Fit For Combat?
Hardly, by J.D. Johannes’ standard. Got my copy the other day, read Part I and skimmed Part II. Six months since re-engaging my body, down 25 pounds, wind up, I might qualify for what he’d call “Fit (Enough) for Combat.”
Johannes’ book, Fit for Combat: When Fitness is a Matter of Life or Death, is heavily geared to gym workouts, with cardio added on largely as a necessary functional evil that must be closely managed. I’ve always worked the opposite … heavier on the cardio than the gym when I was even in a gym at all, and generally prefering nature’s gym. The Gravity Workout.
Johnannes, who is also about a dozen years younger than me and of a stockier, more weight-prone build, acknowledges that in his personal quest, he’s gone beyond what he needs to be fit for combat. What he has done is refined and adapted bodybuilding techniques to the practicalities of long-term weight loss and the functional capabilities demanded by a combat environment.
But even in you aren’t a major musclehead bound for a warzone, Johannes’ book has a lot of very useful and eye-opening information. With professional assistance and with the benefit of a lot of experience, he pulls together a lot of the fundamentals on how muscle growth and nutrition work, and how you can work them to your benefit. He’s given me a lot to think about, including his prime directive, If you do nothing else, log your workouts.
How else are you going to know whether you’re making any progress, and where your weak and strong points are?
And always do more, while allowing yourself periodic big and small backslides to keep your metabolism and muscle memory from getting a lock on what you’re doing.
Chances that I’ll follow Johannes’ extreme gym and nutritional regime are remote. But reading his book, I recognized that I’ve plateau’d in several ways he describes, and today adapted a couple bits of his advice into my own workout, developed over the years. Worked the pushups, crunches and curls to a short, fast burn, and ditto with the run. A simple mile’s worth of sprints. I will start slipping that into the rotation of longer workouts and runs, plus bike rides and hikes.
Johannes notes his aha moment came on foot patrol with some 20-year-old Marines in Karmah, Iraq. They weren’t going through the town, they were going up and over it. Walls and rooftops. He needed to be lighter on his feet. In occupied Iraq, with its “Golden Corral” DFACs, he was putting on weight. My own combat experience was the opposite. I rode in armored style everywhere I went, and despite two or three calorie-packed MREs a day, still managed to drop 15 to 20. Trudging through sand out in the desert, sweating a lot, wearing body armor, climbing up and down the vehicle. That’s on top of the 3-to-6 mile runs I did in preparation in Massachusetts and Kuwait. So combat, as he does note, can be a widely varying experience, from phase to phase, battle to battle, moment to moment.
Which is what makes it a lot like life. Johannes, without saying as much, asks his readers the fundamental question they have all asked themselves at some point between childhood and adulthood. Am I fit for combat? OK, maybe you don’t ask yourself that anymore. But are ready for whatever life will throw at you, and are you ready to live this life you’ve been giving to its fullest, hopping the walls and scaling the rooftops it presents?
I would have liked to see Johannes take that beyond the physical and farther into the psychological realm, not simply of discipline and re-orientation of the physical aspect of your life, but what it means to be fit for combat. Combat fitness of body and mind, in the end, occupy a lot of the same cranial space. Even if you don’t have any immediate plans to go into combat, if you are ready to do battle with your body in anything approaching what Johannes advocates, then I suspect you will be ready when, in this difficult world of ours, combat comes to you.
Previously, in the “Live Forever Or Die Trying” fitness series that now looks even more frivolous and namby-pamby than I thought it did:
Old? Fat? Feeling Death’s Icy Chill Down Your Neck? How To Live Forever Part 1, the Crittenden Workout for Middle-Aged Fat Bastards.
How To Live Forever Part 2 The Beer Workout. Drink and be healthy.
How to Live Forever Part 3 Israeli research finding: Advanced geezerdom no bar to exercise’s life-extending benefits.
How To Live Forever Part 4: Fit For Combat You think preparing for combat is healthy? Try combat. Hey, when’s someone going to market the Combat Weight Loss Program?
Run For Your Lives! Just got in that dirty little two-miler …
Danger Zone How to eat all you want this holiday season and not let something dumb like winter interfere with your workout program …
Hurt More You’ll feel better.
Ready to Hurt More Got pain? Learn from the pros.
Working Out On The Go! J.D. Johannes’ Iraqi Forward Operating Base workout.
RCAF Plan In which a 67-year-old makes me look lame, and offers some good, simple advice.
Topics: Live Forever Or Die Trying!
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:34 am Comments (0) on Monday, November 16, 2009
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