Fit to survive!

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Oh, been meaning to include this:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1116219

"Rope Revolution"...it's a cheap alternative to kettlebells mentioned in this thread, and as the author states it allows one to EASILY make liftable objects from household items!

It also increases an important combat-specific fitness quality, the grip.
 
I second the opinion of MakAttak, ballroom dancing is a great exercise, a good place to meet people, and gets "brownie points" with the spouse/gf. I actually found it had parallels with martial arts. Particularly in the areas of timing, balance, and sequential movement.
 
I myself have profited greatly from a heck of a good workout.

1 hour in the pool
35 minutes on the Elliptical machine (includes warmup/cooldown)
Upper body weight lifting

Takes about 3 hours, start to finish. I do it three times a week.
Now, I can do this because I'm a grad student with time budgeted in, but... I do it because I prize my optimal health.
 
I see it thus:

People should strive to be reasonably fit given their circumstances. Thirty without limiting injuries or disability? You should be fit, as in healthy and in shape. Ninety with them? The word "reasonably" allows a lot of leeway, to the point of veritable absolution from the rule.
 
conwict, I'm incredibly fortunate in that when I was a young boy, Mr. Staley was my Karate instructor in upstate NY. It was to become the foundation for a lifetime of great training, and I still fall back on my eight years with him when things get rough. I'm very happy to know him, and count his teachings as gospel when it comes to fitness. He is the picture of creativity.
 
Alex45ACP said:
You don't need tons of expensive equipment, complicated routines and diets, and hours of free time every day to achieve excellent physical fitness.

I always tell anyone who has limited time and access to equipment to get this book: http://www.rosstraining.com/nevergymless.html

This guy knows what he's talking about. I highly recommend it to everyone, particularly those who are short on time and have limited access to equipment.
Click to expand...
I completely agree.
 
Flexibility

I do kick boxing at least three times a week. Started 3 years ago after recovering from a ruptured disc. When I started I was slow getting out of bed and was slow to come up to cruising speed when walking the dogs early in the morning. Now, 30 pounds less, very flexible, some self-defense skills, much stronger, can jump out of bed and be ready to go.

Why it works for me?
- I must go to class and be pushed by an instructor.
- Coed class, so we fellas must impress the ladies.
- 45 minute class that is comparable to the biggest loser last chance workout.
- I can't motivate myself to workout at home. I have several pieces of exercise equipment gathering dust in the basement. (side note, if it’s in the basement you really don't need it, of course guns are the exception!).
- I get to hit the bag as hard as I want! (Angry white guy thing)
 
Older people need weight bearing exercises to combat sarcopenia (age related muscle loss), a person starts to lose muscle at about a pound per year after age 30 or so. Simply put, if you're somewhat falling apart at age 50 or 60, you won't even be able to get out of a chair or bed without difficulty as you continue to age, and even picking up and firing weapons will be pretty hard. And to be blunt, a lifetime being interested in nothing but weapons tends to make someone a bit limited in terms of being a well rounded person and willing to embrace such simple concepts as the need to exercise regularly. You have to lift weights to maintain whatever muscle you have now, and if you don't, it'll just get worse.
There was a report on ABC News a while back, some elderly ladies, some looked well into their 70s, were put on a weightlifting regimen, and had "de-aged" 20 years.
 
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I'll resurrect this thread.

I think it's true that older people need exercise more than anyone. It's still really beneficial for us young'uns of course, but a perfectly manageable workout schedule can make the difference between being able to walk - and perhaps even live at home - and not, when you're old. My paternal grampa died way before I was even born. He lead a very unhealthy life with smoking etc. My maternal grampa is a bit over 80 and still drives his car, walks wherever he feels like, and is about to build a wooden tool shed. Never had a drink or smoke in his life, and always stayed active. Now, genes are a factor of course but that's the kind of impact a healthy and active lifestyle can have.

As for me, I'm early 20's, 6'1" and about 215lbs. I've been inactive and overweight for years, although I did get up to 220 at one point but lost some of that.

Some time ago I decided I'm fed up with being fat, slow and weak. I eat pretty ok, not much junk food anymore. I'm going to focus on eating regularly and more often. Never smoke or drink. What I do now is I take brisk 90 minute walks at least 4 times a week or once every day when I can. I already recover faster from physical exertion.

I've gone to a local gym a couple of times and I'm thinking about getting a membership. I like the workout and they have an instructor who's there a couple of days a week.

My goal is to get down to, well, that's the question. I don't know exactly how much I should weigh after all the excess body fat is gone. I think I have a pretty rough build by nature, broad shoulders etc. I don't know, 185lbs? And then 200 when I've bulked up, perhaps 210-215 if I decide to stick with it and get real meaty?


