Survival of the Fittest

Why you need to be strong:

This next post came about the second to last episode of Breaking Bad. If you haven’t caught up with the series, STOP and close this window because I’m going to retell a scene in an episode. 🙂

For those of you who watched it, let’s go back to the moment when Jesse tries to escape from the underground cell. He places a bucket on top of his jacket and carefully steps on it balancing off of it and leaps up in hopes to catch the metal bar so he can escape. Let’s stop there.

As I was staring at the screen in pure anguish, I thought, “What if a fat person were to be in a similar situation, would he/she be able to escape?” Hmm, probably not. Come to think of it, not even a skinny or an unfit person would make it out…

I know that it would be really, really unlikely anyone were to be in anything similar to that nerve-wreaking episode, but many things can go wrong, so why leave it to fate to determine if you have a chance of surviving or not!

If you’re one of these peeps that don’t think you’d make it in “Jesse scenario,” it’s time to do something about it!

Train for overall body composition. Do compound movements such as bench pressing, pull-ups, deadlifts and squats for optimal strength. These exercises do so much more than you’d think; they recruit a ton of more muscles aside from the targeted one.

Example, in a deadlift you primarily recruit your hamstrings and glutes, but you also get a great back workout as you use it to stabilize throughout the movement. Or in the case of the infamous squat, aside from targeting your quads and glutes, your abs are also engaged and working hard to keep your torso upright. Pull-ups not only strengthen your latissimi dorsi (yo’ lats), but they work your shoulders and biceps. And finally, bench pressing mainly targets your chest (pecs), but it also works your shoulders, biceps and triceps.

You see, incorporating these basic compound lifts into your routine, can only benefit you. So if you’re ever in a “Jesse scene,” you can easily balance on the empty bucket because your abs/core will be rockin’, then you can jump using your strong quads and hamstrings, grab the metal bars easily with your bare hands-as you will most likely develop calluses in your hands from lifting (don’t use gloves, it’s not a bad thing to have ‘em calluses) so hanging from the bar will be a piece o’ cake, and then squeeze your lats together to pull yourself upward and latch the gate open and set yourself FREE!!

So there you go, exercise just saved your life. 🙂

In all seriousness, consider mastering these basic compound movements. They will not only make stronger, but they’ll also give you the confidence to know that ‘when push comes to shove’ you’ll survive.

Moral of the story: If you’re anything but fit and healthy, don’t make meth.