The video below makes a serious point — although it’s not the one its makers intended. A defensive gun use is a physically demanding incident. Even if — especially if — you have to go hands-on. Or, for that matter, run like hell. So the question is . . .
How fit are you? It’s not just a gun question in and of itself. You’re more likely to die of obesity or health-related illness than a defensive gun use.
So, by getting fit, or staying fit, you kill two birds with one stone. So to speak. If you do exercise, what do you do? Anything specifically helpful for armed or unarmed self-defense (e.g., Krav Maga)?
Not as much as I’d like. My cardio sucks out loud. People with my body type (5’10”, 210 lbs, 15% body fat) are natural sprinters. Very dangerous, over short distances.
I have the Gimli, son of Gloin body type, too…or at least I would if I wasn’t so fat-out-of-shape. But I’m a long way from Bombur territory, though, so there’s that at least.
Hey, now, Bombur kicked wholsale orc ass when needed.
Yes, he did. Bombur is actually one of my favorite characters from the Hobbit movies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrjmeGKoR1E
Not a fan of “Alice in Wonderland?”
Does I once was very fit count for anything? LOL now I’m about 185 pounds 5 11 so I’m not like morbidly obese but I am nowhere near the lean mean muscle machine I was when I was 17 just getting out of basic training. Those days are long gone but I do believe that everybody can use a little bit more physical training along with shooting practice you can never really get enough of either if you want to stay healthy.
Kindof; basically I’m a show pony :3 I have about the BMI of a marathon runner but more upper body rather than lower.
Ponies don’t go :3!
😀
Hell yes I am. 1.5xBW squat, 2x+BW deadlift, 1.25xBW bench. .75xBW OHP and a 7 minute mile, can swing a bell all day.
I’ll probably die from a traffic accident or some rare ass cancer.
Get your slow, fat ass in order or you’ll be no good to anybody least of all yourself. Takes less than an hour a day. People waste that much time hemming and hawing over what to have for dinner. Protip: meat and vegetables. There, now you can train more.
To be fair, without knowing your body weight, that doesn’t tell us a lot. The square cube law sucks donkey dick.
A 5’3″ skinny guy doing this is nowhere near as impressive as a 5’11” 250 lb guy doing the same. Based on your run time, I’d guess you’re either in extremely good shape or are on of the short skinny fuckers that maxes his PFT but can’t hump shit.
Doesn’t matter what it is (190). YOUR strength is for YOUR body. Sure, DLing 6x my BW would be crazy awesome but it would be specialized and ultimately useless for any purpose other than DLing a shitload of weight.
We must define “fit.” As a powerlifter amd I fit? No. As a distance runner am I fit? No. Am I strong for my purposes? Yes.
This is a pretty good read: https://atomic-athlete.com/strongenough/
Let’s be honest. In a combative situation, absolute strength matters. They guy trying to take your shit isn’t going to magically get lighter just because you weigh 160lbs rather than 200.
Doesn’t matter what it is (190). YOUR strength is for YOUR body. Sure, DLing 6x my BW would be crazy awesome but it would be specialized and ultimately useless for any purpose other than DLing a shitload of weight.
We must define “fit.” As a powerlifter amd I fit? No. As a distance runner am I fit? No. Am I strong for my purposes? Yes.
This is a pretty good read: https://atomic-athlete.com/strongenough/
To be fair, humping a ruck for long distances is a different kind of workout that most people need to train for, especially over uneven terrain.
It uses a lot of small muscles around your hips, lower back and into your lower abs that are hard to hit with regular exercise.
I’ve seen people who can toss a bar over their hips and do hip thrusts with 250lbs(plus the bar) all day but can’t ruck 30lbs for three miles because those little muscles aren’t developed enough. Kinda like people with a big chest who can do pushups all day but can’t bench much because their rotator cuff muscles have been neglected.
That’s true, but I’m talking about strength as an absolute rather than in relation to body weight. My personal favorite anecdote is from a 1812 buddy of mine who had a guy come out of MOS school, being 150lbs soaking wet, couldn’t crank track for shit.
Fair enough.
I won’t speak for the guy but I will note that some people confuse fitness with strength with being lean/cut and what you want is a mix. If you look at the UFC some of the heavier fighters are carrying a gut but are amazingly powerful and actually sometimes have damn good cardio. They’re just stacking weight to make a class.
