Crossfit the methodology will get you into pretty good all around shape.
Crossfit GYMS and COACHES vary dramatically, and as a result so does the culture/environment they create to work in. The good ones will probably provide some of the best possible situations for training, the bad ones can be pretty bad about putting folks in positions to get themselves hurt.
Doing a mix of strength training with power & olympic lifting, HIIT, and some longer stuff intelligently will pretty much always work well. Intelligently being the key word there. Lots of folks are doing this and calling it Crossfit, and lots of folks are doing this and railing against Crossfit. The gym I currently go to did first one, then the other! I do their normal everyday programming most of the year, but have been doing a cycle right before hunting season where I do more long stuff and less strength training. One of the nice things that they offer is that they will customize programming to suit your goals/needs/injuries etc.
I agree completely!
Regarding the part I bolded, it's like any profession. Some are VERY good, many are good, and some are VERY bad. A good Crossfit coach is no different than any other type of 'trainer'; they will help you get in better shape. A bad one, whether they work in a Crossfit box or not will hamper you.
IMO/E a good coach/trainer will tailor or modify the workout for the person doing the work. This should happen, whether at a CF gym or not. Barring any physical injury, most all folks can do the same movements. Just some do them faster or with more weight. For example, Tanner can do muscle ups, I cannot. So if the workout calls for them he does them, I substitute jumping pullups and dips. We're still doing basically the same movements.
For most of us the "brand" of exercise we get is less important that getting exercise. However, if you do what was suggested in the first sentence of Carl's post, you'll get in better shape, regardless of how bad-assed you are right now.
1. Do no harm, I don't care how good it is or how many rave about it, if it hurts you, it's worse than useless, Crossfit fits this in a big way.
Could you elaborate on this a bit?
Crossfit is something that interests me. There's even a box that does a workout at noon that I could make before work.
BUT, where I work out now, two of the regulars there are chiropractors. They tell horror stories about crossfitters. I've never liked the idea of using inertia to lift weight, and neither do they....
So run it down to me TAK...
My wife has taken care of patients that have been permanently dibilitated by chiropractors. Just like Crossfit coaches, some are good at what they do and some are not and sometimes bad luck just happens...
Use a treadmill. Find a comfortable walking speed. Buy a heart rate monitor. Maintain 75% of max heart rate. Control heart rate with the incline on treadmill (this works best for me, versus controlling with speed, I like a comfortable and consistent walking pace).
Start with 3 lbs in each hand and work up. Start at 25 reps, work up to 50 reps, then go up a pound.
Procedure:
Set your speed and incline on treadmill. You may have to adjust incline periodically to regulate heart rate. You will walk continuously throughout process.
Grab your weights and start walking. You will continuously hold/walk with the weights. There will be three different lifts. I have found 2 minute lift cycles to be best.
Use the first two minutes as warm up. When the treadmill timer hits 2:00 minutes do 25 (work up) lateral raises. Coordinate your lifts with your steps. At 4:00 minutes do 25 chest flyes, at 6:00 do 25 shoulder presses. At 8:00 start the cycle over.
Do 5 cycles which equals 30 minutes, then a 2 minute cool down for a total of 32 minutes. Do this five times a week.
With a treadmill at home, it doesn't get more convenient. Its easy to maintain indefinitely; a lifestyle if you will.
You will be absolutely amazed at the results. When you've worked up to 7 lbs and 50 reps at 6 incline with your heart rate still in range you'll be amazed at how light that rifle feels on the hill, and how the hill doesn't fill so steep anymore.
BTW, this was developed by a doctor who did extensive testing to find the most in shape athletes from a cardiovascular standpoint. His findings were that cross country skiers were the most cardiovascular fit. He attributed this to constant work with the hands at or above heart level, and thus developed this exercise.
I've had three now. The first lasted about 2 years, broke down many times. Mostly covered on warranty but a month or more of down time in mid winter was aweful.
Second was a much more expensive unit, but not gym quality. It was about the same as the first, about 3 years. Or so, started tripping circuit breaker, and then died. Replaced electronics and motor and breaker and on so on.
Spoke with the service guy, and he said the residential models are good for a couple years of consistent moderate use or less with hard use. Hard use is 3-4 miles a day at 6-7 min miles. Full incline is lower stress on the equipment then level.
He repaired things under warranty and I traded it in to him for a fully refurbished hotel treadmill. This one is probably 300-400 pounds permanently lubed belt and built like a tank. Gave me a 3 year full parts and labor warranty and said it will never break or wear out no matter what I do on it. Kinda took that as a challenge!
