"Along the pathway of Paris's picturesque Buttes-Chaumont park, with its hills, lake, and faux Roman temple, Cherif Kouachi, a local pizza deliveryman, would regularly go jogging. Past the waffle stands, pavilion restaurant, picnickers, and children's play areas, there are always runners working up a sweat up on the park's steep inclines. But Kouachi and his small group of jogging mates had a particular purpose, a criminal court would later hear: They were keeping fit for foreign jihad."-Angelique Chrisafis, reporting in The Guardian.

By now we all know the heinous deeds committed by the scum who executed the massacre at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and at then later at a kosher grocery store. I don't want to get mired into causes here, I'm no fan of discovering motive in most matters; results or actions are usually always the crux of matters kind or violent and, in most cases (not all), the "why" is seldom as important or as powerful as the "what" or "how."

We should all be cognizant by now of the fact that we will never be ready-not really. No matter how much we may prepare for things to go bad we simply will never know what exactly will go bad or when they will go bad (that is unless we are the perpetrators). For example, do I put more time into preparing for a mass shooting at a mall or for prepping my home in case of flood? More time pondering dealing with a car-jacking or spend time on cyber-security? And on and on. Some consideration of action in a wide variety of possible "bad news" scenarios is a good idea but specialization in one or two areas may be a bit short-sighted.

So, considering that the bad news that we will never truly know what we will face, when we will face, or even if we will ever face bad times, what is one to do? It strikes me, and it pains me to say this, that we should at least go bare bones and hedge our bets with, at the very minimum, a modicum of General Physical Preparedness conditioning (GPP) just as

We will never quite know what specific survival skill or tactic we will need, we will never know exactly what tool or weapon would be ideal in a given circumstance, or even if we will be able to access it, but it stands to reason that any and all survival tactics and strategies are predicated on a good base level of GPP conditioning. Chances are the best friend you will ever have in most (if not all) "shit goes down" situations is your ability to flee. Your ability to run as fast as you can as long as need be even with the onus of the adrenaline dump pre-taxing your system.

At the bare minimum we might best be served by having enough basic strength and stamina to drag our own bodies in a long low crawl as we stay concealed or covered as we make our way to an exit, as we hoist our bodies up and over a wall to escape, as we move obstacles or impediments to our escape route.

I am not suggesting that one be as fit as say Rich Froning 4-time CrossFit games winner, but I am suggesting that striving for a modicum of GPP conditioning is essential.

I often compare we, the human prey, to other prey animals, gazelles on the Serengeti for instance. Where we see that it is often the very young, the old, the infirm, or the inattentive that become prey. But what is also key about the Predator-Prey analogy is that the gazelle that do survive sprint away.

But...

They do not do this with a sedentary life before the "sprint for your life" incident. All gazelle have spent a good portion of their lives running at various speeds, cutting tight corners, and knowing what pace they can hold over various distances.

Now, if we all realize that "getting the hell out of Dodge" if often the very best self-defense advice you will ever hear just how well do we think the average human who, honestly, does not do much of anything physical in their lives will do if/when/ever they are required to, well get the f### out of there?

Will Zumba or Yoga serve you well when it's time to go?

I am probably preaching to the choir here, but if even low-level scum like the Parisian jihadists are doing some GPP conditioning to be ready for evil, should we not take a page from the same book?