PS. Imperial to metric converters are useful.
 
A well balanced healthy diet is a HUGE part of the fitness equation and there is NO excuse for eating like a pig. Here are the MAIN culprits of putting on pounds:

1. excess calories mainly contained in processed sugars mainly found in soda, white bread and pastas, and fruit juices. you can cut HUGE calories by cutting out the soda, switching to whole grain bread and pasta, and drinking reduced sugar fruit juice! you will shed weight noticably fast just doing this!

2. don't eat, especially junk food, several hours before bed or just because you are bored. when you eat before bed you don't burn off those calories and they stay with you. when you eat due to boredom, you are generally sitting on you A$$ and not burning calories.

3. when you are feeling hungry, drink a full big glass of water and wait 20 minutes. water is healthy and tricks the brain into being full.

4. eat several small meals instead of one (or several) large meals. this keeps your metabolism active and burns calories

5. throw out your full sized dinner plates and buy 1/2 size plates. americans overeat due to large portions. cut out the large portions.

No time to exercise? Everyone, and I mean everyone has a spare 30 minutes per day. Simple things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator and walking instead of driving short distances will make a lifestyle change that will improve your health. Buy an exercise bike and commit to riding in while watching TV or a movie.

No money to join a gym? Many of the best exercises are free, cheap or can be done with common household items. And besides, it's a wise investment in your health in the long run. A few dollars on a gym membership now is a lot less expensive than hip and knee surgeries and heart bypass surgery.

Too old or infirm? Again start with diet. And even the old or infirm can do SOMETHING to increase their heart level and tone muscles.
 
You know the muscle on the top of your forearm, near the elbow, that gets sore when you shoot a double-action revolver (or DAO pistol I suppose) quite a bit?

If you get a 5-lb dumbell and hold it straight out, elbow locked, and rotate your arm from thumb-side pointing down, to as far as you can go the other way (for me, it is almost thumb-side pointing straight back, or about 270º - three-fourths of a circle) - do that about 15 times several times a day, and the muscle will quit hurting and you will be able to shoot your double-action revolver painlessly. And as your grip gets stronger your groups shrink.

leadcounsul makes several very good points. If you like to drink soda-pop, you can skip the sugar-rich stuff by putting a squirt of lemon juice into regular old fizz water - it is not sweet and does quench your thirst. No reason to eat before bed; drink water instead, and if you have to get up in the middle of the night, you can take the opportunity to check your perimiter.

Without any goal at all - I just got tired of being so fat - I basically started eating two apples and an orange for lunch, no bread or meat. For breakfast I eat a nice big burrito (that I make with rice/beans/beef/onion - cook a week's worth Sunday evening and wrap it up each morning). Now I need to send my belt back to The Beltman for him to make it shorter, I'm out of holes to tighten it. I do not own or have access to a scale but my jeans are like tents and I feel better.

Anyone in reasonable health can do some yoga stretches and some pushups and situps - does not take membership in a gymn.

As you get in shape your breathing gets easier and your groups shrink. You can carry more ammunition if you need to, and the mag holder that used to stick me in the flab just disappears under my cover garment now.

This is a good thread, thanks for bringing it back.
 
I opened this thread thinking that the subject would be mental fitness.

Nevertheless, will add my two-cents worth representing the atypical THR forum member. Being an older woman reading these posts, I chuckle at the enthusiasm, and frame of reference of the enthusiastic. It's easy to guess who's over fifty or sixty in this thread.

It's not possible to know at forty how one feels or thinks at fifty or sixty, let alone what is required at eighty.

It's been said that wisdom is the knowledge of the fitness of things.

I talk long walks, enjoy quietude, do Callanetics, pray, study the Bible, and am learning to shoot as a challenge to myself. To my way of thinking, poise, graciousness, and kindness are the key to self-protection. The gun is merely a symbol of the line I've drawn.

A note about the word "health". It comes from the same word that also means hale, hearty, whole, and holy.

O.E. hælþ "wholeness, a being whole, sound or well," from PIE *kailo- "whole, uninjured, of good omen" (cf. O.E. hal "hale, whole;" O.N. heill "healthy;" O.E. halig, O.N. helge "holy, sacred;" O.E. hælan "to heal"). Healthy is first attested 1552.


Fitness is the result of being well balanced.

Mahatma Gandhi could probably not have kept the fitness regimes touted here, but he walked hundreds of miles. His fitness was in creating peace and dignity for his people. "I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence... I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor.
But I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment. Forgiveness adorns a soldier...But abstinence is forgiveness only when there is the power to punish; it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature...."