In league with what you’re saying: 20 pullups as a measure of fitnessis good because fitness is in relation to your personal build. But light people obviously get off easier on that in terms of absolute strength because they don’t have to move as much mass. This is why while I like body weight exercises for endurance I don’t think they’re the bee’s knees for building muscle/strength unless you’re supersetting them with weights.
That said, beware that 150lb dude who rocks out 20 pullups with a bunch of chain or a weight vested added to him. Just the ligament strength to do that is mindblowing.
The only fit I’m concerned about is my gun in my holster. I don’t care how fit you might be, you’re not going to outrun a bullet.
Krav maga? Very nice, but I carry a gun because I’m too old to fight, and I intend to be a lot older before I’m done.
I am so tired of that “outrun a bullet” nonsense. I don’t need to outrun the bullet. I need to outrun your OODA loop.
As a Krav Maga instructor, I have had women in their EIGHTIES train in my classes, get fitter, and give themselves a fighting chance to GET to their gun. You’re not too old to fight; you’re too young to die.
https://youtu.be/9FKBlrqSmcE
Ah, I see the first of the “My gun is a magic talisman that wards off evil” crowd is in.
Your gun is a tool, and you are not an armored tank turret.
You can probably shoot the wings off a gnat at 25 yards, but you can and will soak up life-ending rounds while doing so if you aren’t highly mobile.
But I identify as an armored tank turret! I demand special bathrooms for my kind!
And too many people think that you need to be built like a crossfitting, pre workout shake obsessive, gallon of water at the gym, superfreak to disengage from, clear holster, and kill an attacker. Just ain’t so. The key is to be fit enough, smart enough, and accurate enough to defend yourself. Specializing in one area while allowing another to atrophy will get you killed.
Eric, no one is suggesting that opposite extreme here. Simply that you need to be mobile.
Yeah, and if someone starts kicking your ass before you can grab your gun what will you do? How will you get to your magic gun talisman when someone is on top of you raining down punches?
Too many people live in a fantasy world where they think their attacker is just going to calmly stand there while their opponent pulls his gun from his pocket and shoots him.
Stuff it mate… I guess you don’t read all of the news items where elderly and disabled people shoot their attackers without the gymnastics. Happens all the time. I’m 70 years old, seriously disabled, and can’t run or fight hand to hand to save my life. Nothing is ever going to make that possible either.
But I CAN and do practice serious situational awareness, avoid like the plague any place where my safety might well depend on being physically “fit,” and I’m a damned good shot – with a good many different guns. I know how to use them, and have the fighting attitude necessary to use them to good effect when necessary.
Of course there is no guarantee of prevailing in any defensive situation, but the idea that everyone has to be some rambo “operator” is nonsense. I had to shoot a man to save my life more than 30 years ago (I was much more fit then, of course) – and the damned fool DID just stand there while I shot him. Read the whole story here: https://thepriceofliberty.org/the-man-i-might-have-killed/
And too many people think that you need to be built like a crossfitting, pre workout shake obsessive, gallon of water at the gym, superfreak to disengage from, clear holster, and kill an attacker. Just ain’t so. The key is to be fit enough, smart enough, and accurate enough to defend yourself. Specializing in one area while allowing another to atrophy will get you killed.
Eric,
So don’t specialize in firearm handling – generalize. That includes a minimum level of fitness and mobility.
Mama Liberty,
No one is saying you can’t survive, only that you are significantly less likely to.
Senior citizens also have an element of surprise that most of us do not – in general they look weaker – like an easy mark to a predator. No one expects grandma to suddenly introduce a 12GA to the fight. Criminals are often lulled into a false sense of security.
If you watch enough CCTV footage of attacks (Active Self Protection on youtube is a great resource) you notice that home invaders tend to handle seniors with kid gloves to some degree.
Again, we’re not talking about dogmatic certainties here – just increased likelihood of success.
(1) Carrying a gun is the first step.
(2) Second step is being proficient with that gun.
(3) Third step is being fit: Mobile and strong enough to buy that space and time needed to deploy a firearm and get out of the line of fire.
(4) Fourth step is trauma care. Learn to plug your holes if you find yourself suddenly having a few new ones.
