SHTF Fitness Standards
Posted by Beneficial_Object66@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 75 comments
Interested to hear what others have to think about physical preparedness in this community. I have come up with my own list of Intermediate-Advanced physical standards. Hoping to foster a discussion of realistic expectations for physical fitness in the context of prepping. I think this topic is just as important as stockpiling supplies and knowledge. I'm going to post my own standards, feel free to leave comments on what you like and dislike, what seems to have less returns than the level of input needed to reach the goals. Is it too much? Not enough? Mostly just hoping to get a friendly and constructive conversation going around the subject! This list is far from perfect, and I believe the right answer is different for everyone. With that in mind, I do also believe that its important have set goals to strive for.
Absolute Strength:
- Deadlift: 2.25× bodyweight
- Back Squat: 1.75× bodyweight
- Bench Press: 1.5× bodyweight
- Overhead Press: 1× bodyweight (strict press)
- Pull-ups: 12–15 strict-form reps
- Push-ups: 50+ consecutive strict-form reps
- Farmer’s Carry: 100 ft with 2× 100 lb dumbbells
- Sandbag Load: 150 lb to shoulder (5× reps)
Work Capacity & Endurance
- Ruck March: 12 miles with 45–60 lbs in under 3 hours
- Trail Hike: 20 miles with 30+ lbs in under 10 hours
- Run: 5 miles in under 45 minutes
- Sprint: 400 meters in 90 seconds
- 100 Burpees in under 7 minutes
- Row 2,000 meters in under 7:30
- Stair Climb: 50 floors with 40+ lb pack in under 25 minutes
Functional Movement & Mobility
- Low Crawl: 100 ft under 18-inch clearance
- Standing Broad Jump: 6+ ft
- Climb Rope or Wall: 12 ft unassisted
- Vault 4 ft obstacle
- Walk 20 ft across narrow beam/log (<6" wide)
- Deep Squat Hold: 90+ seconds
- Shoulder Range of Motion: Full overhead flexion
- Swim 200 Meters and Tread water for 10 Minutes
Load-Bearing & Carrying Tasks
- Drag 180 lb dummy or person for 100 ft
- Fireman’s Carry: 150–180 lb person for 100 ft
- Carry 2× 5-gallon water jugs for 1/4 mile
- Carry 100+ lb log or sandbag for 200 ft
Keep in mind there are other important physical as well as mental preparedness things that are important but difficult to measure, train safely/consistently etc. like cold, heat, and stress tolerance, combat readiness & self defense, survival utility, health & biometrics, and mental grit & emotional fitness. Looking forward to what people have to say, add, and critique!
palisairuta@reddit
You’re wasting your time and not preparing well. Loose the bulk. Don’t do weights. You are going to have to survive on 1000 calories a day. Read any survival story. Go and live in the wilderness for 30 days now. That will prepare you. Just do simple regular cardio. Look after your feet.
National-Trouble-888@reddit
You’re living on 1000 calories a day if you’re out in the woods without a decent firearm. Not if you know how to hunt and fish or live on a half decent homestead with regular access to animal products.
candlecup@reddit
While I don’t think this sort of training goal is realistic for everybody, I do applaud whatever you use as motivation to improve. I say go for it and become the type of person you want to be. I mean that.
I’m imagine I’m probably not as young as you, but I also have some physical fitness goals that I think will be a good improvement over where I’m at right now. If/when SHTF, it’ll be easier if we have some level of fitness to be able to do a lot of tasks that are currently automated for us.
Reasonable-Teach7155@reddit
Achieving and maintaining that 12 mile ruck standard alone is going to break your body lol ask me how I know
21BoomCBTENGR@reddit
The best part of this post that posits a great position for a discussion are all the idiots saying “you can’t sustain that if you’re starving!” As an excuse for having shit fitness pre-SHTF. Totally not realizing that the OP is talking about a level of fitness you should maintain PRIOR TO SHTF as a starting baseline.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Exactly, thank you.
