It’s about time to launch, kids. September gives us a whole lot of hunting opportunities. So, we need to make the most of August with our training. (We technically still treat September as preseason training, but that’s an article for next month.)

Being that this month is so important, let’s have us a good chew of the fat on how hunters should train in August. We’ll begin with strength training.

Strength Training for Hunting Fitness in August

Transfer to the field. That’s the most important attribute of a strength training program at this point in the preseason. You can deadlift 450? Neat. Can you walk uphill for hours with weight on your back? Riddle me that. How about taking awkward steps with strength? 

These are the things that matter.

As such, strength training in August should focus on a few things:

1. Strength endurance.

2. Muscular endurance.

3. Movements that relate to what we do while hunting.

Strength endurance is the ability to use your strength over time with repeated effort. It’s about training your nervous system to send strong signals over and over again.

Muscular endurance is similar, but it’s more about the local metabolism and contractability of muscles.

Each is very dang important right now.

Late Preseason Training for Strength Endurance and Muscular Endurance

Let’s handle muscular endurance first since it’s the shorter discussion.

We’ll test our Backcountry Ready members with our 10-Minute Step-up Test to assess their current levels of uphill muscular endurance. If their score is in a good range, we won’t worry too much about adding in extra muscular endurance work. They’ll get enough from their pack work. If they need a boost, we’ll do more step-up intervals based on their step-up test outcome.

We’ll be doing unilateral eustress training to top off our strength endurance, using exercises that transfer to uphill and downhill movement. The eustress training set up allows our folks to use weights heavy enough to promote strength endurance. The unilateral focus builds strength and stability that carries over to the mountains. 

General Late Preseason Strength Training

On top of our strength endurance and muscular endurance work, we’ll do some direct downhill work with slow eccentric step downs and similar movements to give the quads some final juice before game time. We’ll also do bent over rowing variations to build strength throughout the back in preparation for bending over and kneeling to skin critters.

Then there’s the awkward movements.

We’ll do unconventional strength exercises that transfer to movements like stalking, crawling, getting up off of the ground with heavy packs, etc.

Conditioning for Hunting Fitness in August

We need two things from our conditioning in August:

1. A continued build of specific aerobic training volume.

2. A little step on the gas pedal to top things off.

Specific aerobic training volume means uphill and terrain pack work. It’s best if most of it happens on actual terrain. But not everyone has that kind of access. So, the incline treadmill and the stairclimber must suffice. Now, it’s best if one session per week is long. We’re talking multiple hours. It’s also a good idea to get in an overnight backpacking trip, which most certainly counts as training. One long session with some shorter sessions sprinkled through the week is a solid set up.

We’ll also do some V02max intervals. This isn’t necessarily to push anyone’s V02max. It’s an overrated metric. And the only way to truly know your V02max is to get it tested in a lab setting. I have 10, crisp $100 bills that say you aren’t going to do that. So, don’t worry about the number your watch or wearable device gives you. It isn’t accurate.

We do them to maximize cardiac output, strengthen our hearts, and get some high-end work in to help with hard pushes. V02max intervals is just a name. Will they have an impact on our member’s V02max? Probably. Does it matter all that much? No. We’re doing them because they’re productive in other ways.

Oh, and one more thing.

We’ll start each strength session with a 30-minute easy, unloaded uphill session on the treadmill or stairclimber. Conditioning volume is the priority right now. And this gives our strength endurance a boost because we’ll go into the strength work slightly fatigued. 

Check Out The Podcast Episode

Want to hear me talk about this and add some more context? Watch that video below.