Why Physical Fitness Matters for Preparedness (and How to Get There) to Stay Disaster Ready

It’s Sat­ur­day, July 19th.  And, lit­er­al­ly, had a hip replace­ment two days ago. I arrived home Yes­ter­day, Fri­day, and am begin­ning the jour­ney to re-estab­lish my health.  Not that I am in the worst shape I’ve ever been in, that is cer­tain­ly not the case.  How­ev­er, the truth is that, like many of us, I let myself go dur­ing the COVID pan­dem­ic and gained 40 pounds; I have been strug­gling to lose it.  Not only that, but dur­ing this time, I start­ed to expe­ri­ence arthrit­ic pain in my hips.  Fast for­ward four years, and I am in the office of my new ortho­pe­dic for the first time, due to excru­ci­at­ing pain in both hips. I could not walk more than a 1/4 of a mile with­out feel­ing like some­one had beat­en both my hips with a base­ball bat; the pain was so inva­sive. The doc entered the room, and I said, “Hey Doc, how are you doing?” He looked down at the new X‑rays that were just tak­en by his lab tech, looked back at me, and his first words to me were, “Well, looks like bet­ter than you are, how are you feel­ing?  The result is that I need two new hips.  The rest is his­to­ry.  Six weeks lat­er, I had the first of two hip surg­eries. 

I’ve had a lot of time between meet­ings with the Ortho­pe­dic Sur­geon and sched­ul­ing the surgery to reflect on my role as a provider, father, prep­per, and all the actions that come with it.  And hon­est­ly, I can put up with a lot of pain.  But now that your daugh­ter is eight years old, my abil­i­ty to keep up with her has sig­nif­i­cant­ly dimin­ished, so it was time.  It was time to make the deci­sion to get back on the band­wag­on.

A cou­ple of oth­er items that come to mind. When I woke from the spinal/anesthesia, it lit­er­al­ly felt like I was hit in my left side by a pick­up truck.  The exple­tives start­ed flow­ing from my mouth almost imme­di­ate­ly.   I could not believe the pain load.  But I had just had a trau­mat­ic surgery.  This, too, was a wake-up call to pre­pared­ness.  Hav­ing been a prep­per for about 25 years at this junc­ture, I have nev­er been debil­i­tat­ing­ly injured or have had a trau­mat­ic surgery, until this week. This moment was also its wake-up call. The pain was the worst I have ever expe­ri­enced, until the nurse pumped up the pain meds.  I can only imag­ine what an injury may feel like post SHTF with­out the toolsets to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment for an injured indi­vid­ual to be com­fort­able.  

Today, I am hob­bling around the house with a walk­er, in a bit of pain, try­ing to keep my stiff leg lim­ber.  I had my first phys­i­cal ther­a­py ses­sion at home today.  The first of four ses­sions is sched­uled post-op. I’m being told that based on the type of surgery I have had, I may only need four (4) phys­i­cal ther­a­py ses­sions all-in.  I am being told it can take up to 6 months to feel ‘nor­mal’ again.  That’s okay, I know there is anoth­er hip replace­ment on the hori­zon, and while I am not jump­ing at the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get in there and do it imme­di­ate­ly, I am 100% moti­vat­ed to improve my health again, and get to a place where I feel com­pe­tent as the pro­tec­tor of my clan.

That said, the prep­per com­mu­ni­ty often focus­es on stock­pil­ing sup­plies, cre­at­ing bug-out bags, and devis­ing elab­o­rate emer­gency plans. But there’s one crit­i­cal com­po­nent of pre­pared­ness that does­n’t fit neat­ly into a back­pack or stor­age bin: your phys­i­cal fit­ness. As some­one who recent­ly under­went hip replace­ment surgery, I’ve been reflect­ing deeply on how our phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties direct­ly impact our sur­vival odds in emer­gency sce­nar­ios. The truth is stark but sim­ple: all the emer­gency sup­plies in the world won’t help if you lack the phys­i­cal abil­i­ty to use them effec­tive­ly.

The Often Overlooked Pillar of Preparedness

When dis­as­ter strikes, your body becomes your most impor­tant sur­vival tool. Think about it — dur­ing Hur­ri­cane Kat­ri­na, many sur­vivors had to wade through con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed flood­wa­ters. Dur­ing wild­fire evac­u­a­tions, fam­i­lies often need to trav­el on foot for miles. Even in less dra­mat­ic sce­nar­ios, such as extend­ed pow­er out­ages, phys­i­cal tasks like chop­ping wood, haul­ing water, or man­u­al­ly oper­at­ing equip­ment become dai­ly neces­si­ties.

