Hi guys,
I'm a recent transplant to Eagle County Colorado from SoCal and I came out here to hunt elk and mule deer. I have been a sportsman my entire life and have always put physical fitness as a priority, and the other day someone asked me how I manage to stay in shape. Well...I'm always asking people how they stay in shape, what their routine is, how often, etc but over the years I've found some common trends and since spring is on our doorstep, its time to start getting into shape! I'm not a fitness expert or a physician of any sort, but I've spent most of my life engaged in sports and fitness and have had the opportunity to learn a lot from athletes, soldiers, trainers, coaches, sportsmen, etc. I've narrowed down 5 key things that I think are important to maintaining a healthy, balanced, active lifestyle which can be applied to anyone.
This is a general discussion on what I think works, and I'm always open to new ideas. I subscribe to the general fitness routine of endurance athletes and special forces units which is focused more on stamina and working with your own personal weight than pumping iron.
The 5 basic principals of a successful workout regime
1. Intensity
2. Duration
3. Repetitions
4. Diet
5. Calisthenics
These principals are what I consider the most fundamental part of any workout or maintaining an athletic lifestyle. These building blocks can be interchangeable, and will vary depending on the athleticism of each individual, but the best results will occur when all five principals are balanced in conjunction with one another. What this means is that you can find the optimum balance of workout, lifestyle, time management, and ability to increase your performance by striking the appropriate balance for your intended purpose. If you’re trying to run an ironman your routine will be totally different than preparing for a high altitude mountain hunt. Each person can find their own optimum routine by understanding what each of the building blocks means, and how it correlates to the others.
Intensity within a workout can have many different meanings, and can range from a simple tweak in a specific exercise to adding more technical elements within a specific exercise. An example would be doing a basic push up: you can increase the intensity by slowing down or speeding up the push, changing the position of your arms to widen or shorten the stance, change the position of your legs to increase the weight position further forward, or add other exercises which workout out other muscle groups along with the triceps ( think lumberjacks).
Building intensity within a workout or exercise increases muscle mass and tone; it also helps to build stamina and conditioning. You can add intensity to any sort of physical action, like lifting groceries, moving furniture, or anything of the sort and see immediate results. Instead of just doing the physical act try adding a little more intensity to everyday chores.
When people think of working out the main excuse for not doing something is time. “I don’t have time to go to the gym.” For most of us this is a harsh fact of life, there really isn’t much time to do extra curricular activities like going to a gym. However, duration of a physical activity doesn’t need to involve a long routine, or doing an activity for a long period of time to get results. Duration along with intensity of the exercise is more important than just duration by itself. Think of someone who runs a mile at a 6 minute pace. This is a very difficult exercise which requires a lot of conditioning beforehand but, if that person maintained the 6 minute pace for a duration of 10 minutes they would see physical conditioning results much faster than someone who runs a mile at a 10 minute pace. I’m not advocating that everyone should be a world class distance runner, but in any workout or exercise that you do try adding some intensity to it and then gradually extended the duration.
Repetitions are probably the most commonly used yardstick to measure conditioning, strength , and stamina. In a way, a successful routine will require an adequate amount of “Sets and Reps” but that doesn’t mean that you need to be able to pump iron until your arms fall off in order to be considered in great shape. Repetitions will allow you to gauge how effective your workout regime is, and when you need to be adding more intensity and duration in order to progress. Start out by doing 25 push ups a day, when that gets easy do 25 normal push ups and 25 increased intensity push ups. When those sets become easier try adding another repetition. Adding repetitions to high intensity workouts are the foundation for how pro athletes and the military get themselves into shape. By progressing through intense workouts and adding repetitions you are inherently adding to the duration of your workout but, this is different than adding duration to each specific set. An example of this would be what’s called a ladder. Start with 15 pushups, then 25, 35, 45, 55,45,35,25,15. This is something that I consider a short duration high intensity workout with 1 repetition (a complete ladder). Doing one of these sets is very difficult and you’ll need to be in great shape, but as an example you will be in better shape if you can do two reps of this kind of set. Look at how some of the most elite military units in the world train and you will find that all of their primary routines are basic exercises that build intensity off the bat and then gradually increase duration and then repetitions.
