It’s July. We’re in the final fitness push before hunting season. Our weeks are marked by spicy rucks and long, hot conditioning sessions. There’s more daylight, and we’d rather be outside doing a bit of living, than inside taking it easy. It’s all great. But the combination also presents a recovery challenge. 

Our fitness gains are only as good as our recovery. That’s right, kids. It’s not training that makes us better. Training only works if we recover from it. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of activity our body recognizes as stress, and too much at that. We end up depleted, then our body gives us the finger and says, “That’ll be enough of that.” Gains turn to losses, and we get slower and weaker. Frustrated, we wonder what the hell happened. The back half of the summer becomes a slow march toward a hunting season that knocks the wind out of our lungs.

You’ll avoid that by following the advice in this article. There’s nothing fancy. No drilldo (massage gun) protocols or cold plunge routines. There are no calls for compression boots or elaborate stretches. You’ll find practical advice that truly works to help you recover between summer training sessions.

Manage Your Sleep

Lots of folks (myself included) find it harder to sleep this time of year. The combination of heat and extended daylight hours make it difficult to fall asleep and get yourself into a good drooler. But sleep is the most important aspect of recovery. It’s when our tissues heal and our nervous system regenerates. So, we must give sleep our best effort.

It starts with sleep hygiene. Create a wind down routine that includes dimming the lights in your house, getting away from screens for at least an hour before bed time, and getting a shower to relax and generate reactive cooling. Make your bedroom as dark as possible and keep the temperature in the mid to high 60s. Do your best to go to sleep and wake up around the same time every day. 

Seeing early morning light also helps to set your circadian rhythm. Early morning movement also helps. If that’s when you train, great. If not, taking a walk or doing some light mobility work is often just as productive.

Supplementing with ashwagandha and magnesium glycinate is also useful. Ashwagandha helps you to manage stress and relax. Magnesium glycinate does a whole lot of good shit for you, while also promoting relaxation.

Staying hydrated throughout the day is also a huge help. It manages your body temperature while also preventing you from slugging so much water at night that you wake up to piss every few hours.

Effectively Fuel and Hydrate

Summer hunting workouts are often hard, hot, and long. The combination walks you right into depletion if you don’t properly fuel and hydrate. If you deplete your body by burning through your carb stores and allow yourself to dehydrate, you’re left with limited resources for recovery. So, give your body fuel to burn during your conditioning sessions and always stick to good hydration, especially during training sessions in the heat and those that last more than 90 minutes. 

Your baseline, absolute minimum, water intake is half of your body weight in ounces per day. This, of course, increases with activity level.

Dr. Andy Galpin’s exercise hydration protocol is solid. Divide your body weight by 30, and consume that much fluid in ounces every 15 minutes during strenuous workouts. Add about 500mg of sodium per liter of water during long and hot workouts.

I wrote a detailed article on how to fuel long workouts. You can read that puppy at the link below.

Fueling for Long Rucks, Runs, and Hikes

Eat Enough Protein

Protein doesn’t just build muscle via muscle protein synthesis. It also regulates hormones and performs a lot of other important functions in the body. So, it’s real dang important that you eat enough. The most current research says that you need 1.6g/kg of body weight and 1.9g/kg of body weight every day. For a 180-pound hunter, that’s between 130 and 155 grams per day. It’s best to space that consumption throughout the day. If you have a hard time eating that much protein, add in a decent whey protein supplement to round out your intake. Look for powders comprised of whey hydrolysate and whey isolate. Your body uses these forms the best and they are less likely to give you the gnarly protein farts. Whey concentrate can turn your guts into a high-production methane factory.

Consider Creatine

Creatine works. We know this because it’s the most widely researched supplement in the world. Not only does it help promote muscle recovery and cell hydration, but it also aids in glycogen storage (the form of carbohydrate your body uses for fuel) and improves cognitive function during periods of stress and lack of sleep. You don’t need any fancy shit, just 5g per day of pure, micronized creatine.

Intelligently Plan Your Training Week

A haphazard training week is a great way to march your body right into the shitter. It’s important to put your training stressors in the right place and spread them throughout the week. Your plan should include peaks and troughs made up of high-stress, medium-stress, low-stress, and off days.

Here’s an example template:

Monday: High stress (intensity)

Tuesday: Medium stress

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Medium stress

Friday: Low or medium stress

Saturday: High stress (duration)

Sunday: Off 

(If you want a training program that effectively puts this into practice without you having to think about it, click HERE.)

Train Smart, Recover Well

Summer training is crucial for hunters. But no training program will serve you well if you aren’t recovering. Protect your sleep by creating good hygiene. Fuel and hydrate well so you don’t deplete yourself and protein like every good hunter should. Take an intelligent approach to planning your training week and toss some creatine on top for good measure. If you do all these simple things, you’ll have better recovery and get more out of your summer training.