Zombieland Rule for the Shooter
This post is coming from a place of frustration as I focus on my own firearms training so be warned. I have spent the past 18 months struggling with a shoulder, neck, and back injury from improperly maintained gym equipment where I work out. I've gained back weight I lost several years ago and lost muscle mass but I am back to the climbing gym AND hitting weights every few days too. I will be adding significant cardio to the mix as I prepare for the Mesa Falls half marathon this coming summer near YellowStone National Park.
We've all seen the pictures of morbidly obese 50 year old men claiming world records for ultra long range shots. --I guess 1 out of 69 shots or 1 out of 250 shots on massive barn sized targets is some kind of record...(FYI: t's not a meaningful record in our books. Firstly, we don't use anything bigger than an IPSC target even at >two miles).
I note in western culture disturbingly soft shooters who evidently don't think hitting the gym is worth it. 
This honestly bothers the shit out of me. I know that if it were a really bad day these types would be of no use whatsoever because gunfights move and evolve. Take for example fighting around a vehicle. It's sort of like that game we played with our young kids where we chased them around the table but couldn't ever catch them as they kept switching directions when we switched.
If we can't move and adopt to the situation or what I call pogoing around a vehicle to gain a view underneath it or around it we are never going to have a full view of our personal battle field.
Gun fighting is about information if you didn't know. Look to Travis Haley, someone who I am always amazed at. He truly is the guru of gunfighting with his scientific knowledge based approach to combat training and instructing. He's also a fit guy who has always maintained core principles of body mechanics as a basis for all he does.
For those who might criticize me personally for not being totally ripped I do in fact hit the gym personally 3-6 days a week for 90 mins on average per session; and as I said am coming off injuries but I never stopped working out completely. --This last part is key. My recovery and return to full training is therefore much smoother and quicker.
I rock climb, ruck with a heavy pack, and focus my strength training on combat effective training.
Western culture generally disgusts me these days as it has become a flaccid, useless, self-indulgent, self justifying, apathetic pool of weakness, as a lot of you already know. Sadly, I see it in areas like extreme long range shooting competitions and in the gun industry where everyone talks a big talk about running and gunning like a super hero or something. --But they couldn't hump their gear up a mountain to a strategically or tactically meaningful position if their family's lives depended on it.
Maybe they can gun but they sure can't run; and, that's surely gonna cost them if they really end up in the shit as they say because as he said in Zombieland, "The #1 rule of Zombieland is Cardio". Heck, on the happy side those that do survive will have their fun toys to play with.
On top of the obvious, is another issue that I have noted in myself when firearms training. A fat belly is a detriment to prone shooting as it is like a lying on a bowl full of jelly quite literally. Your recoil mitigation is lost as you slosh around on that tummy. I noticed it quite a bit as I finished the crazy last year of my undergraduate studies stuck to a chair 80 hours a week. I also noticed the health issues surrounding it and felt like crap.
My combat effectiveness was essentially lost. Not a good thing at all.
This should be a reality check to all of you brothers and sisters serious about self-defense. There's no time to procrastinate. No excuse to not start at some level and taper up into fitness and down in waistline. A belly does not help your draw-stroke. It does not help you in open handed fighting for self defense. It will slow you down and it will get you killed if you get into the shit. Fat ain't bullet proof and in fact absorbs bullets pretty well plus you make a bigger target...