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/
/alabama_man_79_kills_home_inva.html
http://www.wxyz.com/news/75-year-old-man-shoots-kills-home-invasion-suspect-in-detroit
http://www.kfvs12.com/story/20630957/police-82-year-old-mo-man-shoots-intruder
http://myfox8.com/2017/01/04/pistol-packing-grandma-faces-down-armed-intruder-i-tried-to-kill-him/
https://newsone.com/2835758/elzie-pipkins-shreveport-louisiana/
But these events could not have happened because a gun is not a magic talisman and the defenders didn’t know Krav Maga!
I fail to do both cardiac conditioning and strength training. Nevertheless, I have a healthy body weight and I do some physical activity here-and-there, so that makes it somewhat easy to avoid formal conditioning and strength training.
At any rate I feel comfortable in my physical ability to exit an ugly situation. I could jog at a fast pace for probably 300 yards without any trouble and run an all out sprint 100 yards without any trouble. Much beyond that would likely become problematic in short order. In terms of going hands on, I am in good enough shape to create distance or do intense hand-to-hand for at least 60 seconds. That should be good enough for 99.9% of self-defense events.
I used to play ice hockey and/or train in Tae Kwon Do at least once a week. Unfortunately I have not done either for the past two years or so and I can definitely tell in terms of conditioning. (My skills have not degraded any appreciable amount.) I intend to resume one or both after this Summer and Fall.
i am physically pffffft.
its no different than saying you shouldnt carry a gun unless you have had x amount of hours of training because blah. nothing, not even massive cardio, will trump genetics. a lot of this exercise obsession is the obsession with pleasing other people with our looks. I’d rather be a out of shape survivor than a tone, ripped corpse, but thats just me.
being in shape isn’t going to guarantee you anything. just look at how many in shape, pro athletes die around 50 from heart failure and how many have and numerous heart surgeries *Cough ARNOLD Cough* i would worry more about my gun handling ability than my distance and stamina capabilities. that is the entire point in firearms, they are the great equalizers. i dont have to be a strapping young buck to put up a good fight.
and from what i have picked up, if exercise makes you live longer, all you are doing is extending the shitty years anyways. so now you can sit around in the nursing home shitting yourself a few more years before your mind rots away.
“nothing, not even massive cardio, will trump genetics.”
Respectfully sir, you are wrong.
What you mean is “Nothing I’m willing to do can trump genetics”.
I promise you, your fitness level and body shape is entirely under your control.
Please, carry the gun! But also get in shape.
To be fair, he’s partially right. A 5’2″ dude will never beat a 6’2″ dude with moderate training just like it takes an Olympic level woman to compete in strength with an average man.
That being said, while your genetics put an absolute ceiling on your performance level. They don’t determine where you are relative to that ceiling. (Which is generally well above the level of your average street thug.)
I whole-heartedly agree. Genetics represents a ceiling that less than 2% of us will ever work hard enough to hit.
Usually when people complain about their genetics its code for “fitness stuff is hard, I’d rather not do it”. I know – I am one.
At 4’10” I never had the legs to outrun the bastards. Now pushing sixty, I’ve neither the lungs or the heart. But, I can shoot a .45 and hit my target, which is a heck of a lot more than I could do four years ago. One of the reasons I took up shooting, besides enjoyment.
Of course , well I try to be it helps in most aspects of life including living longer . Running from danger or towards it, fighting and on and on fitness just makes on better at it.
Today I did 10 KB swings. , 5 rope climbs, 25 push ups, 5 rounds . Then 20 on a cross trainer. Went home cut the lawn ( push mower) wheel barrowed a few yards of mulch, time to walk the dog then head into work ( Fire LT , on a Truck)
I’m 58, 5’9 a tad under 190 and would like to be 180, but well I like a strong drink and well we eat very well at work….
The reality is this:
Most DGUs are over in minutes. If you actually need your cardio and/or strength training for some kind of action movie hand or hand crap, you are in a sustained or CQB fight in which case, godspeed and fight like a dirty mofo to win.
Respectfully sir you are wrong. Spend some time watching Active Self Protection (facebook/youtube). He has hundreds of CCTV footage of actual gun fights.
Those that stand still often get shot. Those that are highly mobile rarely get shot, even when trapped in a small room with the shooter.
Move to live. Stand still to become a bullet sponge.
CAN you survive without being mobile? Sure. But you’re significantly less likely to.
How bad of shape do you have to be in before you’re unable to move enough to throw someone’s aim while shooting at them? How long are we planning to sustain this movement? Won’t we run out of ammo fairly quickly?
