“Harder to Kill”

With all this buzz about the end of the world and the zombie apocalypse, it’s never really been a more ripe of a market for services that make folks “harder to kill.” Wouldn’t you agree?

Though tongue and cheek, the sentiment is fun to examine. I”ll never forget the first time I heard the expression, from none other than Mark Rippetoe who so famously said, “Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.” Maybe he said it in a similar tongue in cheek manner. Chances are, however, he’s never been more serious in his life.

More recently a well respected outfit in Austin, TX dubbed Atomic Athlete, known for preparing it’s athletes like our military’s special operators, utilizes the statement in their motto, “Stronger, Faster, Harder to Kill.”

No one can argue with the exaggerated claim, however. Your trained self is much harder to kill than your untrained self. Whether you’re motivated most directly by this survival element or not, it’s nice to have it in your back pocket.

Just last week I had to exercise my fitness in a situation for my survival. At about 7AM I heard the gate to our porch open, and through the blinds I saw a figure pass through the gate. Expecting to hear a knock at the door a moment later, I was surprised to hear nothing. Quickly, I peeked through the blinds to find a man attempting to steal (part of) Lindsey’s bike.

Go time!

Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, I quickly opened the door. “What the f*ck are you doing?”

He froze.

Given my patience for criminals, or lack there of, my hands were on him in seconds. The moment I engaged him, it was clear… I was much, much harder to kill than he was. As I violently threw him down the hand full of stairs that led up to our porch, I continued to verbally dominate him with questions and cuss words. He could have died that day.

The "fakest" of gyms.

The “fakest” of gyms.

Now, realistically speaking I was born to be taller than this guy and, to be fair, I created dominance the moment I opened the door. By sneaking on the porch the way he did, he signed up for theft, but not necessarily a fight. It would be naive, however, to neglect the fact that my fitness put me in a position to open that door to 99% of the population of (unarmed) men and stay alive. I don’t know if I can say that about the untrained version of myself.

So, as much as I am living without concern of a zombie apocalypse, I do cherish my ability to defend the porch. I am pretty hard to kill, and I’ve got my fitness to thank for that.

Logan Gelbrich

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Wednesday’s Workout:

“Fried”

Tabata Bottom-to-Bottom Squats

-Rest 3 min-

21-15-9
Tuck Jumps
Jump Squats



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