Many-Health-1673@reddit
I have managed an exercise facility for ~ 30 years and those are top 5% performance numbers for a 25 year old physically fit man that is either a college athlete or just back from boot camp.
The absolute strength portion of your routine is not possible for women, and much of it is geared towards a 175 to 200 lb man in peak physical shape.
Most of our lives take place outside of the peak physical condition period of young adulthood, and as you age it becomes almost impossible to exercise in the same way. By lowering the weight and increasing the amount of reps or doing supersets we get the same total result but at a much lower risk of serious injury which is a concern as we age. Flexibility, conditioning, and durability are physical traits preppers from their early 30's to 80's can use.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Agreed. It’s intermediate-advanced. I played rugby throughout college and necessitated physical fitness. I just never stopped trying to get better. I agree this is geared towards a 18-35 male. But I’m 5’8” 165 so I disagree on the absolute strength considering I can hit those weights.
DeflatedDirigible@reddit
So you’re saying that since you were a college athlete that you likely have zero experience harvesting the fall crop or calving season? Have you butchered anything large and processed it?
Do you have the mental stamina to do backbreaking but menial and tedious labor for days or weeks straight.
How does your workout translate into chopping wood and arguing it someplace to be stacked?
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
I have focused more on skills personally. Blacksmithing, leather working, woodworking. Hunting, fishing, and trapping since I was a kid. But I certainly lack a lot of the important pepper skills that I am trying to work towards.
Pando5280@reddit
Its gonna be different for everyone. To me its all about being healthy - physically, mentally, financially, emotionally and spiritually. Really just depends on what your goals are - being a self made special forces warrior to survive the zombie apocalypse or being able to do farm or construction type work all day. Know a bunch of guys who are your typical gym bros who throw tenper tantrums and make threats as their first reaction to conflict because they are used to being the alpha in a place where no one carries guns. And being in great shape is awesome unless you don't have actual skills and knowledge to turn effort into real world results. Know a lot of guys who can lift more than most but would fall apart on your basic backwoods trips and get worked into the ground keeping up with most farm kids let alone professional laborers. End game is balance is key and I'd rather have a community of generally healthy people than Spartan gym warriors with great cardio and no real life let alone people skills. Personally at the age of 50 I spend more time stretching and hiking than lifting because I'd rather avoid ACL surgery (especially in a world without specialized knee surgeons) than be able to deadlift more than the guy next to me and I spend more time doing yoga than in the gym because I'd rather avoid injury than power through it.
Bored_Acolyte_44@reddit
Hey OP what is the calorie count required to sustain this level of fitness?
How long can you keep that up on a limited supply since we're talking SHTF?
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Great and super valid question. For me personally (165, mid 20s, male, 5 days/week of activity) ~ 2600 calories/day to maintain my weight
alternativepuffin@reddit
Notice the complete tonal shift.
It's rare that this community says "you're going too far with your preps" to someone but they very quickly say it once the conversation is about physical exercise or financials.
The reality is- those two areas are the most important preps before everything else. They're also the most difficult because no one wants to do them.
OP might be overzealous but the community's over reaction here is quite telling. If you consider yourself a prepper but can't run a mile in less than 12-13 minutes you need to ask yourself some harder questions instead of dogpiling on OP.
lyonslicer@reddit
Running a mile in under 12 minutes is waaaaay different than being able to far.er carry 200 lbs. The former is a functional fitness standard that most healthy persons should be able to do. The latter is for someone who wants to be Mr Olympia. OP is getting raked over the coals because their fitness standard isn't about prepping, its about vanity.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
This is exactly why I posted. I know this is unrealistic for the average person but I honestly didn’t expect the primarily negative response.
northernwolf3000@reddit
lol. Slow down there Clark Kent .. If can do that awesome! let’s be friends and on the same apocalypse team :)
Western-Sugar-3453@reddit
That level of fitness would require way to much food to be sustainable. Look at pictures of subsistance farmers in undevelopped countries, or from 100 years ago, this is the physique that the average person will have.
Though fitness is important, especially if you are out of shape. I think that learning a manual labor skill way outperform any kind of weight training you could do.
