A thought on wilderness survival...

R

Racerx2oo3

Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
174
As I'm sitting here preparing to submit my yearly fitness reimbursement for my gym (lucky to work for a company that has a fitness reimbursement program), I started thinking about how important good health and fitness is in addition to good planning in a survival situation.

I wonder how many of us really consider ourselves in "good" physical condition if we were suddenly thrust into a life threatening situation. I definately know that as time has gone by, I've gotten soft around the edges. At 35 years old, I weigh in at about 173 and 5' 10". According to the height/weight charts, that puts me at 10 pounds overweight. Depending on my work schedule, I hit the gym between 2-3 times a week and generally do a mix of cardio and strength training. However, in my heart of heart, I know that the 30 minutes of cardio I do in no way prepares me for a true survival type situation. I'd love to be in shape to do a 20 mile hike with a light pack and a four year child on my back, because if things got REALLY bad, that's probably what I would need to be doing. However, I don't kid myself that I have the kind of time or dedication to put in the training to reach that level.

I know that good phyical condition alone is no subsitute for proper forthought and planning ahead. But I have to imagine that all the knowledge and planning is for nothing if your body fails you when you need it, because you mistreated your most basic equipment.

How many of us are really in good condition to survive?
 
Very few:eek:

But aiming at it is always worthwhile. Even as you get older you stay better by being as active as you can,in all fields:D
 
I know that good phyical condition alone is no subsitute for proper forthought and planning ahead. But I have to imagine that all the knowledge and planning is for nothing if your body fails you when you need it, because you mistreated your most basic equipment.
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I read an article a few years ago that was written by a military survival expert who had studied that question for many years. I believe he said physical fitness was the most important factor for survival. Next was attitude and motivation. Followed by training, gear, etc.

How many of us are really in good condition to survive?
Click to expand...
I'm not in the phsical condition for backpacking that I used to be. But I still have a high comfort level with living and working outdoors. I'm also more relaxed in instances where I become "turned around," and the thought of becoming disoriented for a day or two doesn't bother me at all. That's what 'adventure' is all about.

In short, if I had to hike 40 miles to get out, it might now take me two days instead of one.

-Bob
 
How many of us are really in good condition to survive? Survive what? I'll use me as an example. I workout daily, cardio and strength training. I run 10 k road races finishing in the top third of the field. I run straight up mountain trails for fun. My body fat is at 9 %. Am I in good shape? I'd have to say yes for a guy aged 52, yet if you read "In the Heart of the Sea" the story about the sinking of the whale ship Essex, the fat guy survived adrift at sea and a guy like me became next weeks lunch. I would not have lasted more that a week simply because my body has next to nothing to draw reserves from. I most likely would not survive long in extreme cold weather, yet would excel in desert conditions. So, I am in shape for some survival situations, but not others.
In the Heart of the Sea is a great read, a true story on which Herman Melville's Moby Dick was based. I highly recommend it.
 
I was a personal trainer and a martial arts instuctor for many years befor starting my career in EMS...I've given alot of consideration to this and how many of the excercises people do have little if any functional base in reality...Over the passed year or so I've developed a workout That I feel is really thorough to use a knife analogy I try to train myself to be more like SAK and less like a specialized tool this I feel enables me to perform with adequacy across a broad spectrum of skill sets...of course there are limits for me (many) I have very little specialization in any one area want me to run 30 miles it isn't going to happen want me to squat 800 hundred lbs also no good...want me to run 10 miles that I could do want me to squat 300 that's more like it.. Trust me I'm not a macho guy and I'm not strong or tough I'm just happy with the program I've developed...(for the time being)
 
I'm a minimalist in regards to the outdoors, meaning I carry little and what I do carry I prepare for having to replace by what's at hand in nature int he event that its lost.

In this forum, I see what I consider an excessive amount of focus on cutting implements and other gadgetry, while the two most important tools you will ever have access to are downplayed. That is, your body and your mind.

For all the PSK's we can make, nothing will give us the adaptability as our own minds.

The condition of our bodies will be the gauge we use to decide our limits as to what we can and cannot do. I think this is of severe relevance to the outdoors. What good is the latest Busse chopper if you can't use it for more than 10 minutes before wearing out? What if you're cellphone and GPS are out of range or out of batteries and a companion injures themselves? How much of their load can you share to help them back to safety? These are all very important considerations I think any adventurist should be questioning themselves about.
 
