What amount and type of exercise should one do for sole survival purpose?

[BojackHorseman]

Survival as in, the bare minimum that makes you live longer and in better health.

I decided doing everything by myself, and I think it's probably doable and that gym is not needed for general purposes. I go run outside or on my treadmill or elliptic if it's really too cold or raining too hard.

As for muscle, I have weights (small-ish ones right know, 7kg each dumbell, but can go up to 9), and probably, if you don't need big shiny muscles, bodyweight might even be enough.

 

I used to do muay thai but heart problems + depression put me in a huge hole, I'm only emerging back now and exercising is finally starting to make me feel good along with other life tweaks.

 

But the thing is, even by starting super small considering how low I was, I'm wondering, what would be the minimum to have a decent body in good health?

Right now I'm just doing 5 days a week, trying to build a habit so small 20 mn sessions. 1 day is cardio/running, the other is just lifting + bodyweight (rows, Arnold press, push-ups, leg raises, calf raises, squats, splits)

(the only thing I lack is a pullup bar, I'll buy one soon)

Might just 20 mn a day be enough to be in good shape?

To be honest I also want to get a tiny bit more mucles, but more the functional type than the bodybuilder type.

 

I also want to integrate moibility which seems super important but not sure what to do exactly, what staple exercises would be enough.

[Michael569]

I like this post. Simplicity, practicality and down to earth. 

I don't know if you are a video game person; I've been on and off throughout my life. There is a game called Project Zomboid, which is a game where you are basically trying to stay alive and healthy while keeping your mental health in check, in a world dominated by walking corpses.

The head stomping of zombies and all the crafting aside, the video game character has to train to stay healthy, stay strong, and maintain good stamina, keep his mental health in check, maintain energy levels, healthy digestion, healthy immunity, stick to a good sleep routine, and interact with his environment in a way that does not deplete him too much. I am saying this because I find the mechanics of that game perfectly match the theme of your question: How do I stay healthy and well in a world that seems overwhelming?  But perhaps instead of zombies, you have been fighting with depression. 

Let's get started.

I will deliberately keep this response vague enough not to get lost in rabbit holes but on point enough not to turn this into poetry. 

Same as the Zomboid game, there are a few things you need to keep your eyes on, if you want to be able to withstand the challenges of the world: 

• Your diet - needs to give your body everything it needs. Without going into too much detail, you should know how much protein you need, eat sufficient amount of healthy carbohydrates, keep your eyes on daily fibre intake and eat some healthy fats to keep your immune and hormonal system happy. Do your best to minimise the amount of processed food and learn some practical ways to make cooking easy and economical for yourself such as batch cooking, shopping in bulk and learning up to 10 recipes you can rotate. 
• Your fitness - According to the wider research, the main predictors of longer healthspan are your V02 Max (your peak stamina), and your strength (as measured by grip strength and lower body strength). These two factors you must maintain across your life at a reasonable level. They not only slow down ageing process but protect you from a variety of metabolic problems, keeping your immune system vital. On top of that, you should put a little bit of focus into your mobility, joint health and some explosiveness to protect your fast twitch muscle from atrophying as they are the first one to go in ageing people. You can google how to train all of this or just throw this whole comment into chat GPT.  
• Your psychological well-being - this may mean different things to different people, but it is about being able to match the demands of your environment without being overwhelmed and without being locked in a sympathetic drive (fight or flight) all the time. Whatever the tool is, this needs to be managed carefully. Regular meditation habit helps a lot of people keep this in check. Sleep is also essential 
• Mental occupation - this is a 4th factor that is important. There needs to be something in your life that gives you a sense of inner stability and a sense of purpose. Something that pulls you out from bed in the morning and that helps you fall asleep at night knowing your life is making the world a better place, at least for someone, or something (the planetary wellbeing, the animals, the climate, the education of the youth ...whatever it is) 
• Social component - Project Zomboid does not have this and it is one of the reasons why managing the character's mental health gets progressively harder as the game goes on. If you spend most of your time alone in a "cave" your mental health will tank. Nobody is protected from this. So figuring out a way to invite people in life will go a longway. 