For example this year i tilled my garden by hand ( using a very innapropriate heavy tool with a handle too short, next year I hope to have a proper grub hoe) I also try to learn head carrying stuff. A few years from now I would like to build a shed using entirely hand tools from felling to hewing to framing.
This way I train while still doing something usefull and learning skills.
Also dont get me wrong I also use mechanised equipement a lot when time is short but it is not my prefered way of doing
Derfel60@reddit
Delgra@reddit
I personally don’t believe shtf fitness will benefit from traditional workouts. I’ve known plenty of concrete workers that are functionally way stronger than gym bros that lift 24/7.
Cardio is always important but when it comes to strength training I’d get way more invested into sand bag training and the like. Lifting and pulling imperfect objects and weight is going to translate much more in shtf imo.
Efficient_Rhubarb_43@reddit
What about the 40 lb of emergency non-perishable fat most of us are carrying? This fitness regime would deplete my stores!
PrettyTiredAndSleepy@reddit
For me, I've considered the following as minimum
able to - do a pullup and chinup more than once without struggling - deadhang at bodyweight for several seconds, longer is better - full range of motion squat, no weight - pushup off the ground without struggle
essentially stave off the ails of sedentary and be able to adapt which requires full ROM.
what you listed as intermediate/advanced I could see being helpful in short conflict situations or needing to deal with a crisis of some form.
in that scenario, being able to sprint with a loadout and weight walk with a pack for some distance would make sense.
I believe general physical preparedness is a solid thing and if it never gets boogie times you'll be in solid shape to keep doing what you do.
PrettyTiredAndSleepy@reddit
I run tabatas on my rower several days a week to maintain and improve conditioning and I know that it will carry over into burst moments.
I wfh so I carry with me a 45lb kettlebell when I get up and move throughout the house such as get coffee or water in the kitchen.
There's a pullup bar in the walkway to my office so I knock a micro set of 3-5 when I feel like it.
I also go on long evening walks with my water in a backpack.
Over time it's been maintaining if not building on sustained work and load.
To me this type of low intensity will be the day to day, with the inter/advanced capacity you listed for adverse moments which depending on the situation to go shtf may be short and interspersed.
IlliniWarrior1@reddit
average age of preppers is nearly 50 years old - don't think you'll be getting much traffic for your posting .....
OneStrike255@reddit
No reason 50 year olds can't do what OP suggested if they workout and stay in decent shape.
AdventurousRun7636@reddit
Im 60 and can still deadlift 400 pounds and squat about the same. It’s a lifestyle. I can also sprint faster than most of the rotund people half my age. Martial arts training uses bodyweight too.
AlphaDisconnect@reddit
Fit this in there. Not moving. You don't get seen. Less calories. Less water. A MRE a day keeps the doctor away.
Basic Military training standards. Oh by the way. Pace yourself. You run off the line "I am the fastest man alive". Now I have to pass every person. If I get winded at the last lap. Look at my pace. Off by a little. Suck it up buttercup. Head down. Lean forward. Go.
You don't need to be Superman. Remember sharing is caring. Bring friends. A man has arm strength. A woman has unnatural hand strength. Bring friends. And you need at least one old man. Where standing up might as well be a orchestra of popping. But he has that old man strength. You could shoot this old man 13 times. He would be like "hmm, I wake up like this every day, this pain actually makes me feel better, covers the arthritis".
OneStrike255@reddit
Some good points, but I think the "old man strength" myth is fading rapidly.
"Old man strength" came about because the guy had worked hard with muscles and labor all his life.
Our new generation of old people are office workers. Next gen of old people will be redditors and gamers.
"Old man strength" is pretty much over and done with.
AlphaDisconnect@reddit
Old man strength goes farther than this. Everything is broken on my body. It is look at ya girl look at the strong kids. Look at your friends. Knod. It is time to kick butt and chew bubble gum. Wait. No bubble gum. Now I get angry. I will get crazy. Gonna get me an ear if needed.
Cute-Consequence-184@reddit
How about this for standards
If you had to float in water for 3 hours, could you do it? What about 5?
