a BMI of about 27.5. BMI calulators are available online. If your waist is more more than half your height you are probably too fat.

So are you fit? Again the army has some well thought out standards Currently the Annual Physical Fitness Test (APFT)consists of three events, pushups, situp and a two mile run in PT uniform (shorts, shirt and running shoes). The passing score is at least 60 points in each event. For an 18 year old male this is 42 pushups, 53 situps and 2 mile run in 15 min 50 sec. For a 62 year or older man it is 16 pushups, 26 sit ups and two miles in 19 min 55 sec. Remember these are the minimum standards for a clerk. For any airborne or special ops types you are expected to max the test.


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## iamliberty (Jun 23, 2013)

I think having this quantifiable test is a great idea. I talk about fitness on the show. It is the core weakness of most preppers that I have met. They believe they can hide behind a gun collection. 

Get in shape it makes life better.


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

Airborne or not, I always hated running and still do. My body just never seemed as good at it as other people's were. I believe in staying in shape and still do pushups, freeweight and ab workouts, but don't run anymore since getting out of the 82nd. I do cardio, but power walking and carrying weight. I don't get to ruck into the woods as much as I like, but I do as much as I can. My body at 6'4" and 250lb was built for lifting and carrying weight. It's in my genes from my German/Austrian ancestors. Staying in shape is a major factor I feel in someone surviving shtf hard. All the top gear in the world won't save you without the body to do the work and endure hardship. I'm just not a fast or long distance runner and don't plan on running unless I have to. If it looks like I can't outrun trouble, than I'll die fighting.


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

Running is just a test of cardio fitness, army allows alternatives such as bike and swim. They probably had the taping system when you were in, taking waist, chest and neck measurements to determine percentage of body fat.


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## n00b-prepper (Nov 16, 2012)

The tape test is crap.


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

If you are a fatboy.


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## retired guard (Mar 7, 2013)

The Marine Corps PFT (Physical Fitness Test) consisted when I was in of Pull Ups Min 3 Max 20 Sit Ups Min 40 Max 80 and a Three Mile Run Min Score 28" Max Score 18" each Min value was worth 40 pts each Max value was worth 100 pts. A Min Score of 135 pts was required to pass. If you scored the Min on all three events you failed. If you failed to meet Min on any event you failed the entire test. When I first started Pull Ups required back of hand towards you. Later the Chin Up palms towards you was allowed. Pull Ups had to start from a dead hang jumping or bicycling your legs disqualified that repetition touching the ground ended your set. The run was individual when I did it with shorts and running shoes allowed. Before my time it was run as a Unit in Utility Uniform with pack, rifle, helmet and boots. Sit Ups required hands behind head fingers interlaced elbows must break the plane of the knee, my son tells me this has now been changed to crunches with the same point value.


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

The nice part about the military's methods of evaluation is it doesn't take a lot of high tech gear. I think the army modified its sit-up, also.

A down and dirty test of your cardio fitness, takes about 10 minutes, run/jog for 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be fast, a 10 min/mile pace will do. If you can run for 10 minutes you are probably O.K. Most folk can run alot farther on a computer than they can in real life.


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

roy said:


> Running is just a test of cardio fitness, army allows alternatives such as bike and swim. They probably had the taping system when you were in, taking waist, chest and neck measurements to determine percentage of body fat.


Yep. They always taped me and found my body fat low. I thought it was kind of silly though as there was always someone who gathered up big sized, muscled guys and wanted to tape them because of them wearing looser XL uniforms the lower section hide their waist. Than they took their shirts off and you could see they were cut and had low body fat. The military isn't full of geniuses in my experience. The taping isn't important to me, it's the PT testing and what a person can do.


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

Things have probably changed but . . . when you took the APFT you were weighed. For your sex and height you had a "screening weight". If you were above this weight you were taped. I found the taping to be a pretty accurate determination of % body fat. If you disagreed you could have yourself under water weighed.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

When the SHTF the weak will die first...right...and you know this to be a fact?


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

Seneca said:


> When the SHTF the weak will die first...right...and you know this to be a fact?


History and nature tell the truth well enough.


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## longrider (Mar 25, 2013)

I was prepping by building up my body stores. Darn. Wrong way. Now I have extra to get rid of. :-o


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

Fuzzee said:


> History and nature tell the truth well enough.


That it does.

Top 10 Facts About the 1918 Flu Pandemic - Toptenz.net


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## roy (May 25, 2013)

"This was a phenomenon unique to this pandemic and has never been seen before or since."


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## Verteidiger (Nov 16, 2012)

Actually, the lessons of history teach that in times of war and famine, the survivors are most often those who have some stores of fat to draw upon when winter comes and food is scarce.

Take for example World War II. If you were in good physical condition in occupied territories, you were likely to end up in slave labor camps building for the Nazi war machines. If you were chubby when the barbed wire enclosed ghettos were enforced in the cities, and winter came, your chances of survival were much higher than skinnier people - facts. If you visit the American Holocaust Museum and study the photographs and read the stories of survivors, it is clear that health (ability to withstand diseases from lack of sanitation, and withstand starvation and undernourishment) meant more than fitness - the ghettos were overcrowded on purpose and fitness levels atrophied quickly because of the forced inactivity and meager food rations.

If your definition of SHTF is having to run for your life, fitness trumps everything. But if SHTF means overcoming depravation and food shortages, either natural or manmade, people who survive often were the ones who our society norms would say should be on a diet....

