Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Survival of the Fittest by Mike Hussle

When it comes to preparedness for disasters, people can be very imaginative. Thinking through every possible scenario, difficulty or danger helps them in choices such as, “what type of firearm is the most practical?” “What medicines is it a good idea to have on hand?” Or, “where is a good place to go if it is no longer safe where I live?” These questions are all sound, practical thoughts for anyone who wants to be prudently prepared for emergencies.


One factor, however, largely gets neglected, if not ignored. Perhaps that is because you can’t simply purchase this most central and important factor of preparedness: yourself! Fitness is a huge asset in any dangerous or challenging situation, and is key to coming out on top of a survival situation. If you are reading this but are out of shape, you have some work to do. Another problem that needs to be addressed is identifying what, exactly, fitness is, and what about fitness better prepares you for survival?

Fitness, like firearms, must be practical to be worthwhile. That is, it must be functional. If it’s not, it isn’t doing you any good. So what is functional fitness? What physical abilities and skills should every person have? And why is this important for survival preparedness, above firearms, food or any other supply gathering? To demonstrate the point, let’s take a look at two scenarios. As a throwback to many of our childhoods, they are written in a “choose your own adventure” style.

Scenario #1.

In the first scenario, you are walking down a street in the city. Times are tough, and crime is on the rise. Due to legal restrictions, you are unarmed. While you wait to cross a street, two men approach from your right. You turn, and see one of them holding a knife down low. They demand your money. You decide to resist, and in an instant, your plan is to strike the one with the knife and then get out of Dodge.

Option A: Functionally Unfit: You’ve been taking yoga classes and maybe some bicep curls and crunches a few times a week, and you feel pretty strong. You wind up, and put those “strong arms” to use. The blow you land surprises the man, but it barely moves him. You turn and run. Adrenaline’s pumping, but after only fifty yards of sprinting, you’re winded. The two men catch up. The End

Option B: Functionally Fit: You’ve been doing old fashioned core lifts (dead lift, squats, etc.) along with gymnastic and military exercise, and even interval running mixed in. You wind up- your powerful lower body muscles generate a huge amount of force, transferring it through your strong core into your arms. The blow you land comes from your whole body, which you have learned to use properly. The man is on the ground with a busted nose. You still run, because the other man might be armed, and knives cut strong people too. After a quarter mile, you’re still going strong, but your assailants have slowed down, winded. You round the corner and lose them for good.

Scenario #2.

During the Trojan War, Aeneas needed to escape the city with his family and other survivors. The Greeks were massacring, raping, looting and destroying so to stay was a death sentence. Aeneas’ father was an elderly man, incapable of keeping up with the group as it fled the carnage.

Option A: Functionally Unfit Aeneas: Aeneas has a weak lower back, and cannot lift his father, let alone carry him. He must choose to either abandon him to a certain death, or walk slowly with him, until they are both captured and killed. The End.

Option B: Functionally Fit Aeneas: Aeneas is of sound body, and is physically trained and ready for battle. His strength is not about looks but about ability. When his father falls behind, he picks him up, carrying him with his strong back and legs, and not only keeps up with, but leads the others to safety.

These scenarios should hopefully paint a picture of how important real fitness is in emergency situations. There is more to evaluate, of course. Ask yourself the following questions: Could you subdue an attacker? Could you carry a wounded person to safety? Save a drowning man? Can you lift a heavy load? Carry heavy gear for a long distance? Are you capable of hard manual labor for long times? Can you climb? Can you catch someone you’re pursuing, or escape pursuit yourself? Could you survive in the wild? In an emergency, are you more of an asset or a burden to others?

In evaluating yourself, are you sounding more like a warrior or more like a weakling? Capable of coming to others’ aid, or incapable of even defending yourself? The problem is, this is the point where most of us (guys especially) lie to ourselves. Admitting weaknesses or even pulling your head out of you-know-where enough to see your weaknesses is a difficult thing. As a man, I know that most of us guys would prefer to ignore the question, or inflate our heads with bicep curls and other non-functional exercise built for looks. For women, this is also a big temptation- to either do nothing, or to do everything with their dress size in mind instead of their overall athletic ability.
Functionality shines a light on our physical condition, and in a way, on the condition of our character. Take, on the one hand, the couch potato. His flab, his atrophied muscle and pathetic lack of stamina are the physical manifestations of his laziness and lack of discipline.

