Reader Training Letter

If you've got questions about training, let me know!

Good Morning Matt,

Sorry this is my 3rd email of the morning. I promise it will be the last. So, I have been doing well with my weight loss. I am at a plateau with my weight and need to change things up. Doing well with my eating, just need to do something different in the exercise field. Most of my exercise to this point has been walking, jogging or elliptical. Jogging and running for 4 weeks, then an issue arose with my upper foot/ankle. So, I switched to the elliptical. We had talked about me being a guinea pig for you, so to speak, with a fitness routine. What do you have for a hunting specific workout routine that I can start utilizing about 4 days a week? Any help or tips is greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time.

Sincerely

Aaron

My Reply:

Aaron,

As for your plateau, that is a normal part of a healthy weight loss routine. It means your body has adapted and gotten efficient at what you are doing from an intake/output standpoint. So what needs to change is either the intake (amount/types of food) or the output (type/intensity/frequency of exercise) so that you are not efficient. As you indicated, you're doing well with the eating, so let's leave that alone. To change up your exercise, it can be as simple as adding some time to the elliptical, adding an extra session per week or working harder in each session. You could also benefit from something new, like adding a rowing machine or bike- something your body isn't efficient at (though it will become efficient in 8-12 weeks, so will get less weight loss). Often though, this is the point where people add strength training or high intensity interval training with a bump up in results. Are you at a gym doing this stuff or at home? In either case, what do you have for equipment available? Adding some basic strength training 2-3 days/week will be good. I think we should save the hunting specific stuff until you are about 12 weeks away from hunting season. We'll want to stay away from bodybuilding, where you do 3 versions of bicep curls and spend 3 hours in the gym, mostly talking to other meatheads (biased...sorry!). What we want is heavy-ish weight for something like 5 sets of 5 reps in a 'challenging but doable' range. Not a lot of rest between sets (20-60 seconds). We'll focus on Push, Pull, Squat, Hinge, Loaded Carry and Other movements each session. Let me know your equipment and we'll sketch out a plan. Thanks, Matt