This is getting as bad as the training thing: of course being reasonably physically fit is good, for lots of reasons including SD.
No, you don’t have to be in very good shape for all but the strangest DGUs. For the 99%, you don’t even need to move more than your gun arm.
This is simply another hollow argument, completely refuted, obviously and in great detail, by the facts. I’m not sure what to call the mechanism behind making such arguments, but it looks like something about justifying some obsessive behavior or condition.
In the cited cases this obsession is with training, physical or firearms, using self defense as a justification, while training beyond all conceivable need based on everything we know about DGUs.
I suspect there us also a bit of bragging going on, where one specifies there own particular area of focus as one of vital importance, when it is neither vital, nor even likely to be important based on the evidence.
As I’ve pointed out before, most of what will be useful in a DGU is learned in the first year, and there is a very steep decline in the value of training beyond a certain point. The fallacy of the more gun more training approach is in our desire to survive and prevail influencing our judgement about the value of more training. At some finite point you would literally have to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to improve your DGU survivability a ten-thousandth of a percent.
It’s a simple cost/benefit analysis, and excessive training just costs way more than most people judge it’s value to them, and for good reason.
Do me a favor – head over to youtube and spend an hour or two on the Active Self Protection channel. Essentially its a library of CCTV footage of actual gunfights, and some light analysis on what was done right, or could have been done better.
The overwhelming pattern you’ll see is this: People who stand still soak up bullets. People who move often avoid them, even when confined in incredibly small spaces with the shooter.
There are plenty of people who draw quickly and shoot accurately, but still end up bleeding on the floor at the end of the story.
The reality is that most DGU’s are over in seconds.
And if your DGU isn’t “most”?
A friend of mine’s son was attacked this week in Denver. 6v1. He’s 6’4″ 240 and not a fat guy. He lost. Badly. He knows he made some mistakes to be in that situation in the first place but 6v1 at melee range brings up some things to consider.
Some fights you’re going to lose no matter what. 6v1 is still an outlier.
But it did and does happen.
Further, there’s something this article doesn’t cover: Being significantly overweight reduces your chances of surviving and recovering from trauma by as much as 30%. That trauma doesn’t have to be the result of a fight. A car accident or a workplace accident can screw you up just as good.
So why would you take the risk? I mean, if we have an injury that you have a 70% chance of surviving and recovering why would you cut that to as low as 49% just for Mt. Dew, Papa Johns and time on the couch?
This is so very much a guy thing. We argue caliber. Make of gun. Make of vehicle. Blonde or ginger. On and on it goes.
And 99.9% of it is useless bullshit. We just love to argue and wave our johnsons around. It’s what we are.
I’m not arguing that fitness is bad. I’ve dropped and kept 60 pounds off. I have a lot more to go.
But being able to do an ironman comp. plays little into the average DGU. First non military time I used a gun to save my ass I shot an aggressive dog, part of a pack, thru the head with a .22 at near contact range. Being able to hold a .22 rifle steady enough to kill the dog was all the fitness I needed.
The last time I got shot at I hit the floor. Laid on my back with a .38 covering the only lane of attack for the shooter. I did not return fire and getting off the x would have put me in the line of more fire. How much fitness did that take?
Too many people here getting sucked into the latest “pet rock” fad. And it makes the trainers, many of whom have probably been in fewer fights than Ralph, me or Mama Liberty a lot of money.
I’m not arguing “tactical fitness”. I agree, that’s basically a scam.
I’m just saying that being healthy and not being seriously overweight reduces the risks of a ton of diseases and disorders, makes you feel better and makes you more durable when some asshole who drank his lunch T-bones your car and puts you in the ICU.
If people want to take it further for whatever reason, that’s their business. I’m simply saying it’s a good idea not to be significantly overweight.
I’m a quinquagenarian but @5’11” and 205lbs I have a a single rep max bench press of 385lbs, can run a sub-7:00 mile or a sub 22:00 5k. I’m not the kid I was in college but I would wager that I could hold my own against 80+ percent of current college males (or whatever gender they self identify as). I used to rely on being faster and stronger, now I rely on being smarter and better armed.
“quinquagenarian”…thought I knew what that meant, but had to look it up to make sure.
Guess that makes me a sexagenarian (get your mind out of the gutter)…
I think you are selling yourself short. With those stats you would do better than 98%+ or better. Have you seen how out of shape many of the youth are these days?
