Don't forget the most important tool...

[Big_Saw]

All the best, most compact and efficient, high quality gear serves absolutely no purpose at all......if you can't hump it out.

If you have time to go to the club, see a movie, play video games, whatever...you have time to go for a walk.

Get off the freaking couch and prepare the only tool you cannot possibly survive without...your body.

I'm no freaking "Ahnold", but I can hump my pack, and then some, all day long with short rest periods....but I've been doing it for a long time, and it wasn't easy at first. Hell, it's not easy now, but I figure if my life depends on it, I need to make sure it's within my capabilities.

Start a walking regimen. Push your distance and pace. Grab a backpack and put a few sodas in it and keep adding weight until you feel like superman in a marathon.

All it takes is consistency, and a desire to be better than you were yesterday.

[Rustyshakelford]

All the best, most compact and efficient, high quality gear serves absolutely no purpose at all......if you can't hump it out.

If you have time to go to the club, see a movie, play video games, whatever...you have time to go for a walk.

Get off the freaking couch and prepare the only tool you cannot possibly survive without...your body.

I'm no freaking "Ahnold", but I can hump my pack, and then some, all day long with short rest periods....but I've been doing it for a long time, and it wasn't easy at first. Hell, it's not easy now, but I figure if my life depends on it, I need to make sure it's within my capabilities.

Start a walking regimen. Push your distance and pace. Grab a backpack and put a few sodas in it and keep adding weight until you feel like superman in a marathon.

All it takes is consistency, and a desire to be better than you were yesterday.

I thought that that was what the spouse and kids were for. Carrying the gear. Besides, they need someone who is unencumbered to hump the rifle in the event it is needed.

[Big_Saw]

I thought that that was what the spouse and kids were for. Carrying the gear. Besides, they need someone who is unencumbered to hump the rifle in the event it is needed.

Well....lol.....whatever suits the sarge....but I have a bag and a rifle for evry menber of the fam, here...and my kid's a better shot than her old man......the little jerk even makes fun of me when I beg for a break.

[Rustyshakelford]

Well....lol.....whatever suits the sarge....but I have a bag and a rifle for evry menber of the fam, here...and my kid's a better shot than her old man......the little jerk even makes fun of me when I beg for a break.

Firearms are not lacking in my home. I figure they can carry them too.

[Big_Saw]

Firearms are not lacking in my home. I figure they can carry them too.

LMAO.....

"Honey, git the shit...I'll take point...y'all don't fergit my jackalope, now!"

[cudalyon]

I am starting on it tomorrow. My butt has been stuck behind this monitor for at least 8 hrs a day, and have slowly put on an extra 40 lbs over the past 10 years. I am starting be walking to check the mail instead of taking the tractor or 4wheeler.

[Zombie Axe]

Good post. I walk on my lunch break 3 miles a day at least 4 times a week. When on the farm, the 'dawgs' and I go for LONG walks on the weekends :)

Usually once a month I hump my BOB (40+ lbs) around the farm with the dogs just to make sure I still can handle it. I use this to really make sure that I want to carry all that stuff and have it whittled down for now :)

I need to get back on the mtn bike. My nephew, niece and I usually go on a 25 miles bike ride over Christmas at a fast pace. Not very far by marathon biker stats, but plenty good for me.

Once a year I also ride my bike home with my BOB. It is usally in the summer months as I prefer to do it in daylight for safety's sake. This is a 30 mile ride that I take my time on...

Also don't forget your MIND! You need to learn new skills. You need to know MANY things in order to make it all work. One of the best quotes I have heard is this one:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-- Robert A. Heinlein

I think that sums it up VERY well IMHO :)

[ridgid1]

I like to put on full tactical gear and fill my pack with whatever I may need and travel long distances in heavly wooded ereas, helps stay in shape , keep up on survival tactics.... follow rivers from one highway exit to another or just map out a course using google virtual world get satalite images of where i will start and finish.... what i might come accross on the way!

