Wherever You Hunt, Fitness Matters

That’s when fitness stops being a bonus and becomes a requirement. It’s not about six packs or max deadlifts. It’s about being more present, more capable, and more resilient when it counts. When you’re not winded from the hike, you’re more alert. When you’re not aching from the cold, you’re more patient. And when the opportunity finally shows up, you’re ready.

Let me point out what I’m not: I am not a professional hunter or marksman. I am, however, an avid outdoorsman with an insatiable desire to learn more about the craft. I am a CrossFit Games champion and the owner of CrossFit Mayhem, where we’ve helped thousands of people improve their fitness over the past decade and a half.

That being said, I’d like to paint a picture of how we approach fitness, and I’ll let you connect the dots on whether or not it will improve your hunting. Your fitness program is only successful if it prepares you for your goals. In the context of hunting, that means forging a body and mind equipped for everything the wild demands—not just lifting weights or running. Both play a part, but create limited results in isolation.

There are ten general physical skills that are widely accepted as defining a well-rounded athlete: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. These skills and abilities all come into play in hunting scenarios, and if you’re missing even one of these, you’ll feel it in the field. Our goal is functional fitness that checks all those boxes—training that mimics real-world hunting challenges and meets them head-on. A deficiency in one is a hole in your game that could cost you greatly.

Carrying a full pack while navigating scree, post-holing through snow, crawling through swamp mud, and hauling out big game all rely on a cocktail of those physical capacities—endurance and stamina to press on, strength and power to manage loads, balance and coordination on uneven ground, flexibility and accuracy to draw back a bow or aim a rifle, and speed to make the move when game appears.

In the face of emergencies, the importance of our brand of fitness becomes even clearer. Forget yourself for a minute and imagine who you would most want by your side if things really go sideways. It’s cool that you can chew up miles, but can you clear the log that fell on your friend, ford the river that came up unexpectedly, or—God forbid—carry me out of danger?

In short, we want you prepared for anything. Because in my experience, “anything” is what I’ve encountered in the woods. We can build this fitness in the gym through constant and intentional variation that is oriented toward the hunt. This builds more physical resilience and the mental grit to know you can grind farther, push harder, and recover faster from discomfort.

On Western hunts, success isn’t handed to you—it’s earned one ridge at a time. Elk, mule deer, and other mountain game don’t hang out near trailheads. They live in the toughest country they can find, and if you want a crack at them, you’ve got to go where the animals go.

Fitness buys access to the places where mature animals hide. Without it, you’re forced to hunt where it’s easy to get to, which is also where everyone else is.

It’s humbling trying to keep up with guys who have lived at elevation their entire lives. You push through the timber, gain 2,000 feet before lunch, and then glass across another basin that looks even farther than the last. On more than one occasion, I’ve been told by guides that my ability to keep up and access untouched honey holes has given me more opportunities simply because other clients cannot make the push. The payoffs have been impossible to describe.

Even if you get there, being exhausted when the moment of truth arrives can ruin your shot. Your heart rate is spiked from the climb, your breathing is uneven, your legs are shaky, and you’ve got seconds to steady yourself and execute. Fitness helps calm the body under pressure, giving you the control to settle your pins or squeeze your trigger when it matters most.

Eastern whitetail hunting might not come with 2,000-foot climbs, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Success often hinges on quiet discipline, grit in the cold, the ability to endure long, motionless hours when nothing’s moving, and then spring to action when the time comes.

Tree stand hunters know the drill: pre-dawn hikes in, freezing fingers fumbling with gear, hours of dead silence, and then—out of nowhere—a mature buck steps into range. If your core is locked up from sitting too long, or your legs are asleep, or your mental edge has dulled from the cold, you’ve already lost your shot.

The cold is its own test. Sitting still in 20-degree weather for four or five hours demands both physical preparation and mental resilience. The better conditioned you are, the better your circulation, body control, and focus will be, which are all critical for reacting with precision when things finally happen fast.

Mobile hunters, too, face their own physical gauntlet. Hanging and hauling stands, dragging out deer through mud or thickets, or weaving quietly through the woods with a saddle and pack all day add up. Strength, balance, and stamina make the difference between frustration and effectiveness, and in some cases, life and death.

Let’s be clear: you don’t need to be an ultramarathoner or a former D1 athlete to benefit from fitness. You just need to start. The best training plan is the one that fits your life and moves you forward, because something is always better than nothing.

Hunting is the proving ground, not the gym. That means there’s no gold medal for crushing a workout if you can’t hike in or get a deer out. Fitness should build you up, not beat you down. For hunters, that might look like rucking instead of treadmills, deadlifts over bicep curls, and mobility work that helps you draw a bow or sit still comfortably when it’s cold and quiet.

Consistency and intent are what matter. Show up a few days a week. Focus on movements that mimic the demands of your hunt. Progress gradually. Stack enough of those days together, and you’ll be amazed where you can go—and what you can bring back. The fortunate side effects will be an overall improvement in your quality of life, regardless of what better means to you.

If you’re looking for a place to start, check us out at MayhemHunt.com. And stay tuned for more fitness articles that will help you better prepare for your hunts this fall.