Hey Rokslide
Did the MTI Backcountry Hunting Build 1 last year and it def prepared me for my MT Elk Hunt, but the deadfall still wooped my ass.
Didnt get to hunt this year due to my wife having a major surgery, my fitness took the backseat and I want to start prepping for next season now.
Has anyone done both MTI’s programs and MTN Tough that could provide some feedback on how they compare?
Thanks in advance
I've done the whole mti Backcountry packet several times through, I've also done the mtntough pre and post season 2-3x each. Last year all year preseason I used the hard to kill programming from Garage Gym Athlete.
They're all great, and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately deadfall is still going to suck no matter what you do. The hunting never feels easier, you just do more of it.
MTI will prepare you as good as anything but some of the workouts are real grinds (1000xstep ups is mind numbing) and can push up way beyond an hour. It also is very specific (the backcountry hunting program) and it might not be as good for general fitness as some of the other programs.
Mtntough will get you pretty well prepped as well. Most of the workouts will come in right around an hour which is nice if you're doing other things or are time constrained in any way. There's relatively little zone 2 or long slow distance type training with this, so it's something you might want to supplement. It is pretty strong in terms of general physical fitness while still being specific. Long-term it can get a little taxing on the legs, depending on what you do on your days "off", as it hits the legs pretty hard 5 days a week with either weight or volume.
Garage Gym Athlete is much less specific but worked very well to maintain the base that I had built up with MTI and Mtntough. They have the best app of the three with workout tracking, automatic percentage calculation, one rep max tracking etc. The app also has some nutrition, sleep, and other wellness tracking built in as well which is pretty nice if you want it. They don't do near as much to support the hunting community as mtntough and MTI.
I moved away from mtntough for a while for the same reason somebody else mentioned - I had purchased the lifetime access years ago and got a little upset when they were releasing a lot of new stuff and not giving me access. They did give me lifetime access to everything that existed when I paid for the lifetime access, so I can't really fault them. And I totally understand why they wanted to go to the subscription model, everything's packaged as a subscription service these days.
This year I've reverted back to Mtntough, I'm on week seven of the postseason strength, and enjoying it quite a bit. I even ponied up the $100 for a year subscription when it went on sale to check out some of the new content. They're building up a pretty good and diverse library of content- around fitness, nutrition, mental toughness, flexibility, PT, etc. Also best merch in the game.
