Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Starting Strength

I turned 60 this year and for the last few years I've figured that at this age, with worn out shoulders, my plan is heart, lungs, legs and back. I have a heart monitor and walk with a verticle component keeping my heart rate below 150 2 or 3 times a week(goal being resting rate below 60bpm). A couple times a week I hit the weights: deadlifts, squats, lunges and leg presses and some lighter weights for toning the upper body. You younger guys can work on bench press. I think cleans(along with deadlifts) are probably one of the very best single exercises one can do, however the problem with cleans is the potenial for injury bringing the weight back down. My view is using barbells and plates you can drop is a must, especially if you want to go bodyweight and up. I find that the best component to any exercise plan is the commitment to a goal to exercise. All the programs offer is a structured group of exercises which helps with beginning/end cycle.
To your health,
Pete

Kevin T

How much of this helps hauling elk out of canyons I'm not certain. Lifting makes you stronger in a controlled environment, but I believe running 10 or 12 or 18 miles at a time contributes as much to hauling elk as lifting weights, just because there's more mental toughness for me gained running long distance than lifting weights.

But I'm not saying I think you should run long distance--it's just what works for me.

You mentioned the Hardrock 100--can you tell me more about that? Sounds like the Leadville 100?

Pak

I hope I am doing something like you are doing when I'm 60. All of us would benefit from a lifetime of activity.

Running long distance very often would jack my knees up I suspect. The reason I want better leg strength is to prevent blowouts mainly going down the hill or over obstacles with heavy loads. I'm not trying to speed march out meat loads while hunting.

Just my opinion but gyms suck. About the only two pleasant things found in a gym are eye candy and rock walls. Unfortunatly my gym has neither. In my mind any workout routine that cuts into or discourages doing fun stuff in the woods (running, snowshoeing, hiking, climbing, etc.) is no good and should be avoided.

Yep. The clean is the only non-olympic lift that builds power. I couldn't squat a barbell for over a year due to a shoulder injury and the surgery/rehab but doing deadlifts maintained most of my leg strength.

The hardrock is like leadville, just higher and more ups and downs and often worse weather. I've paced the last couple years. This year it was a huge lightning storm, when I was at 13k, along with sideways blowing hail that left welts on my legs like buckshot. The person I was pacing said "get the hell out of here" , but I stayed with him. In it together you know. The year before I paced two nights in a row with no sleep in between. That was surreal and cool in it's own way. The stars at 13k at 3 am can be pretty cool especially after 36 hours of sleep deprivation .

I agree that getting out in the woods and having fun has to be priority number uno, although I have started the starting strength routing, I'll try it for a few weeks, I don't really think I'll get terribly sore after a couple weeks so I should be fine mixing in my normal stuff of running and some HIIT along with having fun outdoors.

Kevin, I'm 60 yrs. old and for the past 11 years, I've worked out 5 mornings a week at home for 35 to 40 minutes, split evenly between cardio and weight lifting. I also hit the gym 3 or 4 evenings a week doing 1+ hour sessions split between cardio and weight lifting (mostly free weights). For the most part, my sessions at the gym I use the Body for Life regimen minus the diet, since I didn't need to loose that much weight. To prepare for an Elk hunt in a real rugged area of CO (GMU 53) I also added 2 mile hikes with a 40 lb. backpack 2 days a week for 2 months prior to the hunt. I thought I was in great shape for the 5-day hunt in October but, climbing 2,000+ feet in altitude nearly every day, showed me that I still wasn't as prepared as I should have been. Even though I didn't get an elk, I'm hooked and will do it again next year and will probably be ill-prepared again.

Pretty wild stuff about Hardrock. My brother figured that July 14, 2012 would be a good day to get married. Lets work some lottery magic in 2013.

Two of the three hundreds I've done have had lightening at night. One was bad. I can't image that at 13k thou.

Kevin,

Have you Rippetoe's book? If you are planning to do the program, it is a necessity.

And if you aren't eating a caloric surplus and drinking a gallon of milk a day, it isn't Starting Strength as Rippetoe designed it.

You might want to check out crossfit football if you are looking for something with weights and conditioning.

Starting Strength works if strength and mass are your goals.

Brian

I'm not really looking to add weight. I prefer being as light and strong as possible.

I think I'll go with the workout routine for awhile, but mix in my running and HIIT stuff.

After listening to the stories, I think nothing replaces the act of doing , for instance, all the training in the world doesn't necessarily make you that much better in the mountains at 12k without being in the mountains as 12k doing that activity.

+1
Funtional fitness is doing.

Nothing wrong with getting stronger, but you have to question the why. Are you getting stronger to move a lot of weight in the gym or getting stronger to do 30-40 mile days with a 20lb pack. The two are't necessarily the same.

And the long day with low weight ain't the same as a long day with 90# or 130# on terrain where each step requires deliberate concentration and one careless step can injure you. Nor is it the same as moving a moose a mile by yourself in 12 hours.

