A longevity-first approach to strength, endurance, and durability for hunters.

Many hunters workout and still get physically crushed by hunts. What’s frustrating about it is that they’ve often worked hard in a way they believed would prepare them. So, we can’t just chalk it up to laziness or lack of preparation — although we do have to make a little room for that, don’t we?

The frustration comes from hunters being sold a bill of bad goods filled with false beliefs about training and mindset that set them up for failure. Of course, the hunters are confident in these beliefs because they have no reason not to be. Why shouldn’t they trust what they’re getting from folks whose marketing makes it seem like they got training and mindset dialed? So, they put in the work the best way they know how — and still get their asses kicked.

The first uphill costs way too much energy, and the first downhill takes the life out of their legs. Or, they’re fine on day one, but they don’t recover well. By day three, their body is toast, and their mind goes with it. All because they put a lot of hard effort into training that doesn’t work.

We’re changing that.

There’s a different and better way to think about and execute hunting fitness training — The Packmule Philosophy. It’s a way of thinking and training that prepares hunters to go wherever they want to go and allows them to stay for as long as it takes. And it builds the longevity that allows them to do that for the rest of their lives.

The Problem with Hunting Fitness: Optics Not Outcomes

Suffering without structure — that’s the state of modern hunting fitness. The workouts are difficult; they look and feel badass, but they are based on perception, not science, human physiology or actual training progressions. It looks “good,” but it doesn’t produce sustainable results. It’s all about optics, not about outcomes. 

The “hardcore” workouts are public enemy number one because they kill training consistency. They’re horribly-planned with training variables haphazardly slapped together and are supposed to be executed with crushing levels of intensity. That combination leaves a hunter sore, aching, and stiff for days. It also takes a huge toll on the nervous system. The result is not being able to train again for days. Weekly consistency and frequency — which sit atop the list of important training factors — die a needless death, and sustainable results go along with them.

This happens because the folks writing those programs think in terms of workouts, not in terms of training progressions, adaptation, or layering fitness so the right things happen at the right times. There is no structure. Sustainability and longevity are not on their radar. But the workouts sure do look cool!

The focus on optics rather than outcomes in modern hunting fitness undermines readiness, promotes a short-term training mindset, and absolutely abolishes sustainable results because suffering without structure does not allow a hunter to accrue the necessary training volume to build and maintain fitness. Instead, it trains hunters who are okay for the first uphill or two, then their legs blow up. And hunters who are cooked by day three because they didn’t build the endurance and recovery systems necessary to go day after day.

It pisses me off.

The Origin of the Packmule Philosophy

I’ve spent the majority of my adult life feeding myself and keeping my house warm by working as a human performance coach. 

I earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Exercise Science, with a concentration in human performance. Throughout my 20-year career, I’ve spent 8 of those years working with tier 1 operators, co-owned and operated a training gym for 10 years, and I’ve trained everyone from grandmas to NFL linebackers to youth athletes. I was contracted by a multi-national, high-end gym to provide continuing education workshops for their personal trainers. I’ve also continued to invest in learning so I didn’t stagnate in the information of yesterday. I have a lot of education and even more boots-on-the-ground, results-based experience. All of that work and all of that learning has given me humility. It’s kept me well in touch with the truth that I don’t know everything — even when it comes to training.

That was my mindset when I got into western hunting. I was well into my career with a strong handle on training and human performance. But I thought, hell, there must be someone in hunting fitness that knows how to write good training programs that prep folks for the mountains. I was so disappointed with what I found. 

It was all CrossFit with guns (and, yes, I think CrossFit is stupid). All the training variables were slapped together at random, there were no principle-based training progressions, true aerobic development was nowhere in sight. So, I thought, hell, I’ll just do it myself.