Anyways, this is for some basics. You could add more categories and go elbows deep in each of them but if you stay on top of these 5 you'll be doing better than 90% of the population; happiness-wise and health-wise. 

Edited March 14 by Michael569

[Thought Art]

 

[BojackHorseman]

9 hours ago, Michael569 said:

I like this post. Simplicity, practicality and down to earth. 

I don't know if you are a video game person; I've been on and off throughout my life. There is a game called Project Zomboid, which is a game where you are basically trying to stay alive and healthy while keeping your mental health in check, in a world dominated by walking corpses.

The head stomping of zombies and all the crafting aside, the video game character has to train to stay healthy, stay strong, and maintain good stamina, keep his mental health in check, maintain energy levels, healthy digestion, healthy immunity, stick to a good sleep routine, and interact with his environment in a way that does not deplete him too much. I am saying this because I find the mechanics of that game perfectly match the theme of your question: How do I stay healthy and well in a world that seems overwhelming?  But perhaps instead of zombies, you have been fighting with depression. 

Let's get started.

I will deliberately keep this response vague enough not to get lost in rabbit holes but on point enough not to turn this into poetry. 

Same as the Zomboid game, there are a few things you need to keep your eyes on, if you want to be able to withstand the challenges of the world: 

• Your diet - needs to give your body everything it needs. Without going into too much detail, you should know how much protein you need, eat sufficient amount of healthy carbohydrates, keep your eyes on daily fibre intake and eat some healthy fats to keep your immune and hormonal system happy. Do your best to minimise the amount of processed food and learn some practical ways to make cooking easy and economical for yourself such as batch cooking, shopping in bulk and learning up to 10 recipes you can rotate. 
• Your fitness - According to the wider research, the main predictors of longer healthspan are your V02 Max (your peak stamina), and your strength (as measured by grip strength and lower body strength). These two factors you must maintain across your life at a reasonable level. They not only slow down ageing process but protect you from a variety of metabolic problems, keeping your immune system vital. On top of that, you should put a little bit of focus into your mobility, joint health and some explosiveness to protect your fast twitch muscle from atrophying as they are the first one to go in ageing people. You can google how to train all of this or just throw this whole comment into chat GPT.  
• Your psychological well-being - this may mean different things to different people, but it is about being able to match the demands of your environment without being overwhelmed and without being locked in a sympathetic drive (fight or flight) all the time. Whatever the tool is, this needs to be managed carefully. Regular meditation habit helps a lot of people keep this in check. Sleep is also essential 
• Mental occupation - this is a 4th factor that is important. There needs to be something in your life that gives you a sense of inner stability and a sense of purpose. Something that pulls you out from bed in the morning and that helps you fall asleep at night knowing your life is making the world a better place, at least for someone, or something (the planetary wellbeing, the animals, the climate, the education of the youth ...whatever it is) 
• Social component - Project Zomboid does not have this and it is one of the reasons why managing the character's mental health gets progressively harder as the game goes on. If you spend most of your time alone in a "cave" your mental health will tank. Nobody is protected from this. So figuring out a way to invite people in life will go a longway. 

Anyways, this is for some basics. You could add more categories and go elbows deep in each of them but if you stay on top of these 5 you'll be doing better than 90% of the population; happiness-wise and health-wise. 

- Diet : I think it's ok. I'm slowly getting rid of my addiction to sugar, and my vegan diet (heavily supplemented in omega 3, B12, Vit D, and lately creatine) is monitored on an app where I get sure to get close of the macro goals.

I mostly eat whole rice, beans/chickpeas, tofu/meat substitutes (lately switched to more raw stuff in bulk as opposed to heavily transformed fake steaks etc), kale, spinach, brussels, broccoli, bell peppers, nuts, soy milk, avocados, bananas, blueberries...

With 1 or 2 cheat meal during the week-end

Thanks for all the other infos
The last 3 I didn't even think about that much,I think it's ok but I gotta think about some stuff still

(and yeah Zomboid looks interesting, I had my eye on it already haha)

8 hours ago, Thought Art said:

 

Thanks, will give it a shot !

Edited March 14 by BojackHorseman