On the other hand, you have the bodybuilder. He can bench 400 lbs, but he can’t run a mile. He dead-lifts huge weights with a hex bar and a belt, but he can’t lift a heavy object in real life without hurting his back. He works hard for a beach body, but what good does it do him? His hard work has been for the wrong reasons, and his lack of functional fitness is because he was too vain to let go of exercises designed to make him look better.

Functionality brings clarity, helping us to see what’s important, and humility, helping us to make an honest assessment of our own strengths and weaknesses.

Functional fitness is well rounded. Strength is important, but so is endurance. Power is important, but so is stamina. There are multiple ways we can evaluate our fitness. One very good list was written by Bruce Evans and Jim Cawley of Dynamax, Inc. It has been adopted by well known groups and is a good, rounded list of skills and capacities every person should have.

1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance - the ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen
2. Stamina – the ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength – the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units to apply force.
4. Flexibility – the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power – the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed – the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination – the ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movements.
8. Agility – the ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance – the ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy – the ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

Having looked at what skills or capacities men should have, what exercises help us achieve those? There isn’t room in one article to list and describe all of the many great exercises that are functional, but for further reference, we list, explain and discuss these, as well as daily workouts at my web site. For the time being, we will list some fundamental exercises, and some basic principles of functional fitness. After that, we’ll take a look at how this can be done at home, for little to no expense.

Example Exercises:

1. Front Squat
2. Romanian Deadlift/Deadlift
3. Kettlebell Swings
4. Overhead Press
5. Pullups
6. Pushups
7. Ring Pushups/Bench Press


Body Mechanics and the Real World:

Programs based on aesthetics tend to use movements that isolate muscles. But the body was designed such that multiple muscle groups work together. Furthermore, in real life, very seldom will you lift or move anything without using multiple muscle groups. While this doesn’t mean every isolation movement is therefore useless, it does mean that exercise should be focused upon compound and whole-body movements.

Fiber Over Filler:

Most non-functional exercise programs utilize a 3x10 format: three sets of ten repetitions ("reps") of each exercise. This is the bread-and-butter of a program designed to maximize the growth of muscle cells mainly by way of the fluid in the cell. The strength gains made this way are not proportionate to the size gains.

A functional exercise program chooses performance over appearance. To build strength it utilizes a low repetition, high weight format. This maximizes the growth of the muscle cell primarily via the number of muscle fibers within the cell. This will build muscle size too, but it is primarily geared towards gains in strength-to-mass ratio (i.e., how strong you are for your size).

Stamina

A functional program also makes use of very high repetition, low weight movements. This is done to build endurance, stamina, etc. This cannot be overlooked, because strength is only good as long as it lasts.

Intensity.

If the exercise you’re doing is comfortable, you’re not getting anything done. Without challenging yourself - without pushing yourself to a level that is genuinely hard for you, what are you doing? Because you’re not progressing.


Au-Natural.
In exercising - particularly in a functional way - you are saying you care about your body, your potential, and living more as God intended. There’s some irony, then, when our steps back towards our natural design and fulfillment are made with machines, fancy equipment and chemical supplements. If we’re moving towards a fulfillment of how we were designed, why do we need those things? What we are able to accomplish with simple gear, our bodies themselves, and with our surroundings in nature can be as good as and even better than with treadmills, hydraulics, isolation machines and so on. Why run on a treadmill if you can run outside? Why run on a flat surface if you can run on a trail? Why seek out fancy or even gimmicky gear when simple, rugged, time tested gear - or even no gear at all - can work so well?


Premium Fuel.
Closely aligned with the notion that the closer to natural movement, the better, is the basic premise of simple natural diet:

If you can’t pronounce it, don’t consume it.

