How to Build Your Fitness While You Shed Hunt

A few years back, a fella you might be familiar with named Beau Martonik told me about something he was doing to make sure he got his training in while also getting time in the late winter woods, searching for buck sheds. Around that same time, a good friend of mine, who I also train and is a dedicated shed hunter, told me he was doing the same thing. When two guys I respect fall in line on the same topic, I perk up and pay attention.

Beau and my other buddy were solving a problem we all run into these days — being short on time. It seems like someone’s stealing it from the clock and keeping it for themselves while we struggle to figure out if 24 hours is enough to get everything done. For example, getting into the woods to shed hunt and scout while also improving your fitness. 

Scouting while shed hunting takes time and effort, and so does building your fitness. But each is necessary to hunt public land well and into old age. We’ll walk through how to smite both those birds with a stone that easily fits in your hand. And we’ll take that walk following the trail of training science and practical advice from two guys who have spent years building their fitness while shed hunting.

First, Let’s Set Goals

It’s real dang tough to know how to approach something if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish. So, before we talk about how to build fitness while shed hunting, let’s put down some goals, as well as solid explanations why they are the goals. 

Accrue Aerobic Training Volume

A well-developed aerobic system is the foundation for endurance, longevity, and your ability to recover between hunts and workouts. It also keeps your brain healthy and improves your thinking. So, while most of the training world screams go harder, go faster, exhaust yourself! It’s important to understand that training that way doesn’t work long-term, and it doesn’t build the fitness you truly need.

Shed hunting is a great opportunity to develop your aerobic system because you often spend hours at a time walking around the woods. You might also have the opportunity to get on terrain, which is a big help.

Time on Terrain

Efficiency on terrain requires, well, time on terrain. That’s where my friend, Alex, the guy I alluded to in the introduction, really shines. That dude is like a ninja in the woods. Not only can he move at speeds that make you think, “How in the…” But he does it with a quiet stealth that’s equally as enviable. The reason why is simple: He spends a lot of time doing it.

Not every situation calls for breakneck speed. Truth is, most of the time we need the ability to control our bodies as we slowly move through the woods. You can build the raw materials for this in the gym. But the only way to hone it is by getting on terrain.

As hunters, we all need these book-end abilities, and shed hunting helps us build them. The stakes are low, so you can consciously practice. And it just adds to your overall time spent in the field, which can make you an efficient terrain trekker by getting your feet in sync with the ground you’re walking.

Better Understanding of Your Hunting Spots and Finding New Ones

I won’t spend too much time here, because if you’re reading this article, you likely already know this is one of the goals. Understanding year-round deer movement sets you up for success in the fall. You’re a good hunter; you know that. However, there is one important aspect to this goal that gets glossed over. It’s something that Alex recently mentioned in one of our text conversations.

Not only does shed hunting help you better understand deer behavior, but walking an area, especially a new one, shows you what’s required to get a deer out after you kill it. That’s important to know. If hiking the spot with no weight or a light pack gives you a solid whooping, you know you have some work to do before you drag or pack a deer out of there. 

Checking Multiple Boxes at Once

We’ve reached the primary goal that I introduced at the beginning of the article. Time is the only unrenewable resource we have. Shed hunting is one of the few things that allows us to essentially be in two places at once – the “gym” and the woods. Knowing that, it’s a huge opportunity to move ourselves forward in two aspects of our lives, with one of those things – our fitness – supporting our ability to hunt well and for a much longer percentage of our lives. Not to mention, the fitter you are, the more opportunities you create for yourself because you can confidently get farther away from other hunters. That’s one big way that fitness improves your chances of success. When you’re fit, you don’t question increasing the distance between where you hunt and where you park the truck.

How to Achieve Shed Hunting Fitness Goals

We’ll break down the process using three T’s: Time, Terrain, and Towing. You have to accrue some time to make it work. Terrain is a huge plus if you have access, and towing, well, I used that as a stand-in for packing/rucking because three T’s sounds better than TTP, which I’m pretty sure is a toilet paper brand they sell at Dollar General.

Time

It takes at least 30 continuous minutes in Zones 1 and 2 to improve your aerobic fitness. As you get in better shape, you have to spend more continuous time in those zones to move your fitness forward. However, in the beginning, accruing 4 30-minute blocks throughout the week improves your conditioning. That’s a great feature of shed hunting. It’s rare that you’ll go out for less than 30 minutes.

Spending 90 continuous minutes or more in the aerobic training zones improves your aerobic durability. That means your body gets more efficient at aerobically producing energy, and your endurance improves. So, doing some long-ish shed hunting sessions is a very good idea. If you pair a long shed hunting session with a couple of 45- to 60-minute aerobic workouts during the week, you have yourself a nice recipe for a solid aerobic base.

Now, I don’t expect you to be some kind of nerd who straps his heart rate monitor on before shed hunting. So, you’ll need a way to know whether or not you’re moving at the right pace to stay in the aerobic training zones. The easiest way to do that is by checking in with your breathing. If you can have a normal conversation, you’re likely in Zone 1. If you can get a full sentence out before needing a deep breath, you’re likely in Zone 2. If your speech is more constrained than that, you’re likely climbing into higher heart rate zones.