Can you bake bread with no kitchen?
Do you know 4 different ways to start a fire?
How many forms of bread can you make without the help of Google?
Can you identify 20 plants you can safely eat within 1 mile of your home?
Can you make soap? Hand cream? Shampoo?
Can you make a tincture? A poltice? An unguent? A tisane?
How many ways do you have to cook off grid?
Can you put in stitches?
Do you have the medical supplies to put in stitches?
Can you debride a wound?
Do you know the difference between a dry dressing and a wet dressing?
What is a sterile field?
Do you know how to set a bone?
How do you identify/treat compartment syndrome?
Can you hunt?
Can you fish, clean and cook them afterwards? Do you presently have 3 ways to clean or sanitize water?
Can you preserve food 3 different ways? Say I give you a barrel of corn now and you need to preserve it until next February for the starving times, can you do it?
If garbage collection stopped tomorrow and it would remain stopped for three months, could you survive without filling your house or yard with garbage and filth?
Can you repair a shoe?
Can you make a pair of socks?
Can you make clothing from scratch? No? Then can you repair the clothing you own or can you make it smaller when you lose weight?
Can you grow wheat or have you ever grown wheat? What about a large crop of beans? Lentils? Chickpeas or field peas?
Can you brew alcohol of any kind?
Do you have tools and the knowledge to drain your water heater to get to the water inside?
Can you build a composting toilet or an outhouse?
Can you fix a flat on your vehicle and do you have the tools?
OneStrike255@reddit
Great list!
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Love this. I think was thinking more just like physical tests rather than skills. Not to devalue your comment. These are awesome things to self reflect on thanks!
Cute-Consequence-184@reddit
There are many ways to survive.
It is the saying it takes a village. Some will hunt, some will cook, others will take care of the children.
Just because the old lady can't carry a ruck doesn't mean she can't feed the soldiers when they get back
Many of the ones who tout about the guns and how many sit ups they can do can't cook to save their own life.
You have to understand that being well rounded is the way to survive.
Because what if you broke your leg when on one of your runs. Would you be able to save yourself or would you have to turn to for help?
In turn, if you had to have someone else help, how can you help them in turn?
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Literally writing these down rn lmao
hoardac@reddit
When I was younger I could do most of that but holy hell I worked hard to be that fit. No way I can do a lot of that stuff now. I am not sure many people could, that is quite the list there Arnold. But I can farm, orchard and sawmill all day everyday.
Ok-Buffalo-7398@reddit
Whoever can do that much is already a co petition level athlete. For the majority of folks out there start with 10 mile hikes on varying terrain and inclines with a 50lb ruck on your back and a 10lb sledge hammer to mimic a rifle. It's gonna take some time and effort just to reach this level of performance for the majority of folks out there. It's alot harder than it sounds
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Agreed. I definitely realize that I should have posted a beginner level of fitness standards. This takes a lot of work, and honestly might only be possible if you were an athlete early in life. Not to mention the maintenance required to keep all these standards.
Ok-Buffalo-7398@reddit
Very true. Reaching this level is a lot of hard work but maintaining it is a lot of hard work that never stops. It feels good though
myOEburner@reddit
Cool. Can you swim 400m? Forget even trying to help anyone in the water! Just you going 400m non-stop. If you can swim 400m wearing jeans and a windbreaker (no shoes) without completely draining your energy, I'll be shocked. Active swimming will destroy most "fit" people in just a matter of a few hundred meters.
I really don't care about lifting or running all that much. Want to assess your endurance and basic fitness? Go attempt to swim a mile.
