Think you still got what it takes?

I've been reading alot of post on here for some time know.. I notice alot of people are x military and so on. Noticed alot of people putting away things to bug in OR out. I guess what im getting at is, are you in good enough physical condition to bug out OR in. From my point of view if you have an office job and have to lay all over your furniture when you get home, I dont see a bug out happening any time soon for you. Military training or not you would still need to keep a good physical health. Physical health has impacts on survival, health, home life, etc . WHAT DO YOU DO TO STAY IN SHAPE? Z

 

Good question. Don't eat sweets and have enough going on the burn the calories I take in. BTW, the person in your post is screwed.

 

I think I need to bleach my eyeballs now...thanks. I wasnt in the greatest of shape when i was in the Navy to begin with, now that I have cancer bugging out really isnt much of an option. A long term bugout would be pointless. And just because someone was in the military does not make them an expert in escape and evasion or small unit tactics.

 

Former USMC ( 1990-94 )... Not much office work here, but not very physical either.. It's been almost 20 years, and yes, it's true that at 42 I cant run as far or fast as I could at 22. So I'll have to count on experience and acquired knowledge that I wouldn't have had then. Which gets you a whole lot further in a survival situation. In a situation where I would be likely to panic when I was younger, today I'd be more likely to keep calm and make better decisions. And that trumps all. Splitting wood and general upkeep around my place in the woods keeps me off the furniture.

Oh, and if I didn't lose all my guns in that last boating accident I WOULD have been way better armed than I ever was while on active duty.

Toby Keith - As good as I once was...

 

"Never start a fight with an old man, he will only kill you."

 

This is probably the third thread I have seen over the past few months from folks who seem to think that physical conditioning is the bottom line and that those of us who are older or have other physical challenges might as well just lie down and die.

To me, this attitude represents a failure of mental conditioning. It is my experience that mental conditioning can do much to overcome loss of physical strength...but physical strength can do little to overcome mental weakness.

 

I'm a Gator, I will eat your dog. I have my masion and 2 others in the marsh, all I need is a falling tide for a fast trip south.

 

Thanks for the great responses.

 

While I think the call for intense physical conditioning is somewhat (perhaps, significantly) overemphasized in the survival and preparedness community, there's certainly nothing wrong with having it anyway as an extension of the "better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it" type philosophy. Chances are most people won't have a call for any vast degree of physical fitness during an exigent circumstance. It seems more of a 'worst case scenario' type thing to me.

I cannot run a 4:20 mile anymore and have recently (due to slowly advancing middle-age) given up daily running after about 30 years, I expect to take a bit of a hit in the physical fitness department. I was chasing my 4 minute mile dream for all those years, but since I have finally accepted that is not happening, I am now willing to move on to other forms of physical fitness I always wanted to pursue but never much got around to it.

I'll be doing a lot more mountain and long distance hiking with a heavy pack on, which is likely more conducive to hypothetical "bug out" situations anyway (just because you can run a sub 5 minute mile doesn't necessarily mean you can walk 15 - 25 miles a day with a heavy pack on). I'd like to section hike more of the Appalachian Trail, and maybe get to doing parts of the Continental Divide Trail. I now find something like that more 'rewarding' than running. I'm just tired of running, even though I still like it.

Might be getting into mountain biking more in the near-future, as I have finally given up on road biking and racing... again, due to accepting the fact of getting older and I just can't turn in the times I could a few years ago.

I'm also looking into doing a lot more rock climbing and mountain climbing, which provides a nice balance of physical fitness in itself.

Also plan to increase my daily calisthenics and weightlifting. I've been slacking off on this in recent years and found the other day I couldn't do more than 50 push-ups and only 15 pull-ups, whereas I could almost double that when I was younger.... so I need to work on that.

My body fat is up to 15 percent now which is absolutely abysmal (I guess most people would call that "normal" - that's only because we Americans are fat), whereas just a few years ago it was consistently 4.5 - 5 percent. Definitely need to go on a serious diet.

I'm still going to run maybe 3 - 5 times a week (down from 12 - 20 times a week which I did for decades), but will be doing so a bit more casually (I'd like to keep it so that I can at least do a 5:45 - 6:20 mile at the very worst... I feel satisfied with that and don't need to run sub-5 minute miles anymore like I used to since I won't be racing anymore).

--------------------------

That's about the sum total of my physical fitness plan for the future now that I decided to enter "phase II" of my life, having finally accepted getting older and not being able to do what I could do when I was 20'something.

 

Great response Bushcrafter. I feel some of the monkeys above did not fully understand the question. As kellory states'' don't start a fight with an old man, he will only kill you''...
What? I feel you need to stick with word games.

 

brokor. that vid is bad a$$. im posting it on my facebook. best vid I've seen in a while.

 

clearly you did not understand it. an old man will not stand toe to toe in duke it out with you. he knows he can't he's over matched. If attacked, he will simply pull out his gun and kill you. he no longer has the muscle or the stamina for a prolonged fight.

 

By the way, out of curiosity, was Probie your prison nickname?

 

kind of . I got that nick name working at a lumbar yard. It compares to a prison though. Your to old to lift a weapon ,let alone rattle those jaws. lets keep it clean.

 

Some kind of outdoor therapy center for the lower back...?

 

You gave the first poke youngster, and that was clean.

 

correct pax.

 

Rule #1: Cardio. Fat people are the first to go in a zombie apocalypse. Oh man, I'm in trouble...

Serious answer: I believe Probie's (my thought was an NCIS fan) question was not about surviving a fight, but can you survive the need to hike a significant distance for whatever reason. Or being up to the task of the significant physical labor required to survive without power and easy resupply even if you could stay in place. It is a good question because all the supplies in the world will not do you any good if you can't make use of them.

It is a question I have been asking myself lately because I am a desk jockey/couch potato. Could keep up with the best of them when I was in the USAF. But that was 20 years and way too many sedentary hours ago. Been trying to find some fitness routine that these old knees can handle to regain enough endurance to work all day performing physical tasks without killing myself or failing to complete tasks necessary to continuing to draw breath.

 

Your 1 smart man ice foot. That IS what I was talking about. Thanks for being the few to understand. This turned into a pissing match for some reason, not sure why. Check out bodybuilding.com they have hundreds of work outs for all ages and shapes.