It’s also important to note that moving at a pace that keeps you in the aerobic zones decreases the likelihood that you’ll miss something. You’ll be able to look around, find sign, and find sheds. 

But we have to discuss how to get your heart rate into those zones. The second two T’s cover that.

Terrain

Unless you’re very deconditioned, it will be difficult to get your heart rate high enough while shed hunting on flat ground without any added weight. You’ll need some terrain.

Ridges, hollows, knobs, and inclines provide great training grounds. And the good news is, many times we have no choice but to climb them. Also, since you’ll be looking around, it’ll be easier for you to move at a pace that keeps your heart rate where it needs to be. Remember, you have to mostly stay conversational to get the most aerobic benefit.

The aerobic aspect of terrain is important, but there’s even more benefit to your body from getting on terrain.

It makes you a more efficient mover, and being efficient saves you energy. Movement efficiency is also what allows you to move with speed, stealth, and control your body while moving slowly. Just being on terrain helps, but it’s also useful to make a conscious effort to approach obstacles. It’s something Beau does. He chooses courses through the woods with obstacles he’ll have to duck under or step over.

Sometimes you have no choice, but choosing courses through the woods with logs to step over and limbs to duck under builds functional mobility. You simply give yourself extra reps at making your joints work at bigger ranges of motion in a real-world environment. So, when you encounter those logs, limbs, and boulders in the fall, you’ll traverse them with a smoothness that can only be compared to butter. 

Towing

Rucking has been used for a long time to improve fitness. I’ve read accounts of soldiers in the 1800s carrying knapsacks full of rocks to build their shoulders, legs, and lungs. I’m certain they weren’t the first to have the idea. Rucking remains an effective way to improve posture, muscular endurance, and aerobic fitness. And it’s specific to what we do, especially if you’re a mobile hunter who pushes back in on public land. Shed hunting is a great opportunity for specific conditioning while wearing your pack.

There’s absolutely zero reason to be a hero and strap the equivalent of a quartered out buck on your back. All you’ll do is beat the crap out of yourself. It’s important to start light, especially if you’ve never rucked before, will be on steep terrain, or will be shed hunting for multiple hours. In all of those scenarios, it doesn’t take much weight to make a difference.

Beau’s been training with me since 2021, and he’s consistently rucked the whole time. He consistently carries 10% to 15% of his body weight in his pack while shed hunting. In most applications, we carry about 20% of our body weight. However, while shed hunting, especially on terrain, and for multiple hours, 10% to 15% is enough. Carrying too heavy a pack for too long breaks you down and creates bad habits. Our goal is efficiency. You can’t build efficiency while moving like crap. 

A 10% to 15% body weight load also allows you to practice moving over and under obstacles without too much risk. Going heavier could challenge your balance and joints to a degree beyond your capabilities. Then something bad happens.

I have to offer you another word of caution. Don’t add extra weight into the equation if you currently have a hard time moving on terrain with only your body weight. That includes not being able to keep your heart rate down and feeling unsteady. Improve your fitness before you add weight.

Additional Shed Hunting Fitness Tips

Here are some miscellaneous tips and some advice from Beau and Alex.

Alex says, “You have to have patience and stamina. It’s not unusual for me to hike for an hour before I even start shed hunting.” Rushing through the woods will only fatigue you, cause you to lose focus, and cause you to miss antlers. Control your pace; don’t gas yourself; take breaks.

He also mentioned how strength training during the week improves his legs for shed hunting in Central Pennsylvania's ridges. They’re not the tallest in the world, but some of those suckers are steep. Doing lunges, step-ups, kickstand and single-leg RDLs build your wheels for managing the terrain. 

It’s also important to train your ankle and hip mobility. Controlled range of motion gains at each joint improve your balance and movement efficiency. It also builds the raw materials for the functional mobility you build while moving through the woods.

Beau echoes our main points while nicely summarizing the article. 

“When it comes to shed hunting or working on my aerobic capacity, I’m going to pick shed hunting every day of the week. Luckily, I can kill two birds with one stone. Typically, I wear a pack with 10-15% of my body weight and just put miles on. You get real-world practice going up and over logs, side-hilling, uphill/downhill, all of it. It makes cardio fun.”

Build Fitness, Find Bones

Today’s brutally busy world requires us to make the most out of the time we have. Focusing on fitness while shed hunting kills two very important birds with one efficient stone, which helps you progress as a hunter while preserving your longevity. Accrue time on terrain, learn about your spots, and improve your efficiency under load while building functional mobility. Most of all, use shed hunting as an opportunity to make training more fun.

 

Written by Todd Bumgardner

Todd grew up hunting and playing sports in Central Pennsylvania. He went on to play college football and earn a master's degree in Exercise Science. He's been a strength and conditioning coach for the past 20 years, working with everyone from youth athletes and everyday folks to NFL veterans. Along with running the ship at Packmule, Todd also co-owns and operates Beyond Strength, a training gym in Northern Virginia and spent 8 years as human performance coach for a tier 1 unit. He travels all across North America to hunt.