Weightlifting? Sure, on my heavy days I carry a Glock 20 with three spare mags, on my recovery days an LCP with one mag. With 380 hollow points, if they are hollow points they must weigh less, right 🙂
That’s not what you meant??
Well, at 56 I can climb a 45-degree hill rough terrain with two 50-lb bags of corn on my shoulders, I’m OK with that. I’m in better shape in my 50s than I was in my 40s, and probably my 30s. Less beer and cigarettes.
For those struggling to have consistency in you fitness routines as you get older (most of us), I encourage you to consider Crossfit.
-Its highly structured, but not restrictive. For the most part you just need to show up, and fitness will ensue.
-Its very comprehensive: Running, lifting, cardio, strength work, joint mobility, speed work, all under supervision.
-Its a standardized curriculum – created by professionals, not your local gym owner.
-Its widespread (most of you can find one close to you).
-Its a small time commitment (workouts are almost all less than 1hr)
-Its diverse. Men and women from ages 18-60. Mostly in the 25-50 range.
I know the stereotype – a bunch of frat guys in cutoff t-shirts giving frequent high-fives while yelling “Yeah bruh!”.
But honestly, I’ve met more gun people, more people who are serious about preparedness, self sufficiency and personal responsibility at 1 crossfit session than I have ever met in a lifetime of gun store and range visits.
I was skeptical, but after 6 months I can strongly recommend it.
Crossfit rocks, but how did you meet more gun owners in one session at your box than a lifetime at gun ranges? Or are you talking about general preparedness people?
Mostly preparedness in general – but I will say I’ve more people who USE their guns through crossfit/fitness activities than typically people who like to TALK about their guns in the gunstore.
I’m probably about average as far as physically fit goes…I exercise throughout the week. I run a couple of miles after work and hit the heavy bag,which affords the opportunity to listen to a ton of metal daily. I also lift 3-4 times per week but it is nothing too intense. I kayak quite regularly as well, but mostly because it’s fun. I guess you can throw company softball in, but we all know what that looks like, exercise-wise.
I also enjoy my meals (especially the bad stuff) and drinking a few cold beers on the weekend. I’m 6′ and weigh 190, not great but not too bad either. None of my regimen has anything to do with firearms though; it’s more for health in general and I notice if I go more than a couple days without running, my sciatic nerve starts to bother me.
I’ve talked with other POTG before, and it always amazes me when I run into the ones who talk about fighting tyranny and the future civil war, yet are morbidly obese and smoke like chimneys. Which is perfectly fine, I just fail to see them being on the theoretical warpath for long.
Not really. But then I have a whole different interpretation of “Make it burn”.
I found yoga fits my lifestyle. It keeps me limber and agile.
Plus it helps to negate the arthritis that has hit me the past few years.
I’m fitter than I was yesterday but not as fit as I will be tomorrow. If you’re serious then fitness isn’t a magic standard that you reach like a PFT, it’s continual improvement where you hit plateaus and have to push past them.
Also, I would note that the chances of a good clinical outcome when trauma is involved increase significantly if you’re not overweight.
As for recommendations, it’s what you can do based on your own limitations. Personally, I mix it up with swimming and hiking but have a general daily and weekly set I get in. That’s a base workout 6x a week that I can do at my house with lighter weight for more reps, BJJ twice to four times as allowed by my schedule, 2x “light lifting” days at the gym one for upper body and one for legs then a real “leg day” and a “back, chest and arms day”. Every day is core day.
I also incorporate things into my daily doing such as running stairs when I come across them.
Make sure you’ve got some stretching in there!
Shit, now that hex bar downstairs is whispering to me… Dammit.
Something I neglected to mention: diet.
Somewhere around 80% of this is in the kitchen. People get fat and feel like shit because they eat shit.
How is it that we became a nation dependant on Monster and 5 Hour Energy? Because our diet is garbage and anyone who’s taken a science or math class knows: garbage in, garbage out.
Whenever I see those ads for 5 Hour where they ask about the mid-afternoon crash and suggest you grab one of their products I think “No! Ask what you had for lunch!”. 99% of the time if you take that person you’ll find the had junk for lunch. Give them a healthy lunch they don’t need that energy drink because their body isn’t shutting down to try to process the garbage they ingested.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about pick up a healthy cookbook like The Feed Zone and get an edjumacation.