Dr. James Hub­bard, known as “The Sur­vival Doc­tor,” puts it per­fect­ly: “Phys­i­cal fit­ness is the foun­da­tion upon which all oth­er pre­pared­ness skills are built. With­out it, even the most well-stocked prep­per will find them­selves at a severe dis­ad­van­tage when dis­as­ter strikes.”

The uncom­fort­able real­i­ty is that sub­ur­ban Amer­i­cans in par­tic­u­lar face a pre­pared­ness para­dox. We’ve designed our com­mu­ni­ties around con­ve­nience, with dri­ve-thrus, deliv­ery ser­vices, and desk jobs that min­i­mize phys­i­cal exer­tion. Yet these same con­ve­niences have cre­at­ed a phys­i­cal vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty that becomes dan­ger­ous­ly appar­ent dur­ing emer­gen­cies.

Why Your Physical Condition Directly Impacts Survival

Let’s break down exact­ly how fit­ness trans­lates to sur­vival capa­bil­i­ty:

1. Evacuation Capacity

Stud­ies from the Nation­al Insti­tute of Stan­dards and Tech­nol­o­gy indi­cate that the aver­age walk­ing speed dur­ing evac­u­a­tion for able-bod­ied adults is approx­i­mate­ly 4 feet per sec­ond. How­ev­er, this drops dra­mat­i­cal­ly with decreased fit­ness lev­els, mobil­i­ty issues, or while car­ry­ing sup­plies. Dur­ing the 2018 Camp Fire in Par­adise, Cal­i­for­nia, many evac­uees were trapped in grid­locked traf­fic and ulti­mate­ly had to aban­don their vehi­cles and escape on foot. Those with greater car­dio­vas­cu­lar endurance had sig­nif­i­cant­ly bet­ter out­comes.

2. Manual Labor Requirements

Dis­as­ters cre­ate phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing sit­u­a­tions:

• Clear­ing fall­en trees or debris (requir­ing strength and endurance)
• Oper­at­ing man­u­al pumps for water (requir­ing upper body strength)
• Build­ing or rein­forc­ing shel­ter (requir­ing full-body func­tion­al strength)
• Car­ry­ing sup­plies over dif­fi­cult ter­rain (requir­ing core and leg strength)
• Help­ing injured fam­i­ly mem­bers or neigh­bors (requir­ing func­tion­al strength)

3. Injury Prevention and Recovery

A 2019 study pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Emer­gency Man­age­ment found that phys­i­cal­ly fit indi­vid­u­als were 60% less like­ly to sus­tain injuries dur­ing nat­ur­al dis­as­ters com­pared to those with poor phys­i­cal fit­ness. Addi­tion­al­ly, when injuries did occur, recov­ery times were sig­nif­i­cant­ly short­er for those with bet­ter base­line fit­ness.

“Pre­pared­ness isn’t just about sur­viv­ing the ini­tial event,” says tac­ti­cal fit­ness expert Mark Lau­ren. “It’s about main­tain­ing your func­tion­al capac­i­ty through­out the entire recov­ery peri­od, which could last days, weeks, or even months.”

4. Stress Resilience

Phys­i­cal fit­ness has a direct impact on your body’s abil­i­ty to han­dle stress. Reg­u­lar exer­cise:

• Reduces base­line cor­ti­sol lev­els
• Improves sleep qual­i­ty
• Enhances cog­ni­tive func­tion under stress
• Reduces anx­i­ety and depres­sion symp­toms
• Improves over­all men­tal resilience

Dur­ing high-stress emer­gency sit­u­a­tions, these ben­e­fits become sur­vival advan­tages, allow­ing for clear­er think­ing and bet­ter deci­sion-mak­ing when it mat­ters most.

The Five Components of Disaster-Ready Fitness

Not all fit­ness is cre­at­ed equal when it comes to pre­pared­ness. While train­ing for a marathon or body­build­ing com­pe­ti­tion might serve spe­cif­ic fit­ness goals, dis­as­ter readi­ness requires a more bal­anced approach tar­get­ing these five key com­po­nents:

1. Cardiovascular Endurance

The abil­i­ty to sus­tain mod­er­ate phys­i­cal activ­i­ty over extend­ed peri­ods is essen­tial for evac­u­a­tion sce­nar­ios, man­u­al labor tasks, and main­tain­ing oper­a­tions with­out mod­ern con­ve­niences.

Prac­ti­cal Appli­ca­tion: Build the capac­i­ty to walk 5+ miles while car­ry­ing a 15–20 pound pack (equiv­a­lent to a basic evac­u­a­tion bag). Work up to this grad­u­al­ly if you’re start­ing from a seden­tary base­line.

