Thread: Hunting fitness

I do lots of walking at work, but found using an exercise bike made a noticeable difference even after only a week.

Im horribly unfit at the moment due to several surgeries and chemo over the past 10 months, though I'm still a long way better than I was a month ago. My hunt on Thursday really pointed out that walking on the paths around the uni is nothing like walking uphill with a pack and rifle!

I get on my mountain bike a fair bit and having a GSP who can run forever provides great company.

I started a run bike thing with my dog last week.
Cover 10km up and down small hills.
I also have a program on my phone called deck of cards.
4 exercises with 104 reps. Can choose any exercise you want. No rest.
I do 25m shuttles, pressups or burpees, some ab stuff and the like.
I do that maybe 2-3 times a week if the weather is good enough.
But at the end of the day hill fit is hill fit.
At 50 I still get around alright but takes a few days of climbing with weight to get where I should be.


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I run about 50KM a week, lots of hills. Plenty of pressups & core post run.

Will run a couple of ultra's a year. Has me peaking for hunts

iv been trying to up my fitness for months though I did have a month off over xmas , was on the gym for 40 minutes 5-6 days a week & a half hour walk up half hour down a hill each day it did make a difference but I noticed a big improvement when I started swimming , id forgotten how hard it is after 50 meters I was f%#ked , slowly buy surely my breaks have been getting shorter , fitness is defiantly on the up , I really don't like how much time all these things take so my theory is rather that making the walks longer or more sets , laps etc just do them faster , my boss made me & the other trainee go for a run from the outram glen to lee stream last week I actually thought I was going to die but was really surprised how far I ran without a break I got there in 37 minutes couldn't believe it , then we had to setup pig rigs & zip lines back down the river with not much flow it took 2hrs to get back out , not surprisingly it only took 2 beers to finish me off

The strength you need is mainly in lower legs and to some extent in core. Naturally chin ups are very good for climbing in rough bush and so are dips.

Cardiovascular and VO2 max are classic training but surprisingly seldom critical in hunting. The 700m climb in 7km doesn't have to be done fast. Running can be helpful but most people get overuse injuries and it's not a functional training for hunting. Likewise training carry ing a heavy pack has limitations and wears out your back and joints if you do too much. Rule of thumb is to do less training than hunting. Your body only has so many kilogram.kilometres in it before parts need replacing.

Where you live, I would go up maungatautari once a week, taking the direct route from behind the exclosure not the new wheelchair road. This used to be the rootiest track in the country; I hope they dont try to tame too much more of it. Carry 10 or 20% of your body weight if you must but it won't be much fun.

I do the haka steps twice a week and although it looks fairly pedestrian it does build up balance and calf strength and the 22min climb part has a pretty good effect on my cardioresp capacity. I see this as low volume high intensity training.

Finally, avoid injuries specially sprained ankles.

Fitness is really the bodies ability to oxygenate and provide energy to the muscles at the rate they are getting used up. - To maintain a rate of work.
The most important thing is a good cardiovascular system free of restrictions: So no salt, no animal fats, very little veg fats, plenty of raw fruit and veg. Plenty of low 'glycemic index' carbs.
A relly who was a culler told me it took one year of hunting Tahr every day to get really invinciblly hill fit.

Ok, I don't 100% agree with you there Moa Hunter.

Fitness is usually considered to have several aspects (can't recall all of them off the top of my head)

strength (1 rep max weight lifted)
endurance (often discussed as very short term eg how many reps can you do or else over < 1 hour anyway)
flexibility
Aerobic capacity (VO2 max and anaerobic threshold)
Speed ( depends on muscle fibre type and recruitment)

One aspect never discussed it "toughness" ie tendon, joint and bone strength which determine how much damage you do with hours of walking and pack carrying. This take months and years to gradually biuld up. Look at the hands of someone who has done a lifetime of hard manual work (fewer people nowdays) and they are big and thick. Desk drivers have little delicate touch screeny hands and its not genetic. Delayed muscle soreness (24 after exercise) is something different. i'm talking about tendon pain that builds up over months of overuse and plagues amateur athletes.

The most important aspect for hunters and trampers is "how many hours can you keep walking ?"
This depends mostly on capability for aerobic fat burning metabolism.
And mobilising stores mostly of fat but to a lesser extent total glycogen reserves in muscle and liver.
If uyou have a high anaerobic threshold you can walk faster without using glucose to make lactate. Therefore you don't need to break down so much glycogen to make that glucose. This is where your "oxygenate and provide energy to the muscles at the rate they are getting used up" comes in.
My opinion is that this depends on not exercising too hard and akso training your body to store and release energy over a long period. sounds contradictory, bt eating lower glycaemic food like protein and fat and continuing on till you are quite hungry before eating are the key here. Continuous snacks of glucose and high glycaemic (bread) foods don't stress and develop those metabolic pathways.

As for food types, there is quite a body of opinion now that dietary fats probably don't contribute much to blocked arteries. Vegetable oils are thought to have pro inflammatory effects and synthetic trans fats such as in older style margerines increase atherosclerosis and have largely been phased out. So, animal fats are "in" now. The low fat diet is no good if it is high glycaemic carbohydrate (bread and sugar) as over decades it promotes weight gain. The literature on Paleo diets and lifestyles explains this.

Finally, I think your statement of a year of tahr hunting developing fitness is too short. Too short from scratch in a sedentary lifestyle anyway. It takes 2 or 3 years to gradually build up muscle tendon and bone bulk and longer for maximum aerobic capacity. Your culler probably started from a good base of all round fitness as an outdoor worker before that. You don't have to do much, but you have to do it consistently and over a long time.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Ok, I don't 100% agree with you there Moa Hunter.

