Mountain Training for Flat-Landers

[Professor]

I live at 1,000 feet and trained on the river bluffs. My son and I went up and down the bluffs with full packs. The climbs were not much but it is all we have close by. Most climbs are 200 to 300 feet. But, doing that with full packs in the humid summer really did the trick. We could not replicate the altitude obviously, but it seems that at least under 9,000 or so feet humidity is a wash with altitude.

 

[FlyGuy]

[We could not replicate the altitude obviously, but it seems that at least under 9,000 or so feet humidity is a wash with altitude.[/QUOTE]

I like to think the same thing! I have no idea if it’s actually true or not, but during the awful summers down here in Houston when you wake up to run and it’s alReady 82F with 99% humidity at 5 am... telling myself that this misery is my way of compensating for the lack of altitude helps me push thru the workout!




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[sahunter06]

[We could not replicate the altitude obviously, but it seems that at least under 9,000 or so feet humidity is a wash with altitude.

I like to think the same thing! I have no idea if it’s actually true or not, but during the awful summers down here in Houston when you wake up to run and it’s alReady 82F with 99% humidity at 5 am... telling myself that this misery is my way of compensating for the lack of altitude helps me push thru the workout!




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[/QUOTE]
Exactly. Same here in Atlanta. It does help.

 

[Professor]

[We could not replicate the altitude obviously, but it seems that at least under 9,000 or so feet humidity is a wash with altitude.

I like to think the same thing! I have no idea if it’s actually true or not, but during the awful summers down here in Houston when you wake up to run and it’s alReady 82F with 99% humidity at 5 am... telling myself that this misery is my way of compensating for the lack of altitude helps me push thru the workout!




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[/QUOTE]
I want to see one of the mountain men to come down here and try it when it is so humid you are sweating in your lungs and have a quarter inch of fluid just sitting on your skin. I had more energy climbing in Idaho than I ever had in Georgia.

 

[Samwise]

I too live on the gulf coast. I started turkey hunting about 4 days to 5 days a week before work while wearing a 40lb weighted vest under my turkey vest. The grounds pretty flat but there's trees to climb over brush to go through bottoms and small hills. I travel atleast 3 miles each morning looking for turkeys. Not sure if it helps but I'm having fun.

 

[bozeman]

Living on Bama, elevation is difficult to come by. I will do 3-4 miles up and down bleachers in the afternoon and then again in the AM (Fri PM/Sat AM) to try and mimic hunting back to back days..........just finished this today......whew....got a ways to go before Sept!!

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Box step ups, incline on a treadmill, stairs. Load the pack up and go.

 

[AK Troutbum]

A weighted pack up and down stadium stairs at the local high school or college football field.
Start without a pack and gradually work up the pack weight...
An 80lb pack may be recipe for compressed disc back problems....I know 3 people who now have serious back problems and they packed out too much weight when they were youngsters.

Hiking with your boots to break them in to your feet.

Long distance biking with low gear intervals also may help.

^^^Absolutely this. You might also want to incorporate side stepping up and down stadium stairs with the boots and weight (in the pack), that you’ll be hunting with. IMO the absolute best training a person can get for any mountain hunt is actually training in mountains with the same boots and pack, and similar weight that you’ll have to deal with for most of the hunt. 20-30 lbs. is a good place to start, but the main thing is, just don’t overdue it and chance injuring yourself. Obviously not everyone has the opportunity to train in the mountains, so you improvise and find the next best thing. Then you try and mix it up as best you can (key word here again is improvise), to create ways to stress, train, and exercise different muscle groups that otherwise wouldn’t be worked. If you’re exercising, building endurance, and not injuring yourself, your doing the right thing. Most successful mountain hunts depend more on your mental mindset of “get it done, and don’t quite until it’s done” attitude, than your actual physical capabilities. There’s much to be said for mind over matter.


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[Farmingdale's Finest]

First a little background. I am a Widowmaker heart attack survivor. I had it when I was 43 just 7 months after winning the over 40 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Pan ams. I have had 3 knee surgeries from college football and 6 bulging discs from a construction accident.

Due to my injuries. There is no running and if I do traditional weight lifting I end up in PT for months.

I did backpack cardio 3-4 days a week with a 40-60 pound pack before work and distances of 2-4 miles.

I did a basic kettlebell workout consisting of swings, squats, deadlift to upright rows and overhead presses. I also did single arm farmers carries. After lifting I would do a combination of exercises given to me by the PT’s and yoga with a lot of planks

Then a couple days a week I would put my pack on with 40 pounds and do step ups onto a folding chair for 1/2 an hour.

This enabled me to climb a 1000 feet vertical in only 1/3 of a mile with minimal discomfort. I wore a fit bit to get my HR and on that climb I got a peak HR of 196 bpm. I haven’t had a HR that high other than the day I had the heart attack. I waited about 15 minutes to get it down to 140 or less. I got in good enough shape at 52 coming from the NJ shore that as long as I kept my HR at 7500-10000 feet under 185 I was fine.

