Your Quick Camping Survival Guide (Part 2: Fitness as a Survival Skill)

As part of our Quick Camping Survival Guide series, we want to talk about some of the most important survival skills to add to your arsenal, along with the essential gear—like a survival aid whistle, and nylon paracord. In this post particularly, we want to emphasize the value of fitness in a wilderness setting.

To inspire you to seek an even higher level of fitness, we’ve outlined a number of scenarios where specific physical strengths will allow you to keep yourself and others safe in the case of an emergency.

This is not an exhaustive list, just a few ideas to get your thoughts flowing:

If you get caught in rough waters—whether they’re the sudden result of flash flooding or a tsunami—you’ll find that your whole body is needed to get yourself to the safety of dry land. The most obvious way to train for this kind of emergency is to swim regularly—perhaps even in the ocean, to get yourself accustomed to the cold!>
If you get caught in a situation where you need to walk or hike long distances without the proper footwear—you may want to have prepared with the practice of barefoot running!
If you get caught needing to help carry someone who is injured, you will need strength in your legs, back, and arms.

Whatever situation you can imagine, a foundation of fitness will improve it tenfold. If you’re regularly are cardio junkie, try implementing some weight workouts—even if you start with bodyweights. Or vice versa.

If you already feel like you’re pretty well-rounded, that’s great! But don’t let that stop you from seeking new challenges—like taking up climbing or joining a rowing club—because nature is a powerful force. When it’s man against nature, we need to be at our strongest to survive.

As always you’ll thank yourself later.

Article contributed by Sophie Wooding – Avid gardener and cyclist in Victoria, BC and Content Writer for Frontier.io