Fitness is usually considered to have several aspects (can't recall all of them off the top of my head)

strength (1 rep max weight lifted)
endurance (often discussed as very short term eg how many reps can you do or else over < 1 hour anyway)
flexibility
Aerobic capacity (VO2 max and anaerobic threshold)
Speed ( depends on muscle fibre type and recruitment)

One aspect never discussed it "toughness" ie tendon, joint and bone strength which determine how much damage you do with hours of walking and pack carrying. This take months and years to gradually biuld up. Look at the hands of someone who has done a lifetime of hard manual work (fewer people nowdays) and they are big and thick. Desk drivers have little delicate touch screeny hands and its not genetic. Delayed muscle soreness (24 after exercise) is something different. i'm talking about tendon pain that builds up over months of overuse and plagues amateur athletes.

The most important aspect for hunters and trampers is "how many hours can you keep walking ?"
This depends mostly on capability for aerobic fat burning metabolism.
And mobilising stores mostly of fat but to a lesser extent total glycogen reserves in muscle and liver.
If uyou have a high anaerobic threshold you can walk faster without using glucose to make lactate. Therefore you don't need to break down so much glycogen to make that glucose. This is where your "oxygenate and provide energy to the muscles at the rate they are getting used up" comes in.
My opinion is that this depends on not exercising too hard and akso training your body to store and release energy over a long period. sounds contradictory, bt eating lower glycaemic food like protein and fat and continuing on till you are quite hungry before eating are the key here. Continuous snacks of glucose and high glycaemic (bread) foods don't stress and develop those metabolic pathways.

As for food types, there is quite a body of opinion now that dietary fats probably don't contribute much to blocked arteries. Vegetable oils are thought to have pro inflammatory effects and synthetic trans fats such as in older style margerines increase atherosclerosis and have largely been phased out. So, animal fats are "in" now. The low fat diet is no good if it is high glycaemic carbohydrate (bread and sugar) as over decades it promotes weight gain. The literature on Paleo diets and lifestyles explains this.

Finally, I think your statement of a year of tahr hunting developing fitness is too short. Too short from scratch in a sedentary lifestyle anyway. It takes 2 or 3 years to gradually build up muscle tendon and bone bulk and longer for maximum aerobic capacity. Your culler probably started from a good base of all round fitness as an outdoor worker before that. You don't have to do much, but you have to do it consistently and over a long time.

A very interesting post. I guess that the point I wished to make but did not do, is that exercise must be coupled with a correct diet. Exercise alone can mask or hide the effects of a bad diet but it doesn't make up for it. As regards optimum diets, if we want to fight hand to hand and shag all night then nothing beats a diet high in animal protein. But if we want to live a long and healthy life, statistical examination of those populations with the longest life expectancies shows consistently a diet that is predominantly fruit, veg ( esp green leafy stuff ) and complex low Glycemic carbs. A near vegetarian diet. So if we are going to consume animal protein say twice a week then eating game meat is the ultimate. A good diet will keep us at a higher level of ready fitness.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

The strength you need is mainly in lower legs and to some extent in core. Naturally chin ups are very good for climbing in rough bush and so are dips.

Cardiovascular and VO2 max are classic training but surprisingly seldom critical in hunting. The 700m climb in 7km doesn't have to be done fast. Running can be helpful but most people get overuse injuries and it's not a functional training for hunting. Likewise training carry ing a heavy pack has limitations and wears out your back and joints if you do too much. Rule of thumb is to do less training than hunting. Your body only has so many kilogram.kilometres in it before parts need replacing.

Where you live, I would go up maungatautari once a week, taking the direct route from behind the exclosure not the new wheelchair road. This used to be the rootiest track in the country; I hope they dont try to tame too much more of it. Carry 10 or 20% of your body weight if you must but it won't be much fun.

I do the haka steps twice a week and although it looks fairly pedestrian it does build up balance and calf strength and the 22min climb part has a pretty good effect on my cardioresp capacity. I see this as low volume high intensity training.

Finally, avoid injuries specially sprained ankles.

Jeez that took us about 2hrs once...one way...


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Originally Posted by tiroatedson

Jeez that took us about 2hrs once...one way...


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Yeah sorry I time just the climb from the waterfall to the top should and it seldom varies more than a minute whether we go hard or easy. I think we are moving at very close to anaerobic threshold. Total time up and down is more like an hour but dont compare to other people it's only yourself that matters.. It's good exercise for heavier people too as long as you dont push it specially coming down hill. If you're stuffed afterwards start doing just a quarter up to the first flat bit for a couple of months the to the half way seat for a couple then to the three quarters seat for 2 months then to the top lookout tower. In 8 months you will have built up your own fitness heaps which is pretty darn quick.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Yeah sorry I time just the climb from the waterfall to the top should and it seldom varies more than a minute whether we go hard or easy. I think we are moving at very close to anaerobic threshold. Total time up and down is more like an hour but dont compare to other people it's only yourself that matters.. It's good exercise for heavier people too as long as you dont push it specially coming down hill. If you're stuffed afterwards start doing just a quarter up to the first flat bit for a couple of months the to the half way seat for a couple then to the three quarters seat for 2 months then to the top lookout tower. In 8 months you will have built up your own fitness heaps which is pretty darn quick.

Are you talking about the Hicks road end? Trying to picture where the waterfall is.

This thread made me get my MTB out last night

Originally Posted by Mathias

This thread made me get my MTB out last night

Out of the garage or did ya actually ride it?

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Originally Posted by R93

Out of the garage or did ya actually ride it?

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Rode it with vengeance for 40mins on the local MTB track, then flaked on the couch

I’m definitely not as fit as I should be. Did a 4 hr hike in with some Scouts on the weekend. Ended up carrying some stuff for them on the way out. One chap was struggling a little bit. Have to say felt the burn a bit with the litre extra I took...


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