The most important aspect of every type of physical activity is diet. Any professional trainer, coach, athlete, solider, etc will tell you that no matter how hard you workout or how much you are in the gym none of it counts if you don’t eat properly. If you’re pumping iron and trying to build muscle but don’t eat enough protein then you are going into a catabolic state where your body breaks down existing muscle to fuel itself. Whatever you are training for or specific fitness goals you are trying to achieve diet will be the biggest factor in seeing results. If you don’t eat right then adding intensity, extending duration, and building repetitions will not be possible. For hunting in high elevation areas I consider the diet to be the primary factor in maintaining a level of physical conditioning. At higher elevations the air is thinner and requires more work from your lungs, which in turn causes what is known as altitude sickness. In order to get over the effects of altitude sickness your body needs to produce more red bloods cells that are able to deliver more oxygen to the lungs. Red blood cells are produced in bone marrow and require iron in order to be produced, so you will need to be eating an appropriate amount of iron rich foods to fuel this red cell production.
Calisthenics are similar to diet in the building block structure in that it will make or break physical progress and getting into shape. Stretching, yoga, and low intensity workouts are a crucial element to keeping your body injury free and also helping to recover from previous injuries. Any sort of extended physical exertion will put a lot of strain on muscles and joints, especially if this exercise is on uneven and steep terrain with any weight being carried on your back. Having a solid workout regime will help in prepare for the physical exertion and stamina required, but it will not help in being able to bounce back and continue this exercise day after day. Your muscles, tendons, and joints need to have the appropriate “cool down” which requires light stretching exercises for longer duration than you would for a warm up stretch. Diet and stretching are the make it or break it elements of the 5 building blocks that will keep you in the woods longer and help you hunter harder and smarter.
I'm a recent transplant to Eagle County Colorado from SoCal and I came out here to hunt elk and mule deer. I have been a sportsman my entire life and have always put physical fitness as a priority, and the other day someone asked me how I manage to stay in shape. Well...I'm always asking people how they stay in shape, what their routine is, how often, etc but over the years I've found some common trends and since spring is on our doorstep, its time to start getting into shape! I'm not a fitness expert or a physician of any sort, but I've spent most of my life engaged in sports and fitness and have had the opportunity to learn a lot from athletes, soldiers, trainers, coaches, sportsmen, etc. I've narrowed down 5 key things that I think are important to maintaining a healthy, balanced, active lifestyle which can be applied to anyone.
This is a general discussion on what I think works, and I'm always open to new ideas. I subscribe to the general fitness routine of endurance athletes and special forces units which is focused more on stamina and working with your own personal weight than pumping iron.
The 5 basic principals of a successful workout regime
1. Intensity
2. Duration
3. Repetitions
4. Diet
5. Calisthenics
These principals are what I consider the most fundamental part of any workout or maintaining an athletic lifestyle. These building blocks can be interchangeable, and will vary depending on the athleticism of each individual, but the best results will occur when all five principals are balanced in conjunction with one another. What this means is that you can find the optimum balance of workout, lifestyle, time management, and ability to increase your performance by striking the appropriate balance for your intended purpose. If you’re trying to run an ironman your routine will be totally different than preparing for a high altitude mountain hunt. Each person can find their own optimum routine by understanding what each of the building blocks means, and how it correlates to the others.
Intensity within a workout can have many different meanings, and can range from a simple tweak in a specific exercise to adding more technical elements within a specific exercise. An example would be doing a basic push up: you can increase the intensity by slowing down or speeding up the push, changing the position of your arms to widen or shorten the stance, change the position of your legs to increase the weight position further forward, or add other exercises which workout out other muscle groups along with the triceps ( think lumberjacks).