I'm about to get back into swimming. Goal is 1,650yds (a swimming mile) minimum three times times a week. ~3,000yds if I have a full hour.
feral_desert_rat@reddit
I think some of these are a little out of line with what is needed, for context I run ultras up to 100k and hit the gym regularly and agree fitness is paramount even if youre just prepping for Tuesday but I certainly cant bench 300, I think for most men a 3rm of 225 is more than enough, five mile run too seems unnecessary, sprint? yes, long endurance run or ruck? absolutely but a fast 5 mile seems like a metric that would have minimal real world application. I think fitness standards based on functionality would be pertinent so I love the things like 5 gallon jug farmer carries and sand bags that might need to equate to hauling water or carrying a loved one but the list that long with that many disciplines seems like it would be nearly impossible to hit all of the standards for most people with real jobs and families. Sorry for the rambling response
SebWilms2002@reddit
To start, I'm a health and fitness freak and absolutely endorse everyone (within their means) striving for a high degree of physical fitness. That said I have some problems with this mindset.
A lot of these strength goals are aimed at doing things that are liable to injure you when used in the real world. A relatively moderate or even minor injury, like a sprained muscle or ligament, isn't a big deal in normal life. But when survival is on the line, an injury that impacts your function for days or weeks becomes a significant or even life ending event. When you no longer have the freedom and comfort to recover, you need to prioritize injury avoidance. Exercise, including strength training, does (over a long enough period) reduce some risk of injury through tissue adaption, muscle memory, form etc. But the truth is you should not be lifting big weights if it can ever be avoided. You shouldn't be vaulting walls, or running sprints, or carrying huge loads over distance. Those are all recipes for injury. If you need to move a large object, you should use pulleys, levers, rope, wheels, skis. There's no pride or prowess in being a badass and carrying a log on your shoulders in a survival scenario. Use your brain instead of brawn. Reserving energy is more important than doing things the hard way.
You also need to appreciate that strength is not forever. I'm in my 30s and have gone through periods of heavy, frequent training and periods of no training. What you laid out is totally achievable with rigorous and regular training and good nutrition. However within just weeks of ceasing training, losses begin. At week 3 or 4 after you stop training, strength can reduce by 5-10%. The decline accelerates past that, and at around 8 weeks your metabolic conditioning declines. But add to that poor sleep quality, poorer nutrition, heightened stress hormones etc. that you would expect in a SHTF scenario and the decline is even faster.
I would say more than physical strength in the sense of moving weights around, you should strive for simple endurance and mobility. Rucking is great, tons of cardio, body weight exercise like calisthenics. For anything heavy, you should use tricks of physics, not brute force, to reserve energy and mitigate risk of injury.
Minervaria@reddit
What the heck sort of post-apocalyptic, monster infested, American Ninja Warrior obstacle course war zone do you think people need to prep for, exactly? Most people are just going to need to be able to walk for long periods of time, and do some modest but consistently paced types of physical work in order to survive in most situations. Being fit is great and helpful, and yes people should have personal goals and always strive to be better, but having this as a fitness "standard" for basic survival is a bit insane. It's also going to vary according to someone's age and sex - within communities, not everyone needs to be able to lift the heavy things. An older woman is probably going to contribute in different ways than a 22 year old young lad. Good job on being so dedicated to your health and fitness, though!! That's always commendable.
Stodo@reddit
Right? The end of the world will most likely be just a lot of home farming and walking down stream to get buckets of water
Rambling-Dingo@reddit
Yeah in this kind of scenario no one is making it out of the cities lmao.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the comment. I think you’re right. This is NOT basic fitness. This is intermediate to advanced levels of fitness. I might repost a revised list with basic fitness levels to shoot for.
Forest_Spirit_7@reddit
“Intermediate” “carry 2 five gallon water jugs for a 1/4 mile.”
Brother who is farmer carrying 84 lbs for a quarter mile?
You might be absolutely fit and have no problem with all this (though I doubt it) but this is not an intermediate level of fitness training expectation.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
I meant 2 5 gallon buckets total. One in each hand. But fair point.
outofmains@reddit
Yeah, 10 gallons of water is roughly 84 lbs. a farmer carry is 5 gallons in each hand.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
I don’t think that’s that bad for an intermediate to advanced trainee
jazzbiscuit@reddit
Daaaaaang.... you don't even have to be able to do that much coming out of basic training.... But as a member of the female 50+ club, while I get where you're coming from - I'm going with the work smarter/not harder plan. At no point ever in my life could I fireman carry a 180 pound person or directly load 150 lbs of sandbags on my shoulders, how many sandbags do you intend to carry around at the same time and how do you propose to keep them from sliding off of each other while you're doing it???
