Are you fit enough to save your own life?

That’s the premise of a new reality show from Discovery Health that premieres tonight. Called “Fit to Live,” it’s based on Dr. Pamela Peeke’s book of the same name and raises the question of whether you have the strength, endurance and agility to escape a natural disaster, flee a burning building or pull your family from a wrecked car.

Fitness isn’t about working out at the gym or running a marathon, notes Dr. Peeke, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and chief medical correspondent for Discovery Health Television. Fitness is important for coping with life’s emergencies, big and small, whether it’s running to make an airport connection or fleeing a burning building.

“Fit to Live” joins a series of reality-meets-health TV shows like ABC’s “Fat March” and NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” But this show isn’t a weight-loss contest. It’s a fitness test to determine if someone, whether they are skinny or fat, is in good enough shape to save their own life. In the show, five average people are given 10 minutes to escape a simulated fire in a 30-floor building. During the simulated emergency, they find stairways blocked and “bodies” to rescue, and none of them can make it to safety on the roof. “They all died,” noted Dr. Peeke. After undergoing a month of basic fitness and health habits, the contestants retake the test.

While this may sound far-fetched, I can personally attest that fitness counts in an emergency. On September 11, 2001, I was on the ninth floor of the World Financial Center, which was just across the street from the World Trade Center. After the second plane struck the Trade Center, my building was evacuated. A nine-floor descent doesn’t sound like much, but my group was stuck behind a slow-moving overweight woman. It took what seemed like forever to get out, and it was truly frightening. The evacuation was far more challenging for the people several floors above us.

Dr. Peeke notes that the television show focuses on escaping a burning building, but the real message is about the importance of fitness to cope with life’s everyday emergencies, like sprinting for a train or catching your dog when it escapes.

“When people think of fitness, they think of athletes and bulging biceps and running to the gym and doing squats,” said Dr. Peeke. “What I’m trying to do is get people strong enough to be able to survive 21st-century living.”

“Fit to Live” premieres on the Discovery Health Channel tonight at 8 p.m. (check your local listings). For more information and the repeat schedule, visit the Discovery Health Web site.

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