Let The Workouts Begin!!!

[Spence14]

Getting back on the train this week after a little longer break after hunting season than usual. I will alternate weights and cardio. I try to stick to low impact cardio and heavy weights until the season gets a little closer. So i'll bike, row, stair climber with some hikes sprinkled in between, then pay the man on the squats and deadlifts.

 

[Gerbdog]

Did an 8 mile hike yesterday with basically no weight on the back.... have a long ways to go to be ready for hunting season it seems haha, was riding the struggle bus in the steep parts

 

[Elk97]

Arrrgghhhhh! Training was going well, hiking with weight and feeling good. I was working on the boat and got into a weird position (kinda upside down and twisted, typical boat work) and messed up my back. Now I have no strength in my left leg at all, can't even begin to do a knee bend. PT helped but it's not getting better. MRI scheduled for Friday. Dang.

 

[Scoot]

Arrrgghhhhh! Training was going well, hiking with weight and feeling good. I was working on the boat and got into a weird position (kinda upside down and twisted, typical boat work) and messed up my back. Now I have no strength in my left leg at all, can't even begin to do a knee bend. PT helped but it's not getting better. MRI scheduled for Friday. Dang.

Eeeesh, yuck! Good luck- I hope you can get it healed up quickly.


My knee and back are a mess, but I'm still doing my best. 30 minutes on a bike and a very little bit of inclined walking after that. Slow, but moving the right direction.

 

[*zap*]

consistent and frequent workouts with a gradual progression of difficulty/intensity are your friend vs sporadic too intense sessions.

 

[Spence14]

consistent and frequent workouts with a gradual progression of difficulty/intensity are your friend vs sporadic too intense sessions.

Agreed. Consistency trumps a lot of things!

 

[Josiah Bower]

First time elk hunter. Hitting the runs, swims, and high intensity interval trainings weekly. Will add some weighted lower body and weighted hiking in later. Hopefully that's enough. I've been told no matter what, it will never be enough..

I hunted elk for the first time last September. Do a ton of squats. Then do some more.

 

[PaBone]

I run year around and have also been hiking in my hunting boots. No pack yet but will start that soon. I had shoulder surgery over two years ago and I'm still struggling to get back to normal. I lost a lot of my range of motion, but I can shoot a 60 pound bow at the age of 60 so I shouldn't complain.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

I believe it was @Brendan who posted a link to a devilish workout called leg blasters. They come in mini and standard varieties, and I've been working my way towards doing more than one standard set at full speed.

If you're wondering they're really simple:
Mini's are 10 air squats/10 forward lunges/10 jump lunges/ 10 jump squats as fast as possible for one set. Do 3-5 sets.
Standards are just double the mini's. so 20/20/20/20 (note that each leg counts as a rep on the lunges).

I've also been mixing in front squats, weighted lunges, kettlebell swings, and dumbbell bench and pushups. Only I don't have a bench so I just do it from the floor.

 

[Brendan]

I believe it was @Brendan who posted a link to a devilish workout called leg blasters. They come in mini and standard varieties, and I've been working my way towards doing more than one standard set at full speed.

Leg blasters are the devil, but they work... I think the full are 20/20/20/10 and I'll cycle up to doing 5 full sets taking me about 90 seconds each with 45-60 seconds in between, and then throw in 5 sets of 100# sandbag front squats at the end. Completely done in under 20 minutes, pretty good for no heavy weights at home.

Right now I'm moving towards doing HiiT / Hill Sprints outdoors and rebuilding the mountain bike so I can get back out on that.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Back/Biceps/Cardio today in that order, 45 minutes of straight cardio tomorrow

 

[mtnkid85]

Ive got some running goals that Id like to tick off the list this year. I need to get back into a rhythm though, man its hard once you fall out of it for a while.

My wife wants me to do some triathlons with her... I don't think thats going to happen though.

