Workout Plan questions ( Hip Replacement )

[gostovp]

Well me and my hunting group drew MT general tags this year, planning on an 8 day backcountry hunt in some pretty gnarly country.
This will be our second trip to MT so I’m familiar with the area we are gonna be going.

Here’s the scenario though … 51 yrs old and I’m currently 5 weeks post-op right hip replacement. Recovery is going well, and if everything goes ok, I should be cleared by the surgeon to return to vigorous exercise by week 16 ( maybe 12 weeks, but let’s be conservative and say 16…).

We are planning a later Sept Archery hunt, so I will have July, August, and 1/2 of September to really train. So I’m trying to think of a good exercise program that will have me ready

Running and jogging are out of the question with the new hip, as well as any jumping or plyometrics, but backpacking will be ok.

So I’m thinking:
3 to 4 weighted pack (30 to 40 lbs or so) hikes per week. ( 90 minutes of hike time, with as much elevation as I can find here in the Midwest)

3 or 4 strength training days per week, but most body weight stuff or using a 50lb sandbag. Think simple stuff like higher rep pushups, squats, step ups, farmer carries, renegade rows, planks, lunges, etc.

And HIT training to get my cardio in shape as fast as possible… and what I was thinking here was 5 days a week of HIT on an air bike ( like the Assault, Echo, AirDyne…)
I currently don’t have an air bike and am considering investing in one specifically for hunt training. This is probably the only type of HIT training I can do reliably and safely with the new hip

I meet with the surgeon next week for my 6 week post op and am going to run this plan by him of course, but wanted any member input/ideas as well.

 

[Coach Chris]

HIT - High Intensity Training is an old school bodybuilding program originating from the work of Arthur Jones of Nautilus fame.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) won't improve your base level endurance.
Your cardiovascular system responds specifically to the demands of your working muscles. This is the SAID Principle. Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand.
There's not a whole lot of demand for lactaid threshold (HIIT) in backcountry western mountain hunting.

I have an athlete (60) who is a former Olympian, mountain guide and legendary mountaineer who had a full hip replacement last year. As soon as his PT gave me the OK I started rebuilding his capacity with resistance bands and sled work.

For low impact strength - endurance training I would recommend long duration sled pulling.
If you're going to invest in equipment I would recommend a sled, plates, sled pull harness, trekking poles, rubber tips and a Jungle Gym XT if the sled doesn't come with straps for pulling it backwards.

You can make a sled from an old tire and plywood and straps from rope or webbing.

Good Journey!

 

[gostovp]

Thanks, Yeah I got my acronyms messed up
I appreciate the feedback and info

I have done quite a bit of a sled pull training for previous years hunts… and I used a tire and an old treestand safety harness.
I have a myriad of resistance bands of several weights and a sandbag and a 12 kg and pairs of 16kg and 24 kg kettlebells

My PT schedule has me walking about 50 min per day and when I’m outside I use my trekking poles (with rubber tips) and they really help keep my gait

How far/long for sled training (both push and
Pull).

 

[Poser]

10 weeks is enough time to get in shape, but its realistically just enough time.
As Coach Chris pointed out, ditch any HIIT -you need to focus on building your aerobic base and your muscular endurance. HIIT will get you neither.

If you can get a jump on this timeline with your hip and give yourself 6 weeks to focus on your aerobic base (maybe you can start in june?): hike, rowing machine, stair stepper, stadium stairs.... all unweighted initially. Zone 2, conversational pace. It may not be Rocky 2 vibes that will give you IG worthy photos of your sweat pool, but If you can get four 40-60 minutes zone 2 sessions a week for 6 weeks, you'll have an aerobic base to build off of with your rucking.

 

[Coach Chris]

How far/long for sled training (both push and
Pull).

You're welcome

Ask your PT about sled pulling
If you get the OK I would do like 25yds forward and 25yds backwards to start. To see if there's any pain or discomfort.
If there's no pain I would add in some sideways drags the next time.
Just build from there. Be conservative.
I think alternating between light days were you build up distance and short days were you build up load will get you moving in the right direction.
Be patient with the process.

 

[gostovp]

Thanks. In my last therapy session my PT had me pushing and pulling one of those Torque wheeled sleds on setting #2 on the indoor turf. It was easy with no discomfort or pain.

I’m sure I can also use June to build up my cardio base with some form of hiking or stationary biking.
I do have a simple/basic spinning bike that I could maybe use when I get to that point

Thanks for the feedback on the HIIT, saved me from dropping $$ on an air bike.

