By Zach Lazzari
The gyms are closed and in many areas, trailheads, parks and outdoor spaces that are great training grounds for hunters are also closed. Luckily, you really don’t need much to create a great workout routine. While a home gym is nice, bodyweight workouts and simple training exercises are extremely effective.
Here are a few ideas to keep your training regimen intact until the gyms and public spaces reopen. No excuses – let’s keep preparing for our fall hunting adventures!
Elevate Your Heart Rate
Hiking up hills and carrying a loaded pack on a hunt will elevate your heart rate in a hurry. Your workouts should do the same. Interval training in a manner that boosts the heart rate for several minutes followed by slow moving periods will really have a positive affect on your conditioning. Modern HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) style workouts embrace this concept but high intensity workouts have been commonplace for eons, well before the acronym was popularized.
Do several intervals of burpees, short sprints, jumping jacks, jumping rope, step ups with weight on your legs and mountain climbers. Do each exercise for several minutes at a high intensity and rest for a minute between sets. This will get your heart pumping and blood flowing as if you were hiking up a steep incline.
Train Your Legs
The HIIT workouts are a great conditioning exercise for your legs. The step ups, burpees and mountain climbers are especially useful for hunters. Add plyometric exercises and static exercises to the routine as well to build strength and explosive energy. Squats, lunges and calf raises will build muscle. Start without weight and gradually add your pack, slowly loading more gear until you are performing these motions with the same gear you carry on the trail.
Plyometric exercise builds explosive energy in your muscles by developing fast twitch muscle fibers. Many athletes depend on these exercises to build speed, jumping abilities and a higher level of general athleticism. On the mountain, these fast twitch muscle fibers add some serious spring to your step, especially when working through scree slopes and unstable or uneven ground. Box jumps, squat jumps, lateral bounding, lunge jumps, explosive push ups and knee tucks done in sets will leave your legs and core trembling but that strength and energy translates to endurance and agility on difficult trails.
Essential Core Workouts
Many of the latter workouts will challenge and develop core strength muscles but focusing on specific core exercises is also important. The core creates a stable base of strength and ultimately makes you more capable and effective at performing difficult tasks. Add a core workout to your routine several times each week. Planks, sit-ups, bridges and hyperextensions will build a solid core. Combine core workout sessions with stretches to stay limber and strong at the same time.
The Wyoming Application Deadline is Approaching
Hoping to live THE LIFE and hunt with us in 2020? Applications for Wyoming deer and antelope are due by May 31st so don’t wait. Call us now at 307-632-6352 or send us a message and let’s plan your fall adventure!
Zach Lazzari is an OUTDOOR WRITER, fly fishing guide and hunting enthusiast. Follow Zach at BUSTEDOARLOCK.COM.