I have been working on getting ready for my 2012 Sheep Hunt. It will be a backpack hunt into the Chugach Range.

To say I started last year at zero physical preparedness would be about true. Until now I have focused on the Cardio - Treadmill, bike, etc. I want to start some strebgth training and with my schedule it would be best at home.

What programs, DVDs, etc, would you recommend?

I would ditch the treadmill and run outside. If there are trails in your area I would recommend these over running on pavement. You'll get a way better workout, treadmills are only 60% of the effort required to actually physically run.

For home workouts I use www.bodyrock.tv for a blend of strength and cardio. A word of caution here, the host is very very attractive and you may spend more time "watching" the videos than actually doing the work.

If you want to buy something I'd recommend P90X, it is strength and cardio with a lean on the strength side. Craigslist usually has them for sale at a fraction of the price. You just need to use the mute button as the host is a typical workout tool (but the exercises are pretty damn good).

I do run outside at times but my knees just ache.

I had been thinking of the P90X or the Core Performance Essentials.

Take your pack that you will be using, or any pack, and weight it up. Walk some trails and hills (preferably). Try to increase your time, speeed, and distance as you progress. This can also be done on your treadmill, if it has an incline feature. If your knees bother you when you run on pavement, there is no need to do it and get an injury that may mess up your hunt. Some weight lifting with the legs would help also.
Good luck!

Find a local Crossfit gym and join it, learn the movements and make them your own. Buy yourself a squat rack, and american-made quality barbell like a York, Pendlay, or Rogue and 260# of rubber bumper plates for your garage. Order the book "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe. Read it twice. Get busy.

Start ramping up the cardio early next summer after crossfitting and lifting from now until then. Do this, and you'll thank me, order some bullschit DVD's and you'll be hurtin' most likely.

Be kind to your knees - don't jog. If you're going to run, for pete's sake RUN - get up and out over your toes and give 'er hell. Long distance jogging is a damaging specialty (JMO). Particulary if you actually plan on shooting something.

Regarding strength - we don't know your age, and that's a fair predictor of your recovery capability. I'd say that if you're <40, then the starting strength protocol should work unless you're otherwise weird. Older than 40 - you may have to water it down slightly and stretch it out.

If you're <40, you need to be geared up and beginning the "starting strength" protocol promptly as soon as you're done hunting this fall. You can do that with ~300lb of iron weights, a bar, some sort of rack to hold the bar chest and hip high, and a flat bench. Run it out until your improvement slows/stops. That should be 4-6 months. Transition then to continued lifting 3 days a week with same movements in different mixes. Your goal should be to not lose your strength

As for "cardio", I'd propose that, from personal experience doing the same thing you're about to, if you have a solid strength base and tough feet, you won't have any problems. Tough feet only come about by walking on uneven ground, loaded, in your boots. "Cardio" takes care of itself.

older guy here(60), i have done alot of biking to get cardio, legs and knees in shape for mtn hunts 1,000 miles or more a summer
that takes care of my lower body and no damage to my knees, will also cause you to lose weight if ya got any extra ya don't need. still need to hit the trail with a pack and put on some miles.
many things you can do with weights for upper body strenght.
Have a great hunt, i will be up by denai park next year,looking for a dall
Thanks for all the ideas

P90X. In 2005, I trained for 9 months by running, stadiums and heavy pack hiking. In 2010, after finishing P90X I was in better shape even though I was 5 years older; and, my knees thanked me.

Well I am 44, and to be honest feeling it. I really have never worked at being in being in shape and that is part of the desire to do this hunt for me. Sometimes I think I am nuts for trying it ... Going from 0 to Chugaches.

I also live in flat Illinois so finding a place to hike up and down is tough. My guide suggested finding a old gravel pit - I am going to start looking for one get "Tough Feet" as Vek suggested.

Lots of good things to think about - thanks. I really like biking as well so that will continue to play a part of my process.

I was 38 last year in the Brooks and live in the swamps of Louisiana if that makes you feel better. I wouldn't preach P90X if it didn't get me in the best shape I've been in since high school.

I agree with Vek that about getting your feet in shape. I would add the hips too. The first time you hike with a heavy pack it puts all kinds of stresses on the hips. Better to work out the kinks before the hunt. Even on flat ground I'd recommend walking with a fairly heavy pack on a regular basis staring 3 months before your hunt. Helps wear the body in all the right places. I just got back from a 5 mile hike with 50lbs. Sheep season less than two weeks....

I don't sheep hunt, but one of my buddies kills sheep almost every year doing walk in hunts. He does p90x pretty regularly. Maybe he'll post on this thread, but he usually posts on AOD.

