Testing and Assessments
Where to Start with Hunting Fitness Testing
A map is useless for plotting a course to your desired location if you don’t know where you’re currently standing. You can’t make it to Point B without knowing your current Point A. You’ll meander, lost in the woods, wasting energy, without having any idea if you’re headed in the right direction. The same is true when hunters don’t assess their fitness before training.
Without testing, most hunters either:
Train randomly and hope it works
Follow generic programs that don’t match their needs
Or stop training altogether because they aren’t seeing progress
If you want to build real, hunt-specific fitness, the first step is understanding where you are right now.
This article walks you through:
What hunting fitness testing is
Which tests matter
How to structure a testing week
How to use your results to guide training
What Fitness Tests Matter for Hunters?
Hunting fitness testing is the process of measuring the physical qualities that directly determine your performance in the mountains.
WIth that defined, it’s best that we start off with a chat about what tests matter for you as a hunter and why they matter. To do that, we have to start with which individual aspects of fitness combine to create hunting fitness.
The main goal is to develop work capacity, which is your ability to maintain “work” over longer and longer periods.
There’s general work capacity, which is your foundational fitness and makes up the bulk of hunting fitness testing and training, especially in the early offseason.
General work capacity is just what it sounds like — the general elements of fitness that allow you to sustain work.
Its components are:
Movement capacity
Relative strength
Aerobic capacity
Aerobic power
They combine to make you efficient so that your body uses less resources to do the same amount of work.
Then there’s specific work capacity. This is your ability to maintain work during a specific task or series of tasks that make up a specific activity.
Here’s a palpable hunting example — uphill hiking. Good uphill hiking work capacity would allow you to continuously hike uphill for longer and longer periods without needing rest or recovering quickly after hard efforts while being able to repeat the same level of effort over and over again.
General work capacity builds your engine and specific work capacity tunes the engine for performance in the mountains.
When you know all of this, it’s apparent which fitness tests matter for hunters:
Mobility tests
Relative strength tests
Aerobic capacity tests
Aerobic power tests
Specific work capacity tests
The most important areas to test for mobility are the shoulders, hips, and ankles. They require the most range of motion for healthy movement of all the joints in the body. And, subsequently, have the biggest impact on efficient movement and injury prevention in the mountains.
We need relative strength tests that show us our overall strength relative to our body weight and that help us keep tabs on our body composition. We use squat and deadlift variations to teach us about our overall relative strength at a given time, and we use push-ups and chin-ups to keep an eye on our body composition. Why body composition? Being leaner, lighter, and stronger is always productive for hunters because it improves our endurance.
The aerobic tests combine to give us a solid picture of our current conditioning level. The capacity tests tell us how well we are able to sustain work and what cost we pay to do that. We also use aerobic capacity tests to determine things like aerobic threshold, aka the top end of Zone 2. The power tests give us insight into how well we’re able to generate energy quickly and recover from it. Essentially, what’s the cost you’ll pay for working hard?
Then we use specific tests to tease out how well we will handle the direct physical demands of our chosen pursuit. For example, our 10-Minute Step-up Test gives you a good look at your lower-body muscular endurance, aerobic power, and efficiency under load for uphill loaded hiking.
The goal is to learn whether or not we have sufficient levels of each aspect of general and specific work capacity so that we know which “levers” we need to pull harder and which we need to maintain.
When Should a Hunter Test Their Fitness?
The short answer is at the beginning of a training block, which is typically 8 to 16 weeks of training. But there are circumstances that would have you test more frequently. The 8- to 16-week timeframe works in most scenarios because that’s how long it takes for most people to see meaningful change after consistently training. However, very well trained and elite athletes often adapt to training faster so they need more frequent testing to make training adjustments.
It’s also important to consider what tests to do when. For example, in the early offseason we do a lot of Zone 2 work, so it’s important to test aerobic capacity at the beginning of the training block. That way we set an accurate Zone 2 as well as see what training volume we need and can handle at the time. It’s also a great time to test relative strength and the rest of the general work capacity qualities.
As you move closer to summer and the pre-season, testing gets more specific. You need to know where you stand with specific mountain fitness so you know what will move the needle and how much specific work you can truly handle without absolutely flogging yourself.
A simple rule to follow:
Test what you’re about to train, then re-test those things after you train them.
How to Plan a Hunting Fitness Testing Week
In most instances, it takes about a week to get a full and accurate snapshot of your current hunting fitness. You have to spread the tests throughout the week so they don’t interfere with each other. For the same reason, it’s also important to plan them in the correct sequence.
The most neurologically (mobility and strength) demanding tests are biased towards the beginning of the week. The most metabolically demanding tests (aerobic power) are biased towards the end of the week. This order is called the Neural - Metabolic continuum. We follow the continuum because metabolic stress interferes with your ability to access your strength and mobility. If you smoke yourself with an aerobic power test on Monday, then test your relative strength and mobility on Tuesday, the residual fatigue from the aerobic power test limits your performance during the strength tests and access to all of your joint range of motion.
Here’s an example of how a well-planned hunting fitness testing week looks in practice:
Monday: Aerobic capacity test to find your Zone 2
Tuesday: Mobility and relative strength tests
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Aerobic capacity tests to find current endurance levels
Friday or Saturday: Aerobic power testing
What to do with the Results
Now, if you periodize training like we do, what you do with the results depends on the specific training block. We use what’s called concurrent periodization, which means we train multiple fitness qualities at the same time, but some qualities get more training emphasis than others. The tests tell us how much emphasis each quality gets and how to set priorities. For example, if a hunter has more than enough relative strength, but they’re lacking aerobic capacity, we put relative strength into maintenance mode while focusing more on Zone 2 work in their hunting training program to bring up their aerobic capacity.
This also helps us make choices about what to do when a hunter has limited time and has to set priorities based on current needs. We’ll follow the same example. Say that same hunter with plenty of relative strength but limited aerobic capacity has a busy week ahead. There are two strength sessions planned, but if they do both of the strength sessions they won’t have time to get in enough aerobic capacity training. So, they’d cut that second strength session to get in more Zone 2 training volume. The data helps us cut through the emotions and ego associated with the training we’re good at and like to do so we can do what’s necessary to move our hunting conditioning forward.
A simple rule to follow:
Maintain strong points while focusing on weak points.
Get Started with Hunting Fitness Testing
Fitness testing for hunters is crucial for those who want the best possible physical preparation. Test all of the qualities that make up general work capacity, and then progress to specific testing as you progress with your fitness and towards hunting season. Order your testing week based on the Neural - Metabolic continuum, and be sure to give the right aspects of fitness the proper attention based on the outcomes of your tests.
Want a free testing guide that gives you a solid testing foundation? Download The Hunter’s Field Test. It includes mobility testing, relative strength testing, and conditioning testing specific to hunters.
Click to download >>> The Hunter’s Field Test
Better yet — want more detailed testing and the programming, coaching, and guidance that turns your testing results into consistent progress? Sign up for Backcountry Ready. It’s how hunters should train.
Click to enroll >>> Backcountry Ready