A simple diet consisting of as much whole foods and as little processed foods as possible is a realistic step towards letting our bodies function as God intended. Fueling our bodies with simple, natural foods will fuel us the same way we have been fueled since the dawn of time.

Austere is Good.

Gym memberships are prohibitively expensive. Owning your own fancy equipment is no better. Most people are at times like these scrimping to invest wisely into supplies they may need in emergencies or hard times. Expensive gear just doesn’t fit into that plan. However, as said above, expensive gear is neither necessary nor what is best. So what are some types of gear that are functional and inexpensive?
For those that can afford it, this gear is absolutely the best “bang for your buck”:

1. Olympic lifting set- an Olympic bar plus solid rubber bumper plates. Nothing beats this for safe, amazingly effective training. If not, an iron-set is an ok alternative- just be careful with it!

2. Kettlebells - kettlebells are the “AK-47” of fitness. They can be used for strength, power and stamina. They are getting more common on the market, which means prices are coming down.

3. Pull-up bar- whether for hanging in a doorway or outside, a bar to practice pullups on is absolutely essential for training those upper back muscles- so important yet so underrated!

4. Gymnastic rings- these can be used for everything from pullups to other drills to strengthen your chest, arms, and especially your core! Hang them from your deck, rafters, a stout tree branch, and you’re good to go! Rings are also very portable, which is a plus for those that need a gym in a backpack.

5. Dumbbells- these are on the bottom of the list, but they are practical and relatively easy to find. Even Wal-Mart has them. [JWR Adds: Used weight sets are often available free for the asking, via Craigslist or Freecycle.]

If you do not have any money budgeted for gear, or if you want to supplement on the cheap, you can make very, very effective gear from items at hardware stores like Home Depot!

1. Sandbags- These are the biggest, most all around useful money saver in a do-it-yourself gym. Get yourself an army surplus duffel. Better yet, get two. Go to a hardware store and buy yourself several bags of either sand or wood stove pellets. If you choose sand, wrap them again in contractor grade trash bags. Place the amount of weight you want into your duffels. You now hold a super-tool. Any of the basic Olympic, core strength lifts or kettlebell motions can be performed with this ultra simplistic bag.

2. Pull-up bar- no, this is on both lists on purpose. You can easily make your own pullups bar with some steel pipe from the plumbing section. Place it between some deck columns, between rafters, etc. $10-to-$12 gets you a solid bar to strengthen your upper body.

3. Your own body! While bodyweight training is not the end-all-be-all, it can accomplish a very great deal. Gymnasts are incredibly strong, and this is with years of bodyweight training. Your body comes with you, and any space where you can move at all becomes the gym. Check out Fatal Fitness for examples of bodyweight training.

Sound Mind, Sound Body.

In training physically, you are also preparing yourself mentally (and in a way, spiritually) for any difficulty that you might face. Overcoming extremely challenging tasks, overcoming laziness, the need for comfort… all of that will form your character, so that when exceptionally difficult times come, you will be strong enough to adapt and survive. Improve yourself, harden yourself! Take on the challenge; prepare yourself for whatever may come. Whether that means a survival or emergency situation, or simply living your life more fully now, it is worth it! Dive in to functional fitness, and watch as you begin to transform into a stronger person, more able to deal with anything!

About the Author: Mike Hussle is Vice President of Fatal Fitness. He has trained many people in strength and overall conditioning, for sports, military preparation, and general health and wellness. He is also the founder of DailyStrong.com. This article was adapted from a chapter of his upcoming book, “Austerity.”


http://www.survivalblog.com/

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Has anybody had any experince with this program???


http://www.beachbody.com/product/fit...20090603203857

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Cut and Handle enough wood to survive a northern or mountain winter in a large modern house[6-8 cord]and you will not have to worry about this issue.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Excellent post...and one that many people often fail to consider.

Thanks, TA!

