Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Physical conditioning books????

Kute-trust me on this, my knees are about as crappy as they come so I truly no what you mean by low impact. The bike and the eliptical are all you need now.

As for the music in the back ground, perhaps an ipod with your own liking would help. I mean anyone who likes the T3's as much you do has to have an ipod right....grins

If, your knees can take it lunges with little or no weight can help.

Squats with little or no weight can help as well. Just don't go below 90!

Each and every day I do (at the house or wherever) sit ups, push ups, toe raisers and squats without weight. I've done the sit ups and push ups for over 15 years now and have never ever missed a day. The leg exercises I've been doing for 2 years now and haven't missed a day on them once.

Walking the steps can be good as well if you're knees will take it. I can walk but I can't run them like Brad can. Of course he's kind of an anorexic lil Norske anyway...grins

Good luck to ya, and this is way mo fun to talk about than ballistic gack an such.

Dober

340 ther old Schwinn Air dyne is the one I have at the house, that and a treadmill that I can put up to max incline (10%) and walk along on it.

Goood machines for sure!

Dober

Heck Kute I didn't know you could get in good physical condition reading books!! <grin>

perhaps you aint been reading the right books....grins

Dober

Haha!

Sweet...

Kutenay, thinking "Old Geezer" I just turned 38 today. An honest review of time's ravages on my carcass, I can honestly point to arthritis in my knees, a torn rotor cuff in my left shoulder, a torn tendon in my right thigh, and carpal tunnel - fixed in my left hand. Not too bad right. You could get worse skateboarding!

I walk behind a 48" mower all Spring and Summer and use an elliptical machine and swim at the Y in the off season. That's my cardiovascular stuff. When I feel like doing some rehab, I've got a stretchy band from shoulder rehab therapist I play with.

Maintaining flexibility, range of motion, and cardiovascular fitness without stressing the joints is where it's at for me right now. Ideas?

Yoga.

Yoga??

Do you use that for stretching mostly or also for cardiovascular??

Swimming and H20 aerobics are excellent as well. My wife runs a motel and from time to time I go down and work in the pool. I tell you a routine of swimming laps and running laps big time kicks my butt!

Dober

Chasing women keeps me in shape. The secret is not to catch one. If you catch one then all the chasin is over and there goes your fitness program.

You have got to love cutting wood.
This the high price of stove oil you just about have to.

We are still running up here and its about -25F.

Ice fog is a little nasty to run through but its ok.

Have fun,

Sincerely,
Thomas

Kaboku68- I'd love to see a photo of you and your runny pards in the ice fog. What type of gear do you wear?

Mark

Give www.crossfit.com a look. Not neccessarily 'low impact', but I'm pretty sure that putting their principles to work will get you in shape.

Kutenay:
Jim in Oregon and Dakaton gave you some good starting advice. Some others told you how to have fun-grinn!!, yea baby!!-but unfortunately exercise for exercise sake is not always fun. When we were young, play, sports, hunting, whatever was usually all we needed. Our activity level was such that staying in decent shape just came naturally. Therefore it didn�t seem like work. Now that we are older you have to make a commitment to yourself that this is something that is important to you and it will be an ongoing part of your life.
From your post it seems you are already making an effort with your hiking on those days you can. So you have a good foundation.
However,IMO I don't think at this time your answer will be found in a book. Maybe later if you really get into it, but for now just find something that keeps you moving and gives you some form of resistance training. Knowing what little I do about you from the internet, I think a treadmill that has the capability for elevation changes would be something that you would enjoy. Put a light pack on while using it and you may find a form of exercise that is familiar and enjoyable to you. Combine this with some old fashioned weight training and you would be off to a good start.
One of the other posters mentioned yoga. Years ago I would not given that much thought. I was wrong. Flexibility is another aspect of fitness that becomes more important as we age. (You and I are close to the same age.) I am just starting to try yoga. I�m not talking about trying to enter some enlightend state but have found that for flexibility and balance it has enormous benefits.
It also helps to have a variety of exercise options, because doing the same thing all the time usually gets boring. I wish I had an indoor pool that was convenient. I�m a lousy swimmer, but it is great for overall conditioning.
Good luck. It seems you already have a head start on most. Start slow,find something you enjoy and stick with it.

Battue

Crossfit, that's the type of info. I am after, I need to be able to keep up with my partner, just 40, climber in Alps, Himalayas, skier, hunter and hiker. I know about keeping fit for an old guy, but, I want to really kick butt and just need the up-to-date techniques shown here.

I used to go on 25 mile per day fast hikes in the Kootenay mountains, just because I had so much energy to burn off, now, I want to get back to that fitness level as we are hoping for a fly-in to the fabulous Tuchodi this August.....Elk, Moose, Grizzly, Caribou, Stone's Sheep and RM Goats, been waiting for years for the right chance to go.....gotta BE fit!

More info.????

Chawn, have a friend that does Yoga too and swears by it.

Right now I'm into Zen And The Art Of Homebuilding... has done wonders for my abs

I do yoga as part of my fitness work. I'm 48 and although I haven't lost much in the way of flexibility I can see it coming down the road. Yoga is giving me what little I lost back. It's also good for core strength. We change positions pretty fast with the instructor I use so there is sweat hitting the ground about halfway through the hour.

I also spin, either in a class on on bike on a trainer stand. I do a time trial training workout designed by Lance Armstong's coach. It's hard but really gets the job done.

I also lift weights doing squats, deadlifts, and a whole bunch of other stuff to work my whole body to achieve balance and strength.

Kute , try a polar heart rate band , lot of the machines at the Y read off them now.I set the bike or elipical computer for a fairly high rate and it will increase the resistance and bring your heart rate up to that level and keep u there.Surprise no one has mentioned a rower .I have a nordic track at home but the rower blows its doors off.I only have about 5 free hours per week to workout so i usualy superset all my weights.I found the 2 most important aspects of backpacking is leg strength and your lungs(aerobic).I like squats the best , lower weight and more reps , dont need to blow your knees out , mine are not good as well.Working out beside pretty girls dont hurt either.

Kute if your gym has spinning classes you'd love those as well.

Dober

Polarfleece 200 pants and jacket with overjacket with polarfill.
rag wool gloves.
wigwam socks and newbalance sneakers.
You have to keep up a pretty good pace or your nose gets frostnipped. It is supposed to get -30f tomorrow. I think the pitbull can take it(-30f) but probably not any colder than that.
Running in winter is better on burning fat than in summer.

It is easier on knees and joints to run on snow- I can run more and have less problems. I am still young yet-40 years old.

There are several guys who run around here you just got to dodge kids on snowgos.

I had to cut from 3.5 down to 2.3 miles per day because the pit starts freezing up. I had to increase my intervals in weightroom.

Sincerely,

Thomas

PS- I do a crazy combination of straight up powerlifting, interval training(sprints and box jumping), strength and grip work(Monkey bars), high rep (300 workout) and wrestling exercises. One of my favorites is doing six flights of stairs in upside down bear crawl. I also do three sets of bouncing medicine balls- The new bouncing ones are super.