YOUR FITNESS AND TRAINING APPROACH UNDER SURVIVAL STRESS

[swanson]

YOUR FITNESS AND TRAINING APPROACH UNDER SURVIVAL STRESS

Often times, we overlook the fact that our survival is intimately linked to our training and the maintenance of our survival skill sets.

The skill sets you achieve and sustain as well as the level of fitness you attain all directly impact your performance under duress; and believe me, duress is where it will be at for you in a survival situation.

Here’s a naked fact. You won’t be at the top of your game when under stress and you will most certainly default to the level of your “most recent” training and experience.

Here’s what to expect when encountering survival stress. Your heart rate will increase, your breathing will become labored, your basic thoughts and awareness will become skewed, and you will experience the loss of fine and complex motor skills as your body’s sympathetic nervous system is engaged.

Don’t take my word for it. Reach into your own set of life experiences and study what’s happened to you under stress before. Be honest.

Your training has to become its own lifestyle in approach if you truly seek to excel when it’s time to produce effort under the stresses that survival situations create.

So here’s what will help you along:

TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN…

•   Bring into focus your physical deficiencies and examine how to overcome them through a dedicated fitness program.
•   Redouble your efforts to maintain a level of fitness once you’ve achieved it.
•   Take the time and examine the skills you need to develop and set out to obtain them.
•   Once you’ve gained a level of competence in the skills required, maintain those skills on a regular basis without fail or they will fail you.

Always remember, fitness and survival skills are perishable assets and any serious adept will keep this in mind, daily.

Don’t fool yourself into to thinking you are “ready”; be in constant training to prove it…

swanson

[Tycoon]

YOUR FITNESS AND TRAINING APPROACH UNDER SURVIVAL STRESS

Often times, we overlook the fact that our survival is intimately linked to our training and the maintenance of our survival skill sets.

The skill sets you achieve and sustain as well as the level of fitness you attain all directly impact your performance under duress; and believe me, duress is where it will be at for you in a survival situation.

Here’s a naked fact. You won’t be at the top of your game when under stress and you will most certainly default to the level of your “most recent” training and experience.

Here’s what to expect when encountering survival stress. Your heart rate will increase, your breathing will become labored, your basic thoughts and awareness will become skewed, and you will experience the loss of fine and complex motor skills as your body’s sympathetic nervous system is engaged.

Don’t take my word for it. Reach into your own set of life experiences and study what’s happened to you under stress before. Be honest.

Your training has to become its own lifestyle in approach if you truly seek to excel when it’s time to produce effort under the stresses that survival situations create.

So here’s what will help you along:

TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN…

•   Bring into focus your physical deficiencies and examine how to overcome them through a dedicated fitness program.
•   Redouble your efforts to maintain a level of fitness once you’ve achieved it.
•   Take the time and examine the skills you need to develop and set out to obtain them.
•   Once you’ve gained a level of competence in the skills required, maintain those skills on a regular basis without fail or they will fail you.

Always remember, fitness and survival skills are perishable assets and any serious adept will keep this in mind, daily.

Don’t fool yourself into to thinking you are “ready”; be in constant training to prove it…

swanson

Once again Swan your right on with this. Train, Train, Train.
The stats are equivalent to firearms training. No matter how much you train, under stress conditions your not going to be 100%, infact if your 50% your lucky. All you need in most fights though is that slight edge, that split second reaction before your opponent, as with firearms. Martial Arts are like firearms in many ways, everybody has their favorite and claims it to the best. Having trained for years in several different styles myself I have learned what I feel are practical self-defense styles and what are not. I'm not one to get into a debate or even a discussion about this because this is not the point that Swanson is trying to get across. Having said this there are training regiments that must be utilized no matter what style of self-defense your studying. As Swanson said in a firearms post similar to this, train in real life scenarios and high stress situations or as close as you can get to them.  A lot of Martial Arts schools have some common flaws and some of those are; you train in a dojo (School) wearing a Gi (uniform) and with the same people all the time. This is not always practical and here's why. You become very comfortable with the people around you and how each of them fights, You become comfortable with your school and it's surroundings, and you become comfortable in what your wearing. All this provides many with a false sence of self-confidence that can get you injured or killed. This is not real life. Chances are your not going to be fighting for your life at your studio with your friend wearing pajama's. Without drawing this out too long I'll try to wrap up my point. Train in different areas outside of your school with as many different partners as you can. Train with your shoes or jeans on, it's a completely different feeling but REAL! REPETITION IS THE KEY. If you can purchase some body pads, train with somebody actually hitting you with some decent power and see how your reaction time and speed change. Mix it up. If you train in grappling, do some stand-up fighting also and visa versa. Train as often as you can and take in as much info as you can and you'll have that slight edge when it counts.

[geist46]

Hi, i am new here but i just want to add my 2 cents.

Swanson.

As for training it is more important to train more Anaerobic then aerobic for a fight. In a fight, or assault your Pulse rate will go UUPPP, unless you train for this you will Hyperventilate and lose performance.

Tycoon.

Scenario Training and Simmunition training will help.
I am ex corrective services, most crime's run 2-3 miles a day if they are in the system for more than 4 weeks.
Most people think it will never happen to me.

O=Observation
O=Orientation
D=Deciding
A=Action

[swanson]

geist46,

Thanks making a post on this thread and your added insight.

Physical fitness (both Aerobic/anaerobic) is a tremendous part of the performance variable effecting survival and success as out lined thus far.

The combination of cardio and strength conditioning will directly effect your ability to act physically under pressure and stress.