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
The sandbag refers to a strongman style sandbag. Honestly I think shooting for being able to do your body weight with a sandbag floor to shoulder is the real goal.
No_Albatross7213@reddit
Just do CrossFit. 🙄
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
My philosophy is, if it gets you in the shape you need to be in, by all means!
NickMeAnotherTime@reddit
I like this type of post. Well done for your initiative.
I realize my physical condition is far from peak, although I work hard sometimes most of my time is spent in front of my computer working a corporate job.
Given the fact that I work from home I took some initiative and bought weights (kettlebell, bars and others), some elastics for recovery, a fitness bike and a rower.
While I do not train daily,.I try to have at least 3 workouts a week and often I just work out to exhaustion, which takes 2-3 hours.
Other than that I walk a lot, I do hiking and I carry weights around, split wood and other daily chores in the house and garden.
I don't necessarily have a routine I just try to stay active. What I would like to do is be more active because I have days when I do no physical activity.
Cute-Consequence-184@reddit
Your standards are not universal standards.
There are perfectly healthy women, who could probably out run you or out hike you that might not be able to do pull-up or push ups.
I used to ride long distance endurance rides and train and show my own horses... And not be able to do pull ups or push-ups.
And many of your standards are built around the fallacy of bugging out with your BOB and taking to do the 60 miles hike to the bug-out camp you have prepared.
When in reality -- it is either going to be a bug-in situation or something like last year's mud slides where you are cut off from outside help for weeks and have to survive on what you have on hand or 80% of your stuff is gone and you have to know how to survive anyway. And trust me, between a fat guy and a skinny guy, having to sleep in the cold without heat or any adequate blankets, the only way the skinny guy survives is to crawl under the fat guy.
The outlier of course is war when you either flee the army, hide from the army or you become part of the army.
unstabledebt@reddit
As someone who has been training for nearly 20 years, with the last 8 being strongman focused... those strength goals are unrealistic. I can just barely hit those strength numbers, I'd say cut those ratios in half and they'd be more realistic, even then.
The caveat is absolute strength doesn't translate over into functional strength. Sure I can deadlift north of 500 lbs, but I sure can't spend half the day bent over moving wood, stones, etc without my back being absolute cooked for two days.
As another poster said, keep yourself healthy and work more on mobility and functional fitness.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
I appreciate your insight with your experience.
MurkyBathroom1049@reddit
focus on compound lifts, I would do 3x week full body, get 10k steps a day and throw some sprints in if you're feeling spicy. check r/fitness for tried and true lifting programs.
Dial in your nutrition, be disciplined and you're ready for the apocalypse
dblock36@reddit
I think this is a good general fitness barometer, except the ruck march and OH Press. 12 miles with 60lbs at over 4mph is pretty damn fast for context I run the Broad St Run in Philly. My best time is 1:39 with 13lbs on my back. That’s on pavement slightly down hill in sneakers. OH Press for anyone over 200lbs, strict is pretty crazy…I am admittedly weak(and already pointed out I’m not a great runner) but I 3 rep max with 55lb dumbbells. But I work construction and hit the gym an average of 3 times per week and do an Olympic triathlon every year and that 10 miler I mentioned(back of the pack but they get done)…I won’t even get into the fact that less than 1% of gym goers can bench 315….
All that said I think if you can achieve this, it’s very impressive, I also disagree with other comments saying this isn’t geared for SHTF….the point is to be able to do this now because your body will undoubtedly degrade as time continues, so if you can be at a better starting point you’ll have more to give up…no different than people on ALONE fattening up before hand.
regjoe13@reddit
The list seems pretty unbalanced. While strength requirements are basically competitive bodybuilding, running is more of a midle aged amateur.
