Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Stair stepper at gym

Be worth getting pointers on how biathlon train, consider they have to learn how to shoot straight- steady
from various positions after busting their lungs out over 12 mile course while humping at least a 7.7 lb
rifle the whole time..

both speed and endurance and you will notice they don't exactly have chicken legs...

http://fasterskier.com/fsarticle/wednesday-workout-double-poling-with-biathlete-tim-burke/

Great to see this thread. I have been hitting the stairmaster regularly for the last year+ in anticipation of my first mountain hunt this fall. I have lost 20#, but was wondering how good of an exercise it really is from a preparation standpoint, so glad to see others with experience saying it is good. I never hold the handles....have not tried going backwards yet, but will do that next time.

Have also started doing the treadmill at 13 to 15 degree incline depending on the day. Sometimes with pack on, sometimes without. One thing I thought about is on the stairmaster I am picking my foot straight up and then putting it straight back down, whereas on the treadmill I am putting weight initially on my heel and then the weight/pressure moves towards my toes as I go through a more natural walking motion. So I am thinking the mix is probably good.

Go side ways, backwards and even skip steps to lift the body and try not to hold the side bars

Regular stairs with a heavy pack are the best way to replicate climbing for is flatlanders but dont forget going down stairs.

Do it as slow as possible....this builds up your brakes and trust me you will need strong brakes

IME, if you don't have mountains or hills to climb on, surely there is a school in your town....

Start with 20 pounds and your hiking boots and start on the bleachers. Up and down and sideways as you go up and down....

Increase weight accordingly....

I'm not a machine fan....

Most elite bike racers and biathlon athletes are born with genetic advantages. Bigger than normal hearts and lungs. I.E. larger cubic inch engine and turbo charge, along with the gene that produces the correct muscles when stressed. Then the training fine tunes the machine and you best be young to be able to endure the stress. They exist on fast twist explosive muscles. Hunting is more of a slow twist muscle, long haul endurance game.

Before my knee gave up on me, I ran at the highest level for 45 minutes on ours. The sweat would puddle in the tray below. I loved it then, can’t do it no mo’.

That and also resistance training. Strong legs, hips, and core are never a bad thing when carrying a pack.

Biathlon originated from military patrol training where guys (who were not genetic freak blessed Olympians) were required
to hump 50+ lb packs up and down slopes for 16 miles.. some of the condition training used by biathletes can be incorporated
by hunters in their regime to some benefit.

btw; Ive never heard it called 'twist'...all the decades I've followed or studied any kind of condition training it has been
referred to as fast or slow 'twitch' MFT.

My error, twitch is the correct word.

Battue, thanks for the considered reply.

A few words on fast vs slow twitch fibers....

https://www.acefitness.org/educatio...slow-twitch-vs-fast-twitch-muscle-fibers


Hunting is for the most part a slow twitch activity.

My biggest concern while hunting in the mountains, besides being able to breath, is the down hill trek. This is where I fear blowing out my knees. I usually slow it down to a snail pace and make sure my footing is good. Not sure other than stairs, in the flat country I live in, can help with the conditioning and stress that going down a hill can induce?

Really? Define the activities that comprise "hunting." And then add a heavy backpack (this is the backpack hunting forum right?) and some steep mountains.

That's the part I train for, the rest is taken care of just by getting out and being active. YMMV.

As far as bike racers, sprinters = fast twitch, distance racers slow twitch.

Smoke,

Yes it is the backpack forum, obviously. Now, I take even the serious BP hunting you people do as a long distance endurance activity, and to quote the article....

"Therefore, if you find that you tend to enjoy more endurance-based activities and that they are relatively easy for you, you probably have a greater number of slow-twitch fibers. Conversely, if you really dislike going for long runs, but enjoy playing sports that rely on short bursts of explosive movements, or if you like weight training because it is relatively easy, you are probably fast-twitch fiber dominant."

Does one use the "explosive" fibers with the hunting you do? Most definitely, but the turtle and the hare, seems to be a good analogy when it come to most hunting. The heavy back back only adds to the necessity for placing considerable emphasis on slow twitch fibers. You rarely run with it, but you do carry it for the long haul and that requires muscle fibers that can recharge relatively quickly. And that's my mileage until proven wrong.