I can only choose not to shoot when that is a choice from the strength to choose to shoot. If my choice not to shoot is from cowardice, it has no power. That is part of why I am learning to shoot. Because Gandhi was right. Moral power is a force which evil cannot withstand.
 
SJ1, the reason I started this thread is because there is a plethora of info on mindset here, and a dearth of info on physical fitness.

I believe that fitness and health are different (if you combed the thread, you saw that I differentiated them, too).

Healthy person: Gets plenty of sleep, has high quality of life physically, few organ issues, mentally stable and competent. Results from good diet, good genes, and good stress response (no one "has no stress"...it's how you deal with it).

Fit person: Able to perform certain physical tasks excellently. Fitness is specific. Lance Armstrong is fit, Olympic athletes are fit, that big fat guy who bench presses 1100 pounds is VERY fit.

Clearly there is a difference, and sometimes very little crossover, between health and fitness. Fat bench press dude isn't too healthy, and relatively speaking a healthy person isn't necessarily very fit.

My basic argument here was that all things being equal, greater fitness could save your life in a car wreck, assault, or similar situation...partly because muscle literally holds your body together, and partly because your main goal is usually escape in situations like that. Hence "Fit to survive."
 
It's not possible to know at forty how one feels or thinks at fifty or sixty, let alone what is required at eighty.
Click to expand...

Quite true, but it is still not a bad idea to prepare...remember the grasshopper and the ant? Well, my grandmother is a couple of years younger than my great aunt (88 vs 90) and simply for the fact that my great aunt's husband was bed-ridden for years, and she lifted him and brought him things constantly, she has scads more muscle mass than my grandmother. Guess who has higher quality of life?

They were relatively similar throughout their life, and neither has had any major health issues until recently (grandma does have some issues with her eyes)...

The point being, my 90 year old aunt is like a bodybuilder compared to my grandmother, simply because she did a lot of heavy lifting (200+ pound husband, belongings, trays of food, oxygen tanks...) in her SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES.

Now imagine someone who lifts heavy their whole life...
 
Conwict, points well taken. Being fit to survive does indeed matter. For me, health, fitness, and mental poise are all inextricably intertwined.

I didn't realize you were balancing out the spectrum here. :)
 
SJ1, that's good. Obviously these "models" we human beings use are just illustrative...clearly a good balance of health and fitness are necessary for long and qualitative life.

However, lots of healthy people could benefit by adding one or two weighted exercises into their regimen: farmer's carries (just walk in a straight line with dumbbells in your hands) with some serious weight (for you - this doesn't mean 2 pound pink weights - I recommend most women start with 20s and work up to 40s!) and standing overhead presses with challenging weight.
 
Something that I have seen quite often is that people often let obstacles get in their way. I too have been guilty of this. I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to simply desire to improve. Who cares if you can't attain olympic athlete status? Just being more active than you were will pay dividends. I have seen 70 year old martial artists, and I have seen wheelchair bound martial artists. They made do with what they had available to them and kept training.

Odds are slim that any of us will have to fight some running battle with numerous MZBs. Odds are much higher that each of us will have to tangle with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, etc. Maintaining your general health will give you a leg up on those things. It may not keep you from EVER having problems, but it will make you less likely to encounter them. And should you encounter health issues, the more physical health you have built up, the better you will recover from those issues. Think of physical health as money in the bank. Hopefully you won't have to use it, but if you do, it is there for you to draw upon.

Generic advice is just that, generic. I hesitate to tell anybody, "here is what you need to do to be in good shape." If you really want to get in better shape, you may be best served by retaining a trainer who has dealt with your type of special needs. That person could then coax the best results available, based on your physical limitations and desires. Some people can tolerate 5-10 hours of hard physical training a week, but many cannot. Better to be consistent with your 20 mins of activity, 2-3 times a week, than to attempt some hardcore training schedule and quickly burn out.
 
My pleasure. I have been using that forum to post my workouts and get some pointers from really fit and strong people for a while, and it's been a HUGE help.
Glad you liked it. I go by squidsix on a few forums, and steveracer here.
Enjoy the articles, as I have several more coming soon.
Steve
 
my strategy

I've rode my bicycle for years, however, getting a wedgie every time i rode got reeeaaalllll old.

Try one of these. Im able to do 20 miles a trip at my advanced age with no neck pain, no arm pain, no , uh, wedgie pain..

www.easyracers.com
 
Aside from the muscle that can protect your spine and organs from trauma, I think "combat ready" workouts needn't be long - only intense...even 10 minutes a few times a week would help immensely. Lots of the sites posted here have ideas.

Sungun, I would look except I have a very slow dialup computer.
 
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