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

It's an excellent article TA, thanks for putting it up.

btw mods , we need a muscleman smiley guy!!:

http://www.tourspecgolf.com/forum/st...ley_muscle.gif

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Post something original for Christ's sake, we can all read the blog... getting rid of the flab and building muscle is simple. Get plenty of protein, work your muscles. Worked for me, and a million people with manual jobs as well. Get off the computer and do a bit of work.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes!:bear_thumb:

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

And posting an article from another site does stimulate conversation here. Heck, most of the General Discussion threads are based on some other news/website. :RockOn: TA

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

:cry1:I get most of my exercise in the bedroom. I used to get a lot more but with age i"ve slowed down. Now i'm down to about 4 or 5 times a week, not bad for a guy in his mid fifties. :111::4_1_72:

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

I like it when you post survivalblog stuff here...I don't really read survival blog at all because by the time I'm done reading the posts here and on a local firearms forum I read I'm out of computer time.

Keep up the good work TA. I personally like seeing it here cause I don't have time to go there and read it everyday!

Big Country

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Well hot damyum!!!!

Dont stop till ya get enough!!!!


:RockOn::RockOn::RockOn:

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Yeah. In a moment of weakness and fitness enthusiasm, I bought some of their videos. I would suggest avoiding them. The first thing that ticked me off was that even though I told the guy on the phone a dozen times that I didn't want any of the add-ons, they added them anyway, then I spent the next year trying to get them to stop charging my credit card over $30 a month for vitamins. The workouts on the videos don't have adequate warm-ups, sometimes execute exercises in ways that produce unnecessary stress to joints, and the "trainer" is about as annoying as anyone can get (plus, he doesn't appear to actually be able to complete the sets, and he seems to be unconscious of the fact that he focuses most of his attention on the one girl in his group of backup exercisers!).

The best workout videos I've ever used are ones put out by The Firm. They really do produce quick results.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Thank you Sista Madie...... you saved me a heep of headache:ok:

I will look into The Firm

T

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

TA,

Go to
www.t-nation.com
Excellent site with tons of info.

Get ripped quick = get ripped off.

Get an inexpensive gym membership in a gym with plenty of free weights.
Start off with big movement exercises and pick a program based on your goals.

Strength and hypertrophy are not mutually exclusive. Nothing wrong with feeling strong and looking good naked.
Or so I am told.:biggrin:

ST

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

A question direct question? Well, yes. Maybe you can give me an answer direct answer.
Why all the Rambo wannabe roleplaying?
Why all the bold text, and red bold text, as if you're posts are somehow more important than anything else?
Why all the paranoia about people coming to take your guns or preps away?
Sorry, that was three question direct questions.

Your posts just seem like the type that attract all the wrong type of people (and attention) to GIM - the nutters, the chemtrail crowd, the "I'm surrounding my whole damn house with claymores for when the Bluehats come!" people, not the people who are actually interested in prepping and survival should things go wrong.
To me, and maybe it is just me, you come across as a deeply paranoid man, fearing "something" is going to happen, and trying to pretend you are harder than nails.
Why not type normally, try not to make every post sound like A STATEMENT THAT MUST BE READ AND INGRAINED INTO YOU, AND NEVER DISMISSED
- and just type your thoughts normally? We all prep, we all strive to do our best - but your posts, to me, read like the posts of a terrified guy feeling helpless and trying to shift others into the same state of mind.

There's your answer, as you asked for. Make what you want of it - I'm just another nobody reading a forum, like the rest of us.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

PS - not mocking your typo. Well, I was - but in jest.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Hmmm... TA has made a lot of posts, and there aren't many that seem to mind his methodolgy. He contributes here, and makes no personal attacks. Sure, TA can be a little over-the-top, and he knows it.

Don't you think it strange that you are the only one taking issue with his posts?

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

I think plenty of people take issue with his posts, and find them amusingly over the top - as noted in the recent "Where has TA gone" thread. If he knows they are over the top, why continue to post like that?
Mind you, at least he has a good bit of common sense in terms of staying anonymous - unlike a certain member on here (who I won't name, for Wallew might be embarassed - oops, there it goes!), who gave away so much information that I was able to see his house on Google Earth, see the doors, he posted where he kept each gun he owns (desk drawer, behind this door, etc), his vehicles, the whole lot. Hell, I even found a full-face picture of him at a military vehicle show.
If I were that type, he would have just made it very easy for me to take him, his wife down, and steal everything they have.
Keep your cards close to your chest... I don't even use my own wireless network to come on here, I use another one so I'm pretty much impossible to trace without serious computer knowledge - which I do not have, but don't need to to remain as anonymous as is possible.
Download a CD called "Backtrack", and take a while to work out how to use it - you will be VERY surprised at what I could do or find out simply sitting in a train station cafe working on my laptop, while you work on yours!
I don't, because I'm not like that - but the software is freely available for download.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

If I were that type, he would have just made it very easy for me to take him, his wife down, and steal everything they have.