I did find a Rogue Dog Sled for sale on FB Marketplace locally for a good price … wonder if I should maybe jump on that.

 

[Coach Chris]

I think Dog Sled looks like a good design.

 

[gostovp]

Thanks Coach.
What types of exercises would I do with the resistance bands?

 

[rogerdoger]

Can you ride a bike? That is generally low impact and you can really get your heart rate up.

 

[gostovp]

Can you ride a bike? That is generally low impact and you can really get your heart rate up.

I’ll be able to ride a bike. I don’t wank to hop on a road bike this year though because if I crashed it would be bad on the hip. I do have a basic spin bike

 

[gostovp]

I went and picked up that Rogue sled from the FB marketplace post. Got a good deal on it. It was from a guy that was closing his CrossFit gym down. He actually had an Echo Bike there but wanted $650 for it so I passed

 

[gostovp]

Had my 6 week post op this week with the surgeon. He said I’m doing great and can start easing back into exercise. He cleared me for pretty much anything except movements that would put my hip in the ‘danger zone’ as he called it…which he said was ‘Deep Knee Flexion with knee internal rotation and lower leg external rotation’.

Other than that over the next several weeks I’m going to start ramping up my rucking and sled work (pushes and pulls) and mix in some work on my spinning bike and bodyweight exercises.

In fact today I went and hit a bucket of golf balls with my pitching wedge and then did a 1.75 hike with 10lbs in my pack and everything felt good.

 

[McKolorado]

Training for the New Alpinism: A Manual for the Climber as Athlete (it's like a text book) would be worth getting/reading. My short regurgitation of the book would be that the 2.5 months of training you'll have should be spent primarily focusing on building your aerobic base, this will be lots of zone 2 (low and slow) cardio examples include rucking, stairclimber (or better yet, if you can find a building that you can climb the stairwell in). You'll want to start at a realistic per week volume and it's probably smarter to start more conservatively than aggresively. An example may be starting at 90 minutes per week, broken across three days with two being shorter and one longer (monday 20 minutes, wednesday 20 and saturday 50). Each week increase the volume by 5-10% depending on how well you feel you're recovering. The other 2-3 days per week would focus on strength. This doesn't need to be crazy but the first 4-5 weeks would focus on general strength (think larger compound movements; squats, presses, hinges, pulls and core) with the second 5-10 weeks narrowing the focus in strength to more "task" specific movement. For example leg movements would be single leg (i.e bulgarian split squats, step ups, etc.). Anecdotally, the two biggest mistakes I think hunters make in training are... 1, doing "high intensity" cardio type of workouts (HIIT, EMOMS, WOD) thinking if they get in a ton of high intensity types of short sessions they can "cheat" the system for long endurance. 2, they go too much too soon, even with long slow cardo stuff but even with strength too. Most people can go hard to two, three, even four weeks but it eventually catches up to you and your body just says "nope, no more." Obviously there's a tension to training, if you train too easy you won't build the right adaptations either but in general I think a lot people tend to go too hard as opposed to too easy.

 

[gostovp]

Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers book (it's like a text book) would be worth getting/reading. My short regurgitation of the book would be that the 2.5 months of training you'll have should be spent primarily focusing on building your aerobic base, this will be lots of zone 2 (low and slow) cardio examples include rucking, stairclimber (or better yet, if you can find a building that you can climb the stairwell in). You'll want to start at a realistic per week volume and it's probably smarter to start more conservatively than aggresively. An example may be starting at 90 minutes per week, broken across three days with two being shorter and one longer (monday 20 minutes, wednesday 20 and saturday 50). Each week increase the volume by 5-10% depending on how well you feel you're recovering. The other 2-3 days per week would focus on strength. This doesn't need to be crazy but the first 4-5 weeks would focus on general strength (think larger compound movements; squats, presses, hinges, pulls and core) with the second 5-10 weeks narrowing the focus in strength to more "task" specific movement. For example leg movements would be single leg (i.e bulgarian split squats, step ups, etc.). Anecdotally, the two biggest mistakes I think hunters make in training are... 1, doing "high intensity" cardio type of workouts (HIIT, EMOMS, WOD) thinking if they get in a ton of high intensity types of short sessions they can "cheat" the system for long endurance. 2, they go too much too soon, even with long slow cardo stuff but even with strength too. Most people can go hard to two, three, even four weeks but it eventually catches up to you and your body just says "nope, no more." Obviously there's a tension to training, if you train too easy you won't build the right adaptations either but in general I think a lot people tend to go too hard as opposed to too easy.

