To some, hunting season is a reason to skip town for the weekend, be in the woods, and hope an animal crosses your path. To have an excuse to take an extra day off work, have a few more beers around the campfire, find a game trail and hope you get lucky. I've been there, 100%. Ive taken advantage of the idea that Hunting Season could just be another vacation, but recently I have been inspired to put some stock (pun, sorta intended) into my hunting adventures.
Over the last year or so I have altered my training programming and mindset from an aesthetically focused to purely performance driven. I have never been an athlete who develops muscle definition (genetics, man), so chasing physique goals has been like finding my own personal unicorn. I had to learn the hard way that having a visually appealing physique (appealing to myself; how i want my body to look) does not always get the job done when it comes to chasing wild game over the country side. Asking your body to keep going when the going gets tough requires strength. Strength I didn't have. I would hunt all day on the weekends, hunt first light on weekdays, train clients on through the day, and hunt until it was too dark in the evenings. I was drained.
The last day I was able to hunt, day 9 of the 2018 Washington rifle deer season, my buddy (holla, Nick Jordan!) and I put on the miles walking hills and glassing empty hillsides. I ended up taking a small legal buck that I had passed on every single day previously to that. I called him my "last day meat buck." Getting that buck back to the truck was one of the most physically draining feats I'd ever done. I was mentally drained, physically exhausted, and mad. I shouldn't have been that tired. I kept moving, grinding, and we got the job done, but I felt like I shouldn't have been that rough and I was ashamed.
Something had to change.
My preparation had to change.
After the 2018 hunting season ended my new training program started. I put away all notions of what I thought I wanted my physique to look like and focused on what I wanted my body to accomplish: long walks with heavy packs aka get stronger than I've ever been.
When I think of ethical hunting, fair chase and what that means to me, I think of being the very best prepared that I can. I owe it to the animal to put the effort in to beat it in its own environment. For me, that means lifting weights and putting in the work.
My training went from a blend of hypertrophy (muscle size), to strictly muscle and strength gain. That meant big compound lifts, heavy weight, and a moderate amount of cardio.
If you think of the body in movement patterns: lower body push (squat), lower body pull (hinge), upper body push, upper body pull, and loaded carry/core stability work, I would choose 1 upper body and 1 lower body exercise to work really heavy
for that day and use the other 2 patterns as light to moderate load work. For example, a typical workout for me has been:
Heavy- Trap Bar Deadlifts 3-4 sets of 8 reps
Heavy- Bent Over Dumbbell Row 3-4 sets of 8 reps
Moderate- Dumbbell Chest Press 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Moderate- Kettlebell Goblet Squat 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Core Work/Loaded Carry
The possibilities and combinations of exercises are endless. I was constantly changing up which movement patterns would be the heavy lifts that day to prevent overuse injuries and boredom. I was mindful of my body and how I felt over the months of training and would take days off when my body said I needed to. If I needed a day off of lifting (which i did a lot) I would do 20-30 minutes of moderate to intense cardio (incline walking or stair climber).
Over the past 9 months of training this way and using the InBody body composition scanner I have gained 4 pounds of muscle mass, lost 2% body fat, and have unintentionally acquired the physique of my desire. I have never felt so prepared for a physically demanding adventure. I feel like I will be able to hike farther, hunt longer, carry the heavy pack, take less breaks and meet the animal on their level.
2019 Modern Firearm hunting season starts tomorrow, October 12th, and I'm ready for the challenge.
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