Fitness, "burn time", the ATP/PC system, the lactic acid system, and the aerobic system

For instance, as a defensive tactics instructor, I have found it useful to outline for my students the concept of the "diminished fighter" when it comes to personal survival in a confrontation and the use of physical energy in a fight.

Basically, a combatant has a limited "burn time" for physical output before performance deteriorates dramatically.

You'll have approximately 10-15 seconds to control a threat before your physical output and strength takes a serious dump.

This is due to how the body stores and uses energy in conjunction with the ATP/PC system, the lactic acid system, and the aerobic system in a descending order.

In physical confrontations, your initial physical output will consume the energy bundles stored in your muscles in the ATP/PC system. This energy burst is high end for strength related activities such as defending against physical assault. The ATP/PC system will burn out quick (10-15 seconds) and be followed directly by the use of the energy associated with the lactic acid system.

ATP/PC stands for Adenosine Triphosphate/Phosphocreatine.

Once the ATP/PC system is spent, the lactic acid system will provide the next intermediate strength reserve for survival related activities and last up to 45 seconds. Your strength will at about 55% of what your output was with the first system.

Lastly, the aerobic system is utilized if a confrontation lingers past 90 seconds, The aerobic system is your final and dominant energy reserve fueled by a combination of oxygen, carbs, and free fatty acids. When you are using your aerobic system to draw upon for strength, you'll by at about one third your normal output until the cessation of your activity.

The bottom line, get fit stay fit and plan for and expect a diminished output under survival stress.

swanson

[swanson]

Energy systems and physical output -

Wiki has a decent page that outlines the energy systems involved in output as well...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_systems

"ATP-PC System (Phosphogen System) - This system is used only for very short durations of up to 10 seconds. The ATP-PC system neither uses oxygen nor produces lactic acid and is thus said to be alactic anaerobic. This is the primary system behind very short, powerful movements like a golf swing or a 100 m sprint.

Anaerobic System (Lactic Acid System) - Predominates in supplying energy for exercises lasting less than 2 minutes. Also known as the Glycolytic System. An example of an activity of the intensity and duration that this system works under would be a 400 m sprint.

Aerobic System - This is the long duration energy system. By 5 minutes of exercise the O2 system is clearly the dominant system. In a 1 km run, this system is already providing approximately half the energy; in a marathon run it provides 98% or more."

[geist46]

Ok, now that we know what it is we are Training, how do we get there.

Several years ago i did a course in Israel, fitness requirements were.

 Run 2,000 meters (1.25 miles) in less than 9:45 minutes.

the way i trained for it.
1 Day, 2 Min. warm up. 1 min as fast as possible. 30 seconds slowing down. then 1 min as fast as possible etc for 30 min.
1 day, weights.
1 day, 3 km run.
1 day, weights.
1 day 2 min jog, than 400 meter run as fast as possible, jog back, run as fast as possible, jog back. 10 runs.
1 full day break,
1 day walk and plenty of stretching.

the whole lot with some light changes for 3 month.

Passed the course with flying colours at 50 Years of age.

i understand there are other ways to do this but it worked for me.

I found this to be the fastest and shortest time to get super fit.
 
Again depending on your fitness level, age,injuries you have to change it. I was already fit at the time.

Most people train to much aerobic than anaerobic which is what you use in a fight.

[rustyknife]

I am ex-lawenforcement/ firefighter....if you want a good test of your conditioning have a partner hold some kick bags or control a punching bag for you. Have someone else keep time for two minutes. Attack the bag as hard and fast as you can go without stopping as though it were a life and death struggle. Punch,kick scream, slap, kick, punch and so on for two minutes. To add more fun to it scream at the top of your lungs non stop while doing this. Don't backup or stop your attack for two minutes. Most fights don't involve a lot of techneck, it's more about stamina and control ed breathing. IMHO

[geist46]

There is a drill in Krav Maga, some school call it the "Mummy" Some "Frankenstein".
You are in a room or Enclosure, another person puts out his Arms and tries to grab you around the Throat.
You try to avoid him for 1 Minute.
After 1 Minute Another Person enters and tries to to the same.
After 2 Minutes Another person.
After 3 Minutes Another and so on till Five persons are After you.
Most people are out of Puff after 3 Minutes.
At the Beginning you only try to avoid getting touched, A lot of People forget that they can use another person as a Shield.
To spice it up you can get the other to slap, grab or punch you, the problem i found with this, depending on the personality of the first person sonner or later a fist fight starts which is not what you want.
The idea is to keep  moving, " Multiple Opponents" use anything as cover or distraction.

Try it out, good fun.

As for Train, Train, I would like to add, Correct and realistic Training.

Everything is SITUATIONAL.

[avocado]

good ideas and information. another strong method of simulating the performance drop of high catecholamines [ie. stress] is to take your sparring drills and use multiple partners. This is a classic method we've used in BJJ/Mauy thai/MMA and boxing.

You set out your number of rounds, say 10 rounds of 1minute. Then you have 4 partners or so. There are no breaks between 1 minute rounds. The only thing that happens at rounds end is for the guy you are hitting with that round to go rest while a fresh man comes to beat you up. each minute you fight a fresh guy for 10 minutes. the simulation comes right around round 5 where you can barely do shit.

To prepare for BJJ belt testing [which i way harder than a MMA fight because it goes on for way longer and you always have fresh "dummy" opponents] we do this. I worked up to 35 1 minute rounds and it was one of the hardest things ever. The new guys know you're tired and so they really put the balls to the wall to try and get that tap out of a higher belt. It still didnt make the test seem easy though.

Train hard enough that you start to love it.

-chris