Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting 2017 Fitness- Workout thread

IMO, weight training done right is just as important. One of the things an elk hunter needs to be able to do is roll out of bed, every day, even after a tough day. Training your body to recover quickly from a tough workout that would leave most people sore is a big benefit. Cardio doesn't get me that.

one without the other, will simply leave you short

the Bob Marshall Open demonstrated that pretty well- without good cardio you simply wouldn't be able to put in big mile days (along w/ big ascents/descents); without strength training the miles of negotiating tangles of blowdowns would have been impossible- add 25 pounds to your back, sprinkle in some snow and it compounds the difficulty

ying and yang

Even Jim Wendler is pretty direct about the need to condition (cardio), even without something like elk hunting on the menu.

For Jim's training plans, he doesn't push tons of cardio, but still advises something like three-four 20 min sessions of hill sprints or sled work or similar in a given week's training plan.

For me, the endurance work I'm doing is about pushing my heart and lungs to get stronger and more efficient. The more capable my body is at delivering oxygen to my muscle tissue, the better, I figure.

So I have been working harder there than I have in the recent past. But I'm not ignoring my strength training either.....which is why I'm still doing my Wendler programming. (For those unfamiliar, it's a 4 week cycle, three weeks of progressive overload and week of deload, using 4 mains lifts.....bench, OHP, deadlift, and backsquat.....and accessory work for each main lift.)

Cardio to work my heart and lungs and body to efficiently handle an oxygen demand/deficit, strength training more to maintain than gain, but to keep my main lifts strong so I keep overall strength while working on cardio capacity and cutting some bodyweight. In essence, clinging to every little shred of muscle I can while cutting body fat so that I don't also lose muscle mass while cutting weight.

I agree. I remember the first year I hunted elk, the patriarch of the camp said, the night before opening morning, "tomorrow the Bataan death march begins".... he was right... by the 3rd day there was a lot of groaning at 4:30 am when it was time to roll out of the cots. SO much blowdown up there... brutal. But speaking strictly of the altitude adjustment and my own experiences, being very strong aerobically really helps take the edge off. I would surmise that a strong aerobic system HAS more red blood cells? Or is more able to utilize what it's got?

Of course some [bleep] just backpack up and shoot two cows opening day and are done with it.

That sounds so easy when you say it like that. But those would be two guys who worked out all summer to be able to backpack up into a spot where no one else goes, and then pack the meat out! And chase off a couple bears in the process.

While most people hunt back by the road and complain about "no elk." IMO, that's the best reason to work out--to have the "gumption" to pack animals out of spots most people don't want to. "Cause that's invariably where the elk will be.

I could only hope to deck a cow the first day!

I have a cow tag and my buddy has a bull tag. My intention is to wack the first cow I can and get the work done so I can help him look for a bull and then get it packed out. If we bring home two elk, I'll probably be smiling (and aching) till Christmas.

I'll probably sing a different tune if/when it happens, but I gotta say, I'm looking forward to feeling the weight of an elk quarter on my back. For someone who's grown up on deer hunting in PA and dreaming of elk hunting "someday," I'm really stoked to finally get at it.

Ask me again in November how I'm feeling about packing elk.

That's what it's all about, and one of the most satisfying feelings there is.

When you say "elk quarter" though, do yourself a favor and don't do what I did the first few times. Which is, pack out elk bones. An elk femur is a heavy SOB. I like to pack out the backstraps and tenderloins and maybe a little more on the first trip out, and hang the rest in a tree, bone-in. And bone it out before packing it. I always have a couple of trash bags to lay the meat on when I'm boning it out, to keep it clean.

Yeah, I guess I should say it that way.

Bearing in mind I've never done this before, my idea was to take backstraps and loins out on the first walk back. Maybe a shoulder if I can....I use an Eberlestock X2, and it's a tough little bugger with a stout frame, so I'll put on as much as I feel good taking for that first trip, although I'll have my gear and rifle yet at that point.

Then I'll get my frame pack for the return. I do my own butchering on whitetails, and when I take a deer apart, I separate the hind quarters on the natural seams. That job is easier than I thought it would be. That pretty neatly strips the meat from the pelvis and femurs, and boning the shanks to finish off the hind quarters, so I have zero intentions of taking any hindquarter bones, assuming an elk's back leg isn't constructed anatomically different than a deer....? Bigger, of course, but the parts should be similar in what's there and how they fit together?

I despise boning shoulders, albeit a necessary task. I may take them back with the bones, I don't know. I'd rather work on a table/work-surface to disassemble a shoulder, but I'm sure an elk scapula is not a trivial thing. I'm hoping my experience at having butchered only God knows how many whitetails at this point will help carry me through deboning as much as I can in the field. I don't want to carry back stuff I'm gonna throw in a trash can later, if I can avoid it.

Amen smokepole! Lack of gumption and go-go power saves a heck of a lot of animals.

Yep!

I brought in a small blue tarp to bone out my deer on last fall... I liked that. More room to work than plastic bags and sturdier. Agree-- don't pack out bones! First quarter I ever got stuck with was someone else's elk rear quarter with the bone still in. That was not a fun 5 miles.

Depending on the weather, and maybe altitude, hornets can be a sumbitch during the meat-prep. I killed a raghorn on a sunny warm day and I about got eaten alive by yellowjackets. I would throw all effluvium as far from the kill site as I could to pull them away from me but they just kept coming in waves... haha...

Td, yes, anatomy is the same. JO, hornets and flies are sometimes a problem here in September, but not during rifle seasons. At least not up in the mtns.

I carry a 4ft x6ft piece of plastic sheeting in my kill kit for laying out, small & light. I agree too that even the weight of boneless is enough to turn the trek out into a good sufferfest.

HIked ~ 3 miles off trail to install and maintain my LR steel plates... 30-lb pack and rifle in tow. The area I went into is in the background. Lotta up and down. Felt good. SO NICE to have a functioning foot again!!!!!!

Then, rode 35 miles with my buddy. Good day!

4.3 miles with 1100' of elev gain today with a 40lb pack and feel pretty good.

Probably hit the bike tomorrow.

Two miles on fairly level ground with a couple double IPAs in the fanny pack and the dog flushing pheasants.

Torpedo?

Still really sick with crud. Trying to go Grey Skull LP. DL/BP/PB EZCurl/tricep extensions/cable rows.

No Cardio but worked all day and tried to stay hydrated.

Great Divide, local. 10% abv. I should add, I did hit the gym and do upper body yesterday too.

I bring a zip lock bag of black pepper or pam spray for early season hornets and place on meat

smokepole

I have bad osteoarthritis in my right ankle from a bad break in military.

I use this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LR1MOX...hy=9007525&hvtargid=pla-368635188647


I stand on one leg and place foot in center of board and do 20 reps clockwise and the 20 counter clock wise rotating disk with ankle making sure I touch all sides of disks while rotating. Great for ankle strength and mobility. First few times are tough but keep at it and it seems to help me.