Thread: Hunting fitness

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

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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This thread made me get my MTB out last night

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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I do 16 km bike rides a couple of times a week with my flat mate. And starting runs and push ups etc.

Certainly not unfit but definitely need to get more fitness. Especially for the big walk ins.

I usually run 30-40+ kms, plus two gym sessions (focusing on free weights and strength training) a week. These are usually lunch time sessions with a longer run on weekend if I get up early enough.

Seems to work well enough for the limited times i manage to get out in the hills, especially at the moment with two young children at home.

Just ran a very steep and technical 23km bush race last weekend, so feeling match fit for the Roar.

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.

Should we be skipping as part of our fitness ??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ4jMSCBswY

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 Bryan

I usually run 30-40+ kms, plus two gym sessions (focusing on free weights and strength training) a week. These are usually lunch time sessions with a longer run on weekend if I get up early enough.

Seems to work well enough for the limited times i manage to get out in the hills, especially at the moment with two young children at home.

Just ran a very steep and technical 23km bush race last weekend, so feeling match fit for the Roar.

Offroad half marathons/bigger I find are brilliant training for general hunting. Nice work

Originally Posted by hotsoup

Offroad half marathons/bigger I find are brilliant training for general hunting. Nice work

Yeah I agree, this was my first one and I really enjoyed it. Am going to try and keep doing an offroad half every quarter for the next year.

Much better than pounding the pavement doing road races.

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

Dagging Sheep helps
Like R93 and Mathias I try get on the mountain bike 3 times a week 30-40k a week
I ran 3 times a week all last year and the knees and ankles where starting to complain buy Christmas.
Its certainly easier to keep a consistent base fitness than stopping and starting.
I'm not super fit, can hold my own in the hills just, but it certainly makes me feel better about myself exercising and I can plan my day while doing it.

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That's what I mean by a good background of daily hard work.
Would only take a couple of months honing to get up to full fiordland fitness.

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.