Walking as a survival skill?

[Brian Jones]

I'm a train driver and work six hours and an half per day. And it's long enough, believe me.

dantzk.

Wow! Amazing that you can walk that long, especially pulling a train behind you! I really gotta step up my workouts!

I'm just kidding, dantzk -- when I saw this post, that picture popped into my head and struck me funny.

I'll jump in when I finish reading the thread here. I've sometimes responded to an early post, only to see that someone else already covered it. Why can't I be more original?

 

[Brian Jones]

This is a great thread! Nice HD!

One person mentioned how walking in the woods is different than pavement. I'm amazed when I take city-dwelling friends for walks in the woods. They stumble a lot and are all over the place balance-wise. Learning to make your legs springy for a smooth step is key in uneven terrain.

It was key for me when I slid down a Glacier, cracked a bone in my hip, and had to climb back the glacier, then up 800 ft of cliffs, hauling my 70lb pack, then put the pack on and hike out for the next two weeks. You learn pain management real quick, and you learn how important a smooth gait and good strength is. Walking may be your only way out even if injured.

It was for me.

 

[siguy]

the difference between city and woods walking is pretty signifigant, especially with the way alot of people walk nowadays. they shlep along scraping their heels on the ground with every step, hunched over and looking at the ground.

i have trained myself, after reading some on the nature of walking when i was young, to walk upright, to bend my knees alot with each step, and to pick my feet up off the ground. i also learned proper placement and dynamics of the foot for a good springy step. i still fall into the habit if i haven't been in the woods for a couple of weeks of not picking my feet up quite as high, but my feet get up there as soon as i hit the dirt again.

 

[Fraser]

Walking is an excellent exercise. I believe that Europeans do it much more than Americans.

I like day hikes in the woods with a small pack loaded with food and water (an other accessories). Wear good shoes, keep hydrated and watch the weather.

 

[hollowdweller]

This is a great thread! Nice HD!

One person mentioned how walking in the woods is different than pavement. I'm amazed when I take city-dwelling friends for walks in the woods. They stumble a lot and are all over the place balance-wise. Learning to make your legs springy for a smooth step is key in uneven terrain.

It was key for me when I slid down a Glacier, cracked a bone in my hip, and had to climb back the glacier, then up 800 ft of cliffs, hauling my 70lb pack, then put the pack on and hike out for the next two weeks. You learn pain management real quick, and you learn how important a smooth gait and good strength is. Walking may be your only way out even if injured.

It was for me.

Holy Crap Brian! Did your hip heal ok? I've broke a lot of upper body bones falling but never any lower.

 

[Brian Jones]

Holy Crap Brian! Did your hip heal ok? I've broke a lot of upper body bones falling but never any lower.

Yes, mostly. There's a little tiny spur from not healing perfectly. But for the rest of that trip and the next six months whenever I rolled over onto my left-side, the pain woke me up like an electric shock! Sometimes a nerve tubs on the spur and reminds me of the good old days.

Oh, I meant to post: the lock step is great, but make sure you aren't locking back too far. Your knees will get ruined. Just ease your weight up onto the straightened leg.

 

[misanthropist]

Boy, I never thought about this, because I walk a lot. When I don't have a physical job, I walk around for fun. Back when I lived in Montreal, I used to pick a few places every couple of days that I wanted to visit or shop at, and then walk a big circle to all the places in the evening, or during the day depending onmy schedule. Most times this would be a five to ten kilometer walk.

These days I work too much to be doing that - Dantzke's job is just slightly more than half the hours I do every day! But I have to walk ten miles a day easily. I walk up and down our jobsite, usually carrying aligning bars (thirty pounds per, carry two) or a track jack (maybe sixty or seventy pounds.) I walk up and down, setting train tracks for guys like Dantzke to drive over! If I am not beating the rails I am staking them down or building the components, and everything is of course big and heavy. So it is absolutely impossible for me to get out of shape!

The other day I bought a small safe and the girl asked me if I wanted help out to my truck. "No, thanks," I said.

"But what about putting it in the back of the truck," she said.

"Honey," I said, "this is a two hundred pound safe and I pull rail for the train for a living. If I can't put that in the truck on my own, I'd say they'll fire me on monday."

On the other hand, I watched a guy at work throw his back out yesterday picking up a little 5kw honda generator. He is a guy just like me, only younger, and off for who knows how long just picking up a little genset that probably weighs less than my safe. So you guys with office jobs who worry about getting fat have something going for you - there are sure times I wished to be in an office somewhere getting fat! (I am still managing to get a little fat.)

Actually, a young guy (22...pretty sad) at my work got killed just the other day when his crane tipped over...so if you ever get too discouraged in an office setting, you can always consider the workplace injury statistics!

Anyway not to cast a pall over a great thread and a very good point!

 

[dantzk8]

Wow! Amazing that you can walk that long, especially pulling a train behind you! I really gotta step up my workouts!

