WHY ARMED CITIZENS NEED REAL FIGHTER FITNESS (NOT JUST A GUN)

The armed citizen is an everyday man/woman that is simply aware that they are their own first responder. With that understanding, I believe they should understand that the firearm does not guarantee their safety. If the armed citizen understands that a firearm may be needed for terminal safety, I would hope that these individuals would also understand that they will not always be able to reach the firearm right away, or be able to avoid having to fight to get to the gun.

WHAT IS FITNESS?

Fitness is a nice word that can conjure up images of ripped and buff bodybuilders, powerlifters manipulating impossible amounts of weight, or people running dozens of miles non-stop. However, none of these stereotypical visions of fitness are the kind of fitness that match what is needed for being able to fight for your life effectively.

FITNESS FOR FIGHTERS

When you think of “FITNESS FOR FIGHTERS”, I am sure you are thinking about sweating in a dim gym through endless calisthenics, rocking a punching bag, and doing a bunch of jump rope. There are calisthenics involved, and some fundamental strikes here and there, but I am going to ask you to think about what a physical altercation in reality is going to require of you.

OPPOSING FORCES

First thing you are going to find when fighting with another person is that it is pretty much a violent hands-on version of tug-of-war. It is your ability to exert your will forcefully against another human being through manipulation, strikes, and psychological manipulation. This type of interaction requires agility, explosiveness, strength endurance, and the ability to maintain awareness and coordination while under this high stress event.

BUILDING AGILITY

Agility is your ability to move with finesse and grace through an environment. This can be through footwork, position changes, or a combination of the two. I highly endorse the use of burpees and their variations in order to develop agility. For lower body agility, I recommend sprinting drills like the 5-10-5 or the agility ladder. Things like box jumps coupled with burpees can be a good way to develop agility and build your cardio endurance simultaneously.

BUILDING EXPLOSIVENESS

Explosiveness is an important quality to have as a fighter because it aids in your ability to exploit surprise opportunities and attack weaknesses or maneuver quickly. Explosiveness is a high output, low endurance quality, so most of the benefit comes from your ability to express a lot of force in a short amount of time. Think an all-out hard punch, hard push, a sprint at maximum effort, etc.

My favorite way to train this is through heavy kettlebell swings or snatches, explosive calisthenics like jumping pushups, pullups, jump squats with a heavy weight, medicine ball slams of all types (regular slams, rotational slams, throws, etc.) and burpees as fast as possible. Just make sure your movements are as explosive as possible or you are just working endurance

BUILDING STRENGTH ENDURANCE

I am sure we all understand that strength means how much. Strength endurance is your ability to maintain a level of strength for a period of time. Think about it like doing 30 to 50 reps of heavy bench press or being able to do more than 15 pullups with your own bodyweight or with added weight.

The best example of strength endurance is heavy kettlebell swings. You are exhibiting power consistently and repeatedly to get the kettlebell to fly up to eye level strictly from hip action. It is only developing strength endurance if you are under load the whole time. If you are only able to do 10-20 reps, you are training strength endurance. If you are able to do more, you are not training strength endurance.

One of my favorite tools for developing strength endurance is the medicine ball. You train your explosiveness and your strength endurance. During the first and most powerful reps, you are training your explosiveness, and then after that, if you can keep a fast tempo and power output for 10-20 reps, you are in that window for strength endurance. If you feel like you were able to do more, I would encourage you to put more force into your slams/throws. Medicine ball slams and throws by their nature are explosive and require power output. Putting in maximum effort will almost always help you develop these traits.

DEVELOPING AWARENESS UNDER STRESS

I would argue that physical fitness is a great way to build character, resilience, discipline, and awareness under stress. Maintaining awareness under stress is all about controlling yourself and prioritizing information processing instead of panicking.

One of my favorite things to develop situational awareness under stress is to go for a run at an uncomfortable speed and keep my head up. I will take in the environment around me and catalog what I see and deliberately search for anomalies. For instance, I will run through my neighborhood and count the yards that are not mowed, fount the houses that have gutters, exterior lighting, count the SUVs versus the sedans, etc. I will use these little games to develop the ability to maintain awareness.

One other drill I like to use is mental arithmetic during a run. I will take random addresses and add the numbers together or multiply them by a random single digit. This kind of cognitive drill is very challenging and encourages high cognitive functions to be maintained, which you need to have, even in a fight.

WRAPUP

I hope you have a better understanding of what it means to be “FIT TO FIGHT” as an armed citizen. There is nothing fancy here, but you can make it as simple or complicated as you want. You can take martial arts or self defense classes and incorporate strike into your PT or even dry fire drills to practice shooting while under stress. This is valuable for you to see how the gun moves when you are under stress, and over time, you will learn to control yourself to the point of being able to stabilize yourself and control your jitters.

Being fit to save your own life in a fight is more about being able to stay in the fight longer than the other person. You cannot guarantee that you can do that by traditional lifting programs or niche styles of exercise like bodybuilding or powerlifting. You will need to seek specific traits and qualities that enhance your ability to fight back and survive instead of chasing mirror muscles. A lot of the qualities that keep people alive is not muscle, but grit and will. Couple that with explosiveness, strength endurance, agility, and situational awareness, and you won’t have to be John Wick to have a good fighting chance.