I got to work. I outlined month’s-long training progressions and consulting with some of the best coaches in the world on honing them. I even hired a coach — my friend Doug Kechijian, former Air Force PJ, top tier physical therapist, and equally as effective human performance coach. He gave me perspective and insights that allowed me to integrate new and improved ideas into hunting fitness. I consulted with, and continue to consult with, my mentor Bill Hartman, sneakily the smartest man in training and rehab. (I’m lucky to be connected to the best in the world.)That was, and is, my training — the foundation of the Packmule training system.

As I trained, I documented to build a system for myself, but also to share what I was doing. I’d post my training to Instagram. I started writing articles for outlets like The Journal of Mountain Hunting. Folks all over North America raised their hands and asked if I was training hunters. I had to say yes. I’d seen what else was available in the hunting fitness world, and it didn't serve them. I knew I’d found a better way, it wasn’t right to keep it to myself. Hunters needed, and deserved, training that didn’t just look cool in the gym or on social media, but that truly prepared them for the mountains. 

In 2019, I launched what became Human Predator Packmule, which evolved into Packmule Training Co. in mid-2025. As of this writing, I run the ship along with my assistant coach, Jordan Wilcher, the pride of Reno, Nevada.

Persistent Evolution is one of our core values. To us, it means that we pay attention and we consistently grow to improve ourselves, our programming and coaching, and the information we put into the world. 

We’re focused not only on making Packmule better, but improving hunting fitness as a whole. Our first thought is always, what’s truly going to produce on the mountain, not just allow us to sign up more members? Our training model informs our business model instead of the other way around. 

We’re hunters, we use our own experience in the field to note what we’ve learned and bring it to the Packmule system. We consistently test our Backcountry Ready, Packmule Elite, and Packmule Apex members to dial in their training and also to learn what’s truly moving the needle forward. We listen to member feedback when they return from hunts to learn what’s helping them kick ass in the field and what we can adjust to improve their performance and longevity. 

We do all of this to live out our Persistent Evolution core value. 

But all of this work rests on, and is built from, a granite bedrock of principles.

First Principle: Year-Round, Progressive Training

“The hardest part is getting started again.”

A friend recently said that to me when we were on our way to duck hunt. He’d been knocked off track for a while, but just started training again. Inertia is a bitch.

I want you to think back to the last time you stopped training and started again. Remember the frustration of not being able to do what you used to do, what you know you're capable of doing? Remember the difficulty of rebuilding routines and habits? Remember all the work it took just to get back to baseline? That all really sucked, didn’t it? The cycle of starting over takes a lot from you. You lose opportunities because you’re not ready to go. You lose a lot of progress because fitness builds over time with consistent effort. You lose all the energy required to get your ass moving again. Those are sunken costs you can’t recoup. But you can change your trajectory so it doesn’t happen again.

As hunters, we need a combination of fitness and readiness. Fitness is the development of physical abilities to perform well during our chosen pursuits. Readiness is the amount of access we have to that fitness at a given time. They feed each other. As you improve aspects of your fitness like aerobic conditioning, it’s easier to maintain good readiness. And as your readiness improves, it’s easier to train with appropriate intensity to build more fitness. Year-round, consistent training is the only way to feed both so they feed each other.

This is true because of how long it takes to earn some training adaptations, and the necessity of solidifying some adaptations before earning others. 

It takes at least 8 to 12 weeks to reap the full benefits of a well-designed strength program. The same is true for aerobic development. Truly, it’s more toward 12 weeks than 8 weeks — especially if you have some training under your belt. Keep in mind that these are just the initial adaptations, the start of the party. You can improve your aerobic capacity for years by accruing the right amount of training volume at the right intensities. 

Training must also be appropriately sequenced. For example, you won’t get much out of high-intensity conditioning if you don’t have the aerobic base to support it. Zone 1 and 2 work builds the highway that delivers oxygen and nutrients necessary for intense training. It also builds the recovery system that allows you to recover between intense intervals and between workouts. Without the proper level of aerobic development, you just won’t get what you need from high-intensity training. You won’t be able to train hard enough, and you won’t be able to recover from the intensity you can muster.