I've been doing martial arts for the last five years and I'm now in better shape (more strength and stamina) then I've ever been in my entire life. I think a big part of staying in top physical shape is motivation - and I'm personally motivated by not wanting to get my butt kicked in class.

Find what motivates you - for some who have jobs involving physical work, the motivation is clear: a paycheck. For the rest of us modern sedentary individuals, we've got to find something that makes us want to overcome the natural inertia to seek comfort. Personally, I'm lazy - so I need a very clear motivator like getting my a$$ handed to me in a sparring match.
 
Last year I developed a fitness routine designed to allow me to go hiking in comfort. The largest part of my fitness routine involved ... hiking. :)

Basically, a few times a week I'd jump on my bike, cruise over to an open space area some 5 miles from my house (gaining 500 feet of elevation on that bike ride alone), jump off the bike, do a 5 mile walk straight up a ridge (800 feet elevation gain), hike back down again, jump on the bike and go home.

After a few weeks of that, I definitely felt that I was in much better shape for backpacking/bugging out than I have been in years. There were no stairmasters or weights involved either. The only downside is that it takes me about twice as long to do that workout as it does to go to the gym. On the other hand, backpacking/bugging out training is all about endurance, so longer workouts are required anyway.

Moral of the story is: the best way to train for a thing is to do that thing as much as possible. :)

I've since gotten away from that exercise routine, but I intend to get back to it again once I get my current home remodel project done, sometime later this year.
 
There is a very useful thread in Practical tactical about "tactical weight lifting". There is some good information there.
 
I know at 6' 260 lbs and 18% body fat, Im not horribly out of shape, but that doesn't stop me from goin in the woods :D
 
Racer,
I totally agree with you.

Sadly, I could serve as your out-of-shape poster-boy.

I am trying to get back in shape, but it ain't easy.
It would have been much better to stay in reasonably
good shape in the first place.

Find a job that allows enough time for exercise. If you have
long work hours, long commute, and family or other
commitments; then there will be little time to exercise.

Whether you belong to a gym or not, learn exercises that
can be done with no equipment, allowing a quick 2 minute
workout, several times a day.
 
I'm a regular at the gym. I do the 20 min cardio and weight training. I have no idea what my max is because I do multiple reps on each set and haven't attempted to max out in years. At 55 I weigh 165# and can do over 100 sit-ups which is a good thing. I don't do squats over 205#, but I leg press 675# to 10 reps.

As for survival situations, what physical conditioning do you really think is required? Survival is more a mental game.
 
When I was younger and a lot stronger I would bull my way through a lot of things that others would have had problems with. I have seen over and over times (in rescue activities) when others who were unprepared managed to push through a problem by shear brute force. It happens with the young quite frequently but that is a very thin margin and sometimes it doesn’t work and you have a disaster. I am not a large guy, I am only 5’7” and when I was in good shape I was about 155.

I will turn 50 this year and I have gotten a lot smarter about the ways I do things. I plan a lot better and more importantly, anticipate things much better. I have put on more weight than I want to talk about and while I still do some weight training I'm less strong than I was and far more out of shape in a cardio sense. For me planning and anticipation make up for a lot of my cardiac deficiencies. For what I can't anticipate I expect that my experience will allow me to overcome. At least that’s what I am betting on. ;) I solo a lot so I plan and leave an itinerary and a time with my wife so she knows that if she hasn’t heard from me there is probably a problem. I also am trying to loose weight and get my cardio better but it is slow going.

There are two things you can do if you are in a survival mode. Walk out or wait for rescue. If you are planning on walking out then you better be in pretty good shape depending on the terrain. If you are planning on waiting for rescue being in shape will help but you can still survive and not be in the best of shape if you have knowledge and experience and you know that you are being searched for. Remember, if you are actually lost or overdue you are better off waiting in one spot and preparing for rescue. You are much easier to find if you are not a moving target. You start walking out you are using energy which you may not be replacing, risking injury and making it more difficult for rescuers to find you and maybe only getting yourself more lost. If you stay put you are conserving energy, should have a good shelter getting better day by day, signal fire or device, may be obtaining some food (more for psychological reasons than actual need) and certainly water and have a fire. I don’t have to be in spectacular shape to survive that.

