Anything is almost always going to better than nothing. And a person who is off the couch will benefit the most from doing anything because they have no baseline, BUT, the effects of that training (“exercise” is probably a more appropriate word choice), are short fairly lived. If the OP can literally not find a way to effectively ruck, then of course burpees will be better than nothing. I think the argument being presented here is don’t use the excuse of “just do Burpees instead and you’ll be just as well off.”
I came off an epic winter season and was doing a lot of bootpacking and skinning to get up these mountains all the way through May and was in great shape for that as a result. Once June got here and I started training on a Mtn bike again, it was pretty ugly and uncomfortable for the first month. People commonly think as such activities as being cardio driven I.e. if your heart and lungs are used to working hard, then you’ll be fine, however, it has more to do with how your heart and lungs respond to the demands of your muscles and your muscles work very differently from one activity to the next and need to be trained for efficiency of that specific activity.
Running, for example, is often presented as the one stop solution for all things cardio. People like the idea of running being a solution because it’s simple: “go out and run and you’ll be in shape”, but the muscular demands for rucking, especially rucking with hunting weight, are different enough that’s there’s not much transfer outside of the baseline fitness (ie the person off the couch who has not fitness level.)
I recall reading Mark Twitght’s book “Extreme Alpinism” back in the late 90s. He was among the first Alpinists to actually train in a supplemental manner for climbing. While most other alpinists of his generation would climb during climbing season and maybe do a little running during the off season, he was interested in how you could show up in the best possible shape. While his Mapped out program includes running for establishing baseline fitness, he makes the statement that reads something to the effect of (im paraphrasing): “running doesn’t simulate movement in the mountains enough to be sufficiently relevant for the purposes of training for the mountains.”
So, the best thing the OP can do is find some way to step up and down with a pack on his back. The other stuff probably won’t hurt, but aren’t going to show much transfer. Maybe he could use burpees to spike his heart rate every so often while stepping up and down off a cooler (mind numbingly boring, I know...), but in the end, the best way to show up for a hunting trip is to go up and down with a pack on. Ideally, you’d spend some time in the gym strengthing those legs, spinal erectors as well as your upper body a bit to help support the weight of a heavy pack, but with that not an option, let’s look at what the OP is actually going to have to do and simulate that task as closely as possible given all of the time and logistical restraints he has to consider.
When I see a thread like this one, I’m rooting for the guy to show up for his big trip as well prepared as possible. He needs to wear a pack and step up and down off of something and do that a whole lot. So, in this context, I’ll argue that he’d be better off building a staircase to nowehere in backyard and jumping up and down it than spending that same time doing burpees.
