What is strength training? It is to ability to exert force to overcome the resistance. Strength training doesn’t mean building large muscles, it just means you need to workout to get stronger. Many people associate large muscles as strong, but there is a factor of strength to weight ratio. This is very important in survival.
Let’s look at 2 different types of bodies.
Large muscular frame – This type of person could be very useful, or is it? Say, this person weighs 250 pounds, and can bench press 375 pounds 1 rep max (1RM). Not too shabby, but this person’s strength to weigh ratio is 1.5, which is quite good. However, this person may not be as flexible, may not be able to perform tasks beyond a deadlift and maybe leg press, let alone lift themselves up to climb a wall or a crag.
Smaller but muscular frame – This person may be more useful than the larger person that can deadlift 375 pounds. Say, this person weighs 150 pounds, can bench press 350 pounds (1RM), and also do a pull-up with 150 pounds strapped onto a harness, which means a strength to weigh ratio of over 2. This person is probably more agile, potentially more flexible, and more powerful than the larger person.
I have seen this time and time again, where a very muscular person tries to climb in an indoor gym and fails miserably on any intermediate climbs. Where as the smaller frame person (provided they are technical, agile, strong, and flexible) can climb intermediate climbs and completes the route. Running for extended periods and distance is much more difficult with a ton of body weight, and often times the more meticulous work that needs to be done is also difficult in tight spaces.
In a survival community scenario, you need both types of people. Someone agile, flexible and strong, as well as that larger stronger muscular person to do different tasks. If I am surviving solo or with one other person, I would prefer to be the latter than the larger framed. That doesn’t mean stop strength training to reduce your muscle mass, size and density.
The best way to do strength training without adding extra weight is less reps, more weight. Depending on what I am trying to achieve, I use both high reps/less weight with speed (power training) as well as low reps/more weight (strength training) training. You need to do both to balance your strength and power. Age is also a factor to what kind of training you should incorporate with the right balance of strength and power training. When I talk about a workout, it will be categorized to help achieve the right goals.