Not available at my local library. But it is available through the interlibrary loan service. Libraries are great.
“Somewhere around 80% of this is in the kitchen. People get fat and feel like shit because they eat shit.”
*slow clap*
The unfortunate thing about diet is that its a lagging indicator. You don’t associate your energy slump and depression with the highly processed cheesburger you at 12 hours earlier. A literal TON of people end up on anti deppresants when all they really needed was to stop eating so much food laced with mood altering substances (MSG, Caffeine, processed sugars, etc).
Feeling flabbier every day. The only exercise I can ever be assed to do is occasional walks/hikes and yardwork.
Momentum cuts both ways.
If you get it moving in the right direction suddenly you’ll want to do other things that are good for you. Takes some effort right off the bat but that momentum builds over time.
It’s the days you really don’t want to do anything that you need to do something (barring illness or injury of course).
I love how everyone is saying they don’t need to exercise because they have a gun for protection. Too bad your gun won’t protect you from heart disease or diabetes. If you’re a man and over 25% body fat you have a problem. No man should be above 20% body fat and ideally, the goal should be 15%.
Lift weights and get your conditioning up (Running, circuit training, biking, etc). I recommend 5/3/1 as it is a pretty good exercise program that emphasizes both strength and cardio training.
I spent some 45 years working out-weightlifting,competitive bodybuilding,powerlifting and cycling(and strenuous frisbee). And I used those muscles more than once in defense. Now in my 60’s and don’t care. Still strong but decidedly unfit. But now I have guns and a myriad of other weapons. So be it…
Just two years ago I was running sub 5 minute miles. Now I’m focusing on trying to gain weight but with minimal success, thank you fast metabolism. I’m 5’11” about 150. I can bench roughly 20lbs over my body weight. I work out about 4-5 days per week. The one exercise I would love to add to my routine is carrying a gun but unfortunately California basically prohibits it where I live.
If you want to gain weight reduce your cardio by 15-25%, up your protein and carbs but try to balance that at 2:1 carbs to protein (or more on the protein side, just make sure you’re getting at least 1g protein for each 2g of carbs). You’ll see gains.
Cardio burns fat but that also takes muscle with it. It’s a balancing act.
Protein, protein, protein.
If you’re like me you probably don’t track your protein intake too closely. I tried to gain weight for the longest time and couldn’t.
It literally comes down to simple math. You weight is what you eat, minus the fat and muscle you burn to keep your body running. Matter/Energy can not be created or destroyed, only moved.
I literally had to double my protein intake to gain weight: From around 80g a day to over 150g a day.
Just make sure you get enough carbs and drink enough water doing that.
Too much protein is really hard on your kidneys if you let yourself get dehydrated. Ketoacidosis = very bad news and a high protein, very low carb diet without enough water can give you such problems. .
I’ve was underweight my whole life until 27 rolled around. Now I’m about 7 pounds overweight.
I’ve got an old abandoned railroad track at the end of my street that I run up and down when the weather permits. Otherwise I chase my nephews around the couch. They have me run for longer and maybe even faster than when I run by myself. If I want to run as fast as I can, but not that long, I have them chase me.
My middle nephew squeals with delight when I chase him. It’s fun. It doesn’t count as exercise when it’s fun.
One, I am physically unable to run, and its not because of my weight, and two, when out in public, I am usually pushing my wife in her wheel chair. There is no way I am going to run and leave her there. I will stand and fight.
Hang a Serbu Super Shorty in a shopping bag on the back of her wheelchair. Give the bad guys something to shit themselves over.
I’m in my 60’s(represent you old farts). Since marrying my keeper wife I dropped and have kept off 60 pounds. But I’m still fat. I’ve been shot at, in civilian and military life, and I’ve shot back.
Sweating to the oldies and watching grainy videos of shootings is not training for a gun fight.
And I see a dangerous attitude creeping into the POTG’s conversation that appears to be spearheaded by folk with a desire to make a profit. An attitude that anti gunners will no doubt encourage or exploit.
You’re not fit to carry a gun unless you work out x number of hours a day and get your training card punched, at great expense, by operator John Smith and his academy of lawyer and insurance neutered ex operators.
TTAG and the headlines are full of stories of 75+ yo’s with no training(and in at least one case the person had never fired a gun and did not know if the gun they owned would even fire) that survived and prevailed in their DGU’s.