Not arguing with anything Vek said, but I would add that if you can find a PT 7000 Stepmill:

http://www.amazon.com/StairMaster-Stepmill-7000-PT/dp/B000NZKXNG

Get on this thing maybe twice each week, hard and fast short workout and a longer slower one a few days later.

Also I must mention the Concept II Rower. This is the only piece of "cardio" equipment that is worth spending your hard-earned money on. A new one is about $900 and worth every cent. I found a used one for about half that. Guys on the Crossfit board talk about finding them for $100 from some fat guy but don't count on it.

64 now!!!! Made my living as strength / fitness director at University level. Now at a couple of upscale health clubs, (on SS).. I feel that if one is not spending 80% on cardio, something is missing. P90x is age old circuit training, and effective, but long term injury prone.. I indoor bike x 40 min. 4 days a week intensely. 2 days a week intense racing canoe, x 40 minutes also. So I don't have to lift boring weights. At 6'5", I stay below 210!
But, the biggest advantage for me was teaching myself to filet to backpack. More meat, less torque on back!!!!

Well, you should know better than that then. The man who invented the term aerobic, Dr Ken Cooper MD, has reams of longitudinal studies that prove that the point of diminishing returns for running is fifteen miles/week. A further increase in mileage increases fitness buts yields zero increase in longevity. Really high mileage programs, 50+ miles/week sap testosterone and can lead to muscle loss. No one ever got put into a nursing home because their 5K time was too slow. Nursing homes are full of people who are too weak to extend their hips.

Ramping up the cardio is a good thing before sheep hunt, it only makes sense. It doesn't make sense to do it year round.

Didn't mention running! (I hold lifetime certification from Cooper clinic)... Nursing homes... What? I do what works for me ... good luck!

Call me a little girl but i still think that one of the cheapest most effective ways is jumping rope. Even with a pack on.

add in alot of push ups and squat thrusts...

You mentioned cardio, of which running is but one type, the principal still applies.

Nursing homes? Crossfit founder Greg Glassman has opined that our grandparents and olympic caliber athletes' physical requirement differ only by degree, not by type.

Outside of dementia, inability to extend the hip (rise from a chair, toilet,etc) is what renders the elderly incapable of self-care, ADL etc. Since you didn't seem to get the connection, weight training via functional movements is what forestalls this.

I have a test for you. Measure off 400m. Get a barbell and load your bodyweight on it. After a proper warmup, deadlift it 10 times, then run 400m flat out. Repeat three times and post your time for us. Then after you catch your breath, hang on a pullup bar and see if you can slowly bring your knees up and touch your elbows.

Not a bad workout, but if you do it everyday it won't work, you'll get achilles tendonitis for starters. That would constitute about 1-2% of the typical crossfitter's regimen.

Everyone has seemed to cover everything except swimming. It's a great workout and cooldown after lifting or even on a recovery day from running. A great cardio workout is to do laps taking a breath every stroke and then adding strokes between breaths till you can't do it anymore. You can swim half or even the whole pool lenght before taking a breath for example. You do that awhile and then run again and you'll see a big difference. If you suck at swimming it's an even better workout. Just don't black out and drown. Something different.

Nothing wrong with swimming, everyone should be able to swim, especially packrafters and paddlers of course. Swimming is part of GPP (gen phys preparedness) but unless you are tri training, don't overdo it 'cause it'll lead to bone loss if you use it as a primary form of cardio. The SEALS figured this out a long time ago (actually NASA did, but the SEALS can read and are smart enough to apply it)

One Crossfit workout consists of swimming a lap, climb out, do kettlebell swings, then pushups, repeat 3-5 times. You won't be able to hold your breath, trust me.

I think P90X is 3 months well-spent. I don't think it's something that you want to jump into without any kind of conditioning base, and I don't think it's necessarily the end-all of backpack hunting training. That being said, I did quit 60 days into it (Hey, summer happened ). There is a fair amount that doesn't really transfer to functional fitness IMO (curls, for example).

If you go that way, I'd plan to finish well before your hunting season (at least 2-3 months). Some of the P90X stuff is fairly aggressive, and you will want to be somewhat careful to avoid injury/allow for recovery time.

I'd also want to have some time set aside for just putting on a pack and walking up some hills after all the beach body stuff is done...

I also quit after about 2 mounths of P90X back in april. I couldnt keep doing it while trying to go hiking and mountain biking. I was to tired and sore to want to go out and do something. Its great to do during the winter and then hit the hills in the spring.

deadlifts x 400 m sprint x 3

That hurts me just reading this!!

