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Survival fitness is a lot more than having the ability to just outrun one person when being chased by wild animals or a mob.
You need to have speed, strength, and a powerful, focused mind that will get you out of any bad situation.
But before you get to that place, you need to take a look at where you are now, both mentally and physically.
Take a good, long, and honest look at yourself. Are you the type of person who has a two-pack-a-day smoking habit and the only six-pack you have happens to be chilling in the fridge?
Then you are going to have to make some serious lifestyle changes if you expect to survive for very long out in the mean streets or camping in the harsh wilderness.
It may sound like a daunting task, but taking small, achievable steps one at a time will soon add up to many milestones and big changes.
Did what I’ve mentioned above describe you to a tee? The first thing you need to do is clean up your diet. You are what you eat and if you eat mostly junk food, you are not going to do very well.
If you smoke, try kicking that habit or, at the very least, reducing your daily consumption. If you eat fatty foods all day, start changing your habits, and you’ll begin to see some progress in a very short period of time.
Kickstart Your Survival Fitness With These Achievable Goals
1. The Cardio Part Of The Program
Your heart is the engine that runs your body. It needs to be strong and healthy. You can help it get that way by doing some simple things to increase your heart rate.
Just thinking about not eating as much junk food probably got it racing a little bit. The cardio workout you will be giving your heart doesn’t need to come from running.
All you have to do is start walking a little more than you already do. Then start taking the stairs instead of an elevator or gurney.
You’ll know when the time comes that you’re ready to increase your cardio workout, because each time you do, you’ll get a little bit stronger.
Eventually, you’ll be able to give your heart a pounding workout from hiking, biking, swimming, or maybe even a little bit of light jogging. All of these activities work to increase your heart rate.
By the way, when your heart rate increases, it helps your body burn off fat and all kinds of other interesting reactions within your central nervous system.
In turn, this will also build your confidence the moment you start to notice you are getting thinner and leaner.
2. The Weight Training Part Of The Program
I bet you thought that with weight training, you had to get a gym membership and dress in skimpy clothes to get all sweaty. Well, part of that is right—the getting sweaty part.
You can weight train by just using your own body weight. It’s a form of resistance weight training and you don’t need a gym membership or fancy gym equipment to do it.
All you need to do is learn some simple moves that will force your body to move muscles that will expand and contract with the weight of your body, providing all the resistance needed.
3. The Beginner’s Weight Training Routine
So what kinds of moves can you do that utilize this resistance training? You’ve done push-ups before, right? Well, that is one of many ways to build muscle without the use of heavy iron weights or barbells.
Here is a list of exercises to do and what they will do for you:
- Push-ups: These will work your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
- Pull-ups: Your lats get a workout here, as do your back and biceps.
- Lunges: The quads, calves, glutes, and hamstrings are the targets with these.
- Dips: Triceps, chest, and shoulders.
- Side Leg Raises: Perfect for hitting your hips and adductors.
- Air Squats: Great for quads, glutes, and hamstrings.
4. More Advanced Training Exercises
You are going to get to the point where the above-listed exercises are not going to be very challenging anymore. Hey, that is actually a good thing, as it means you are getting in shape.
So, when you get to this point, you may want to start adding a few of these into your routine to break things up a little bit.
- Sledgehammer Swings: Just as it sounds. Get a sledgehammer and start pounding at something.
- Tire Flips: Got a few tires lying around your yard. Start flipping those babies around for an extra workout.
- Bucket Carries: Water is not always going to be available out of a tap. These will help prepare you for those hard-to-reach water sources.
- Rope Climbs: Rope climbs will build your upper arms, upper body and increase your handshake grip to powerful proportions.
5. Your Mental Fitness
I did say that part of this survival fitness regimen was going to include mental fitness, and so far I haven’t really said much about that.
Well, believe it or not, you can give your noggin a workout much easier than you can for the rest of your body. That’s because your mind has many different ways it can be stimulated.
If you are looking for basic mental sharpness, you can never go wrong by working your brain all day long. Let’s face it, your brain is a muscle and it needs to be exercised. Here are a few ways to give it a workout without breaking a sweat.
Memory Games: One of the easiest ways to unlock some of the strength of your brain is to test your memory. You can do this in several ways.
Fortunately, there are online games and exercises that you can use for this very purpose. There are many books full of fun memory games and puzzles.
Puzzles: Just by having to use your logic skills to figure out a puzzle, you are giving your brain a workout. Any kind of puzzle or board game will work. The idea is to get you thinking in advance as a way of developing strategies.
Card Games: Any kind of card game that involves counting and scoring is a great way to exercise your brain.
Combined Benefits of Mental & Physical Survival Fitness Training
If you spend time playing strategy games, you will find that the skills you learn will serve you well in times of disaster where quick and logical decisions need to be made.
Plus, games and puzzles that cause you to concentrate on scoring or causing an opponent to fail will also give you skills that can easily translate to prepper usage.
By increasing your focus, distractions will not derail your attempts and you will have the mental strength to build on.
Combined with the physical strength built through various exercises, you can become a formidable force the next time a disaster strikes.
By maintaining your survival fitness, you will be the person who will be able to outperform others and keep yourself and your family safe. So, what are you waiting for? Start your training today to be prepared for tomorrow!