5 Fitness Benchmarks for Modern Women?

[Deis]

I think most people here are familiar with the five fitness benchmarks for men, as decided by the Art of Manliness. I'm trying to figure out how a list for modern women would look.

The only idea I have at the moment is keeping the run 200 yards at top speed. I'm thinking that most women today are more likely to face a mugger than have to pull themselves up, or swim across a river, so I'm trying to think of some basic self-defence techniques that fit that kind of scenario. I mean, I know a few ways, but not one definitive one, that will be most useful.

Any ideas?

[Oogiem]

I'm trying to figure out how a list for modern women would look.

The only idea I have at the moment is keeping the run 200 yards at top speed.

Any ideas?

OK here is my somewhat tongue in cheek version:

Run 50 yards, towing a toddler or carrying a baby in something less than 5 minutes.

Jump over playground equipment to catch a young child who is falling before their head hits the ground

Able to diagnose the level of injury and pick out her own child from a crowd of 30 schoolkids based on the pitch, duration and loudness of the cries

Ability to stand, hands on hips, and give errant family members (husbands not excluded) "The Look" you know the one that says if you don't shape up right now death will be a better option

Ability to balance a checkbook, plan a budget and save for retirement by herself because no woman should be dependent on someone else and she's likely to outlive her spouse so better know how to handle it.

List compiled by watching the mothers with children at the park.

[spezzy]

i thought the list could be applied to both men and women, actually

though maybe to oogie's point, we'd have to do all of those with a weighted backpack.

[Deis]

Oh yes, it could be, but the scenarios mentioned would seem to apply more in some kind of wilderness setting, rather than in a modern city. I think, on a practical level, I'd probably be called upon to use different skills, for different dangers, and I assume I'm not the only one.

[Oogiem]

i thought the list could be applied to both men and women, actually

though maybe to oogie's point, we'd have to do all of those with a weighted backpack.

Yes exactly. The original list is appropriate for both sexes but the women have to do it carrying either children or the supplies ;-)

[Guest Carjack]

Self defense.

Perform basic close combat techniques on pads. Not punches because most women have small hands. Instead I'd use the evolved version of W.E. Fairbairn's system from his recently released Gutterfighting film as a base.

There are videos of these moves all over YouTube for reference or poor attempts to learn it without a partner. Search for the Fairbairn Seminar.

Three hand strikes:

Tiger's claw, chin jab, edge of hand blow.

You can use hammerfist, forearm smash or elbow if the open hand chop doesn't suit you, and the tiger's claw can be thrown to the head from any direction you choose.

Hit with body weight, explode into the target.

Three kicks:

Flick kick (side kick whipping out in any direction, knee or mid shin).

High kick (boot to nuts).

Side stomp kick, to knee, or shin to instep.

Test:

Hit pads all out for a minute and move around while keeping your balance.

Dirty clinch work:

Goal: Be able to hack, chin jab. knee, headbutt and eye gouge a target into oblivion while keeping your balance and not getting thrown down or tied up.

Clinch test: Get in a clinch and just fookin foit.

Grab defense: Go limp and crush 'nads.

Test:

Find a big strong guy.

Give him a jock strap and cup.

Do bear hug drills all out. Aim to not get picked up. If you get picked up, you throw out your legs and kick him.

Knife:

Make dummy.

Stab with ice pick or your pocket knife.

If in America, you can substitute this with a zipper drill where you draw your gun and shoot the target five times from stomach to face.

Equipment:

You'll want some striking pads you can hit hard, 'nad guards, and maybe metal gear music.

Krav Maga moves accomplish the same, but they're mostly Muay Thai and action movie gun disarms.

Strength.

Sprinting, swimming, jumping, push ups or dips, and pull ups.

This seems unnecessary, until you get old and your wrist breaks like a twig when you fall down.

"Functional" fitness:

Carry a baby around all day without a stroller and show the world you're hardcore paleo.

Vault fences.

Shoulder rolls.

Climb something and jump down safely.

