For Women: Fitness

While many survival writers emphasis fitness, it somehow seems that all they write about are men and fitness, never women and fitness. Generally, in articles written for women, fitness seems to be more about having firmer thighs or a shapelier butt rather than building strength or endurance. In reality, women interested in survivalism and being physically prepared need to take specific steps in order to get ready for the demands of a crisis.

A very important aspect for women is upper body strength. This is a must have in the area of self defense, in my opinion. If a woman lacks the strength to land an effective blow, her ability to defend herself is limited. Additionally, the ability to escape and evade, or simply to travel distances with a loaded pack can be limited by a lack of upper body strength.

The easiest way for women to increase strength is to either use resistance machines or by weight training. Since women do not produce the amount of testosterone necessary for the type of hypertrophy seen in male body builders, the chance that they will wind up with a body like Arnold is highly unlikely, unless they take steroids ( a stupid thing for anyone to do) or are exercising to the extreme. They will see some increase in muscle size, but think of a result like Jillian Michaels rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Overall, an increase of up to 40% in strength is absolutely possible for women.

In my opinion, in addition to overall strength for self defense, a woman should also aim for a minimum upper body strength that will make it possible for her to do a few chin-ups or pull-ups, or be able to climb a rope if necessary.

Endurance training is another area that women should look at. In our modern society, we drive everywhere, and few people are used to walking any sort of distance. The survival minded woman should be able to walk fairly long distances, and preferably over uneven terrain with a loaded pack. Walking paths and sidewalks in the urban environment are a fine start, but do not resemble the difficult terrain that would likely need to be travelled during a bug out or escape and evasion. Train with a full pack wherever possible to build strength and to get used to the weight and balance of the pack.

There are other areas women should train towards. Speed is important, both in evasion and combat. Flexibility is also important, and often an area men neglect, giving a woman a possible advantage. There are of course lots of side benefits to better fitness: feeling better, looking better, and increased confidence.

Women should incorporate martial arts training into their fitness program as well. There are lots of martial arts styles, and each will have its particular demands that the body needs to be trained for. Additionally, sports such as parkour and obstacle running impart skills that while ensuring the highest level of fitness, will also impart skills that may one day be live savers.

Fitness, and survival fitness in particular are areas women should not shy away from. There is little to be lost except perhaps that muffin top, and much to be gained by training hard to become as strong, fast and quick as possible. Maybe even your life.

Originally posted August 17, 2011 @ MPN