Speaking of over the top. LOL

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

I appreciate the feedback and I hope I cleared things up a bit

Cause at the end of day I do it because I care about My Friends and I see everybody here as a Buddy of mines.

Thats just how It is for me :bear_thumb:.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Points read, and absorbed - one thing though, and perhaps the main thing that bothers, or perhaps just makes me wonder, about a lot of your posts -

Who is they "They"? Just a simple intruder? The police? The Bluehats? The Army?
Because you can fight to the death in defence of what you have earned,built, those around you whom you hold dear - but at the end of the day, if the BIG DEAL happens - you'll be hopelessly outgunned, and by trying to defend all this, you assuredly bring about it's destruction.
Think of Waco, etc, any number of similiar scenarios. Is it really better to go out with a sniper bullet in you, or your family and home burnt to the ground, than simply be "the grey man" - prepped, but not standing out?

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Honestly speaking that is a question that cannot be answered......it cannot even be theorized effectly .

IT IS SOMETHING THAT CAN ONLY BE REALIZED IN THE MOMENT THAT IT OCCURS.

How many times have we've surprised even ourselves with a bold or unorthodox action?

Same applies here.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

TA, thanks for sharing this article. It really is great advise...and as a weight lifter myself, I really like the emphasis on deadlifting. The deadlift, to me, is the most important of ALL the lifts you can do.

Deadlifts, train you, for everyday life. By training for everyday life, everyday life becomes a lot easier.

Consider this, if you go outside and get the paper in the morning, you just did a deadlift. When your child runs up to you and gives you a hug, and you lift him off the ground, that's a deadlift. Drop an FRN on the floor and pick it up, you guessed it...deadlift. People throw out their backs ALL the time, doing simple shit, like picking something small up off the ground.

Deadlifting is muscle memory. When you train for the deadlift, you train your body to pick things up off the ground in the correct form, so not to hurt yourself. Deadlifting trains your legs, your back, your core/abs, your arms, traps, but the most important thing is the muscle memory. Proper lifting.

When I first started deadlifting, I had lower back issues and could barely life 85lbs on the deadlift. Now, I can deadlift 300lbs and I have no back pain at all. All because I added deadlifting to my gym routine.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

chop wood - shovel dirt - do something productive OR if you must - just do squats with a sandbag on your shoulders til you throw-up....

Of course if you want to bodybuild or actually lift - just join a gym and have a trainer build a program for you and your goals - over a few sessions. I agree with the dead lift thing - but you really should ensure you have an experienced friend or pro show you the proper tools and form. Most folks have back issues - myself included - I solely do 3/4's on a smith machine. It is great strength training I agree - as long as you don't knock yerself outta the gym for 6 months cause your back can't hang or you didn't take time to get form/training. As you can tell, I really hate deadlifts lol - they have knocked me outta the gym 3 times for 6 months - 1 year ;/ each time.

There area lot of folks who lift/workout on this forum actually - I too have been a gym rat for about 15 years. If you have any specific Q's feel free to throw out those PM's.

http://www.thedailyplate.com/users/myplate/

This site use to be Gyminee - and it is a great site to see how to do certain exercises and trakcs calories burnt - intake too- great for anyone getting into a routine/program:

http://dailyburn.com/

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Hey TA, allow me to share what I have learned recently. I've done a lot of research into P90X and I finally decided that it is worth a try.

First, see if you can find the fitness test, they might have it on their website, if not, I can PM it to you. You need to pass the fitness test to use the program, or you will be in for a disappointment.