Knowing that some adaptations take about a quarter of a year to build or improve, and that fitness must be “layered” in the right way, you see why progressive, year-round training is the only way to build lasting hunting fitness. And when we zoom out, we see that hunting is only a fraction of our lives. Fitness and health for the rest of what we do is likely even more important. Hunting just gives us the “mountain to climb” so that we make fitness a priority. Year-round training is the only way to stay ready for life.

It’s also the only way to create the longevity we need to keep doing all the things we love into old age — hunting included.

Second Principle: Lifestyle Determines Results

There’s an old fat loss adage — you can’t outtrain a shitty diet.

I’ll do it a few notches better — you can’t outtrain a shitty lifestyle.

It’s simple, you can’t make the engine go without gas in the tank. Hell, in our case, you need gas in the tank to build the engine. A mismanaged lifestyle keeps the tank near empty at all times. So, what aspects of lifestyle do we need to manage? Sleep, hydration, nutrition, and stress management.

Everything about life gets worse when we don’t sleep enough. You might think, “Oh, I do fine with just a little bit of sleep.” No, you don’t. You just don’t realize how much you’re leaving on the table by not getting enough sleep. It’s also the main driver of exercise recovery. If you want training results, you have to sleep.

Here’s a fun fact: Your cognition declines at only two percent dehydration. Two percent is a very small percentage. You also lose blood volume when you’re dehydrated, making it very hard to get anything out of your aerobic system. It also makes it increasingly difficult to recover from training. You have to drink enough water, and, when necessary, add in electrolytes.

You’d be amazed how many people I’ve talked to in my career who said they know what to eat, they just don’t do it. Okay, so if you know you need to eat protein, veggies, carbs, and fat at every meal, why don’t you do it? A few things contribute — lack of skills, lack of habits, poor environments. 

Many folks believe they can just rely on willpower to change their eating habits, and those folks are very wrong. It’s necessary to set up the right nutritional environments for yourself to eat well — that means keeping good goods in your house. It also means developing the skills, habits, and plans to navigate poor nutritional environments when you’re in them. There’s also a decision about who you want to be and what you want out of your body. Eat like an adult. Eat like you give a shit about yourself. Set up your environments and learn the skills and habits necessary to do it.

Now, there’s an underlying factor that influences all of the downstream behaviors I just described — stress management. It’s as if the modern world is designed to stress the hell out of all of us. That stress often makes it difficult to sleep well, and poor sleep consistently leads to poor nutritional choices. (We feel hungrier when we’re underslept, even though we don’t need to ingest more calories.) Your brain also generally recognizes anything that puts a tax on your body as stress. Systemically, and resource-wise, it doesn’t know the difference between you staying way too hot after your boss pissed you off and an intense conditioning session. The higher you run up your stress needle, the fewer resources you have for your body to train and adapt. Reframing stressors so that you can choose how stressful they are and developing the mental skills to better manage your mindset is absolutely crucial for getting the most out of your training, preparing to handle the ups and downs of hunting, and getting the most out of your life.

Third Principle: Good Movement = Durability

Functional Movement Systems (FMS) has a tagline that I like a whole lot — Move well. Move often.

Putting concentrated effort into mobility and movement capacity training not only makes your body feel better, but it also improves your durability in training and on the mountain.

You’re more efficient when you have good mobility. That decreases the energy cost of each move you make. That increases the time to fatigue, which decreases your injury risk. We most often get hurt when we’re tired. Think about those gnarly hikes out across boulder fields and broken trails at the end of a hunt.

Your strength training also improves, which increases your resilience and durability. With good mobility, you’re better able to achieve good positions while strength training. This gives you access to more exercises, which improves your strength across a greater range of movements. The results are you save a shit ton of energy because it doesn’t cost you as much to get out of awkward positions, and you’re less likely to get hurt if you do end in awkward positions due to fatigue, because your nervous system and your tissues are better prepared to be in them.

Also, your body just tends to sit in better alignment when your joints have solid mobility and stability. And you have more movement options — more paths for your brain to solve movement “problems.” This improves everything about training, hunting, and life.