Thanks for the info/feedback. Your comments on HIIT echo what Coach said above as well. It’s interesting that what we see online for ‘mountain training’ honestly doesn’t match up real well to the realist needs and abilities of most people ( in terms of mountain hunting)

 

[McKolorado]

Thanks for the info/feedback. Your comments on HIIT echo what Coach said above as well. It’s interesting that what we see online for ‘mountain training’ honestly doesn’t match up real well to the realist needs and abilities of most people ( in terms of mountain hunting)

Yeah, anecdotally, from my own personal experience (and limited knowledge) I would say most of the "mountain/hunting" fitness programs are off base. They focus on the wrong things becuase they miss the primary fitness needed for hunting. I think they do it in part because it "sells" and is "shiny." Hunters are easy to appeal to with the "tough/strong guy" mentality. Mountain Hunting is an endurance based event that may require a moderate amount of strength. That said I don't think some of those programs are complete trash. Plenty of people do them and see really good results, get stronger and faster etc. etc. I'm not convinced though that they really prep you for long stretches of endurance in the mountains. I did want to mention that I think Todd with Human Predator Pack Mule puts together some really solid programming (although its a bit pricey) and Mountain Tactical Institute has a pretty good hunting program but does need some minor tweaks. Also I initially put the wrong title of the book in the original post, I corrected it and it's right now.

 

[Tim14167]

MTNTOUGH - They have many programs and rehab

 

[RWT]

Find a gym with a Jacob’s Ladder Machine. Once you reach 30 mins on that machine, add a small pack with weight. I paid for a trainer who had the machine with sole purpose of protecting knees and back but increasing cardio. Best machine ever invented for this IMO. I couldn’t make it 5 mins when I started. Took 3 months to get to 30 mins+weight. The machine reduces all stress on the hips, knees and back. Your are perpetually climbing a ladder at a known speed. If you slow down to much, the machine stops. Better than a stair stepper or bicycle.

 

[Chrisamx]

At age 52 I had Total left hip replacement on May 15th. I started hiking last week of July in mountains where I live (I live at 5,000ft) with light pack. I hiked every weekend. I pulled a tag for Southern Sierra Deer hunt for the end of September of same year. Mountain hunt definitely doable. I didn't bag one, but came away happy that I could still hunt the way I had in the past. Hip replacements can keep one in the game.

 

[Amos Keeto]

Well me and my hunting group drew MT general tags this year, planning on an 8 day backcountry hunt in some pretty gnarly country.
This will be our second trip to MT so I’m familiar with the area we are gonna be going.

Here’s the scenario though … 51 yrs old and I’m currently 5 weeks post-op right hip replacement. Recovery is going well, and if everything goes ok, I should be cleared by the surgeon to return to vigorous exercise by week 16 ( maybe 12 weeks, but let’s be conservative and say 16…).

We are planning a later Sept Archery hunt, so I will have July, August, and 1/2 of September to really train. So I’m trying to think of a good exercise program that will have me ready

Running and jogging are out of the question with the new hip, as well as any jumping or plyometrics, but backpacking will be ok.

So I’m thinking:
3 to 4 weighted pack (30 to 40 lbs or so) hikes per week. ( 90 minutes of hike time, with as much elevation as I can find here in the Midwest)

3 or 4 strength training days per week, but most body weight stuff or using a 50lb sandbag. Think simple stuff like higher rep pushups, squats, step ups, farmer carries, renegade rows, planks, lunges, etc.

And HIT training to get my cardio in shape as fast as possible… and what I was thinking here was 5 days a week of HIT on an air bike ( like the Assault, Echo, AirDyne…)
I currently don’t have an air bike and am considering investing in one specifically for hunt training. This is probably the only type of HIT training I can do reliably and safely with the new hip

I meet with the surgeon next week for my 6 week post op and am going to run this plan by him of course, but wanted any member input/ideas as well.

My first hip replacement surgery was in May of 2006. The surgeon, at one time, he was the Chief Orthopedic Surgeon for the US Olympic team.
Last hip replacement was at the same group. Fine group of surgeons.
The halls of the clinic and hospital are lined with signed photos of Olympians and professional athletes, expressing their thanks for their work.

All three surgeons who replaced my hips had the same rehab advice!
"Get out and WALK!"

 

[okie john]

Here’s the scenario though … 51 yrs old and I’m currently 5 weeks post-op right hip replacement. Recovery is going well, and if everything goes ok, I should be cleared by the surgeon to return to vigorous exercise by week 16 ( maybe 12 weeks, but let’s be conservative and say 16…).

I had my left one replaced on 09 April. Tagging for reference.


Okie John