Next, do not order from the company directly. They try to upsell and it's an all around bad experience. Maddie suffered the monthly credit card charges and such, it's a common problem. I ordered mine from amazon.com.

(http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...&condition=new)


The vendor I used was Norlds World $83.88 + $6.49shipping. There are cheaper 3rd party vendors, but they are mostly scammers and/or will only send you the DVD's and not the books, etc.

Read the reviews of P90X on the amazon.com main listing. All of the 3 star and lower reviews have to do with the third party vendors scamming people, the rest is 4 and 5 star. This program is for real and it will kick the shit out of anyone. Do not expect to "get ripped" in 90 days. Do expect drastic changes in your health, strength and fitness after 90 days.

Follow the diet plan!! Follow the exercise plan!! People half ass things, don't get results and then complain.

I've been lifting weights for many years, but I've become more serious in the last 2 years. I thought I was strong and in shape. The first workout I did I had to stop half way through because I was about to throw up. I didn't heed the warning of pacing myself and went full bore. I realize what poor overall shape I'm in and I'm busting ass to change it. I see no reason why I can't run through this program, do a month or 2 of heavy lifting in the gym and do another 90 days. This program is unlimited, you can keep doing it over and over.

This program is INTENSE!! I never did Yoga in my life. The Yoga DVD is 90 minutes long. I can't make it past 45 minutes right now.

I'll let you know what I think after the 90 days is up if you still haven't decided.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Thanks for pointing that out Rebel Yarr, that's a very good point. With deadlifting, form is everything. For people just starting out with weights, deadlifting may not be the best advise. Everyone should have an experience person assist them while learning this lift.

The thing is, with the deadlift, it's crucial to not try and push that extra rep. That's where people really get hurt. They lift when tired, and try to cheat the lift. The only way to not do that, is to know your own personal limits. That takes time.

For me personally, I took about a month with very light weight, and high reps. Just to lock that form into muscle memory, get use to the lift, before adding the heavier weight.

Either you love deadlifts, or hate 'em. Me, I love them because they are the toughest damn exercise out there. I mentally get into 'warrior' mode, before doing them, especially the heavier (for me) weight.

I'm just real partial because this lift really did cure my back problems. I'll stop ranting now. :biggrin:

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

I used to use my girlfriend as a weight for doing squats - piggyback and see how many you can do. You both have a laugh, and it beats talking to barbells. Well, most of the time, anyway. :biggrin:
Deadlifts - old engine blocks (4cyl!). They don't really talk much, but I feel they are a more realistic way of seeing what you will actually be able to lift if you need to - as the thing you may need to lift won't have nice knurled handles on it! Need more weight? Put the cylinder head on. Even more? Put all the ancillaries on. Eventually you'll have built an engine, learnt, and gained strength in the process! :applause_

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

I pissed in a coke bottle once, and threw it out the car window once the traffic started clearing. Also took a shit behind a hairdressing salon - that one just wouldn't wait.
Happily, I neither got shot or arrested for either. :biggrin:

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Dude you just ripped TA for being a paranoid, and you're using the electronic equivalent of latex gloves to type missives on GIM.

And you're a Maltego hacker to boot, good job!

Re: Survival of the Fittest ....No Need To Be In Shape!
 

If you have enough money (wealth), you can hire a healthy and fit crew with the proper "training, experience, and skills" to take care of those troublesome occurences... should they arise.

See? It's Easy! Just get rich, and all your problems are solved! :thumb.aspx:

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

Wasnt it di vinci that pointed out the the labours of farming/working/living that made the man.

Why work out when you can work?

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

I do the Five Tibetans, work with some dumbbells, and occasionally dust off my weight machine and leg press. My son snickers at my routine and only likes free weights and exercise bars for circuit type training...he is a big advocate of squats and core muscle strength. He got massive in college from offseason football workouts...it was all about core muscle training. I'm too old for that kind of training and prefer low impact workouts. Really, I prefer building something with all of that energy instead of just jacking ..., but it is better than doing nothing during the down times.

Re: Survival of the Fittest ...........
 

"farmer strong" isn't just a quaint descriptor.