This brings me to fitness. I know that a lot of us are in shape, be it fit, average, or you bring a keg to the party - we're all in shape to some extent. What I mean by this is that we all naturally have our strong points and weak points. I hope that by sharing this, we can become a community that's not only about some of the best performing, affordable knives ever made, but also in fitness. I think that it would be a strong fit for this community - for a simple reason. Preperation. Knife people are preppers to some extent - otherwise you wouldn't carry a knife on you just for that time you might need it during the day
And no, preppers to me aren't those TV people (I don't even have any food stock outside a gallon of milk and pint of ice cream). What are you prepping for? You have to ask yourself that question, but I assure you, you are prepping for something. Maybe it's a wartime deployment to the front line. Maybe it's being able to change a tire without asking for some help. Maybe it's to run a half marathon in 5 months. Maybe it's to throw the ball with your kid after school. I'm prepping for two of those right now, and I'm sure I'll be adding to the list as the days go on.Here's my story. Growing up I was very active - 6 month canoe trips in the styx, 100+ mile bicycle rides a day, etc. Then comes high school, and I was the same height I am now - just a hair under 6 foot. I also weighed nearly 220 pounds, and hardly any of that was muscle. Fast forward nearly 10 years, and I was down to 190. Just fit enough to do some things for a little bit of time without completely draining myself, and felling it the next few days because of how I hard I was on my body at a young age. Then I enlisted in the Air Force.
Suddenly, what I was doing wasn't going to cut it. 27 going into a career field where the indoctrination/PT was aimed at 18/19 year olds, I knew I had some work to do. I started running. I started doing body weight workouts. I found some friends and did circuit workouts on the track every Sunday. I cut pop, sugars, seasonings, butter, you name it. I dropped down to 180 or so, but had gained a fair amount of muscle while trimming down the waist line from late January to July. After basic training I weighed 173 with a 30 inch waist, ran 1.5 miles in 10:35 and did 35 pushups/minute and 48 situps/minute. Not bad for a 28 year old.
Tech School came after that, and due to the nature of my job training and the duties I took on while there, I told myself I didn't have time to work out and stay in shape. Six months later, I found myself weighing 180 with a 33 inch waist, running 1.5 miles in 11:27 and doing 48 pushups/minute, 48 situps/minute.
Now I'm operational. I told myself I'm going to be in better shape than BMT aerobically speaking, and stronger than I was in Tech School. I got lucky in my job assignment, and work M-F like most people here - 10 hour days. I also have family to take care of after work (my granddad is 92, 93 in 5 months, aunt is also local and has bad disabilities). I'm also undergoing upgrade training, and have hobbies that I like to do. So yes, while I may liive in base housing, and not have any young ones I'm raising, I probably have time that's as limited, if not more, than most people here.
If you're like me, and said enough of this ^@#&, let's start working as a team. Mutual support, and knowing somebody else is suffering towards the same end goal as you, will do wonders for your improvement. I'm going to make this a blog of sorts for myself, and throughly encourage others to put in their advice, expertiece, and hopefully, we can get others involved and make this a continuous tale to inspire others with our combined successes.
Without further adue, I present to my brothers in steel the un-official Spyderco workout group.
