Single Best Workout to Prepare For Elk Hunting?

[UTJL]

I’ve started a custom workout plan for hunters by Evoke Endurance. I’m only 4 weeks in, but it’s good so far.

They focus on building an incredibly strong aerobic base and then worrying about strength.

 

[aftriathlete]

I remain a huge fan of dragging a tire around your neighborhood. Any tire will do, and you can use weights or rocks to load it up if you want to. Only cost might be some nylon webbing if needed to make a harness to go around your waist.

 

[go_deep]

I remain a huge fan of dragging a tire around your neighborhood. Any tire will do, and you can use weights or rocks to load it up if you want to. Only cost might be some nylon webbing if needed to make a harness to go around your waist.

This is the tire I use.

 

[P Carter]

I’ve started a custom workout plan for hunters by Evoke Endurance. I’m only 4 weeks in, but it’s good so far.

They focus on building an incredibly strong aerobic base and then worrying about strength.

Can you provide any more details? I assume they don’t have a general hunting-related plan out. For context, I use the uphill athlete “maximum vertical” plan and would be interested to see a hunting plan to hybridize the two a bit. I basically train for a vertical ultra until July/august and then sharpen up for hunting.

 

[UTJL]

Can you provide any more details? I assume they don’t have a general hunting-related plan out. For context, I use the uphill athlete “maximum vertical” plan and would be interested to see a hunting plan to hybridize the two a bit. I basically train for a vertical ultra until July/august and then sharpen up for hunting.

I don’t have my copy of uphill athlete at the moment as I loaned it to a friend. So I’m not sure what’s included in the max vertical training plan.

I think the biggest difference will be how the custom plan changes the focus across the year to have you in the best shape for hunting season. Right now I’m building an aerobic base, but later this year the plan will center on strength and before season it’ll move to muscular endurance. They also will provide a training plan to maintain fitness throughout the season. I’m in Montana, so my season lasts 3+ months and I lose a lot of my strength.

One other difference, is a focus on longevity. They get that many of us would like to continue hunting into our 70s. So they take a different approach compared to some of their military and mountaineering plans.

 

[Maverick1]

This is the tire I use.
View attachment 845880

 

[MTHunter10]

I like Assault bike sprints to replicate closing that last couple hundred yards. All out full body work with an emphasis on legs and lungs. I can feel a real improvement in being able to calm myself down and catching my breath from when I start doing them in May to right before season in August.

I wish I had one for the house so I could do sprints before taking shots with the bow.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

I don't think it needs to be that complicated. TBH.

I do weights 5 times per week. I bike 3-5 days per week for general cardio. Some Zone 2, 3, 4, hills, etc. This week was 5 days 180 miles.

Only activities I would label as hunt prep: rucking and mountain hikes which I add 2 months prior to season.

I was in the mountains scouting 2 weeks ago, 9,000 feet, hiking around with my pack which was 20 lbs. Breathing cadence etc felt great.

This is a lifestyle for me not hunt prep. However, my Fall hunts keep me consistent and incentivized.

Keeping body weight in check for true mountain hunts, IMO, is paramount.

 

[tap_city]

I've done a few mountaineering programs (24 week and 12 week) from Uphill Athlete and read the books by Scott Johnston. Aerobic base makes a massive difference without a doubt, but for flat landers like myself the single best exercise would be tire drags (if I cannot hike with a weighted pack on mountainous terrain). I do generally follow their training principles now, which would be building an aerobic base 16+ weeks out, then continue base building with strength, and the last 8-10 weeks add in muscular endurance work once a week.

 

[TristanJH]

I’ve started a custom workout plan for hunters by Evoke Endurance. I’m only 4 weeks in, but it’s good so far.

They focus on building an incredibly strong aerobic base and then worrying about strength.

I recently completed a couple of months of programming from Evoke Endurance. Hoping to harvest the benefits this fall. In the two years since my last post, I've noticed subtle differences in my recovery - I'm in my late thirties now, not my early thirties, and wanting to invest in endurance, I've drank the coolaide, which means I'm running more (1 long run, 2 easy runs + 1 interval day) rucking one or two times per week (ideally hilly terrain) and lifting significantly less (2 times per week focusing more on core and unilateral work) All the gains I've noticed are in my aerobic engine. My strength has not diminished much, but I've lost a worrying number of points off my VO2 estimate - hoping to drive that back up eventually, but I'm here for the long game. It's a lot of volume, and the time commitment is no small thing, but the cool thing about pushing the limits of your max recoverable volume is that you get better at recovery!

 

[tap_city]

I recently completed a couple of months of programming from Evoke Endurance. Hoping to harvest the benefits this fall. In the two years since my last post, I've noticed subtle differences in my recovery - I'm in my late thirties now, not my early thirties, and wanting to invest in endurance, I've drank the coolaide, which means I'm running more (1 long run, 2 easy runs + 1 interval day) rucking one or two times per week (ideally hilly terrain) and lifting significantly less (2 times per week focusing more on core and unilateral work) All the gains I've noticed are in my aerobic engine. My strength has not diminished much, but I've lost a worrying number of points off my VO2 estimate - hoping to drive that back up eventually, but I'm here for the long game. It's a lot of volume, and the time commitment is no small thing, but the cool thing about pushing the limits of your max recoverable volume is that you get better at recovery!

I also have a low VO2 max estimate (42) based on my Garmin which I wear religiously for all my workouts/runs along with the HR monitor. I put little trust into it since I had my VO2 max and lactate threshold measured in a university lab setting and the VO2 max measured there much higher (51). I'm curious how Garmin's algo works but there isn't much info I've seen how they calculate it.
The Evoke Endurance methodology places a lot of emphasis on base and easy runs and I think the Garmin and others place more importance of tempo and interval work which may be why you've see that estimate drop, I am guessing?

 

[NorthwoodCanoes]

I think you can gain a lot of fitness walking as a base activity.

 

[Poser]

I recently completed a couple of months of programming from Evoke Endurance. Hoping to harvest the benefits this fall. In the two years since my last post, I've noticed subtle differences in my recovery - I'm in my late thirties now, not my early thirties, and wanting to invest in endurance, I've drank the coolaide, which means I'm running more (1 long run, 2 easy runs + 1 interval day) rucking one or two times per week (ideally hilly terrain) and lifting significantly less (2 times per week focusing more on core and unilateral work) All the gains I've noticed are in my aerobic engine. My strength has not diminished much, but I've lost a worrying number of points off my VO2 estimate - hoping to drive that back up eventually, but I'm here for the long game. It's a lot of volume, and the time commitment is no small thing, but the cool thing about pushing the limits of your max recoverable volume is that you get better at recovery!

I listened to an Evoke podcast a good while back and I believe I recall them saying that for endurance athletes, V02 max is proxy and subject to fluctuation that does not necessarily correlate with performance.

My takeaway was that worrying about your V02 max for what we're doing is akin to worrying about how much speed you're getting in 10th gear when you spend all of your time in 4 low.

 

[TristanJH]

I listened to an Evoke podcast a good while back and I believe I recall them saying that for endurance athletes, V02 max is proxy and subject to fluctuation that does not necessarily correlate with performance.

My takeaway was that worrying about your V02 max for what we're doing is akin to worrying about how much speed you're getting in 10th gear when you spend all of your time in 4 low.

For sure. Jon at Evoke cautioned that, and that caution is reiterated in a lot of their content. It's an adjustment though.