Actually, parachuting requires a very high level of cardiovascular fitness because even with experienced skydivers, heart rates are usually well over 170ppm just before making the jump and in the first few seconds of freefall. A reasonable amount of overall body strength and especially building muscular lower extremities will help avoid injury on landing. A number of deaths reported to the USPA every year are due to heart attacks that are not related to any other incident during the actual skydive.
