I am curious to know what some of you do to get or stay in shape for hunting.I try to get out to the woods a few times per week. Ocasionally I also lift weight and use an exersize bike.staying with the weights and bike are often hard. But a scouting trip a few times per week that I enjoy.

Putting in 1.5-2 hours per day for 5-6 days a week for the last month at the gym (spin bike, True-Strider, and Stair-climber).
Put an hour or a tad more on one or more of the three mentioned then do some lifting and walking. Will soon put 20-35 miles per ride on my road bike when weather is a little nicer.
For almost a year, I did no exercise, and have just recently made a commitment to exercise and a better diet. Dropped 10 pounds in the last month and have 30 more to go--Pretty serious about getting the weight down.

I'm not in a good spot physicaly for this season. Just flat out of shape, & just now starting to do something about it.
I'm in about the same spot Ernie is accept just getting started in the exercise dept. I dug the bike out last week but then we got more snow... I need to drop between 30 & 40#. #30 would put me in good shape, 40 in GREAT shape. Unfortunately I'll be turning 50 next week & it's getting tougher.
I have a couple of really good & probably once in a lifetime tags for this fall & I don't want my fitness level to be what keeps me from filling them!

You can be my inspiration Ernie!

I spend a couple miles per day on the pedal bike.....at least I was before winter set in. Then it was COLD for quite a while. the weather is nicer now so the family and I have been walking in the evenings. The bike was really fun...I need to get back to that!

and the older you get, the harder it gets but the fun doesn't go away. One just has to take it little more slowly and be sensible about it. I still do, but it takes me longer!! I walk and lift. Now at 57, I can only do 2/3 of what I use to do. Heck, when I think I made two trips with hind-Elk Q's for 12 miles a mere 10 years ago, I amaze myself. I cant do it today. My knees are too bad to run, but not to bad to do lifts and 3-5 mile hikes with a 45-65lb back pack until July and then the pack goes to 70 for a month and then to 80 for August and then 90 for September. This is only in case I have to carry a quartered Elk for a short distance to teh horses. Being out of shape will destroy a hunt. If becomes too much like real work, and its hard work already. In teh summer, I always jog of sprint a few times and then shoot without resting--amazing what you can miss when you are out of breath.

During the summer, I usually run 3 miles every other day. During hunting seasons, I let the hunts keep me in shape.

Living at high altitude (8300 feet) gives me the advantage of not worrying about the altitude problems on most hunts, but before I crashed my leg I was riding the stationary bike every other night for about 30 mionutes and adjusting the friction brake on it, starting easy at first then more and more brake and then decreasing it as I wound down. Plus I walk out on the bordering ranch property as often as I can, can't hunt there but we ride our horses and hike it. My regular job (excavating/water and sewer contractor) involves climbing in and out of backhoes and ditches and lots of bending over and squatting and pipe fitting which helps keep my muscles in decent shape.

But the doc says no work and no weight bearing on my left leg for 3-5 months....

Vance,
Road or mountain bike?
I plan to do a couple of 100 K's and hopefully a century ride before ITRC this year.
I will be 50 in November.

since busting my back up the only shape I'm in is round.

I was lazy a couple years back and let myself get way out of shape. My hunting (and most everything else) suffered as a result. Now I'm back to working out every day and eating right and I feel 100% better.

I do a lot of body weight excercises which build not only muscle but also endurance. The best thing about these excercies is that you can do them anywhere. No need for a gym membership which saves time and money.

For legs I'll do 500-600 squats (body weight only) at a fast pace which gets a cardio workout going at the same time. I can do 300 reps my first set now and then do the remainder in sets of 100. I have done up to 1,000 reps, but I don't see any benefit of going past 600 reps. I follow that up with 20+ 30 yard "duck walks" and a lunge routine. I have had many people who are into weight lifting get humbled by this workout.

I have never messed with weights for my leg workout but was curious what kind of strength this routine was giving me. I decided to test myself on the leg press at the gym a couple days ago. I kept adding weight and doing reps until I hit the maximum that the machine would hold which is 1,050#. I don't know how much more weight I could get if space on the machine allowed it, but it demonstrated to me that high rep body weight squats not only build endurance, but strength also.

For upper body I do several styles of push-ups. This year I have been doing more weight training for the upper body. I have made a significant increase in strength, but have noticed a drop in my endurance.

For cardio I run stairs, hills and do sprints. I walk back down the hill/stairs to go easy on my knees and slow my heart rate then sprint up them again.

Right now my schedule allows me to workout twice a day. Each workout runs 30-45 minutes. First I do a cardio workout and later a weight lifting or body weight workout. If you don't have time for two a day routine, I have had good results alternating cardio and strength training every other day. If your interested in more body weight excercises, check out the book Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey. Its packed with excercies you can do at home that improve endurance and strength. IMO the excerices in it make a perfect hunting workout.

Mountain bike.
I raced them for a few years (celebrated my 40th b-day with my 1st mtn bike race). Got into road bikes when we lived in Montana, primarily as a way to train four mountain biking. Ended up with a nice Cineli I built. After our 1st rear back in Alaska I sold the Cenili because there was a very limited amount of time & area I could use it here. The mountain bike (K2 Razorback Team) handles the gravel we have on our road shoulders much better along with being a way to get off the road. My longest road bike ride was close to 50 miles. I always wanted to do a century. Hope you get yours done.

Rod, round is a shape!!

I walk 2 miles a day, do a little grouse hunting, cut/split/stack firewood, and do general yardwork. My hunting is mainly stand hunting for whitetail so this usually suffices. Besides, at age 64 that's about all the exercise I want.

Mike

As a former athlete, I always maintain some level of conditioning (not like I used to when I had to maintain weight), but I still run 3 miles three or four times a week, and on the off days I work out. Makes hunting much easier -- especially when you have to chase hogs through the briar!

I am 50yrs old and I find that if I do nothing, I get to where that is all i can do....nothing. I have been an avid cyclist since I was 35 and it is absolutely addictive, everyone should give it a try. However, not quite 2yrs ago my prostate put me off of the bike because of pain during and after rides and I am just now to a point that I am able to start back gradually without it really being a problem. In the time I have been out of commission I have accumulated about 30lbs that I have to rid myself of and it will be difficult but very rewarding to accomplish this. I am looking forward to the journey.

Anyway, cycling and some type of strength training has always kept me in reasonable shape, at least up until now.