Stole this post from Katherine Derbyshire from the CF boards. Just thought it was a good post.

If we’re really talking about survival…

The leading causes of death in the US are (in order):
1. heart disease
2. cancer
3. stroke
4. lung disease
5. accident
6. diabetes
7. flu and pneumonia
8. Alzheimer’s
9. kidney disease
10. systemic infection

Heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease are all correlated with general fitness and body composition, but not with any particular aspect of fitness as Crossfit defines it. Anyone with decent GPP in Crossfit terms should have low non-genetic risk factors for all of these.

Don’t want lung disease? Don’t smoke. Simple as that.

General fitness also makes one less susceptible to both flu and Alzheimer’s, though again there isn’t any particular correlation beyond “fit is good.” Systemic infection is essentially a hospital disease: people who are in the hospital for one of the above reasons get an infection because their doctor forgot to wash his hands, and it kills them. To avoid it, stay out of hospitals.

That leaves accidents. The leading causes of accidental death in the US are:
1. Cars, by a wide margin, with alcohol a major contributing factor. Don’t drink or text and drive. Fitness not relevant.
2. Falls. Avoiding and surviving falls has a lot to do with balance, agility, and coordination, which are probably the most neglected of CF’s components of fitness.
3. Poisoning, including drug overdoses. Fitness not relevant.
4. Drowning. Learn to swim. (Incidentally, the number of total US combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 is comparable to the number of drownings *per year*.)
5. Fires. Smoking is a leading cause of accidental fires. Fitness not relevant.

So if you want your fitness program to improve your chances of “real-world survival,” the most important things you should do are:
1. Have decent — not even elite –GPP, because that will give you decent body composition and cardiovascular fitness.
2. Learn to avoid and survive falls.
3. Learn to swim.

Anything else is just gravy. It might be relevant to your specific occupation or lifestyle, but not to “survival” for the average person.

Mortality statistics from
http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html
Different sources have slightly different rankings.

Katherine trains at Local’s Gym in Lynnwood, WA (http://www.localsgym.com/), and at Aikido Eastside in Bellevue, WA (http://www.aikieast.com/).