Posture diagnostic:

Stand up straight and relaxed with squared shoulders. No pelvic tilt, no sway back, no winged scapula or else rehab.

Make sure you're flexible enough to squat deep, with weight lifter style form. No bowed knees or round back.

[Deis]

I love those ideas Carjack. Thank you for understanding what I'm getting at!

Yes exactly. The original list is appropriate for both sexes but the women have to do it carrying either children or the supplies

...I'm talking about a time split, not a gender split. I never once said it wasn't appropriate for both genders. I did say that I don't feel it covers scenarios I am likely to face in this day and age. I'd probably be dead through lack of some other skill long before I'd need to use dips, pulls, or swimming for half a mile to save myself. Does that make more sense? Please, guys, have more faith in me than to assume that my thought process was "women can't do hard stuff like this, lol!". I hope I don't come across that way.

I must say, I'm really a little...surprised that you all assume, as if it's totally obvious and natural, that all women are going to need to do any of this carrying babies. Seriously? I would like to think that the majority of women have a lot of life going on outside of any children they may have, or may decide to never have, or may not have for a very, very long time. Why is it suddenly the defining factor?

Edit: Oh, wait, I think I see where the confusion lies! The title is 'fitness benchmarks', but I'm not looking at that. I'm looking at the bit that says that a man should be able to save his own life. That's what I'm going for, not fitness benchmarks.

[Guest Carjack]

I must say, I'm...a little surprised that you all assume, as if it's totally obvious and natural, that all women are going to need to do any of this carrying babies.

Now that you mention it, maybe I was being too conservative.

I should add carrying babies as a consideration while doing all the combatives drills. Also, improvised weapons in the kitchen, and using actual kettles as kettlebells.

All kidding aside, I don't care if everyone is going to need these skills. My list is all about being hardcore, to the extreme. Even my safety tips on some level are about unsafety.

Baby carrying is in there because strollers violate my philosophy of Tarzanry.

[Oogiem]

I must say, I'm really a little...surprised that you all assume, as if it's totally obvious and natural, that all women are going to need to do any of this carrying babies. Seriously? I would like to think that the majority of women have a lot of life going on outside of any children they may have, or may decide to never have, or may not have for a very, very long time. Why is it suddenly the defining factor?

Edit: Oh, wait, I think I see where the confusion lies! The title is 'fitness benchmarks', but I'm not looking at that.

I totally agree that women should not be defined buy their breeding ability. I do not nor will I ever have any human children. But the real fact is that for many thousands of years survival of the species meant that the females had to do the tasks to keep alive with children in tow while the males could do their allotted tasks without the appendages. And I was focusing on the fitness benchmarks because that is what I saw as the primary reason for the list not on survival per se.

If we think on survival my list would be things like, load a gun, fire and kill a large animal with a single shot. Extra points for skinning and gutting it for meat properly if it's an edible species. Able to drive a truck and trailer over windy, narrow, steep, dirt roads safely. Know and use proper hand signals for ground work to people driving big machinery. (as an aside, most tractor injuries are to the ground person not the driver but most deaths are to the driver.) Understand and properly interpret the signals from domestic animals to avoid injury when working with them. Must include ability to handle an intact male equine, ovine or caprine (choose one) and bovine safely. Understand and be able to properly interpret the weather signals to avoid flash floods, ditch collapses and being caught out exposed without proper gear.

Self defense in a rural area is very rarely going to include anything against humans, most of us are armed and we have backhoes The only murder in our county in the last 10 years or so was a domestic dispute with an ex coming back before a court hearing and stabbing the former wife. Bar fights are easy to avoid, there is only 1 bar in town and I don't go there. Town is only 2 blocks long and I have friends houses all over I could run to in an emergency. Our survival problems are going to be animals, machinery or weather.