Take this for what it's worth as I have never hunted sheep. But a few years ago I read an article in Backpacker magazine about Ed Viesturs'workout. The basis for the article was that he spent alot of time in the gym lifting and his new trainer basically said it was a waste of time. Take for instance a traditional benchpress or squat, what real world scenario does this mimic? None. Instead his trainer tried to teach him to get the the same muscle groups working, but from an unstable platform like a stability ball. This forces you to engage your abs with every exercise. I think the most important part of the equation is a strong core, everything stems from there. This article was published in 2006 sometime and you may be able to find it on the net. I would check in with a personal trainer that specializes in this type of thing. To bring it home all you will need are a few dumbells, resistence bands and a stability ball. As far a the debate about cardio, if you're a busy guy I don't think you'll have enough time to worry about doing so much cardio that you begin to hurt yourself and have to worry about loosing muscle mass to an unhealthy level. 80% (or something about there) of olypic atheletes workouts are done at conversation pace. Meaning they aren't winded to the can hold a conversation with a running partner (or whatever). This type of exercise will burn fat, and also increase the strenghth of your heart. Thats whats going to be really important ( I would think) at high altitude. Again, not a sheep hunter but thought I would share my two cents. Good luck!

One of the strangest incidents that a guide friend of mine had happen in Alaska occurred a couple of years ago. They were in the Talkeetnas with a client who was a 30 something tri-athlete. Looked the part for sure but at the end of day 2, he done. Literally could not go on. After two days, he was able to climb and luckily got his ram. In retrospect, the guide, who is a mountain racer of some notoriety, thought the hunter wasn't as good as he had convinced himself.

Doesn't sound strange to me, swimming, cycling, and road running don't involve moving any weight 'cept yourself. Altitude wasn't an issue 'cause the Talkeetnas aren't that high.

I have been on several mountain goat and sheep hunts and have tried numerous training methods.

The best is sport specific. Weight your back packs up slowly over time and try to mimic conditions. You must find some method of side hilling steep terrain and walking with backpack over uneven terrain.

This is after you are in shape cardio wise. When you can go on a 4 hour hike with no trouble you are ready to start training the tendons and muscles.

Remember that being in shape is not the same as sheep shape.

Seldom in our daily lives do we spend up to 12 hours a day for several days in a row climbing around on uneven and steep terrain.

Good luck. It is something you will never forget!!

No truer words were ever spoken

Sure. You are gonna be sore as hell even if you are fit, because of the volume of activity. A fit person will accomodate and recover from that volume MUCH faster and more completely than an unfit person.

How do you prepare for hundreds of yards of bowling ball sized rocks, with super sharp edges, on a slope?

Don't know if anyone mentioned this, but if you live where its flat, you could try weighing your pack down and running or walking fire escape stairs in a tall building. Seems like it would work well. I've never done it personally because I live in the mountains. I backpack hunt for elk and all I can say is work out till you're questioning your sanity. It still won't be enough...

The same way you prepare for more than a dozen miles of the same - by getting really freaking strong and letting the chips fall from there. Screw "cardio".

Lunges, lunges holding a barbell plate overhead, pistols (one-legged squats), box jumps, jumping rope, body weight squats, BARBELL SQUATS. In otherwords, just do Crossfit.

The Crossfit Games were held this past weekend. You can pull up the competitors stats online. All the top tier competitors had impressive lifts totals, but they also had 18-20m 5K times, so obviously they don't think they should "screw" cardio. They are getting a ton of cardio from Crossfit itself, but they are also putting in some miles.

Two of the seven exercises you mention are worthwhile. The rest are runofthemill calisthenics, bar tricks (pistols), or things that folks with limited strength flat-out shouldn't do (box jumps).

Lots of strength (and resultant joint stability), lots of power (sprints and oly lifts), lots of lower leg toughness, and a modicum of aerobic ability; that's what I as a middle aged ex-jock aspire to. Like I mentioned before, #4 takes care of itself in developing #3, and not having #3 will screw up your hunt LONG before not having #4 will. #s 1 and 2 contribute greatly to not hurting one's self when packing heavy on crappy terrain.

I am with you vek, i think take a knee is a little over the top,
nothing better than getting on the trail with your pack and hoofing it around, have to agree with strength and cardio built up over many months

I'd be very interested in hearing his sheep hunting stories...

I spent a quite a bit of time in sheep country (Denali and the Talkeetnas) roaming about when I was stationed at Wainwright but never got a chance to hunt them.