Now, FWIW I recently had a conversation with an Orthopedic doc at the Mario Lemieux Medical Sports Complex. She was also presently engaged in writing the questions for the retesting that is required periodically for re-certification in the Orthopedic speciality. One of which would be the role of HIIT in training. In her opinion, it is the most beneficial activity for aerobic improvement vs long distance running. In addition, she said as we age it becomes more important with regards maintaining a high aerobic level while decreasing the chance of injury. Her recommendation-if one can still jog-was hill intervals. Jog up/walk down and repeat while trying to increase your number of repeats. As usual, check with you physician when it comes to physical training.

As an aside, a couple weeks ago we bought our own Birds and had an all day hunt. About 20 of us with Bird Dogs and we spit up. Around 8 hours of hunting in the cold. Two heart attacks post hunt. One guy 64 who is still with us and another middle 50's who isn't. The guy who isn't looked to be someone who could walk all day.

So ya, really.

battue - good link!

Harry, a couple of comments. To carry a heavy pack you need strength, and that means working on (training) your fast twitch muscles. My sheep hunt a couple years ago was the best example in my experience. The first leg of the pack out was up a steep rocky ridge with a heavy pack and 3K vertical. It was like a half-day stair climb with a heavy pack and before we started the guide told me the plan--go until you could feel the lactic acid build up (the "burn") then find a good rock to sit down on and recover for a few minutes (with the pack on) and let your muscles get rid of the lactic acid. And repeat. That kind of effort uses fast twitch muscles. One practical difference between fast twitch and slow twitch is related to whether the muscles go anaerobic and build up lactic acid faster than the muscles can get rid of it, which then requires recovery. Slow twitch muscles used in endurance don't do that, if they did you'd see endurance racers stopping to recover frequently. It's not a strict correlation because endurance athletes can push their aerobic threshold higher through training, and avoid lactic acid buildup that way. A strong heart and lungs are important too but anyone who does strenuous workouts will build cardio fitness.

And the same principal is at work with interval training. One of the big benefits of intervals (if you do them right) is that when you do the high intensity interval, your muscles go anaerobic and build up lactic acid. And then when you slow down to an aerobic pace for the recovery part of the interval, your muscles are forced to dissipate the lactic acid while you are still exercising at an aerobic pace. That helps a lot on multiple-day strenuous hunts because your muscles get very efficient at getting rid of lactic acid and you're not sore and sluggish every morning after a hard day.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

No doubt we need a combination of both. Perhaps the little runts like myself have learned to get it done with a majority of slow twitch, because I most certainly have litttle of the other, and have little choice.

Then there are those who don’t produce lactic acid in comparison to the normal population, and they have the capacity to perform incredible acts of endurance. We all are most certainly not created equal.

Interesting conversation.

My stairstepper this morning.....

If only that were true.

Tour de France offers a mix of terrains and physical demand-tests....a typical TdF can have something like; seven flat stages,
five hill stages, six mountain stages (with four summit finishes), as well as time trials.

To win such a contest requires an optimal mix of muscle type.
Riding long hours at “moderate” intensity - smaller muscles with slow-twitch are more important as they offer better efficiency.

Diifferences in proportion of Type I and Type II muscle fibre (from rider to rider) explains why some TdF cyclists
are stronger in sprints and time trial, while others dominate on the long inclines.
The better 'sprinters' of the TdF have a higher percentage of fast-twitch, but not to the degree of specialist track sprint cyclists....
STS guys would do lousy in the TdF because their large muscle bulk of fast-twitch would not perform very well when it comes
to coping with fatigue in the many endurance stages.

Muscle type composition in the majority of endurance athletes (cyclists, biathlon, X-country ski, rowers, swimmers)
is characterised by a predominance of [Type-I] slow twitch fibres.

Well, I must admit I had my fast/slow twitch advantages mixed by definition. My mistake again, but you are correct. From what I have read and been told, endurance is more dependent on slow twitch.