Programming for Hunting Season

[Martinez Outdoors]

My big game tags for Colorado came in today, and it's got me thinking about how the last few years my progress has really suffered from basically Halloween to New Year's. Long days, short nights, hard physical work, crappy diet and too much whiskey are the ingredients that basically kill my hard-earned gains, setting me back for the start of the new year. On top of that I've still got work and a family. During this time of year, I end up getting into the gym about 1 or 2 days per week, and so I guess I'm looking for some ideas about how to minimize the regression during this time. In the past, I've tried to just get a few heavy reps each week on the big 4 lifts, but I'm not sure if I should be favoring intensity or volume on a gym schedule that will be something like Thursday and Saturday. Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated. Age 40, intermediate level lifter.

[Maybach]

Long days, short nights, hard physical work, crappy diet and too much whiskey are the ingredients that basically kill my hard-earned gains,

While I'm not sure the hard physical work is part of it, it sounds like you've identified the problem.

When chosing between volume and intensity, always choose intensity.

[Alexander Dargatz]

While I'm not sure the hard physical work is part of it, it sounds like you've identified the problem.

When chosing between volume and intensity, always choose intensity.

As usual, Maybach hits it on the head.

Everyone needs to make decisions about priorities. I can relate to lifting not being always number one priority. You're better off lifting hard for 10 months every year than most people, and enjoying life is also important.
To reduce strength loss, a few heavy sets go a long way. After the birth of my daughter, I trained only one lift everyday, under one hour, which worked surprisingly well for a few months. I think that would be better than only training once per week, and the mental threshold to go lift is also lower than if you're exhausted and supposed to do your weekly monster workout.

[Lost and Found]

As usual, Maybach hits it on the head.

Everyone needs to make decisions about priorities. I can relate to lifting not being always number one priority. You're better off lifting hard for 10 months every year than most people, and enjoying life is also important.
To reduce strength loss, a few heavy sets go a long way. After the birth of my daughter, I trained only one lift everyday, under one hour, which worked surprisingly well for a few months. I think that would be better than only training once per week, and the mental threshold to go lift is also lower than if you're exhausted and supposed to do your weekly monster workout.

Great advice.

I figure I'm still bowhunting elk in my 70's because of the weight training so I just live with the minor set backs on the bar that occur in September (elk) and November(deer).

On Rip's suggestion I have been trying to implement the Minimum Effective Dose philosophy to my training. I wish he would explain in more detail the process of arriving at that dose but through my trial and error I've made some good progress without the monster workouts and feeling sore/beat up so maybe I am figuring it out.

[Jason Donaldson]

On Rip's suggestion I have been trying to implement the Minimum Effective Dose philosophy to my training. I wish he would explain in more detail the process of arriving at that dose but through my trial and error I've made some good progress without the monster workouts and feeling sore/beat up so maybe I am figuring it out.

Honestly, I think the trial and error is the process. The NLP works for everyone, but the further you get from it, the more individual you need it to be, hence the need to learn the process of tweaking your programming, one independent variable at a time. It's not as easy as prescribed steps, but what else are you gonna do? Besides, you learn more that way anyhow...