Fitness will keep you self defense ready and help prevent medical issues that can become a problem in whatever future you face. If you have been a lazy daisy, the best place to start with your fitness regiment is walking. Start walking every day or as many days as possible. As you advance your skills, start walking at a quicker pace for more extended periods. When this becomes easy, wear a weighted backpack to simulate your evacuation kit.

You might think that the next progression is to start running. I do not advocate for running to increase your cardio. Running can be terrible for your ankles, knees, and back, especially when you are running over concrete. Choose healthier alternatives like biking, rowing, bag work, or using an elliptical.

If you are up against body pain, there are solutions. Remember that when battling arthritis, movement, no matter how difficult, keeps your body active and actually reduces pain. I am not an advocate of opioids as it messes with my stomach and can cause addictions. Wherever possible, try to eliminate these items from your diet: sugar, gluten, nightshade vegetables, processed foods, and alcohol. Some herbs can help Boswellia, Ginger Root, Yucca Root, Turmeric, and Devil’s Claw Root. Taking these steps should reduce inflammation, which is a crucial trigger for pain. There are also products like Heal-N-Sooth and Relief Factor that use natural products to deliver pain relief. Popular items like CBD drops and topical solutions can also help.

Strength and balance are crucial to your ability to defend yourself. Start with making sure you can get up from a chair or the ground without using your hands. You don’t need to lift heavy weights, your body weight is enough to tone your body. I like to do an exercise I call the Dougie. There are only three exercises involved in this routine. First, do squats. Take ten seconds to go down, hold the position for ten seconds and then take ten seconds to raise back up (If the time frame is problematic, reduce the time to five seconds and slowly build it up as you get stronger). After you do ten slow, do as many as you can as fast as you can (stay safe) until exhaustion. Do the same thing with pushups, ten slow and then as many as you can until you can’t do anymore. If you have a hard time doing pushups on your toes, go to your knees. It is better to have tight abs and correct arm form than being on your toes with lousy form. Then do the same with situps, except don’t sit all the way up, hold it at the tense point.

There are lots of balance exercises you can do, start with this one. Get a chair that has a back you can easily reach. With your eyes open, stand on one foot. Try not to touch the chair but use it to keep yourself safe if needed. Do both legs for a minute. When this becomes easy, do it with your eyes closed. Please be very careful, it is more of a challenge than you think. Make sure you have something you can quickly grab to keep yourself safe and have your hands hovering over it as you close your eyes so you can quickly grasp it if needed.

One of the best training items that I own are weighted bag gloves. The gloves I have weigh 14 ounces. You can use these as hand weights for your arm exercises and use them on the bag as well. One arm workout I love is called 21s. You hold a lightweight and bend your arm from a straight position to a half bend seven times. Then you go from the half position to the fully flexed position seven times. Finally, you go from all the way down to all the way up seven times.

When practicing kicking, remember, you don’t have to kick any higher than your adversary’s knee. Don’t fret if you can’t kick higher, it is not necessary, but if you can, it is great for stretching.

Situational awareness and staying alert while moving through the public is key to staying safe. If you need to defend yourself, keep announcing that you need help and asking the assailant to stop. There are so many cameras in operation today. Make sure they know you are the one in trouble and you need help.

There are many quick and easy moves; you can learn to seriously hurt someone very quickly. When your life is being threatened, you need to end the encounter as fast as possible. Teach your children and vulnerable family members these moves. They may be uncomfortable but let them know that they need to be familiar with these moves. It is better for them to feel awkward with you than an attacker who wants to end their life.

When faced with an abduction situation, do whatever you can to avoid being taken to a secondary location. Teach your children to run around a vehicle or hide under it while screaming for help. Do not use a car alarm to alert others to your plight, have vulnerable family members, and children carry a whistle so they can draw attention. If you end up in a vehicle, do whatever you can to distract the driver and wreck the car. It is better to be in an accident then end up at a secondary location.

Come explore the past episodes of the Changing Earth Podcast in the survival guide. We have explored a wide range of fitness ideas for people of all ages. We have discussed situational awareness strategies with people from across the globe. Learning this information will keep you healthy and safe in these uncertain times.