Gym with the pack

[PredatorX]

Does anyone take their pack to the gym? Was going to take it, throw some weight in it and hit the stairs or treadmill. I'd imagine I'd get some looks but if fellow roksliders do it I will feel at home.

 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Do it. Why herd up, lead don't follow

 

[beachbunny]

i would not worry about it. i do training hikes and the cops follow me around.

 

[LJ Buck]

I do it all the time. I don't get on a treadmill but i do step ups and other things. (I cant stand a treadmill for doing anything)

 

[afteamroper]

Do it all the time. I am on an Air Force base and still get funny looks, what really killed me was when I got asked to get off the stair way to no where. They told me I was putting unneeded stress on the machine. I weigh 190 and had 50 pounds in my pack, the machine is rated for 350 and there was another person next to me that was clearly over 230. Got to love the USAF.

 

[Manosteel]

double post

 

[Manosteel]

I do it all the time, I throw in anywhere from 50 to 90 lbs in the pack and hit the treadmill or stairclimber. At first the trainers at the gym looked at me kinda funny but all would wonder by and ask what I was training for and that opened the door to pics and stories. Opened a lot of eyes to the health benefits of hunting in general and free ranging organic game meat. All of them thought it was pretty cool.

 

[AZ Vince]

I don't go to the gym because I have a treadmill at the house.
If I didn't have the treadmill you can rest assured I'd take my pack to the gym.
One of the advantages of growing older is that you stop worrying what other people think.

Vince

 

[PredatorX]

Haha thanks guys. As long as no one thinks I am packing in a load of c4 I should be ok.

 

[zman]

Does anyone take their pack to the gym? Was going to take it, throw some weight in it and hit the stairs or treadmill. I'd imagine I'd get some looks but if fellow roksliders do it I will feel at home.

I do it. And its not like I'm putting any more wear on their treadmill than the guy next to me who is carrying an extra 50 lbs. He just happens to have it on his waist, not a backpack!

 

[PredatorX]

Are you guys loading it up beforehand or throwing some gym weights in it?

 

[Ruskin]

i would not worry about it. i do training hikes and the cops follow me around.

This made me laugh. My neighbors kept stopping me asking if I was lost.

 

[GotDraw?]

I'm 56, started backcountry later in life, love it and want to hunt as long as I'm able.

I'm in the gym with a pack 5 days/wk. My base pack uses a cheap nylon 8 man tent w/poles in order to fill the pack, that give me a starting weight of about 28 lbs. When I want more, I toss plates from the gym on top of the tent. The backpack does start lots of conversations and you earn street cred when folks realize how much your pack weighs. No one at my gym says boo about it in a negative way.

I do not train with my hunting backpack, it would be a nasty smelling mess after months of dripping sweat in the gym. I have a Gregory Baltoro I got used off ebay for $150 for training. Comfy, capable pack.

I backpack hunt at 10-12k ft, it's not a cake walk. I start training with a pack in January/February using a lighter pack weight at around 28 lbs total pack weight and add more weight each month. By 2 months before I leave, my pack is up to 50lbs. I use the rotary stair climber as my primary trainer (it is by FAR the best workout for backcountry climbing). 3x/week I hit the stair climber hard for 30 minutes early in the year, followed by 15-20 hard minutes of 15% treadmill. In the last 2-3 months of training, I ramp up to 3x/wk hard hour on the climber, followed by 30 minutes hard on the treadmill at 15% all w/50 lb pack. 2x/week on my "recovery" days, I invert the process and hit the treadmill at 15% for an hour to 1.5 hours and may or may not do time on the climber. Also, 2x week I supplement the climbing & treadmill workouts with 6 sets of 30 reps of walking lunges, carrying 2x 30lb dumbbells on the 1st set, 2x 25lb on second set, 2x 20lb on third set, then 3 sets deep and fast w/o dumbbells (no backpack for the lunges, just dumbbells).

I taper training to a 20lb light pack about 10 days before I hunt, then the last 4-5 days, no pack and short workouts to give the body time to rest before the punishment.

Train with a pack and go hard on the stair climber. It made a massive difference in my hunt. I used to drive up to the "mountains" here in Maryland to climb with a pack on the weekends it took hours out of my weekend and it was not steep enough. Once I started really hammering the stair climber hard with a pack, it was almost unnecessary to drive to the mountains (good for boot and foot break in though) and I was far more fit.

Off season now, I am hitting the climber for 1/2 hr hard w/o a pack and 15% treadmill for 15-30 minutes. Plus lunges as above 2x/week.

hope this helps!

JL