Workout Routine: Am I on the right track?

[Cant hit em]

The time commitment that you referenced is all the more reason to add more to your workout rather just weighted pack hikes. You can accomplish a lot in 30 minutes, with no weights and right in your home or your backyard. Weighted hikes are great, but they aren't the end all solution either. Rather, they are a valuable component of a balanced fitness regimen.

Well put

 

[Poser]

Entirely valid, Jason. It draws another thought to my mind. I once had a crusty old Sergeant Major that made the point to me that you don't have to PT for hours every day, but it is important to at least do something every day. I took from him a core workout and tailored it to my liking. It's all body weight manipulation and can be done in circuits for as little as 10 min, or an hour or more. I just can't personally accept a daily, or nearly every day, 30 min or less workout -however beastly it can be- as adequate. No day on the mountain stops at 30 minutes in.

I see where you are coming from with that, but hours spent doesn't necessarily = superior fitness results. Days spent hunting in the mountains are seldom shorter than 10 hours, but that doesn't mean that unless you train 10 hours a day you won't be prepared. I don't think there really is one magic number of daily training that is going to translate into 10-14 hour endurance/power endurance days. Like Jason said, you can can accomplish a lot in 30 minutes. You can also accomplish a lot in 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes etc, but a 6 hour workout isn't necessarily more productive for your mountain fitness than a 45 minutes workout just because its longer. Doing strength and interval training, I find my optimal results and improvement are at between 8-10 hours a week of volume. In the past, I have experimented with very heavy volume that included lots of steady state cardio hitting up to 30 hours a week (that's still only about 3 days worth of hunting). I find significantly better gains in strength, endurance and power endurance as well as overall fitness improvement at the 8-10 hour volume weeks of strength and interval training. That's not to say its the best way or the ideal volume for everyone.

 

[satchamo]

Just to double back... after some extensive reading, I have moved to the starting strength (mwf) and the stairmaster (tues and thurs) and have gained 5 lbs of muscle in just under 2 months. My bench, squat and deadlift are growing each time so my body is responding.

I have kept my calories around 2100 and im not feeling im leaving alot on the table for now. I dont think ive lost an ounce of fat but I contribute that to lack of discipline on my diet. Ive started really planning out meals and its helped a ton so I hope to start seeing more results in that department.

I should also note I started taking creatine today so well see how that helps. At this point I'm trying to keep things in perspective and be patient. I, like every other human, am impatient and want to see the visual results but I know it will come in time.