Building intensity within a workout or exercise increases muscle mass and tone; it also helps to build stamina and conditioning. You can add intensity to any sort of physical action, like lifting groceries, moving furniture, or anything of the sort and see immediate results. Instead of just doing the physical act try adding a little more intensity to everyday chores.
When people think of working out the main excuse for not doing something is time. “I don’t have time to go to the gym.” For most of us this is a harsh fact of life, there really isn’t much time to do extra curricular activities like going to a gym. However, duration of a physical activity doesn’t need to involve a long routine, or doing an activity for a long period of time to get results. Duration along with intensity of the exercise is more important than just duration by itself. Think of someone who runs a mile at a 6 minute pace. This is a very difficult exercise which requires a lot of conditioning beforehand but, if that person maintained the 6 minute pace for a duration of 10 minutes they would see physical conditioning results much faster than someone who runs a mile at a 10 minute pace. I’m not advocating that everyone should be a world class distance runner, but in any workout or exercise that you do try adding some intensity to it and then gradually extended the duration.
Repetitions are probably the most commonly used yardstick to measure conditioning, strength , and stamina. In a way, a successful routine will require an adequate amount of “Sets and Reps” but that doesn’t mean that you need to be able to pump iron until your arms fall off in order to be considered in great shape. Repetitions will allow you to gauge how effective your workout regime is, and when you need to be adding more intensity and duration in order to progress. Start out by doing 25 push ups a day, when that gets easy do 25 normal push ups and 25 increased intensity push ups. When those sets become easier try adding another repetition. Adding repetitions to high intensity workouts are the foundation for how pro athletes and the military get themselves into shape. By progressing through intense workouts and adding repetitions you are inherently adding to the duration of your workout but, this is different than adding duration to each specific set. An example of this would be what’s called a ladder. Start with 15 pushups, then 25, 35, 45, 55,45,35,25,15. This is something that I consider a short duration high intensity workout with 1 repetition (a complete ladder). Doing one of these sets is very difficult and you’ll need to be in great shape, but as an example you will be in better shape if you can do two reps of this kind of set. Look at how some of the most elite military units in the world train and you will find that all of their primary routines are basic exercises that build intensity off the bat and then gradually increase duration and then repetitions.
The most important aspect of every type of physical activity is diet. Any professional trainer, coach, athlete, solider, etc will tell you that no matter how hard you workout or how much you are in the gym none of it counts if you don’t eat properly. If you’re pumping iron and trying to build muscle but don’t eat enough protein then you are going into a catabolic state where your body breaks down existing muscle to fuel itself. Whatever you are training for or specific fitness goals you are trying to achieve diet will be the biggest factor in seeing results. If you don’t eat right then adding intensity, extending duration, and building repetitions will not be possible. For hunting in high elevation areas I consider the diet to be the primary factor in maintaining a level of physical conditioning. At higher elevations the air is thinner and requires more work from your lungs, which in turn causes what is known as altitude sickness. In order to get over the effects of altitude sickness your body needs to produce more red bloods cells that are able to deliver more oxygen to the lungs. Red blood cells are produced in bone marrow and require iron in order to be produced, so you will need to be eating an appropriate amount of iron rich foods to fuel this red cell production.
Calisthenics are similar to diet in the building block structure in that it will make or break physical progress and getting into shape. Stretching, yoga, and low intensity workouts are a crucial element to keeping your body injury free and also helping to recover from previous injuries. Any sort of extended physical exertion will put a lot of strain on muscles and joints, especially if this exercise is on uneven and steep terrain with any weight being carried on your back. Having a solid workout regime will help in prepare for the physical exertion and stamina required, but it will not help in being able to bounce back and continue this exercise day after day. Your muscles, tendons, and joints need to have the appropriate “cool down” which requires light stretching exercises for longer duration than you would for a warm up stretch. Diet and stretching are the make it or break it elements of the 5 building blocks that will keep you in the woods longer and help you hunter harder and smarter.
