Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse?

Wednesday, 23 November 2011 19:19

Yes this is a slightly inflammatory, if not wholly unrealistic title, but the sentiment remains true.  Ash and I are avid fans of a TV series called ‘The Walking Dead’.  If you are not familiar with the show, it focuses on the survival of a group of ‘ordinary’ people after an infection – which kills people and then turns the dead into the undead (zombies) - has taken over the planet/America.  Now normally, post-apocalyptic zombie movies just don’t do it for me but this show has really struck a chord with both of us, and what we do every day here at the studio.  There are two aspects of the show that we can identify in our sphere of work: survival and the ‘walking dead’.

Survival

The TV series is primarily about survival; survival from being killed by zombies (who are in the majority remember).  There is the physical survival – you have to be ready to run FAST, hide, jump, also have the physical power to kill the zombies, so quite a lot of strength required there.  Remember that because most of the population is zombies, there’s no one providing food daily to the supermarket, there’s no one making sure the electric grid is functioning or the water supplies are working.   There are no mobile phones working, in fact, there are no communications at all.  You will have to fetch and gather your own food, your own firewood, build your own shelter, find water etc.  All of this will be very physically demanding.  Now think of yourself sitting at your desk reading this: assume that you survive, could you physically do this?  Will that niggling lower back pain get in the way?  Mentally and emotionally it will be challenging, of course.  Most will commit suicide because it’s all a bit too difficult.  Will you fight to survive?  Could you survive?

 

We spend most of our time getting people out of pain, rehabilitating them back into function.  Making their body functional to do what it is meant to do: squat, push, pull, bend, lift and twist.  The primal man used these movement patterns to survive.  99% of the people we see cannot do these movement patterns in perfect form without rehabilitation and then specific conditioning.  Now your thinking: athletes will survive the apocalypse.  But think how many suffer recurring injuries?  What is the average retirement age of an athlete? 35?  If there are surgeons surviving the apocalypse, they’ll probably be focusing on the urgent surgeries rather than ligament restructuring.

The ‘Walking Dead’

As previously mentioned, the majority of people left are the ‘Walking Dead’, the zombies.  They have no function in society.  In fact, they seek out the healthy or living people to feed off their bodies because they want flesh.  I would argue that we have people in our world who are the ‘walking dead’.  People who stagger about, constantly sick and weak, ready to suck the energy or life out of healthy people.  They are taking any resource available to them, but not giving back.  They expect people to do things for them, to provide money, holidays, medical care, etc.  They take but are reluctant to give.  They won’t survive, they’ll succumb to their complacency.

So which are you?  A survivor or a member of the walking dead?

It doesn’t matter what you are now.  What do you want to be?  Do you want to survive and triumph in this life, or sit back and let it happen?  If you want to be a survivor but don’t know how, get in touch with us.  We do know how.  If you want to be a zombie, we’ll see you on the other side.