 

[mtwarden]

I much prefer to workout year round as well (might be an old guy thing? ). I like to snowshoe/backcountry ski in the winter, backpack year round and hike our local trails here almost daily. I typically have several somewhat crazy trips planned every year (high mileage, few days). I participate in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Open each and every May. 100-ish miles across the Bob Marshall Complex where the starting/finishing points change each year. Always snow at the passes, always tough creeks/rivers to ford, always challenging navigation- always fun

I do think it's important to add a couple of days strength training to any plan. I've found concentrating on big compound lifts (squats/deadlifts/bench press/overhead press) to work best for me. I sprinkle in a healthy dose of pull/chin ups, dips, lunges, etc and core stuff.

About a month and a half prior to the season, I pull back a little on my mileage and start lightening up my strength training. I replace that with some weighted rucking on our local trails. I slowly build up the weight (and vary the elevation gain and distances), but I've given up on very high weights for training. I've found too heavy and your risks of injury exceed any gains. At the end I'm rucking about 60 lbs (starting at 20-ish). I've never had any problems hauling out 80-100 lb loads after the 6 weeks of weighted rucking (and never exceeding 60#).

My goals are in my signature so I can see them every day

I've gone past the 500 mile mark and past the 100,000' of gain mark, so I'm on track (or slightly ahead) of my goals for this year. Strength training is going pretty well too

I think I'm going to get past 200 miles on snowshoes before Spring is over.

 

[Poser]

did a good bit of skinning/backcountry snowboarding in the early season this winter, but the avalanche conditions got way too crazy around January (the San Juans had 6 fatalities so far this winter) so that pretty much stopped until about 2-3 weeks ago and we have a much more stable, spring snow pack. Did some bootpacking at high elevation though at Silverton Mtn (you take a chair lift up to almost 12,000 feet and then It’s all hiking access). I’ll probably stay focused on backcountry snowboarding through around the end May.

Been in the gym twice a week all winter season: squat, bench, press, deadlift + some chin-ups.

Will probably start doing some mountain biking later this month and start scouting the high country again in early July. -pretty much going uphill a lot year around and try to stay strong as possible while doing it. I don’t do any pack specific training outside of scouting.

 

[UTJL]

I do CrossFit 4 days a week plus the 5/3/1 lifting program. It gives me a good base fitness level. I’ve also started at the beginning of the month hauling my pack with 50lbs when I walk the dog each day. In the first two weeks I went from feeling off balance and uncomfortable to smooth. I want to work up to 80lbs and start hiking with the pack when mud season is over. I’m hoping it will pay off come September.

 

[Mosby]

I sprained my left ankle last month and was hobbling around last week and like an idiot stepped in a hole and sprained my right ankle. I have some soreness in both but I am going to take it easy for another week and then get after it. I am way behind on getting in shape but fortunately I have time to get caught up before fall. Even minor injuries can set everything back so be careful out there.

 

[Shooter28]

I did the Goggins 4x4x48 challenge the other week. 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours straight. While physically challenging, it’s more of a mental workout to keep it going. no one wants to wake up at 3am to run in the cold, multiple days in a row. Looking forward to really ramping it up when I get back from vacation to get ready for the fall.

 

[Gerbdog]

I did the Goggins 4x4x48 challenge the other week. 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours straight. While physically challenging, it’s more of a mental workout to keep it going. no one wants to wake up at 3am to run in the cold, multiple days in a row. Looking forward to really ramping it up when I get back from vacation to get ready for the fall.

That's intense, well done, got more mental toughness than me by far (and way better shape). I loathe running and do it just because it gets the job done. I only wake up at 3 am during hunting season or if for some reason i made a mistake and bought the wrong plane ticket

 

[4rcgoat]

David Goggins isnt even a human......

 

[Nwihunter]

I try to weight train 2 days a week and crank out some push ups and pull ups randomly at home. Also I’m currently running 15 to 20 miles a week and have a half marathon I’m running in may. In June I will start training for the the Chicago marathon that is on October 10th and will leave for my elk hunt on the 11th. I have a feeling i am going to regret running the marathon right before I hit the mountains but oh well. I guess what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I didn’t even start running until after I turned 40. I just turned 52 this month and having strong cardio has really seemed to help me in the mountains. That being said running is hard, I push through but do not love it.