Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Life Saving Fitness

2 Written by Keith on October 11, 2009 – 2:22 pm

 

Life Saving – as in your own life.  Earle Liederman wrote a book entitled Endurance, back in 1926, in which he proclaimed the exercises that each man should be able to perform in order to save his own life.  I became aware of this historical oddity of a book through the popular website, The Art of Manliness.  The list is simple enough; it does not involve lifting weights or being ripped.  Rather, it is a list of practical benchmarks intended to represent the skills needed in life-threatening situation. It’s also a good list.  According to Liederman:

 

Every Man Should be Able to…

 

1. Swim at Least Half a Mile or More.

2. Run at Top Speed for 200 Meters or More.

3. Jump Over Obstacles Higher than His Waist.

4. Pull his Body Upwards, by the Strength of his Arms, Until his Chin Touches his Hands at Least Fifteen to Twenty Times.

5. Dip Between parallel Bars or Between Two Chairs at Least Twenty-five Times or More.

 

That’s a pretty good list, and whoever can do those things is certainly prepared, in a physical sense, to save his own life.  However, as parents, we have a higher goal.  In the event of danger we need to be able to save our own lives and the lives of our children.  The list needs a tweak.  According to Wilcox (that’s me)…

 

Every Manly Parent Should be Able to…

 

1. Make a Life Preserver out of a Pair of Pants while in Deep Water with One Child Hanging onto Him.

2. Run for Half a Mile carrying at Least one 50 Pound Child, or Two 30 Pound Kids.

3. Lift and Hold up a Weight Sufficient to Crush Medium Sized Kids for Long Enough to Affect an Escape: A Minimum of One Minute.

4. Climb a Ladder While Carrying at Least one 50 Pound Child on his Back or Two 25 Pound Kids in One Arm.

5. Perform 15 Push ups with at Least 60 Pounds on His Back.

 

Some of those are pretty hard to do, but those are the skills I think we would need as parents to be confident of our children’s safety.  Obviously more kids require greater fitness.  There comes a point though that we can’t be fit enough to save everybody, and that’s our worst fear, that we would have to choose one kid over another.  I don’t want to make that choice so, as a countermeasure, I keep myself in top physical condition.  I have performed everything on my list except the first, and I’d like to see if I could do that one.  I know I can tread water indefinitely with one kid hanging on and for a few minutes with two kids hanging on.  I also know I can make a life preserver out of a pair of pants.  I wonder if I could do both at the same time.  Honestly, if thrown overboard in deep water, we would have no choice but to do it – so it would probably get done.

 

The point is this: Don’t be a lazy parent.  Take the time to keep fit so that when a life threatening situation arises you’ll be prepared as best you can.  We can’t save everybody every time, but we can do our best by trying to make up for the strength that our kids lack.  Don’t worry.  Our kids might have to save us when we get old and weak.  It would be better, in the interest of self preservation, not to set a bad example in the here and now!