The First Steps in Preparedness

Now that you have decided to become more prepared, you need to make the first steps in the transition from the way you are now to the way you want to be. The gulf between these two things often intimidates people into doing nothing. Don't let that happen.

Take some baby steps and be satisfied with them. Understand that you will never be truly prepared for anything in life, only more prepared than you were before.

There are three key areas in which you should begin to advance in this endeavor.

• Developing a Physical Skill
• Learning a Mental Skill
• Becoming Physically Fit
• Saving Money

Developing a Physical Skill

Many men today, those that are actually working at all, find themselves sitting behind keyboards or cash registers all day. These jobs are not similar in any way to the trades in which many of our recent ancestors worked. 

There is some good to this. You would probably not trade your office gig for a short-lived and miserable stint in a coal mine before you died of black lung.

However, we have definitely lost something in this transition to a safer and more sedentary lifestyle. We have lost the muscular challenge to our bodies. Consequently, our bodies are no longer prepared for anything but riding in buses and cars and having robots do most of our heavy lifting. 

Furthermore, many of us realize that we do not know how to do anything besides punch keys on a keyboard. This can be a depressing and debilitating realization when you have already reached the age of full manhood. 

This is why prepping goals are valuable outside of any concern about doomsday. Achieving a lot of prepping goals is simply good for rounding out your character and your skill set. 

If you are presently in a job that requires a serious physical commitment (landscaping, construction, carpentry, etc), then this area of preparedness is of less concern for you. Understand also that this is not simply about physical strength but about knowing how to do something with your hands or something that has a real physical impact. 

An engineer or a medical doctor is already a master in this area because his actions and recommendations have a real impact, even in a world deprived of technology. A lawyer cannot say the same. Hopefully, you get the idea.

If you think that you have not acquired any such physical skills, find a way to learn and incorporate them into your life. Robert left the teaching field and became an ER nurse. I am learning how to handle and maintain weapons. You could learn to hunt, study car repair or go to HVAC school. Any such move in life will not only "prepare" you but will also be a big boost to self-esteem.

Learning a Mental Skill

If you are already learned in some crucial physical skill, then you may want to cross train yourself in something more cerebral. It depends on what your other skill set is. 

If you are truly prepping for TEOTWAWKI, then you should know that it is not enough to be a tough guy with a gun. You would need to be able to think clearly and analytically. You would also need some valuable knowledge beyond the details involved in camping and shooting guns.

Branching out into a different field is valuable as well to those who simply want to become better men. 

Either way, if you are already competent in some physical skill outlined above, you should try to acquire some skill in a more cerebral area. This could be as simple as learning how to play chess well. Or you might study calculus. 

Perhaps the best route to take with this endeavor is to learn code. Too many people on this side of the culture war are ignorant about the basic processes involved in using computers.You can do this for free online with your spare time. Try the Code Academy or some other resource on the Internet.

Becoming Physically Fit

Physical fitness is a crucial part of overall health. Not only do you become physically stronger, you increase your lifespan and reduce your recovery time from illness. You can find out more about becoming physically fit at our Preparing the Body page.

Saving Money

It is unmanly to be financially unstable. Robert and I can say that because we have both been financially insolvent and suffered the indignities of debt slavery. Poverty is not shameful but a man does not live beyond his means. 

You can learn more about money saving at our Financing a Christian Life page.

Acquiring new skills and strengthening your own independence are the proper foundations of true preparedness. These things have priority over buying a year's worth of peanut butter or amassing a small mountain of ammunition.

How Should I Start Exercising?

The idea of exercising may bring to your mind images of people jogging in the park or working out with complicated machinery in a slick-looking gym full of hot, young people listening to edgy music. Actual exercise may include these activities but you can improve your health drastically without doing those things. In fact, you can build muscle and drop unnecessary weight just doing a simple workout in your living room or bedroom.

However, before you up into whichever workout that you prefer, you should keep in mind two rules: 

• Start slow. 
• Build muscle. 
• Train to failure

Starting Slow

Too often, when a man decides to change his life, he tries to make a radical alteration to his normal habits and eventually fails. It is like trying to leap straight to the top of the mountain instead of climbing the first foothills surrounding it.

Over-commitment leads to failure and despair. If you are doing pushups and have not done any in a long time (since high school gym, perhaps), then begin with ten. 

I mean, do ten pushups the first entire day. If that exhausts you, good. If it does not, wait until your next exercise day and do 12 or 15. You can continue with incremental advances until you feel like you cannot do any more pushups in at one time, Once you reach the point where you are exhausted, you know how many you should do in one set. 

Use the same approach with anything that you do - lifting weights, sprinting, pull-ups, etc. Start slow and build to exhaustion. 

Building Muscle

Various gurus and experts may counsel you to focus on certain "cardio" exercises. These are exercises which aim to get your heart racing. The goal is to use calories and shed weight. 

 However, as a man, your goal should really be to acquire physical strength rather than lose weight. You may very well lose weight as a result of weightlifting and other strength-building exercises but it is more likely that you will turn your weight into muscle. You may even see and increase in your weight as you get stronger.

The best methods of exercise for achieving this goal are those that build strength. 

• Lift weights or do pushups. This will increase the strength of your chest and arms. There is also some impact on abdominal muscles but you should worry very little about these muscles. You are not some model trying to sculpt a beautiful body. You are building a warrior's body.
• Sprint rather than jog. Jogging is good for increasing your endurance but sprinting will burn more calories because you will be using the largest muscle group in your body, those of your thighs, at maximum intensity. 

Do not focus on the numbers on a scale. That is a woman's worry. Your metric should be: how much can I lift? The rest will take care of itself.

Train to Failure

After starting slow, you will build to exhaustion in any exercise. The purpose here is guided by our knowledge about how muscles work. 

When you lift a dumbbell with one arm, you only use a limited amount of muscles in that ar to achieve one curl. When you repeat that lift immediately, your body has to recruit more muscle cells to get the job done. Eventually, you will have engaged all the muscles in your arm and exhausted them and you will literally be unable to do another curl for a short period while your muscles recover.

This approach builds muscle quickly and avoids having to spend hours at the gym doing less intense exercises. You will see results in weeks not months.

At this juncture, stop counting how many pushups or curls you are doing. Just do it until your arms or legs give way. You cannot fail to get results.

Be careful. If you do this without taking precautions to avoid dropping weights on your feet, you will injure yourself and set yourself back. 

Basically, just don't be a spaz about it. Start slow, ai for strength and be wise. Reach the point where your strength fails you and you will be getting the maximum from your work out.