Having been through this, I would buy a refurbished gym, hotel commercial model with a warranty. The residential models simply don't hold up
www.huntingadventures.net Are you living your life, or just paying bills until you die? When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)
Use a treadmill. Find a comfortable walking speed. Buy a heart rate monitor. Maintain 75% of max heart rate. Control heart rate with the incline on treadmill (this works best for me, versus controlling with speed, I like a comfortable and consistent walking pace).
Start with 3 lbs in each hand and work up. Start at 25 reps, work up to 50 reps, then go up a pound.
Procedure:
Set your speed and incline on treadmill. You may have to adjust incline periodically to regulate heart rate. You will walk continuously throughout process.
Grab your weights and start walking. You will continuously hold/walk with the weights. There will be three different lifts. I have found 2 minute lift cycles to be best.
Use the first two minutes as warm up. When the treadmill timer hits 2:00 minutes do 25 (work up) lateral raises. Coordinate your lifts with your steps. At 4:00 minutes do 25 chest flyes, at 6:00 do 25 shoulder presses. At 8:00 start the cycle over.
Do 5 cycles which equals 30 minutes, then a 2 minute cool down for a total of 32 minutes. Do this five times a week.
With a treadmill at home, it doesn't get more convenient. Its easy to maintain indefinitely; a lifestyle if you will.
You will be absolutely amazed at the results. When you've worked up to 7 lbs and 50 reps at 6 incline with your heart rate still in range you'll be amazed at how light that rifle feels on the hill, and how the hill doesn't fill so steep anymore.
BTW, this was developed by a doctor who did extensive testing to find the most in shape athletes from a cardiovascular standpoint. His findings were that cross country skiers were the most cardiovascular fit. He attributed this to constant work with the hands at or above heart level, and thus developed this exercise.
It works.
It works, huh? Works for what? To help you walk on a treadmill and wave your arms around? These are "gym moves", that will do little or nothing to "Enable you to move large loads, long distance, quickly."
"Functional movements are categorically unique in their ability to express power".
How is the "treadmill arm wave" going to help you powerclean your body weight? Deadlift twice your bodyweight? Run uphill fast to escape a fire? Pick up and don a 100# pack?
Anytime someone gives you a "dialed in", very specific routine for "fitness" and braggs about how it "works", all you have to do is pick something other than or far outside of that routine and have them do it for time to crush them. IE, 10 body-weight deadlifts, 400m run, three rounds for time.
Having said all the above, I would readily agree that ANY exercise beats the hell out of NO exercise, but be aware or docs with magic pills, and be aware of gimmicky workout programs that will produce athleticism without athletics.
Instead of me giving myself carpal tunnel from typing, if anyone actually gives a damn and wants to actually know more about crossfit, then go to the source:
Parts one and two are about 50min, and IMO, well worth your time
JJ, agree wholeheartedly on a quality treadmill. You most definitely get what you pay for. I didn't go as far as the commercial route because I didn't plan to run but I did go with an upper end Sole. So far so good.
1. Do no harm, I don't care how good it is or how many rave about it, if it hurts you, it's worse than useless, Crossfit fits this in a big way.
Could you elaborate on this a bit?
Crossfit is something that interests me. There's even a box that does a workout at noon that I could make before work.
BUT, where I work out now, two of the regulars there are chiropractors. They tell horror stories about crossfitters. I've never liked the idea of using inertia to lift weight, and neither do they....
So run it down to me TAK...
My wife has taken care of patients that have been permanently dibilitated by chiropractors. Just like Crossfit coaches, some are good at what they do and some are not and sometimes bad luck just happens...
A chiropractor got me over my last "crossfit injury" in 2013. My spine and especially my neck, feel like they/it did in my youth. Going to a chiropractor once a month, and occasionally going to a no-schit massage guy who knows how to dig and do deep-tissue massage (you don't go to this for fun or pleasure) can go a LONG way towards keeping you healthy and functional.
It may work for you, but "works for what" is a valid question if you're offering advice in response to a question on the backpack hunting forum, i.e., does it work for backpacking loads on uneven ground, up and down hills or mountains?
Nothing wrong with a GOOD treadmill, especially those who live in snow country, but hands down, the best bang for your buck is a Concept II rowing machine. I bought mine used from the Univ of GA for $430, broke it down into two pieces, and put in my old Honda Accord and drove home with it. It is/was pretty beat up but still works great. When you are done working out, you just stand it up on its end, takes up just a few feet of floor space.
