by John Atchison

Created on: June 28, 2010

Motivation is a key ingredient in almost any successful venture you see in the world today.  Whether it is in the business world or perhaps in the field of athletics, the proper motivation can help to put you over the top in the race to achieve your goals.  If you think about it, nowhere is motivation a more important tool than in the world of weight loss and exercise.  Without it, people find it hard to keep up with the regimen needed to achieve their goals and often times quit before reaching them.  Many things can serve as motivation in this fight to slim down, but have you ever considered “Zombies”? 

Well as looney as that sounds, it is exactly that which is used as motivation for people taking a fitness course in St. Charles, Illinois called “ZombieFit”.  ZombieFit, which is the brainchild of a lawyer named Rich Gatz, touts itself as a fitness course designed to improve their chances of survival in the event of a zombie invasion.  Seems like a perfectly natural thing to get ready for, especially around Halloween right?  Well to some of the folks taking it, its no gag. 

So what is to a course that teaches you how to survive a swarm of zombies?  Well if you are familiar with the term, this course is built around the concepts of parkour, which is basically the practice of running, vaulting and climbing an obstacle course of structures found in an ordinary urban landscape.  Sounds interesting enough but does its founder really believe that folks signing up believe in zombies?  His response is “Nobody actually comes to class because they really believe in zombies, though if you're ready for the zombie apocalypse, you're ready for anything." 

With that said, you might wonder if anyone actually signs up for the course.  The answer would be an emphatic yes!  Groups of anywhere from 5 to a dozen folks get together in this town and go through the ordeal of  running, jumping, and climbing impediments that are made to be part of a city under the perilious hold of a zombie invasion!  These folks will also have to endure strength and conditioning training because as we have seen in the movies, those zombies are complete with endurance and just keep on coming. 

You might find yourself wondering where a concept such as this would spring up from.  Was Gatz a former zombie freak, staying up late nights watching and studying their mannerisms? 

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