Combat Exercises

Disregard specialized “bodybuilding” workouts that overdevelop particular muscle groups, as well as exercises that require any unwieldy or complicated equipment. Your fitness routine should replicate the functional movements you may be required to accomplish during evasion or defense against the living dead. Your exercise regimen should be borne not out of vanity, but of necessity and survival.

Consider what you may have to do in a given day during an outbreak. You may have to:

• run from attacking ghoul mobs
• climb over abandoned vehicles
• crawl under fencing
• reinforce your fortification
• gather supplies
• dispatch a group of zombies with several skull-crushing blows.

It’s no surprise that research has shown individuals with the highest survival rate have been those employed in traditional “blue-collar” positions that require a high degree of manual labor, working their muscles almost daily in practical applications.

Most of the large muscle groups are stressed during a zombie attack:

• Deltoids (shoulders), Pectorals (chest) - pushing attackers, thrusting swords or spears.
• Latissimus Dorsi (back) - pulling/extracting weapons, swinging bludgeons.
• Quadriceps (thighs), Hamstrings (back of legs) - running, climbing, kicking and stomping.
• Abdominals (stomach), Obliques (sides of the stomach), overall core - almost every action listed previously (swinging, thrusting, pushing, pulling) engages your core muscles in some capacity.

These are the muscle groups on which you should focus in your exercise routine. You should also employ movements that require coordination of several muscles groups in unison. Simple, practical movements should be emphasized. Disregard movements that concentrate on small muscles, such as calf raises, concentration curls, and triceps extensions. Stress the large muscle roups aggressively, and the smaller ones will take care of themselves.

Additionally, you need to be able to accomplish your routine with no equipment, (weights, mats, DVD player) silently (given your particular security situation), and in a confined area. This will replicate a possible scenario during a zombie outbreak where you must remain quiet in a small space. Even running becomes a luxury during the course of an undead siege.

Thus, focusing on calisthenics and bodyweight exercises are ideal. Done with regularity at an appropriate intensity level, you will be fit enough to defend yourself quite effectively for a significant duration.