[Big_Saw]

Try to keep it simple....

If you're new to endurance packing, just do it the way we did it in when we were getting ready for boot.

Put on a standard backpack (the cheap, crappy one you get at a garage sale or Wal-Mart and send your kid to school with); Put a six-pack in the pack; Take a hike.

Tomorrow, add a can and do it again.

Rinse and repeat.

Keep doing this until you're packing out 50Lbs for at least 5 miles, non-stop.

Now, start timing yourself, and trying to set new records.

Add weight.

Go faster.

Add weight.

Go faster.

It's called conditioning...and it doesn't have to be very complex.....just repetitive and strenuous.

Pretty soon, your BoB will feel light, and your endurance will surprise you.

[KY_Longrifle]

All the best, most compact and efficient, high quality gear serves absolutely no purpose at all......if you can't hump it out.

If you have time to go to the club, see a movie, play video games, whatever...you have time to go for a walk.

Get off the freaking couch and prepare the only tool you cannot possibly survive without...your body.

I'm no freaking "Ahnold", but I can hump my pack, and then some, all day long with short rest periods....but I've been doing it for a long time, and it wasn't easy at first. Hell, it's not easy now, but I figure if my life depends on it, I need to make sure it's within my capabilities.

Start a walking regimen. Push your distance and pace. Grab a backpack and put a few sodas in it and keep adding weight until you feel like superman in a marathon.

All it takes is consistency, and a desire to be better than you were yesterday.

I can't agree more with this. What good is all the best gear if you haven't the ability to move it or to set it up. I also personally believe that this seperates the survive vs the thrive. You can survive meagerly and barely, but if you are conditioned and have the endurance to out perform others this is how you thrive.
It starts Just like Big Saw said, with small steps. It won't be a quick but the time and effort is rewarding. I'm a runner and do quite a bit other work to stay in fairly good shape, but what I always reccomend to everyone when they want to start living healthier is

1-Drink water all the time, on average you should be using the restroom almost hourly if not more. Also replace every beverage you drink with the equivalent of water. Have a soda? Drink 12 oz of water also.

2-Cut out soda, I have a sweet spot in my heart for Cane Sugar Dr. pepper from Dublin, TX, but for most other drinks they contain HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which is one of the nastiest chemicals they put practically into every food out there. Even many fast foods 'healthy' options have been glazed with HFCS to trick our brains into wanting more. They spray it on exaclty .05 gram less than what the FDA requires for it to be labeled as an ingredient.
For the most part a humans brain is working like an animals when it comes to food we want easy and plentiful calories to prevent ourselves from starving to death. This is a survival instinct from caveman times, to help us remeber what kept us from dieing. What HFCS does is fullfill this need, and even more so to the point when we have an overload of it, it releases enorphines which are the hormones of pleasure and addiction. With endorphines it works much like a drug addict, you will over time build up a tolerence and need more to fullfill the desire. They even add HFCS to things such as ciggaretes to hopefully trigger your brain to want more.
HFCS is almost completly unproccesable by your body and ends up in the liver as a literal sludge clog, which take a lot of time of being HFCS free to clear up. It also containes mercury! This news came out a couple of weeks ago and it disgusted me how it was practically swpet under the rug.

3-Keep a food journal and read labels. It's pretty simple, just be honest and keep tabs on what you eat for a day at a time. Write down every little snack, soda, etc and the exact amount. This combined with reading the labels will help you realize exactly what you are putting in. I talk to people about food treating it like alcohol. You have a few drinks and you start to feel it, food is no different except that it is slower. You are essiently just absorbing what you put in, and if you put junk in expect to get junk results out. What also helps with this is eating many small portions a day. Seeing RustyShackleford reminds me of King of the Hill where Dale got the office job and was upset he couldn't eat his 9 meals a day. Doing this keeps your metabolism up on a consistent basis instead of peaks and valleys which will lead to over eating.