After a rower, I'd buy a good, hard-tail 26in mountain bike, with a QUALITY front shock. You bigger guys might want to consider one of the new 29in bikes.
Next I'd consider a treadmill maybe, but if you have deep pockets, get a stepmill. I just go to a gym nearby once every week or two and get on one.
Well, that's interesting since it appears to be a cardio and upper body workout, but doesn't strengthen the major muscles in your legs, back, and torso. I've worked with a few different talented trainers and when I told them my objectives were to be able to hump heavy loads in the mountains, they all focused on those areas as well as cardio.
I was probably one of the biggest treadmill skeptics.
If you get a chance to get on one that will go to at least a 15deg incline, set the speed to 3.5-4 mph Don't touch the hand holds just walk up the incline hands free.
It's not going to injure you, or make your miserable. No joint damage, no impact. In 30 minutes, if you can make it that long without grabbing the hand holds you will have walked up hill 2 plus miles. And your sweat and heart rate will reflect this.
Certainly not perfect, but no one posting here is headed to the Olympic training center either. The biggest risk I find in training is working hard enough to create injury or soreness. This screws up my ability to do what the entire training and fitness process was intended to improve!
Over 40 a pull or sprain does not heal in days. It's a week or two. Get hurt worse then this and it's a month plus. In your 20s and 30s miss a few days or a week and your back to full fitness in a few days of workouts. Over 50 miss a week and you lose a month of fitness.
I can't speak to how much worse this gets over 60 yet, I'll let you know when I get there. The point is, that it's a fine line where training and fitness intersect with injury and the complete loss of fitness from the lost time required for healing. Then having to begin all over again when healed.
The phrase no pain no gain is no longer applicable to its full extent beyond about 45-50 years old. It's more about maintainable fitness, no longer competitive fitness. There are reductions in the chemicals produced in an older man. Those are critical to achieve maximum capacity. It's why injury and healing are so much different then in your 20s.
Anyone reading this in there early 30s to 40s should set the foundation for their older years now. Maintain bone density and muscle mass. It's much easier and better to maintain it for life then to attempt to create it at 50 plus years old.
www.huntingadventures.net Are you living your life, or just paying bills until you die? When you hit the pearly gates I want to be there just to see the massive pile of dead 5hit at your feet. ( John Peyton)
Certainly not perfect, but no one posting here is headed to the Olympic training center either.....
The phrase no pain no gain is no longer applicable to its full extent beyond about 45-50 years old.
You will get returns from your workouts proportional to the effort you expend, if it is done properly. As for the Olympics, "The needs of our grandmothers and those of Olympic athletes differ by degree, not by type"
These were defined by Jim Crawley and Bruce Evans, makers of Dynamax medicine balls. If you can come up with another attribute, let 'em know. Also, if you can figure out which of these attributes you have little or no need for in your silver years, you'd best be purchasing your long-term care insurance today, and like Glassman said in the vid I posted a link too, enjoy that green jello.
Last edited by Take_a_knee; 01/17/14. Reason: spellin
There are several different ideas and even thoughts about what exactly fitness is. Some are only concerned with "mountain" shape with little or to no regards in being fit for life.
One dimensional views of "fitness" very often result in failure. This happens because physical and mental stress in life are varied and not one dimensional.
Long time distance runners die of heart problems, are weak, injure easily, and suck at everything but near naked running in tennis shoes. The aerobic ability that they posses does not transfer over that well to the repetitive stop and go nature of carrying heavy things up steep inclines. For sure the endurance itself is beneficial, however there are much better ways to get there.
Crossfit is awesome and at the same time, horrible. The positive community atmosphere and motivation helps to get people engaged and keep them consistently involved. As well when done correctly and intelligently it offers great capabilities in fitness. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Crossfit gyms and "trainers" have no experience and knowledge of exercise physiology or competently coaching the Olympic lifts. The "trainers' encourage and at times demand through peer pressure that participants keep going to beat the clock even under atrocious form and outright failure. Crossfit fails itself by incorporating olympic lifts under the timer and doing them until muscle failure. That is when injuries happen, and my god they happen with Crossfit. More than any other exercise "system" in common usage. Because Crossfit purports that Crossfit as laid out with the WOD is the only fitness needed for everyone, they will not admit that as laid out Crossfit is not a one stop shop. In fact those with real history of producing phenomenal athletes, and even those with a bit of critical thinking ability, easily see the major flaws in their methodology and non prioritization. Yes, despite the non sense of CF HQ, prioritization is very important. Every single truly successful training program for every single task by mankind follows a crawl/walk/run sequence.
