Couples Defense: What You Can Do With Your Partner To Stay Safe

Make Valentine’s Day this year more meaningful with couples defense training.

RELATED: 10 Disaster Preparedness Tips You Can Really Use

Couples Defense | Make It a Part of the Survivalist Mentality

Here’s Why You Should Learn Couples Defense

Forget the chocolate and flowers! Learning this survival skill is a much better way of saying I love you this Valentine’s Day. After all, nothing beats hearing your loved one utter, “I feel safe with you.”

Why is it essential to learn couples defense, though? Threats can come in many different ways.

You can experience natural disasters such as severe storms and blizzards. You may become victims of a home invasion or your city may be under a terrorist attack.

These dangers, in fact, increase the population of preppers. About 65% of Americans are now stockpiling supplies in preparation for a possible political or natural disaster.

A good number are learning about homesteading or living off the grid. Most are improving their survivalist mentality.

You don’t need to be a doomsday prepper, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to learn how to defend yourselves in times of disasters and threats.

You can begin with the following tips.

1. Plan Ahead

Planning is important when you’re prepping with a partner. After all, it is when one or both are under threat they should move as one.

Some of the questions you need to answer include:

• If you’re together when a situation happens, what’s your plan? Are you staying in place or moving?
• What is your game plan if you are not together when everything goes down?
• If you’re both at work, where are you going to meet?
• Do you both have survival kits in your car just in case?

Having a solid plan can be the difference between life and death. Make one and make sure you both know all the details.

Figure out if you want to stay in your home or bug out. Even better, plan for both. Agree on a location to meet up again in case you end up in different places when something terrible happens.

2. Learn How to Defend Each Other

This is where tactical couples defense comes in. Both of you need to learn basic fighting skills and self-defense.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s knife throwing, gun shooting, or martial arts. When push comes to shove, you don’t want to be another person’s burden.

Instead, it should be the other way around. You must be capable of defending each other from these threats.

Your fighting knowledge will also come in handy in case you find yourselves in different locations. It can help improve your peace of mind.

Note: You can follow the same approach to learning other survival skills as well. You can use each other’s strengths when it comes to regular duties, such as purifying water or hunting.

3. Get in Shape and Stay in Shape

When you are under threat, you experience the fight-or-flight response. It preps your body to ensure you can give yourself the best fighting chance.

It may be difficult to do that when you’re not in good shape, and you have to run away as fast and as far as you can from your attacker. You also don’t want to be someone who knows karate but can’t execute it because you get tired quickly.

It’s not only the mind that has to be ready at all times. Your body has to be in the same state as well.

To ensure both of you are in top shape, do some exercises. Cardio is essential since it improves lung power and endurance.

Eat right and work out regularly. A better strategy is to do exercises in line with survival skills, such as hiking or swimming.

Preparation means getting ready and then staying ready. Keeping your body in good condition is one of the ways to do it.

RELATED: 20 Exercises to Boost Your Chances of Survival

4. Prepare for Anything

Some threatening situations occur gradually. Others may happen in the blink of an eye.

The bottom line is no one has any control over these problems. What you can manage is your level of preparation.

As part of your couples defense, prepare for anything. For example, get your bug-out bag within reach.

What is a Bug Out Bag? It is a bag or a kit that contains the basic but essential supplies to survive at least within the next 72 hours after a disaster.

In it, you can put limited supplies of food, water, a way to purify water, and medical supplies. You may also need some hygiene items and collapsible cookware.

Avoid overpacking. You need to pack light as there is a good chance you have to leave your home and move to another location.

Another way to prep is to consider each other’s strengths. If one of you is faster and stronger, then they should carry the heavier objects.

If you plan to defend the fort for as long as you can, consider stockpiling resources as early as possible. Some of the items you need are medical supplies, canned goods, and dehydrated foods.

Take a look at emergency response lists. Update the contact numbers when necessary. Whatever happens, don’t forget to stay and work together.

5. Know Basic First Aid

If neither of you is a doctor or nurse, learning basic first aid skills together is essential. In a survival situation, a small cut from the wrong piece of wood or metal can make you sicker than any sneeze.

Tetanus alone can kill if you’re not up-to-date on your shots. You may also develop complications from a pre-existing disease if you don’t have the right medications nearby.

In basic first aid training, you will learn how to clean and stitch wounds, as well as how to stop the bleeding. You will also know how to assess and manage a medical emergency. In some cases, it may teach you about herbs you can use for treatment, especially when help is still far away.

Tips: Even before any disaster occurs, always be sure you’re up-to-date on your shots. Stock up on the medications you need as well.

6. Learn the Basics Together

Imagine this scenario: As part of your couples defense, you make a plan and prepare for the worst. You have all your supplies ready.

Then, one day, you return home to find these items missing. Somebody took them!

The next best thing is to start all over again, but it’s also smart to know how to survive without these items. Some skills to learn include:

• How to clean water without the conventional water purifier
• Hunting and the different uses of the parts of an animal
• Shelter building

Knowledge is power, and being ready for the worst-case scenario is the best for your survival.

Don’t forget to learn the basics together. If someone forgets, the other may be able to remember or do it.

7. Include Pets in the Planning

If you have pets, how do they fit into your plan? Will you abandon them or take them with you?

Of course, taking them with you is always the humane choice, but it also means prepping for them. How are you keeping them safe?

Whose job is it to watch them? Are they cats or dogs? What are they eating or drinking?

Plan together about how you’ll handle the pet situation if a disaster strikes.

When you’re planning to survive, you need to prepare for the worst. Plan to either bug out to a secondary location or stay in your home. Decide if you are bringing your pets.

Get self-defense training and keep a survival kit handy. Always remember, there is no such thing as over-preparation when it comes to survival.

Doing it alone, though, can be exhausting and overwhelming. Double the chances of surviving with couples defense. This way, you can use each other’s strengths and divide the workload.

Watch this video from Lost Lakes as they go on an expedition and to learn more about couples defense and survival:

This Valentine’s Day, promise your loved one you will work with them on a couples defense strategy that will protect you both! After all, this is what security in a relationship really means.

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How do you intend to do couples defense? Share your plans in the comments section below!

Up Next:

• Family Preparedness: What Are Your Survival Principles?
• Important Self Sufficiency Skills To Learn
• 8 Steps To Survive Anything

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 12, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.