Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

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Kraftd
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby Kraftd » Tue May 01, 2018 3:51 am

At 38, this one worries me a lot, if I'm being honest. Between young family and busy career, scouting and my health are the two things I don't keep on as much as I should. I fee like if I was hammerring scouting now, I'd be setting myself up for when things get a little harder physically down the road. I could lose 20-30 pounds and exercise a whole lot more, but as of now, don't feel limited in any real way hunting the midwest (if I went out west that would be a different story). Threads like this are good reminders not to let it get too far down the line, before I get out of shape and can't get back pretty quick. Usually sstart giving it pretty hard in Spetember and am in the best shape of the year by mid October from hunting. Need to try and go into the season like that going forward. Guys like Dewey, Dan, JM, and a whole host of others are good inspirations on this. I'll tell ya though, prioritizing with two full time jobs and two little kids is much harder than I ever would have imagined as a 25 year old with way more time than I thought I had. Wish I would have been scouting like I know how to now for the last 15 years.


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magicman54494
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby magicman54494 » Tue May 01, 2018 4:19 am

The one thing that really helps me is going as light weight as possible. My entire sling stand / backpack and full gear is very light. There is no way I would carry a 30 pound + pack a mile back in.
When tracking I try to drop every ounce I can.
I have been blessed with good legs and an Ok back.
I believe with age there is experience that helps make up the difference. I will continue to hunt no matter what age brings. If I can only walk a 1/4 mile then that is what I will do. If I cannot climb a tree then I will hunt from the ground.
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby hambone » Tue May 01, 2018 7:22 am

I've been adapting to health issues and adversity, my whole life. The key for me, is to keep on keepin on. It is a labor of love.
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby muddy » Tue May 01, 2018 7:51 am

I do everything smarter, not harder. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby Ack » Tue May 01, 2018 5:37 pm

I found out last fall that despite being in great shape, it is still possible for injuries to creep up on you with age.

I torqued my back going up a tree mid-October and really had to lay off tree climbing for a week or so in order to be good to go for my two week rut vacation.

While it's important to keep the legs strong, building core strength is probably the most important thing we can do as hunters.

Once the back goes, it's tough to do it all.....climb, pull back the bow, etc.
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby headgear » Wed May 02, 2018 1:39 am

Kraftd wrote:At 38, this one worries me a lot, if I'm being honest. Between young family and busy career, scouting and my health are the two things I don't keep on as much as I should. I fee like if I was hammerring scouting now, I'd be setting myself up for when things get a little harder physically down the road. I could lose 20-30 pounds and exercise a whole lot more, but as of now, don't feel limited in any real way hunting the midwest (if I went out west that would be a different story). Threads like this are good reminders not to let it get too far down the line, before I get out of shape and can't get back pretty quick. Usually sstart giving it pretty hard in Spetember and am in the best shape of the year by mid October from hunting. Need to try and go into the season like that going forward. Guys like Dewey, Dan, JM, and a whole host of others are good inspirations on this. I'll tell ya though, prioritizing with two full time jobs and two little kids is much harder than I ever would have imagined as a 25 year old with way more time than I thought I had. Wish I would have been scouting like I know how to now for the last 15 years.


Babies and young families are just brutal! :lol: You work full time, or in your case two jobs, wife probably works too, babies keep you up all night, kids are sick, you basically have to do everything for them and on and on. I gained a lot of weight once the babies started showing up, the good news is as the kids age and are able to take care of themselves more you start to get more rest/sleep and just a little more time to take care of yourself. It's good to remember we only have one body and the better you take care of it the better off you will be in the long run.
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Kraftd
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Re: Aging Beasts How Do You Adapt?

Unread postby Kraftd » Wed May 02, 2018 4:48 am

headgear wrote:
Kraftd wrote:At 38, this one worries me a lot, if I'm being honest. Between young family and busy career, scouting and my health are the two things I don't keep on as much as I should. I fee like if I was hammerring scouting now, I'd be setting myself up for when things get a little harder physically down the road. I could lose 20-30 pounds and exercise a whole lot more, but as of now, don't feel limited in any real way hunting the midwest (if I went out west that would be a different story). Threads like this are good reminders not to let it get too far down the line, before I get out of shape and can't get back pretty quick. Usually sstart giving it pretty hard in Spetember and am in the best shape of the year by mid October from hunting. Need to try and go into the season like that going forward. Guys like Dewey, Dan, JM, and a whole host of others are good inspirations on this. I'll tell ya though, prioritizing with two full time jobs and two little kids is much harder than I ever would have imagined as a 25 year old with way more time than I thought I had. Wish I would have been scouting like I know how to now for the last 15 years.


Babies and young families are just brutal! :lol: You work full time, or in your case two jobs, wife probably works too, babies keep you up all night, kids are sick, you basically have to do everything for them and on and on. I gained a lot of weight once the babies started showing up, the good news is as the kids age and are able to take care of themselves more you start to get more rest/sleep and just a little more time to take care of yourself. It's good to remember we only have one body and the better you take care of it the better off you will be in the long run.


By two full time jobs, meant the wife and I both. All the guys on here that have multiple gigs going, not sure what to say but mad respect. I'm a junior partner at a small engineering consulting firm, so way more than a 40 hour gig, but have a hard time imaging adding more on top of that. My kids are 6 and 7 now, and the light is starting to show with having a little more time and flexibility (though we're dumb enough to have gotten a puppy Saturday!). We're maybe a little lucky in that our kids don't seem to be all that into the sports thing, so we aren't running as much as a lot of folks too. Had been starting to build a pretty good gym routine over the last couple of months, but dropped off the last two weeks, need to get back on the horse this week. These threads are always good motivation.


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