2. Functional Strength

Unlike gym-focused strength that iso­lates mus­cle groups, func­tion­al strength mim­ics real-world move­ments you’d need in emer­gen­cies.

Prac­ti­cal Appli­ca­tion: Prac­tice exer­cis­es that mim­ic:

• Lift­ing and car­ry­ing awk­ward objects
• Pulling your­self over obsta­cles
• Push­ing heavy loads
• Drag­ging injured per­sons to safe­ty

3. Mobility and Flexibility

The abil­i­ty to move your body safe­ly through var­i­ous posi­tions and ranges of motion helps pre­vent injuries dur­ing unusu­al move­ments that are often required in emer­gen­cies.

Prac­ti­cal Appli­ca­tion: Work on main­tain­ing a full range of motion in all major joints, par­tic­u­lar­ly hips, shoul­ders, and spine. This becomes increas­ing­ly impor­tant as we age.

4. Balance and Stability

Nav­i­gat­ing through debris, uneven ter­rain, or com­pro­mised struc­tures requires good bal­ance to pre­vent falls and injuries.

Prac­ti­cal Appli­ca­tion: Include uni­lat­er­al (sin­gle-sided) exer­cis­es and prac­tice mov­ing on inten­tion­al­ly unsta­ble sur­faces.

5. Power and Speed

Some­times emer­gen­cies require imme­di­ate, explo­sive move­ments — jump­ing clear of dan­ger, quick­ly lift­ing a heavy object, or sprint­ing to safe­ty.

Prac­ti­cal Appli­ca­tion: Incor­po­rate inter­val train­ing and explo­sive move­ments tai­lored to your fit­ness lev­el.

Building a Practical Fitness Plan for Suburban Preppers

Now for the action­able part — how do you actu­al­ly build these capa­bil­i­ties? Here’s a frame­work that can be adapt­ed for almost any­one, regard­less of cur­rent fit­ness lev­el or access to equip­ment.

Assessment: Know Your Starting Point

Before start­ing any fit­ness pro­gram, take an hon­est assess­ment of your cur­rent fit­ness lev­el. Can you:

• Walk one mile with­out stop­ping?
• Get up from the floor with­out using your hands?
• Car­ry 20% of your body­weight for 100 yards?
• Climb sev­er­al flights of stairs with­out extreme fatigue?
• Per­form basic main­te­nance tasks around your home with­out exhaus­tion?

These sim­ple assess­ments pro­vide a base­line for your cur­rent pre­pared­ness capac­i­ty.

The Everyday Preparedness Circuit

This min­i­mal equip­ment work­out can be done 2–3 times per week to build all five com­po­nents of dis­as­ter-ready fit­ness:

1. Func­tion­al Warmup (5 min­utes)

• Walk­ing in place with high knees
• Arm cir­cles for­ward and back­ward
• Gen­tle tor­so rota­tions
• Ankle and wrist cir­cles

1. Strength Cir­cuit (15–20 min­utes)
   Per­form each exer­cise for 30–45 sec­onds, rest 15–30 sec­onds between exer­cis­es, and com­plete 2–3 rounds:

• Squats (body­weight for begin­ners, weight­ed as you progress)
• Push-ups (mod­i­fied as need­ed — wall, counter, or knee ver­sions for begin­ners)
• Sin­gle-leg stands (progress to sin­gle-leg dead­lift move­ments)
• Plank holds (mod­i­fied as need­ed)
• Farmer’s car­ry (car­ry­ing weight­ed objects at your sides)
• Step-ups onto a stur­dy plat­form

1. Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Endurance (10–20 min­utes)
   Options include:

• Brisk walk­ing (espe­cial­ly with ele­va­tion changes)
• Jog­ging if appro­pri­ate for fit­ness lev­el
• Stair climb­ing
• Row­ing if equip­ment is avail­able

1. Mobil­i­ty Cooldown (5 min­utes)

• Gen­tle stretch­ing of major mus­cle groups
• Deep breath­ing exer­cis­es
• Bal­ance prac­tice in a relaxed state

Beyond Structured Workouts: Practical Preparedness Training

Some of the best pre­pared­ness fit­ness does­n’t look like tra­di­tion­al exer­cise:

1. Ruck­ing
   Sim­ply walk­ing while car­ry­ing weight in a back­pack builds rel­e­vant strength and endurance simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. Start with 10% of your body­weight and grad­u­al­ly increase to 20–30% for short­er dis­tances.
2. Yard Work
   Man­u­al­ly rak­ing leaves, dig­ging, chop­ping wood, and push­ing wheel­bar­rows are excel­lent func­tion­al exer­cis­es that direct­ly trans­late to emer­gency skills.
3. Home Main­te­nance
   Paint­ing, repairs, and DIY projects often require unusu­al move­ments, posi­tions, and endurance that build pre­pared­ness fit­ness.
4. Skill-Based Activ­i­ties
   Learn­ing skills like tra­di­tion­al camp­ing, ori­en­teer­ing, or man­u­al crafts often incor­po­rates phys­i­cal com­po­nents that build pre­pared­ness fit­ness.

