I’ve packed out over 50 elk since I started hunting in 2001. One pack-out from 2011 still haunts me.
My dad and I were on a 14-day wilderness hunt when our horses got colic. My buddy, the horse owner, had to take them off the mountain to a vet. As soon as he left, I took a bull.
There we were, just my dad and I, nine miles from the truck with one of the biggest bulls I’ve ever harvested. It was hot, it was September, and we had no horses.
We took a shortcut down the creek. By the time we finished our first trip to the dirt road, it was dark.
Then came hours of walking that road to the trailhead, a few hours of terrible sleep in the truck, and two more trips back up and down. After three trips hauling meat, we still had to hike back up to camp for our gear.
That pack-out tested every ounce of conditioning I had. At 30 years old, I was in decent shape. My dad, in his mid-50s, pushed through it with me. I couldn’t have done it solo.
You can’t fully train for an event like that, but you don’t want zero reps with heavy loads on your back when the mountain hands you a task that tall. That’s why weighted backpack training matters for hunters.
How Weighted Backpack Training Changes Your Hunt
Elk hunting with a bow on public land has a success rate of less than 10%. Ninety out of 100 hunters come home without punching a tag.
When you probably won’t harvest an elk, you can’t measure success by outcome alone. You have to measure it by effort.
You’re spending money on gear, tags, and travel. You’re burning PTO. If you’re leaving a wife and kids at home, there’s a price for that, too. After spending all that currency, coming home empty-handed is a bummer.
Think of a successful elk hunt as one where you gave it your all. You tried your hardest every single day. You have no regrets.
Too many hunters reach day three and start pulling gear out of their packs to lighten the load. They sleep in because their bodies are wrecked. Altitude sickness and dehydration kill their motivation to chase elk up the mountain.
That’s not the best experience you could have had. If your fitness failed you, you’ll spend 11 months in the offseason being salty about how your hunt went.
A mentor of mine calls that “pain twice.” You suffer during the hunt, then you suffer again every time you think about it.
I want to come home guilt-free with no regrets, and weighted backpack training helps me do that.
Weighted Backpack Training Is About More Than This Season
Some hunters roll their eyes at the idea that you need to be in shape to get an elk. They’re not wrong. You can be clinically obese, drive a quad, pull over, and get lucky with a shot close to the road.
That happens every year, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m 44 years old. I’m talking about being fit for a more enjoyable hunt and staying healthy enough to elk hunt for many more years. I want to share these experiences with my son’s son someday.
This is a lifestyle. Elk hunting can fuel year-round training, and backpack weight training is a big part of that. That mindset keeps you in shape and keeps you hunting longer.
How I Use Backpack Weights for Training Before Elk Season
I don’t ruck year-round.
I incorporate rucking about three months before elk season. When June rolls around, that’s my signal. I ruck twice a week leading up to the hunt.
I use two types of rucks, and they serve different purposes.
The lighter ruck is 20–30 pounds, pretty close to my actual hunting pack weight. I set a timer for 45 minutes and cover as much distance as possible, whether it’s a loop or an out-and-back.
Every two weeks, I add five minutes to that time. By the time hunting season arrives, I’m averaging an hour and a half at that weight once a week.
The heavier ruck is 60–80 pounds. With the heavy pack, I’m not chasing a time; I’m focused on distance.
I might start with 1,000 meters and add 100–200 meters each week. That progressive overload gives my body, soft tissue, and core time to adapt with just enough stress to recover and come back stronger.
Twelve weeks of this training builds a solid base in two styles of rucking that actually happen during elk hunts. The rest of the year, I do other workouts to stay fit. The specificity of weighted backpack training rolls out about three months before the season.
Does Carrying a Heavy Backpack Make You Stronger? Start With Body Weight
Most Americans aren’t that fit or active, and many are overweight.
If you have a desk job and a few extra pounds, you’ll feel those pounds in the mountains. Twenty pounds of unwanted body weight is the same as throwing a 20-pound rock into your hunting pack.
If you need to lose weight, start there. Every pound on your body needs a purpose. You don’t want to haul around extra fat on top of your gear.
That means dialing in nutrition, daily steps, and a couple of strength training sessions each week.
If you’re already in decent shape and want to ramp up for elk hunting, focus on the muscles you actually use in the mountains. That’s where weight training for backpacking comes in.
Weight Training for Backpacking: Build From the Ground Up
Hunting starts with your legs. You can’t go wrong with a mix of strength and conditioning that focuses on lower-body work.
I like to blur the distinction between strength and cardio. A good session might combine squats, lunges, deadlifts, weighted step-ups on a box, jump rope, and bike. You get strength and conditioning in the same bout.
These weight training workouts for elk hunting don’t take more than 30 minutes. Most people can carve out 30 minutes a few times a week. That’s enough to prepare for whatever the mountains throw at you.
Why Weighted Backpack Training Demands Total Body Movements
At ElkShape, we build every workout around four movements: push, pull, squat, and hinge. We’re not interested in beach muscles or aesthetics. We’re performance-focused.
We don’t isolate muscle groups. There’s no day in the mountains where you use only your chest muscles to chase elk. You use your whole body at once.
Total-body workouts get you better results, a faster metabolism, and a higher degree of transferability outside the gym. The fitness you build through weighted backpack training needs to translate to the mountains.
Weighted Backpack Training in Eight Weeks
Hunters with only eight weeks before a big trip can use the same template, just compressed.
On days you don’t ruck, get in the gym for total-body circuit training. Focus on strength and cardio together and dial in your nutrition.
If you need to drop some weight, restrict calories a bit. If you’re happy with your weight, eat to support recovery between workouts to do your best in each session.
The timeline changes, but the fundamentals don’t.
Start Your Weighted Backpack Training Now
I’ve been elk hunting for over 20 years. That 2011 pack-out with my dad is still the hardest one I’ve ever done.
Weighted backpack training won’t prepare you for every worst-case scenario, but it will give you the conditioning to push through.
The mountain doesn’t care about your plans. Train now so you can hunt guilt-free later.
by Dan Staton, Elk Hunter, Fitness Fanatic, and Family Man