Good planning comes from experience; unfortunately experience usually comes from bad planning. :D ;)

KR
 
Racer had "wilderness" in his original title,
however I took his point in the broader survival
sense: get in shape or risk a heart attack.

Recently,
I needed to traverse 100 yards of 28 inches of
snow, with a 35 pound pack. I did not bother
using snow shoes or skis, since this is such a
short distance.
The snow presented more problems than I expected,
because it had varying crust at 2 levels. Sometimes
the crusts broke and sometimes not. This post-holing
through breakable crusts, got me breathing hard.

On the way back, I used a tobaggon for the pack and
used the same post-hole tracks. It was much easier,
but still not easy.

Over many years, I have been so accustomed to using
skis in back-country, that I did not realize how exhausting
this post-hole snow walking can be. Also, in contrast to now,
I was in good shape.

This has given me a renewed appreciation for the problem of
walking out, if stranded in snow, if no skis, if nobody broke
trail, if out of shape.

BTW, snow trails are often "broken" even when you do not
realize it, giving you an overly optimistic assesment of snow
travel, in general. Snow machines or other skiers, having
traveled even months before, have compressed the snow,
and broke the trail, to some extent.
This can make you think that traveling in snow is much easier
than it really is. Traveling off the trail is a much different thing.
 
ras said:
As for survival situations, what physical conditioning do you really think is required? Survival is more a mental game.
Click to expand...

I agree for the most part, but there many different types of survival situations. There's the long term survival (think the Stulpa's or Kim family) and there are immediate need survival situations. Like carrying an injured child out of a dangerous situation, where help may not be coming in time. In a case like that I'd want to know that I wasn't so physically unfit as to not be capable of the task. (Of course when it comes to my kids, I'd pull myself through the woods on my hands knees if that what it took to get them help...)

Sean
 
A good topic - - I have thought more about the type of physical training that might be best for most outdoor survival situations. I used to do a lot more heavy weight training as a kid - - I focus more on the cardio component now, not running but carrying a pack over hilly country. - - My brother was on a team of loggers (he was asked to join them) who had a tug-of-war contest against some big bodybuilders at a summer festival. The loggers were average to smaller in size, but all of them spent their days doing hard/dangerous work in the woods and were solidly built. All the onlookers thought the bodybuilders would easily win, but the loggers dug in and wedged their legs into the ground and their opponents quickly tired. Lots of strength, - - but little endurance. The loggers then easily pulled them across the line into a pond and won. An eye opener for me. - - - As for motivation, I like to bowhunt for elk in steep, rugged country. If youre not in shape you'll feel it - - especially if you bag an 800 lb elk and have to pack the meat out. - - - -
 
First and foremost, if you weight train, I wouldn't go by those cheesy BMI numbers. If anything, you are 10lbs "overweight" because of more muscle mass. Stick with the big basics for strength: squats, deadlifts, chins, rows and bench press. Mix it up often. On heavy days use 5X5 or 10X3 ranges, these will also give you a "cardio" workout you wouldn't believe!
 
IUKE12 said:
How many of us are really in good condition to survive? Survive what? I'll use me as an example. I workout daily, cardio and strength training. I run 10 k road races finishing in the top third of the field. I run straight up mountain trails for fun. My body fat is at 9 %. Am I in good shape? I'd have to say yes for a guy aged 52, yet if you read "In the Heart of the Sea" the story about the sinking of the whale ship Essex, the fat guy survived adrift at sea and a guy like me became next weeks lunch. I would not have lasted more that a week simply because my body has next to nothing to draw reserves from. I most likely would not survive long in extreme cold weather, yet would excel in desert conditions. So, I am in shape for some survival situations, but not others.
In the Heart of the Sea is a great read, a true story on which Herman Melville's Moby Dick was based. I highly recommend it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you should be so pessimistic about your survival chances. Studies of prisoners of war in the 2nd World War (notably on the ferocious Eastern Front) tend to suggest that thin wiry types survived best. Fat, or big muscular men often sucumbed first to lack of regular food and gruelling conditions. motto:travel light to travel far:thumbup:
 
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