As Shane Thomp­son from our own Sub­ur­ban Sur­vival Blog notes in his pieces on pre­pared­ness fun­da­men­tals, the most sus­tain­able fit­ness reg­i­men is one that aligns with activ­i­ties you actu­al­ly enjoy and will con­tin­ue doing.

Adapting Fitness for All Ages and Conditions

The most com­mon objec­tion I hear is: “I’m too old/injured/out of shape to get fit for emer­gen­cies.” As some­one cur­rent­ly recov­er­ing from hip replace­ment surgery, before and after, I now deeply under­stand phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions. How­ev­er, adapt­abil­i­ty is itself a core sur­vival skill.

Working Around Limitations

For those with injuries, chron­ic con­di­tions, or recov­er­ing from surgery:

1. Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t
   If low­er-body exer­cis­es aren’t pos­si­ble, focus on upper-body and core strength. If stand­ing exer­cis­es are chal­leng­ing, con­sid­er seat­ed alter­na­tives.
2. Use appro­pri­ate pro­gres­sion
   Start with water-based exer­cis­es, resis­tance bands, or chair-sup­port­ed move­ments if need­ed.
3. Part­ner train­ing
   In a fam­i­ly or com­mu­ni­ty, dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als can devel­op com­ple­men­tary capa­bil­i­ties. While I’m recov­er­ing from hip surgery, my spouse is focus­ing on low­er-body strength train­ing to com­pen­sate for my tem­po­rary lim­i­ta­tions.
4. Con­sult pro­fes­sion­als
   Phys­i­cal ther­a­pists are excel­lent resources for devel­op­ing adap­tive fit­ness plans that respect lim­i­ta­tions while build­ing func­tion­al capac­i­ty.

Age-Specific Considerations

For Old­er Adults:

• Focus on main­tain­ing mobil­i­ty and inde­pen­dence
• Empha­size fall pre­ven­tion through bal­ance train­ing
• Main­tain grip strength for prac­ti­cal tasks
• Build endurance grad­u­al­ly with low-impact activ­i­ties

For Chil­dren and Teens:

• Devel­op fun­da­men­tal move­ment skills through play
• Build the habit of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty
• Teach prac­ti­cal skills like climb­ing, swim­ming, and car­ry­ing
• Make pre­pared­ness fit­ness a fam­i­ly activ­i­ty

“Phys­i­cal readi­ness isn’t about becom­ing a tac­ti­cal ath­lete,” says pre­pared­ness con­sul­tant Mor­gan Rogue. “It’s about hon­est­ly assess­ing the most like­ly sce­nar­ios you’ll face and build­ing the spe­cif­ic capa­bil­i­ties to han­dle them.”

The Mental Benefits of Preparedness Fitness

Per­haps the most over­looked aspect of phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness is its impact on men­tal resilience. Research con­sis­tent­ly shows that phys­i­cal­ly active indi­vid­u­als demon­strate:

• Bet­ter stress man­age­ment
• Improved sleep qual­i­ty
• Enhanced cog­ni­tive func­tion
• Greater emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion
• High­er con­fi­dence in their abil­i­ties

These men­tal ben­e­fits become cru­cial dur­ing dis­as­ters when clear think­ing and emo­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty can make the dif­fer­ence between good and poor deci­sions.

Phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness also fights what psy­chol­o­gists call “dis­as­ter help­less­ness” — the feel­ing of being over­whelmed and inca­pable that often leads to inac­tion dur­ing emer­gen­cies. Know­ing you pos­sess the phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties to respond effec­tive­ly cre­ates con­fi­dence that trans­fers to all aspects of emer­gency response.