[Parody of Virtue]

ooh, this is an interesting topic

I'm a massive urbanite (and ladywoman) and there are many random survival techniques I require/may require in the future. Off the top of my head:

- Crowd dodging: there's a long list of reasons that I might need to get from one end of the mall to the other without barreling into the hundreds of people that block my way (evading dodgy men who follow you off the bus, tracking suspicious folks, following ninja-y folks you're supposed to be tagging along with)

- Lift failing: buildings be tall in the city, and you never know when you'll have to get up 20 flights of stairs before it's too late

- baby dashing: with a baby on your front and the associated baggage on your back dash to the nearest facilities before it poops on you (applies to all genders)

- attacker beating: sometimes I daydream about being able to "teach a lesson" to anyone foolish enough to attach me. In particular I'd like to learn a bag-snatcher-arm-twist and some ball-busting sucker-punching techniques...

- weight hefting: sadly gallant, chivalrous menfolks have protected me from carrying my own groceries for too long, and I am only now building up my arms. I need them not only for groceries but also the moving of furniture, both when I purchase and drag it back to my nest and also when I relocate my nest (hopefully not up 20 flights of stairs on the day the lift breaks down...)

And that covers agility, speed, stamina, strength and fightyness

[67alecto]

Edit: Oh, wait, I think I see where the confusion lies! The title is 'fitness benchmarks', but I'm not looking at that. I'm looking at the bit that says that a man should be able to save his own life. That's what I'm going for, not fitness benchmarks.

Yeah, this thread got derailed immediately. Getting back on topic, the AoM article about things every "man" should do absolutely applies to women. Their blog is for "men' and being "manly", so of course it will have that masculine slant.

However, the tasks they do are applicable to everyone.

Swim

Run

Jump

Lift your bodyweight (with the variations of a pullup and a dip listed for #4 and #5).

The point of the original article is that these are things "men" should be able to do in an emergency. Are they things you may need to do on a daily basis? I hope not, but the goal is that you should be fit enough to do them when you have to.

What you mention as an alternative (I'm thinking that most women today are more likely to face a mugger than have to pull themselves up, or swim across a river, so I'm trying to think of some basic self-defence techniques that fit that kind of scenario. I mean, I know a few ways, but not one definitive one, that will be most useful.) would be a different sort of article entirely and not one specific to men or women. You see those sort of things on AoM, too. How to throw a punch, etc.

[Kristen]

Well, the people who survive the zombie apocalypse will be the ones who can:

Swim

Run

Lift their bodyweight

Use weapons effectively

Cook without major technology

Fix broken things (weapons, tools, cars, bikes, buildings, etc)

Grow and find food

So yeah, I think that list is pretty good regardless of sex, at least for the fitness part. The life skills are extra, I added those. All these urbanite skills are great for daily life, but when hordes of undead are ravaging the last living civilizations, you're not going to be catching trains or standing in line.

[67alecto]

Well, the people who survive the zombie apocalypse will be the ones who can:

Cook without major technology

Fix broken things (weapons, tools, cars, bikes, buildings, etc)

Grow and find food

So yeah, I think that list is pretty good regardless of sex, at least for the fitness part. The life skills are extra, I added those. All these urbanite skills are great for daily life, but when hordes of undead are ravaging the last living civilizations, you're not going to be catching trains or standing in line.

Yeah, outside the fitness area, but definitely important. I am focused on cutting back on paying people to do things I should be able to do myself.

That's a topic for another thread, though.

[spezzy]

I must say, I'm really a little...surprised that you all assume, as if it's totally obvious and natural, that all women are going to need to do any of this carrying babies. Seriously? I would like to think that the majority of women have a lot of life going on outside of any children they may have, or may decide to never have, or may not have for a very, very long time. Why is it suddenly the defining factor?

it's not, actually. i think its the same as for men. man or woman, if youve got kids with you, and they need to be saved, you should be able to do it, regardless of if they're yours. (and trust me, im the furthest from having kids out of anyone here. )

[Oogiem]

if youve got kids with you, and they need to be saved, you should be able to do it, regardless of if they're yours.

Yep, And I'm decades older than you and never had any children but there is something ingrained in humans, both sexes but more so in females that the sound of children in danger can send even the rest of us to high alert status.