Victory gardens in WWII came about because of food shortages and rationing. People were encouraged to grow their own food because the young males were being sent off to fight, directly and adversely affecting food supplies in every city, not only in America, but all over Europe, Asia, and Africa. Millions worldwide died from starvation as a direct consequence. Japan was acutely affected since it was an island nation. 

Even today, people who cannot harvest enough food in the growing and hunting seasons face starvation come wintertime. Alaska cabin, anyone?

Facts from the harshest realities of true survival.... Pray it does not come. Prepare in case it does....


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

I am reasonably thin, some would look at me and think "athletic", I am 6'3" and 205.5 pounds as I write this.

I ran the BMI and found I am overweight, which made me look for a second and third opinion ending up at the Mayo Clinic and yep, I am overweight.

Crap

4 years back I decided to drop my weight as much as I could over the summer when I am most active and got down to 192lbs, where my 34" waist jeans were dropping to my knees without a belt. I find searching the BMI index I was JUST BELOW overweight.

Phew, I'm glad I figured that out. I just need to look like Brad Pitt (The old Brad, not the "Z" Brad) and I'll have a chance at surviving.

For those that claim being fat is a survival mechanism, it may be technically true but you are still fat.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Ever notice how the fat preppers on Doomsday Preppers always have outrageous amounts of food stored? The skinny ones concentrate on guns.

When a pickpocket meets a Holy Man, he sees only the pockets - Hari Dass


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Depends on how well the weak avoid contact with others and hide while the rest kill each other off,.
Ok I understand your point yes being in good shape give you a leg up. 
I may have retired but I still do PT unlike many at 59 I can still wear the first dress uniform I was issued and pass inspection in it.


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

Prepadoodle said:


> Ever notice how the fat preppers on Doomsday Preppers always have outrageous amounts of food stored? The skinny ones concentrate on guns.
> 
> When a pickpocket meets a Holy Man, he sees only the pockets - Hari Dass


I'd bet a few under armed, under trained and uncapable, fat preppers find themselves shot and their food in someone else's belly.


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## PrepConsultant (Aug 28, 2012)

Prepadoodle said:


> Ever notice how the fat preppers on Doomsday Preppers always have outrageous amounts of food stored? The skinny ones concentrate on guns.
> 
> When a pickpocket meets a Holy Man, he sees only the pockets - Hari Dass


I remember one where there was a woman that all she talked about was food. She said everyone else was going to be eating beans and she would be eating gourmet foods.. People like that wont last long in my opinion.. You have to have more on your mind that the next meal. What a Swamp Donkey!!


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I think being athletic and in good shape is desirable...a good thing. I really do!

Yet I'm still in need of convincing that it's the trump card that will save my hind end when fate deals a SHTF hand.

I suspect the athletic types will either be good predators or good defenders.


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

> I suspect the athletic types will either be good predators or good defenders.


That takes brains besides brawn. Both have a level of thought above the average. Brawn makes tasks easier though.


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## Nathan Jefferson (May 11, 2013)

Forget about TSHTF, it is either 8 or 9 of the top 15 killers in the US (and likely the world) are preventable or at least delayable by being in good health. Heart disease, diabetes, renal disease, etc.

If TSHTF being in good shape will be VERY helpful. If TS never HTF being in good shape will be VERY helpful.

Chalk it right up next to being debt free and growing you own food in terms of importance. Everyone should do it.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

PrepConsultant said:


> I remember one where there was a woman that all she talked about was food. She said everyone else was going to be eating beans and she would be eating gourmet foods.. People like that wont last long in my opinion.. You have to have more on your mind that the next meal. What a Swamp Donkey!!


Sorry I'm not from the glades, but what is a swamp donkey?


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

Seneca said:


> I think being athletic and in good shape is desirable...a good thing. I really do!
> 
> Yet I'm still in need of convincing that it's the trump card that will save my hind end when fate deals a SHTF hand.
> 
> I suspect the athletic types will either be good predators or good defenders.


Ok I'll bite...

Being in good shape means hoeing a garden by hand will not kill you or be so exerting that you don't do it.

Being in good shape means digging the latrine you need will save your life from a death of disease is not unreasonable.

Being in good shape means you can run away from a fight you don't want to be in (hint) which is most of them.

Being in good shape means when bugging out you can travel more than 4 miles a day

Being in good shape means you know what a healthy diet is

Being in good shape means your work boots fit and don't give you blisters, your gloves fit and your hand are still calloused, and your mind is detoxed so you react quicker.

I'm tired of typing, someone else add to the list.


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## PrepConsultant (Aug 28, 2012)

Montana Rancher said:


> Sorry I'm not from the glades, but what is a swamp donkey?


Hmm, Swamp Donkey aka Palmetto Pig(which is also the game warden) Is the 300pound woman/man that is either eating or thinking about the next meal. You see them in Wal Mart(usually shopping for FOOD). Wearing a tank top and pants that are 2-3 sizes too small.. The kind of girl that on her online profile says "A few extra pounds" or "great personality". Which is funny cause I have never dated online..lol


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## Gendonnellan (Jul 4, 2013)

A good way to keep fit is what alof of my friends and I do is we cycle up very steep hills in fields because it is good for your calf muscle.Other things we do is we we run atleast 3 miles on a very rough road carrying heavy bags and thats what my frend and I do to keep fit sometimes when we are with eachother


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