With the strength methodology offered in print and proven to work, why not give it a go? Get strong, see if it works (better) for you, and if it doesn't, neglect of the iron will quickly take you back to where you were. See for yourself if that useless gym strength is indeed useless.

Vek,

Not saying its usless, but I have found that it dosn't totally translate. I have lifted heavy in the past and I have moved elk quarters several miles in hellish terrain by myself, but for me I have found that training by running down steep hills with moderate weight works the ecentric muscles that stabilize my joints better than anything I have ever done in a gym.

I often move 85-125 lb loads of meat several miles with lots of elevation change. Sidehills, rocks, snow, all around bad footing.

I know what wroks for me, others may find ways that work better for them.

WHAT HE SAID. Don't short your rest, recovery and fuel. If you are determined to add more strength to your already existing cardio routine start light to perfect form then add weight. That should be a given and remember there is obviously only so many hours in a day/week so be aware of exhaustion. You can't have it all right away. To add, LEAN PROTEIN,POTASSIUM and maybe some L-Carnitine to help the added strength training. Those will keep you muscles and heart happy.

I'm not discounting anything, but as I said, I have not felt lack of strength to be a problem. I carried half a cow elk up 600 ft win 18" of snow and then 3 miles out downhill. I felt I could have went back and grabbed the other half if others were not around. In fact if I had to , I felt I could have made 3 trips. What I have found for the pounding of a downhill, is what Ed has stated, that running downhill certainly gets those muscles stable. I have found pistols to come close to that type of soreness for an in home exercise. Nothing though, duplicates putting on 40 miles in the mountains in one go. Being a strong downhill trail runner is a skill, that seems to translate well to carrying a heavy load.

So I'm going to try and add some strength, but I'm not going to neglect the others, and as Vek said, I can always let it lapse by not hitting the gym if it doesn't help.

It's that time of the year isn't it Kevin? Weather is turning nasty soon and a lot of us runners are looking at long slow training and weight room workouts.

Be sure and check back and let us know how the system works for you.

BTW I think you might have been the guy who recommended the La Sportiva Crosslites last year and I wanted to stop by and send a thank you out. Not sure how they will handle the snow but have been really impressed with how they handle slippery and debris strewn trails. My old trail shoes were discontinued and I wanted/needed a change anyway. It worked out well.

Will

my experience mirrors EdT's

functional fitness, works best.

when I was a kid, I played football and basketball, even though it was the end of football season and I was still in good "football" shape, it took me a couple of weeks to adjust to the more continuous sprinting in basketball.

that's stayed consistent in my adult life.

I've trained to rip my body cause chicks dig muscle, and I dig chicks.

i've run to improve my cardio and to keep from gettin too fat cause I love to eat

but for packing heavy loads out of the mountains, nada works as well as packing heavy loads in the mountains.

but time is a factor, I can't train for 8-10 hours a day, but i dang sure hunt that way and sometimes packing meat out can take a couple of days of that.

sooo I up the stress of packing, I try and pack 90-100 lbs. up steep stuff that I'd normally side hill if actually hunting. i walk in the loosest nastiest stuff i can find. I wear ankle weights, and basically just bust my balls so that when I need to bust my balls it's not a strange sensation.


lifting weights is good and will marginally improve your packing abilities

cardio is good and will marginally improve your packing ability

a combo is better

but nada prepares you for packing like well.....packing


if you're training to pack out stuff for hunting, packing should be a big part of your training


if you're training cause you want to look good and feel better and want the chicks in the office to wonder why you look like that instead of how did he fit his fat azz in those clothes, but the packing is just something you do once or twice a year you're probably better off with more lifting and regular cardio


we make stuff more complicated than it needs to be ime&o

if you want to play football put on some pads hit a 7 man sled and drive that bugger, if you want to play basketball run like hell and shoot the ball alot

those principles apply to what we do in our adult life

if you want to get in shape to pack. well then train all the other stuff but pack

Kevin, should you ever want to run here in AK. look up Alaska Mountain Runners. There is the Matanuska Challenge it is 9100 verticle in 14 miles. Sounds like you would do well in that race. It would take me a couple of weeks..ha. This group organizes a group of mountain races including the well known Mt. Marathon race in Seward. I've done the Bird Ridge(uphill only) run a couple of times and it is 3000+ in a couple of miles but my times are around 90 min. and at the bottom of the list of finishers.

I believe the benefits weightlifting continue to be underrated, in addition to muscle strenght the tendons and ligiments are strenghtened. Also, bone density is increased. When lifting heavy the whole body is stressed and thereby strenghtened. I looked at the starting strenght program. It is another system that will work. The author certainly describes the exercises throughly. The main thing I have realized over the years is there is seldom a magic bullet for solving any complex endeavor, and this too applies to conditioning.

Happy Trails,
Pete

Glad I came across this post. I ordered Starting Strength from Amazon and have been reading thru it the past couple weeks, as well as using the technique for the squat. The improvement I have seen in my legs and lower back since Christmas is stunning... used to have back pain all the time, and it is rapidly going away.

thanks guys.