Community Fitness and Group Preparedness

While indi­vid­ual fit­ness is essen­tial, com­mu­ni­ty pre­pared­ness mul­ti­plies effec­tive­ness. Con­sid­er:

1. Fam­i­ly Fit­ness Chal­lenges
   Cre­ate age-appro­pri­ate activ­i­ties that build pre­pared­ness skills while bring­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers togeth­er.
2. Neigh­bor­hood Skill Shar­ing
   Orga­nize com­mu­ni­ty events where neigh­bors can share exper­tise and prac­tice phys­i­cal skills togeth­er.
3. Mutu­al Aid Net­works
   In any com­mu­ni­ty, dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als will have dif­fer­ent phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties. Orga­nized net­works can lever­age these dif­fer­ences effec­tive­ly dur­ing emer­gen­cies.
4. Group Train­ing
   Whether for­mal class­es or infor­mal mee­tups, train­ing with oth­ers builds account­abil­i­ty and rela­tion­ships that become valu­able dur­ing emer­gen­cies.

The sub­ur­ban envi­ron­ment offers unique oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ty pre­pared­ness that rur­al or urban set­tings might not. Our com­mu­ni­ty parks, school facil­i­ties, and con­nect­ed neigh­bor­hoods pro­vide ide­al set­tings for group pre­pared­ness activ­i­ties.

Getting Started Today: Your Next Steps

No mat­ter your cur­rent fit­ness lev­el, age, or lim­i­ta­tions, there are con­crete steps you can take imme­di­ate­ly to improve your phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness:

1. Con­duct an hon­est assess­ment
   Doc­u­ment your cur­rent capa­bil­i­ties as a base­line.
2. Start with walk­ing
   Begin with dai­ly walks, grad­u­al­ly increas­ing dis­tance and occa­sion­al­ly adding weight.
3. Add sim­ple body­weight exer­cis­es
   Incor­po­rate mod­i­fied ver­sions of func­tion­al move­ments like squats, push-ups, and planks.
4. Prac­tice spe­cif­ic sce­nar­ios
   Try activ­i­ties that sim­u­late emer­gency sit­u­a­tions, such as car­ry­ing water con­tain­ers or mov­ing awk­ward­ly shaped objects.
5. Con­sult pro­fes­sion­als when need­ed
   Col­lab­o­rate with health­care providers to devel­op tai­lored plans if you have spe­cif­ic health lim­i­ta­tions.
6. Track progress mean­ing­ful­ly
   Rather than focus­ing on weight or appear­ance, track func­tion­al capa­bil­i­ties that relate direct­ly to pre­pared­ness.

As Mr. Jones often reminds read­ers in his excel­lent arti­cles on prac­ti­cal pre­pared­ness, “The best time to get phys­i­cal­ly pre­pared was years ago. The sec­ond-best time is today.”

Conclusion: Physical Preparedness as a Lifestyle

Phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness isn’t about reach­ing some ide­al fit­ness lev­el and then stop­ping. It’s about con­tin­u­ous­ly build­ing and main­tain­ing the spe­cif­ic capa­bil­i­ties that will serve you in times of emer­gency. It’s also about hon­est assess­ment — under­stand­ing your lim­i­ta­tions and work­ing with them rather than ignor­ing them.

For me, hip replace­ment recov­ery has been a hum­bling reminder of how quick­ly phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties can change. Yet it’s also rein­forced my com­mit­ment to rebuild­ing strength method­i­cal­ly and pur­pose­ful­ly. Rather than see­ing my tem­po­rary lim­i­ta­tions as a rea­son to aban­don phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness, I’ve adapt­ed my approach to focus on what I can do now while cre­at­ing a roadmap back to full capa­bil­i­ty.

Key Takeaways:

1. Phys­i­cal fit­ness is not option­al for true pre­pared­ness; it’s foun­da­tion­al.
2. Focus on build­ing func­tion­al capa­bil­i­ties rather than aes­thet­ic goals.
3. Adapt fit­ness approach­es to your cur­rent lim­i­ta­tions while work­ing to over­come them.
4. Incor­po­rate pre­pared­ness move­ments into dai­ly life for sus­tain­abil­i­ty.
5. Remem­ber that phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness direct­ly enhances men­tal resilience.
6. Build com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions that lever­age dif­fer­ent phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ties.
7. Start from wher­ev­er you are today with sim­ple, con­sis­tent actions.

The sub­ur­ban lifestyle often shields us from phys­i­cal demands, cre­at­ing a false sense of secu­ri­ty. By inten­tion­al­ly rein­tro­duc­ing func­tion­al phys­i­cal chal­lenges into our lives, we not only pre­pare for poten­tial emer­gen­cies but also recon­nect with our inher­ent human capa­bil­i­ties.

What phys­i­cal pre­pared­ness step will you take today? Share your plans and progress in the com­ments below…

Remem­ber, in an emer­gency, you don’t rise to your expec­ta­tions — you fall to your lev­el of train­ing. Ensure that the lev­el is high enough to sup­port you and your loved ones through what­ev­er chal­lenges may come your way.