Brian, the funny is there are days this picture comes to my mind as well. Not when i'm walking, when i'm driving!

i have trained myself, after reading some on the nature of walking when i was young, to walk upright, to bend my knees alot with each step, and to pick my feet up off the ground. i also learned proper placement and dynamics of the foot for a good springy step.

There's alot to say about walking technique and adaptation to the terrain. Many people can't even imagine how possible it is to increase such a basic move.

I walk up and down, setting train tracks for guys like Dantzke to drive over! If I am not beating the rails I am staking them down or building the components, and everything is of course big and heavy.

So, Misanthropist, you are a rail-roader! We (drivers) have full confidence in peoples of your trade, our lives depend on your skills. Great and hard job you have there.

dantzk.

 

[555]

The best work out tool, that will make you get out and walk three to four time a day, in rain, snow, ice, in the cold or the Heat of the day, is a Dog.

 

[mtrunner]

I think of running as one of my best skills...I never leave home without running shoes with me. I run in the woods everyday. I ran the vermont 100 ( 100 mile trail race) in a little under 23 hours. So, I think I can get around ok on my feet.

 

[x39]

The best work out tool, that will make you get out and walk three to four time a day, in rain, snow, ice, in the cold or the Heat of the day, is a Dog.

I'll second that. My dog gets two long walks a day, every day, no matter what.

 

[555]

I'll second that. My dog gets two long walks a day, every day, no matter what.

:thumbup:I know that they help me find my motivation to go out and walk.

Even this morning at 6AM at 9F.

 

[lmalterna]

Misanthropist,
You make an OUTSANDING point- lifting is about form. I have a bad disk in L4, now I can pick up a 250lb man in firemans carry and take him up the stairs-- I aggravate by back tying my shoes.

I did not see mention of the value of regular excercise in minimizing certain ailments such as Stage II Diabetes, high cholersterol and Hypertension--- If staying in shape reduces your need for maintenance meds, you increase your chance of surviving unexpected time away from home by not needing those meds.

My Da spent 47 years as a master machinist for railway- still has deisel running through his veins!

2Door

 

[mkhop]

Salem WV? Don't know Mark and Teresa Freeman do you?

HD I may know them by sight if they get on our rail trail here , I have a big good looking black shepherd wolf that helps strike up conversations but I really bad with names even before CRS kicked in.
HD I am getting old (57) and fat (too) but in my 20 years as a army medic I spent some time in straight leg infantry units where we walked every where and I found that a real good strech before and after a hike and even a rub down helps to keep the legs in shape and for wind I have found just increase time , distance and load very slowly. A x4 bypass has made me slow down but I have to fight the packrat in me for load and have look to some of your sugestions on light gear.

 

[Rockywolf]

Great thread!

I stopped working in restaurants where I was managing, cooking, prepping, dealing with people, etc. and now work in a place where I move very little and stand all day. I bet I have gained 10-15 pounds! Started walking again this week and plan to go to work early EVERYDAY to walk around the mall I work in. I have been watching all the older people every morning putting in the time and it dawned on me that I could get a quick workout in before work instead of complaining that I don't have any time.

 

[dextersp1]

There is so much talk about equipment that we sometimes forget the most important equipment
1. our minds filled with the proper information
2. our bodies prepared for physical activity that includes
- eyes - eye glasses or lasic for proper vision
- teeth - no problems to distract us
- body - proper fitness and conditioning
Survivalism begins with good mental and physical health.
Using sandles instead of boots is an indication that you might want to work on number 1 first to avoid pain later.

 

[Ironhorseman]

As everyone here knows, when in a survival situation, you set priorities. You ask yourself, "What is most likely to kill me first" and then you address that situation. Life is one long survival situation. The things most likely to kill us now are heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, ect. Daily walking is a remedy for all of those.

It's funny, a lot of my buddies fancy themselves to be outdoorsman and handy in the woods, but are so overweight and out of shape that they get out of breath walking to the coffee pot. They would die of a heart attack trying to walk out of the woods way before anything else would get them.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Absolutely, plus all you need is a pair of feet (OK, and shoes or boots).

 

[tholiver]

Walking is an excellent exercise. I believe that Europeans do it much more than Americans.

I like day hikes in the woods with a small pack loaded with food and water (an other accessories). Wear good shoes, keep hydrated and watch the weather.

Read a study last year that concluded urbanites were on average in much better shape than suburbanites and even some rural people. People who live in the city core are closer to their workplaces and amenities and therefore walk more, usually daily. People in the burbs etc are usually far away from everything (other than even more houses lol) and tend to drive everywhere.

I guess the point is that theres no need to put aside specific time for "working out" when just doing your daily routine gives you regular exercise.
Its easier for most people to procrastinate and avoid exercise when it is a separate thing you have to do.
Integrating exercise into your daily life makes it normal and just something you do without having to think about it.

 

[sasha]

Siguy your comment about proper walking in the woods is right on. I also find that when walking at night on smaller trails with loose rocks or pits i always step with the ball of the foot first. I actualy do that on any trail that is not established.

Sasha