This year we got a spin bike for Christmas and I have been doing interval training for 30-45 minutes 3-4 days a week and my fitness is significantly better than 2 years ago doing the spin and the kettlebell workout. I only just started the weighted cardio last week due to slipping on the ice and twisting the knee that had the surgeries.

I feel with this workout I will be much lighter and in better shape than I was 2 years ago.


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[feldy0725]

Thank you all for your posts, I am going on my first elk hunt this year, will be Bow Hunting in CO around 11-12k ft. I have hunted whitetail all my life and have been to Colorado snow skiing for the last 30 years. The altitude always seems to jack with me the first day or two, have had to get an IV bag of fluids a few times due to Altitude sickness, but great after that. I plan on being plenty hydrated, but the ole lungs are what I want to get most ready. I have started running 2 miles 1-2 times a week, when my pack gets in I plan to hike up and down our hill with it on ~85ft elevation change and build up to 50-80 pounds in the pack...thoughts?

 

[Wapiti16]

I like to think the same thing! I have no idea if it’s actually true or not, but during the awful summers down here in Houston when you wake up to run and it’s alReady 82F with 99% humidity at 5 am... telling myself that this misery is my way of compensating for the lack of altitude helps me push thru the workout!




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I pretty much have to have gills to run down here, literally ON THE COAST haha.

 

[bigmikebrz23]

[We could not replicate the altitude obviously, but it seems that at least under 9,000 or so feet humidity is a wash with altitude.

I like to think the same thing! I have no idea if it’s actually true or not, but during the awful summers down here in Houston when you wake up to run and it’s alReady 82F with 99% humidity at 5 am... telling myself that this misery is my way of compensating for the lack of altitude helps me push thru the workout!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro[/QUOTE]

Ain’t this the truth. I’m just south of you in Edna. The humidity and 80 degree temps at 5:00AM is brutal. Sometimes it’s tough getting motivated when you walk out and it feels like a sauna!


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[Brendan]

Training in heat and humidity definitely helps, but it is by no means a "wash".


Go to Colorado altitude and you'll still be out of breath and need 2-3 days to acclimate. My first morning at 10k I was out of breath and could feel it in my chest sitting on my ass drinking coffee, and I consider myself in excellent shape. 3 days in and it was much better.

Base camp around 7K hasn't bothered me, but I do notice shortness of breath when I start pushing it.

 

[Wapiti16]

Training in heat and humidity definitely helps, but it is by no means a "wash".


Go to Colorado altitude and you'll still be out of breath and need 2-3 days to acclimate. My first morning at 10k I was out of breath and could feel it in my chest sitting on my ass drinking coffee, and I consider myself in excellent shape. 3 days in and it was much better.

Base camp around 7K hasn't bothered me, but I do notice shortness of breath when I start pushing it.

I've gone to our place in Colorado @ 10,000ft multiple times a year for the past 30 years. Sometimes I fly, but most of the time I drive. I always acclimate very quickly compared to most people, but driving from where I live on the Gulf Coast to our place in Colorado cuts the acclimation time down to almost nothing.

I understand driving isn't an option for everyone who lives in other parts of the U.S. traveling to hunt the West, but that "slow ascent" of elevation gain driving west REALLY aids in acclimation.

 

[sahunter06]

I've gone to our place in Colorado @ 10,000ft multiple times a year for the past 30 years. Sometimes I fly, but most of the time I drive. I always acclimate very quickly compared to most people, but driving from where I live on the Gulf Coast to our place in Colorado cuts the acclimation time down to almost nothing.

I understand driving isn't an option for everyone who lives in other parts of the U.S. traveling to hunt the West, but that "slow ascent" of elevation gain driving west REALLY aids in acclimation.

Agreed. I try to drive to wherever I hunt in the west and haven't had any issues with getting acclimated to the elevation change over the last 25 years. Maybe it’s a result of the humid conditions we have in Georgia or my workout/conditioning routine throughout the year. The best advice is to prepare yourself for your type of hunt.

 

[Brendan]

When I went - I did drive, but drove straight through to 10,000 from the midwest the night before, wasn't hanging out anywhere on the way. Science shows that 2-3 days is the bulk of the acclimation if I remember correctly which mirrors my experience. 12 hours at Elevation I was slightly winded and blood Oxygen levels were noticeably lower just while sitting around according to my watch. No way I was going out and able to push it the next morning after I got there, but after those 2-3 days at 10,000' I was good to go and doing scouting trips up to near 13K before the season opened.

7000-8000' base camp is different. I'll start pushing it right when I get there and only really notice it pushing it uphill.

If the draw works out for me I'll be hunting Colorado again this year and would do the same 2-3 days to acclimate in an AirBnB before hiking in.