When you understand the truth about how to use the gym as a hunter and what conditioning truly is, you stop wasting time with training that doesn’t sustainably work, and you start doing the things that get you results you keep, results that prep you for any hunt you want to go on.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures while hunting; that picture is one of my favorites. And it came just after one of my all-time favorite moments in the field.

Sometimes you gotta eat a little crow. I’ve done that with two things over the past few years — deadlifting and Zone 3 training. One we need less as hunters, the other we need more than I was programming. I changed my approach to remedy each of my oversights. We’ll talk about how each has improved our approach to hunting fitness.

The folks at Uncharted Supply Co. are all about preparedness. One of their four pillars of preparedness is Mental and Physical Fitness. So, Christian Schauf, the founder, and I chatted about how we might help folks better align with that pillar. I came up with a two-part article series on how to train for the endurance that makes a body a valuable piece of gear in a crisis.

Exercise-induced muscle cramps can be a literal pain in the ass (or quad). We will also discuss strategies to mitigate your risk, as well as strategies to fix cramps on the fly.  In the absence of a plan, you may as well brace yourself for an arduous shuffle back to your truck. So, let’s give you a plan.

Hunter in-season workouts keep you strong, durable, and recovering fast so you can perform better all season and build fitness year after year.