Getting off the x would have meant leaving their walkers behind.
I’m loath to argue against training, especially in physical fitness, but JWM nailed it. You just don’t need very much training, or anything like good cardio for 99%+ of DGUs, which are already black swan events. If you are seriously working out for hours per week to improve your survivability in a DGU, your fooling yourself, and you’re training for an event that just doesn’t exist.
Train all you want, for any reason you want, but don’t try to convince others that they need cross fit for DGU preparedness, that’s just silly.
My odds of survival ladder is as follows:
(0) (Don’t carry a gun.)
(1) Carry a gun.
(2) Train with the gun enough to be proficient
(3) Train your body enough to be strong/mobile enough to buy time and space to deliver rounds and avoid receiving them.
(4) Trauma care. Train to plug any unexpected new holes you may find yourself with.
Each step up that ladder represents a significant increase in your odds of survival – with a decrease in return for each step. The distance between steps 0 and 1 is HUGE. The best thing you can do, all other factors aside is carry a damn gun.
Three sets of pull-ups, three sets on the nautilus bench thingy, three sets on the ab twist machine, and then walk two or three miles.
On lower body days, three sets of leg presses and three sets on the calf machine, then walk two or three miles.
I walk because I hate running. When I walk, I can think and plan and iron things out in my head. When I’m running, all I can think about is how much runnning sucks, and I have this non-stop internal dialogue where one part of my brain says, “Dude, this sucks. Stop it.” While another part of my brain says, “Why the hell did you bother putting on your shorts and running shoes if you’re not going to run?” So I walk. It’s just much more productive for me.
40, 5′ 10″, 174lbs.
Squat 325lbs 25x
Dead lift 285lbs 5x
Overhead Press 95lbs 25x -this is my most difficult lift and one I struggle to increase.
Row 190lbs 25x
Started with an empty bar Sept 2016
You’re squatting 325 pounds for 25 reps but can’t do 300×5 for deadlift?
I am super curious what your squat looks like, got a video?
I just finished a 5 mile jog. I’m old, fat and slow but fit.
Fitness is it’s own reward, improving your very existence
God forbid any of us are challenged with mortal combat. At least I MAY survive, without collapsing from cardiac arrest.
I can do a 12oz curl like its nobodys business!!!!!
Dont do them often, but i can hold my own.
I’ve lost 45lbs in 5 months, about another 10 to go. Weight wise, I’m getting there. I’m still not as fit as I’d like, but it took me a long time to get this out of shape, it’s not gonna be an overnight miracle getting back into shape.
Well, another substitute for the Caliber Wars! I can only echo what jwm, Ardent & Former Water Walker have nailed, but here goes:
Some here make it sound like if you aren’t suitably High-Speed, Low Drag-y enough according to their standards, you should refrain from even gazing upon a firearm, lest you hurt yourself.
“Oh, your Life-Clock has turned black?” “Please conduct yourself to the nearest Carousel location to undergo Renewal. Here are some nice Sandmen to help you find your way.”
or perhaps the Average Guns vs. Operational Operators (Click, Click, Pew!)
It does sound like the same arguments that the Anti-Gunners use to justify expen$$ive licensing and training requirements. I hate to bring this up (no, not really), but I seriously doubt that many of the folks involved in the 600k–2+ million DGUs every year were Iron Man or Tough Mudder competitors.
Is some training better than none? Of course, but as others have pointed out, it’s not necessary to have spent thousands of $$ in the vast majority of situations.
On the other side, is being/getting in shape better than not? Again, of course for a host of reasons in addition to increased mobility in a self-defense situation. If you are in top physical condition, G_d Bless You, but it’s always easier to argue for whatever side you are on and belittle the other. Me, I seriously let myself go for a decade for no good reason. I’m fighting my way back, and after 6 months, I’m about a third of the way there. I’ve been doing well with keeping my carb intake at 70g or less, restricting total caloric intake and intermittent fasting. I know that I may not be able to reach 100% without a serious physical regimen, but I’d rather be at 80% than back at 0. Don’t get me wrong, I take walks at lunch at my primary job, walk the dog, push-mow the grass at home and am on my feet loading /unloading freight at my second job 4 days per week–just no time for cross-fit or other intensive workout regimens.
Lift weights, cardio, competed in sport fighting for 14 years – trying to get a hang of this shooting guns thing now.
Comments are closed.