4-Keep moving, anything from parking a bit further back in a parking lot, to taking the stairs, to doing 5 pushups an hour. Keep you heart reate up for atleast 30 mins a day, and you will see the lbs melt and your endurance skyrocket. There are tons of resources online to assist with building your endurance. I have usedhttp://halhigdon.com/ to build my strength and in under a year I went from barely able to finish a mile and a half, to completing a 50 mile non stop ultra marathon. Progress won't be quick but sticking it out will lead to real results.

[Loshali]

I'm going to take this post to heart and help you guys get in shape. I'll sacrifice and let you come help me raise the log cabin and work up a good sweat. Lift that log, tote that stone up the scaffold to build the chimney, and I'll even let you put on the roof!


Sigh, the things I do for this group..... :p

Lo~

[prkchp76]

I'm going to take this post to heart and help you guys get in shape. I'll sacrifice and let you come help me raise the log cabin and work up a good sweat. Lift that log, tote that stone up the scaffold to build the chimney, and I'll even let you put on the roof!


Sigh, the things I do for this group..... :p

Lo~

well ok then i will do the plumbimg and all the ceramic tiles

[gkim4107]

Saw this is a great post. I am by no means like you an "Ahnold" haha, but I can keep up. I am lucky though, The job I work requires that I walk for the majority of a thirteen hour day. This in and of itself is pretty good exercise. The fun part is putting on 30 lbs of gear, and taking the steps everywhere you go Instead of being like the lard asses that come in here and sit on the computers all day. :)

On the off weeks, I take the dogs and sometimes the wife, and hike the trails around the neighborhood. I have no idea who the property belongs to because they cross over about three different properties. They are four wheeler trails, and at the end is a NIIIIICCCEEE very stustainable water source (Not quite river, but not quite creek.). I am dragging the wifey with me and she thinks we are on a nice walk.... :) I am just making sure me and mine will be able to make it to the source.

Everyone should do their best to stay in the best shape they can. You dont need to run marathons, or triathalons every other day, but you just feel so much better when you do it.

[Big_Saw]

Saw this is a great post. I am by no means like you an "Ahnold" haha, but I can keep up. I am lucky though, The job I work requires that I walk for the majority of a thirteen hour day. This in and of itself is pretty good exercise. The fun part is putting on 30 lbs of gear, and taking the steps everywhere you go Instead of being like the lard asses that come in here and sit on the computers all day. :)

On the off weeks, I take the dogs and sometimes the wife, and hike the trails around the neighborhood. I have no idea who the property belongs to because they cross over about three different properties. They are four wheeler trails, and at the end is a NIIIIICCCEEE very stustainable water source (Not quite river, but not quite creek.). I am dragging the wifey with me and she thinks we are on a nice walk.... :) I am just making sure me and mine will be able to make it to the source.

Everyone should do their best to stay in the best shape they can. You dont need to run marathons, or triathalons every other day, but you just feel so much better when you do it.

Ha ha ha....easy on the desk-jockeys, Bud...what some lack in mobility, they definitely make up for in smarts ;)....I want a few or more on my side, for sure....

Like I said, I'm no health nut, but I keep in great shape just by eating right (I don't diet, I just don't gorge myself on useless crap), lifting a few day a week, a nice, mobile line-of-work, a good walk every other day, and plenty of rest.

I know of one squad leader in my firm that weighs 275 at 6' 2" and looks like he should be living in Jenny Craig's bunk-house, but I sure as hell can't outrun him, and while I'm no olympian, I'm far from slow.......I believe physical health and endurance are definitely user-defined.....:D

[Visinedrops]

Last night at around 8:00pm I decided to go for a little walk in a futile attempt to clear my mind...when I finally returned home, roughly 45 mins later, I realized I had walked 2 miles. I could have walked further, but didn't really have a destination. When the weather gets a hair warmer, I'll strap on my pack and go for a walk.