Now lest anyone think that I am anti Crossfit, I am not. I am anti stupidity and wholesale relinquishment of critical thinking skills in order to follow lock step. My own history of CF is like many others. I was introduced to it during the mid 2000's at work. I was in what I believed to be phenomenal shape. I remember thinking between blackouts during Fight Gone Bad, how bad A I was and that this shouldn't be happening to me. Following that I started doing Crossfit religiously. After 4 solid months of following the workout of the day, with every workout straddling that brink of puking and passing out, I really was in phenomenal "shape". I was by far the fastest of any that I worked out with, and my times were competitive regionally.
I also had reoccurring flu like symptoms, overuse (actually under recovery) injuries, and had plateaued physically. But CF swore that you can't plateau with CF, so I continued. At 6 months I started using my brain again. The love fest with the WOD stopped. I realized to get better that I needed to get stronger. That durability is a huge part of fitness and that your body can not recover and repair when going truly all out every workout, every day. Soon thereafter I was also introduced to another program that was researched, developed, validated and implemented by a sister organization with the help of the best coaches, organizations, and sports medicine professionals in the world. That program found that there was a lot right about CF and a lot wrong with Crossfit.
What Crossfit gets right is that too much specialization is suicide, Olympic lifts, pure strength and 'functional" fitness, high intensity training workouts, and anaerobic endurance.
What it gets wrong is technical Olympic lifts under time and fatigue, no knowledgeable coaches or training in those lifts, "holy chit" workouts everyday, training way past muscle failure everyday, inadequate recovery, inadequate raw strength, no prioritization.
I will post more later as I'm out of time, however I want those who believe that hiking in the mountains is the best thing for getting in hiking in the mountains shape, to think about that if doing a sport is the best way to get physically better at the sport, why does any professional sport have gyms and put so much emphasis on strength and conditioning?
Form, thanks for that post... Very helpful and constructive.
I think my saying that hiking the mountains is the best way to prepare for hiking hard whole hunting left a lot open for interpretation. Throughout the year I train as often as school and work permit, usually 5-6 days a week, and so far it has helped me immeasurably with the demanding physical aspect of mountain hunting.
But hiking, and hiking as hard as I can in the "off" season, I've noticed, has helped more with my hiking pace, how I breathe, how my muscles respond to heavy loads, and the mental part of ascending big verticals. Undoubtedly it aids in the physical endurance part, but I would not rely on hiking solely for that. Thanks again for your post...
I'm certainly no genius of fitness, but a couple of points:
Your needs are your own, and you don't need to justify what you do to anybody other than yourself and possibly a hunting partner that you need to keep up with. Standards are great, but many people are never going to be able to deadlift twice their body weight, and many of those people will be just fine. The same warning about "magic" workouts applies to "magic" standards such as this. Random "fitness tests" are fun too, but honestly I wouldn't put too much emphasis on them. You don't need to be the world's fittest man to carry a deer over your shoulders or pack a sheep off a mountain.
Along those same lines, you (living in your body every day) are in a unique position to know your particular strengths and weaknesses. So maintain your strengths and put some serious effort into your weaknesses. Most people do the opposite, and rationalize away their weaknesses. They "don't really need cardio" or "don't really need to be stronger". If that is really true, great - if not, why not focus on the things you need to improve on?
If you work yourself to the point of serious injury close enough to the season you can guarantee failure on a particular hunt. So, a little caution is in order, and Elkhunter_241 made that point well. A training injury in the winter may set you back a few weeks, but the same injury during late summer (for me) means that I don't go sheep hunting. That is not an acceptable risk for me. I tend to taper off a bit as a hunt approaches, for a couple of reasons. One is the injury thing, and the other is that I prefer go go into a hunt with a little fat on me, and I can't keep body fat if I'm working out with any regularity.
There is a difference between pain and injury. Pain is good for you. Not only is it an indication that you are pushing yourself, it conditions you to dealing with pain which many people are really terrible at. "No Pain No Gain" doesn't mean go out there and pull a hamstring but power though it. It means to push yourself. Listen to your body but don't be a pussy. The two are not mutually exclusive.
