Keep Moving!

#KeepMoving

There is a trend in bowhunting today towards getting in shape for the hunt. I personally think its great. If you look through social media hashtags such as #keephammering #ConquerYourUnknown #TrainToHunt and many more will show you the trend the hunting industry is taking. Gone are the days of hunters being thought of as fat Bubba types. Hunters in 2016 are being represented by names such as Donnie Vincent, Cameron Hayes, Steven Rinella and the boys at Born and Raised Outdoors-These guys are anything, but back road driving, atv abusing road hunters. These guys have presented the hunting lifestyle that has been around for along time. In a society that's been built social media we seem to think these guys are the pioneers of being fit for wilderness, backpack type, big ground type hunting. Slogans like Keep Hammering and such, are what is keeping this generation of hunters in the wilderness and hunting hard. I think the hunting industry has to thank these guys, but I would bet if you ask them if they were pioneers they would deny it. Reformers yes, as they are calling hunters back to their roots, but they aren't the first people to treat hunting as a lifestyle rather than a season. They aren't the the first people who worked out all year to make sure they can do their best while afield. The top names of today are just following their forefathers. What they are portraying is what hunting has been all along. If you find your motivation to "Keep Hammering" in the Gym or on the mountains through what Cameron is doing awesome! He has set hunting in good light, but his "Beast Mode," seems a bit beyond some of us that are on the downhill side of middle age. So, if we all can't be Cameron where can we find our motivation. Might I suggest looking to some mentors that have been living this amazingly active lifestyle for more time than some of us have been alive.

Names like Jim Akenson, Larry Jones, Dwight Schuh, T.j. Conrads, Jerry Gowins, and many others you might or might not have heard of, inspire me. These guys have made a lifestyle out of trying to keep themselves effective bowhunters.  Most shoot everyday, tote their loaded hunting pack around the neighborhood hills in the off season, and prepare their diets to maximize their time afield. Why do i find more motivation from these guys than I do from people my own age? That is simple, they model hope. Just look at Dwight Schuh...at 70 he just finished the grueling Iron Man Triathlon. If he can do that he doesn't have to give up the elk woods any time soon, and that makes my soul jump for joy.

This year I turned 45 and I'm finally starting to figure out that fitness isn't a given like it was when I was 25. On a turkey hunt, that's right a turkey hunt, I found myself sucking air and I knew I had to do something or my days elk hunting the wilderness might be numbered. Its realizations like this that prompted me to ask one of my mentors how he keeps going. His answer was simple, "I just keep moving." He also added, "If I were your age again,  I would take my body a lot more serious...we aren't bulletproof...my sixties would be a lot easier if I had prepared for them."    

"Keep Hammering" is awesome, but at this point in my life it's not on the top of my list. I don't need to be the fastest, or strongest anymore, but I do want to be there. So I will do as those who are still out there mixing it up with the young elk hunters and I will "Keep Moving." I intend to blog my progress so those of you that might find motivation. Often amazing workout routines of the elite wilderness athletes seem out of our reach, but that doesn't mean we have to give up. If we just "Keep Moving," we might be blessed, and be able to spend our golden years chasing Elk.

Shooting everyday does more than keep you accurate.

Its through pictures like these that Scream to Me "Keep Moving"

Although the Young Wilderness Athletes have brought "Hunting Fitness"
 under the Spotlight, its guys like Don who is in his seventies that keep me motivated
"KEEP MOVING"