Fight or Flight

Jim Author

Your level of fitness can determine your chances of survival in a fight or flight situation

Fight or Flight

Most, if not all, animals -- yes, including humans -- have a survival instinct known as fight or flight.

In short, they -- and we -- will automatically either fight an attacker or, if that doesn’t make sense, will run away for safety.

For most people, one can go a lifetime rarely, if ever, activating that response.

Sure, there might be the random encounter with an aggressive dog on the loose or -- if one is out hiking -- something larger and potentially more dangerous.

But, for the most part, the need to be wary of saber-toothed tigers has gone the way of, well, saber-toothed tigers.

Alas, nowadays, we’re more likely to need to focus on dangerous humans and mass casualty events.

Rarely does a day go by in the U.S. where there isn’t a mass shooting -- defined as a single incident where 4 or more people are injured or killed -- while even relatively safer places like Australia recently experienced a mass stabbing attack.

All of which means your current state of physical fitness could determine your odds of surviving such an incident.

If you can’t run one-hundred yards without being completely exhausted or be agile enough and have the necessary balance skills to maneuver through panicked, fleeing masses, your chances aren’t great.

And the same holds true if you don’t possess some degree of strength to fight back if you have no way to escape.

Yes, you should focus on getting or staying in shape for your overall health and life expectancy.

But doing so could also be vitally important if you’re unfortunate enough to find yourself in a fight or flight situation.

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