Fourth Principle: Psychological Flexibility > Mental Toughness

Mental toughness is oversold and overemphasized. 

You’re led to believe that if you just do workouts so hard you bleed from the anus, you’ll be tougher and last longer in the mountains. First of all — unnecessary. Second — many people do nothing more than develop bad self-talk habits during arbitrary, brutal training that diminish mental skills. Third — what does “tougher” mean? 

The best definition of mental toughness we have is the ability to stick to a task through discomfort. Fair enough, that’s useful in some contexts. Say, for example, hiking up a mountain with weight on your back. But here’s the question — what if you’re climbing the wrong damn mountain? If the focus is on “being tough,” you’ve wasted a lot of resources in pursuit of the wrong goal. That is silly.

Mental toughness, as sold by the hunting industry, says push through at all costs. You’re supposed to disregard what your mind and your body are telling you in order to just keep going.

Psychological flexibility, instead, is about awareness, appraisal, and making the next best decision based on reality, not on how you’re feeling or some external definition of what it means to be tough. It’s about being effective, not just crushing yourself based on some poorly-defined ideal. 

Our mental skills training is based on Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) — the mental performance model that coined the term psychological flexibility. It teaches you how to stay present, make room for discomfort without letting it own you or waste energy trying to fight it, and make solid decisions based on what matters right now.

ACT-based mental skills training teaches you to:

• Stay present so you truly know what’s going on around you.

• Keep negative thoughts and feelings from determining what you do.

• Adapt and move forward with wise, decisive action.

• Do all of the above without having to feel “tough” or even overly confident about the situation you’re in.

The result is that you keep your head and stay effective even through discomfort, difficulty, and uncertainty.

Thinking about mental toughness causes you to internalize harsh self-judgments that kill your mental and physical performance when you need it most.

Training to be psychologically flexible builds the mindset and skills you need to keep your head on straight and make the next good decision.

What Packmule Training Is (and What it Isn’t)

Our training is…well…training. It’s not a random collection of workouts or arbitrary mental exercises. It is a system that progresses hunters mentally and physically for years. What we do is based on sound physiological and psychological principles, layered with experience, feedback, and a focus on results. It is a system, one that has grown and evolved each year since 2019. The goal of the Packmule is long-term mental and physical development for hunting (and life). Yes, it produces short-term performance, but with an eye on longevity. The goal is proudly stated in our tagline: Train Smarter. Hunt Longer. 

That means during each hunt of the upcoming season, and so you can hunt hard for the rest of your life.

The system is supported by coaching, and there is a measure of customization in each of our programming levels — Pathfinder, Backcountry Ready, Elite, APEX. Random doesn’t work. Doing the right training at the right times does. 

So, that’s what we do.

Who is Packmule For?

Let’s jump in with who it’s not for.

Hunters who just want to feel tough. Those who want to do ego-driven, random, hard workouts. And those who are looking for a quick fix and aren’t willing to do the actual work required to make progress in the short- and long-term.

You can spend $20 per month to get access to shitty programs that wreck you. If that’s what you’re after, you should exit now and go elsewhere. (God bless you for making it this far into the article!)

Alright, onto who should join this party.

If you want real clarity, real coaching, and real mental and physical development that improves your hunting and your life for the rest of your life, you’re in the right place. 

Value preparation? You’re home.

Want to make sustainable progress year after year? Welcome.

Couldn’t give two shits about the hype and ego show from much of the hunting industry and hunting fitness? We don’t either.

If you want to do the right training at the right times for a long time, Packmule is for you.

And if you know it’s for you, but want to get to know us even better, download The Hunter’s Field test. You get it for free at the link below. 

That subscribes you to our newsletter. I only send out the good stuff — mental and physical training tips and info, hunting stories, and free training advice that will truly help you make progress.

Here’s the link:

The Hunter’s Field Test

Talk to you soon.

Train Smarter. Hunt Longer.

Todd