To keep it right, there should be 60-70 sec 400m and 37min 5 miles
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
This is extremely true. I actually agree way more with your suggestions than what I wrote.
sfbiker999@reddit
You missed stooping over and weeding your entire backyard garden and digging yet another latrine pit since that's the kind of work you're likely to be doing after SHTF, you're not going to be rope-climbing many walls.
The best fitness regimen to prepare for SHTF is doing the work you'll actually be doing after SHTF, structured workouts can help, but I remember helping my elderly grandfather weeding his garden, I was in the best shape of my life, but my back was killing me before we even got halfway done.
zaraguato@reddit
That's almost special forces fitness dude, I think being able to walk for an hour, change a car tire and climb stairs is enough.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
That’s where I actually disagree. I think you should be able to walk multiple miles for multiples days (without a pack).
Enigma_xplorer@reddit
I think we need more context. If you were training to be a soldier maybe this might be more relevant but to me personally this looks a bit excessive and not tailored to what would benefit most people in the real world. For example how many buff guys do you see in theses poor wrecked third world countries? The answer is nearly none, they don't have the diet to support that kind of muscle mass. It's a good parallel because in the worst case disaster SHTF type situation you might find yourself in a very similar situation due to finances or shortages. I mean look at the real world for examples like rationing during WW1/WW2 for some countries it wasn't even enough to survive on let alone support that level of fitness. In an emergency how many people are climbing ropes, vaulting obstacles, and performing low crawls? Why does the average guy who weighs about 200lbs need to deadlift 500 lbs? That seems a bit excessive? I just don't think this translates well to what average people realistically need. This also doesn't take into account age which sets maybe unrealistic potentially even dangerous expectations for older folks.
Personally, I think we would need to take a step back and look at what people need to be able to do to survive hardships and perform basic manual labor tasks they may realistically have to do. To me, this would probably be more on cardio and endurance and less on brute strength and absolute performance targets. We could also probably simplify this down quite a bit to make it more manageable for people. This feels like it would be nearly a fulltime job and most people aren't going through basic training they have 9-5 jobs and families. They are lucky to get an hour at the gym a couple times a week. This might just be a bit too much for people to focus on so many different performance targets.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
I think that’s a really insightful point of view. And I think you’re totally right. I think when I was making the list I was more thinking my about being a soldier in a war torn country, not a civilian. I agree that a lot of this is unrealistic unless you’re training minimum 10 hrs/week. Also I’m young and don’t have the same level of time commitment and responsibilities (or physical limitations) as others.
Enigma_xplorer@reddit
And there is the thing, it's all about context. If your sitting in Poland as a military aged male justifiably concerned about how things are playing out with Russia it may be absolutely prudent to prepare for military service. Look at Russia for example. Conscripts are taken in and sent to the field with minimal maybe 2 weeks of training and as result they are woefully unprepared and often just get themselves killed. Can you imagine working your whole life as a desk jockey then suddenly given a gun and a 60 lb pack being chased down by drones. This is a realistic situation people can find themselves in and might do well to prepare for.
Now on the flip side, this isn't the reality for most people. Most people have an entirely different set of requirements. If your intention is geared towards being a soldier that's fine. You can define your purpose/intention how you want but as is often the case with projects it is important to define your purpose.
F6Collections@reddit
12 mile 60lb ruck in less than 3 hours? Lollll any sort of terrain and that’s not happening.
TacTurtle@reddit
I would boil this down to run or ruck hike, stair climb, farmer carry, fireman carry, weight drag, overhead press, pulldown or pull-ups, and squat.
This covers cardio, body mobility / flexibility, and functional core and arm/length strength.
Endurance will probably be more important than raw strength.
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
👍
BallsOutKrunked@reddit
someone tell me this isn't ai
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Full transparency, I asked ChatGpt this sort of question. And it spit back out some points that I critiqued and revised to be more challenging. Honestly, was getting bored with my own physical training and needed some new physical fitness goals to shoot for.
NearbySuggestion978@reddit
Swimming (in clothes, diving and pulling someone)
Beneficial_Object66@reddit (OP)
Couldn’t agree more.
Ryan_e3p@reddit