Holy Chit, doing my cardio in the Georgia mountains and was swarmed by yellow jackets today, had to bail. A sting in the ear is a be-auch! Feels like I was hit in the ear with a hammer

Ouch on the ear! Those little insects are sneaky. Haven't been after sheep but have been high in the Rockies walking those rock fields. I do not like it, but if you want to get sheep you have to be able to do it. It wore me out and I'm a grinder who has logged several super long days in the mountains on search and rescue with a backpack, run (literally) garbage routes carrying a lot of weight all day long and played college basketball a long time ago. I'm 57 and my goal is protecting my joints while gaining strength. I'll include low back in the joint protection. Got some great advice from my orthopedic surgeon after a second knee surgery last year, "Make the elliptical machine your friend, save the pounding for the things that matter and use the trekking poles." He's been one of the best sports medicine docs in the NW and his advice makes a lot of sense. I've let the young guys help me at the gym and they like the body weight exercises until they feel like they've strengthened the joints and lost enough fat. They like the balance exercises because they strengthen all the muscles that stabilize the joints using the balance balls. If you think your cores is in shape do a plank on an exercise ball. If you are like me, your obliques will tell you they are working like they never have.
If the sheep hunt is anything like going after elk at 10K feet on rocks, a combination of balance, strength and cardio is in order. Even then, you gonna be tired!
FWIW, we used to get the muscled up guys running garbage routes with us in the '70's and they almost always couldn't last the first day. It took a mindset of grinding it out and not quitting to get through the week or two of getting in shape. High mountain hunting requires that same kind of mindset and preparation. Sure seems worth it to me!

What do you consider "Muscled Up"? There's a substantial difference between the guy who waxes, tans and wears tanktops and the lean guy who can't hardly find pants that fit his thighs and arse.

The last sentence of the second paragraph on page three, along with reading the earlier pages describing the author, sum up my thoughts on "core" work:

http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie/3

Your guys at the gym like body weight exercises and balance balls because they are not difficult to learn, teach, or do.

Another passing thought - any barbell-based leg work (squats, deads, cleans) requires spine stabilization via contraction of all of your trunk muscles, through the entire range of motion of the exercise. By the time you get to working with dead and squat sets with weights exceeding 1.5x your bodyweight, you're going to have a pretty robust "core" by default.

That's a fact. Want an "ab" workout? Start putting a heavy barbell over your head. Situps on a glute-ham developer are good but in no way a substitute for putting a heavy weight over your head.

Try this. Find a barbell and squat rack. Get your shoulders warm with just the bar doing shoulder presses, then load half your bodyweight on the bar and do a few shoulder presses. Easy? It should be. I'm an old man (51) and I can shoulder press 80% of my bodyweight. A stud can do 100%. Your abs will be talking to you the next day.

Also, like I've posted before, if you can't hang on a pullup bar and slowly bring your knees up and touch your elbows, you have a weak core, I don't care how many crunches you can do.

Somehow I don't think these "muscled-up" guys would have much trouble in sheep country:

http://pd.crossfit.com/games/video/G2011-Archive_MenEvent3Rope_Heat5.mov

That event was from the 2011 Crossfit Games last weekend. The man who won that particular event also took the title "fittest on earth". I don't think he used an elliptical machine to get that way.

Explain this "knees to elbows" move from the pullup bar. Are you supposed to do this with straight arms or bent?

Strait arms

You can also do ankles to wist if the KtoE is to easy.

There is a lot of exercise vids at http://www.mtnathlete.com/

Keep 'em straight if you can, the straighter they are, the more powerful of a lat contraction will be required, but do the best you can, if you have to bend them, then bend them. Here's a vid:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Knees2Elbows.mov

Resist the urge to do the knee to elbow motion with any kind of kip or rapidity until you feel that you're pretty damn strong - I pulled a pec doing same (rapidly for time) after having done them for over a year at a slower pace.

That same principal applies to just about everything else in Crossfit when you first start. They say as much on the website. So many of those movements are utterly alien to most of us, it's quite possible to injure yourself. The upside is once you get "trained up", you are more difficult to injure.

I'll give it a shot tonight... I know I can do it with bent arms, not sure about straight arms.

Well, I didn't try anything on the pullup bar - went for a hike instead.

Back to the OP, the best way to get in shape as far as I can tell is to get a hunting partner that sends you text messages like this: "14 miles today and 9100 feet up."

Knowing that you've got to keep up with that guy for 10 days, will motivate a guy.

These are moves that this old man will just have to not do! Admirable, but not for me!

i am with you doc, to old for some on the stuff the young guys can do. am just going to be in good shape and my war party
will put some thunder on sheep

Can't do it... I'm within a couple of inches, but not touching. I'll fix that...

Dude, that's GOOD! I live near a large AFB and go to their large gym there occasionally, I have guys half my age attempt it, most can't get their knees above their nipple line, if that high. Like Vek said though, don't get ballistic any time soon.

Dan's doing great!