The holidays are over

 Sheep Shape!

The holidays are over and it’s time to start your new year’s resolution of getting into sheep shape!  I myself have started a 5 day a week workout plan that includes a few double day workouts.  The holidays put a few extra pounds on my ideal sheep hunting frame of 190lbs. so the first few weeks will be dedicated to leaning down, freeing adhesions, and increasing my flexibility. It is hard to start this early in the game to lose the weight now while maintaining a high level of fitness throughout the year. Over the years I have learned that early preparation is essential to healthy joints and an injury free season. 

The first phase of my workouts will:

1.       Reduce my body mass to a joint healthy weight.

2.       Work my whole body to free up any adhesions from injuries from last season.

3.       Increase flexibility to prevent injuries during workouts. 

Reducing body weight can be a very difficult task for any one. Creating small defined goals as you progress is a sure fire way to not only reach your ideal weight, but keep track of your progress.  It is crucial to avoid high impact work outs such as running on a paved road when not at your joint healthy weight, this can cause unnecessary wear and tear on connective tissues and joints increasing the probability of season ending injuries. 

Our next post will show you how my daughter and myself decide on our joint healthy weight and how we plan and organize our work outs for the first phase.

Sheep Shape! The beginning

Sheep Shape! My body was pounded from this years hunting season. It started with packing in Dall sheep supplies August 2nd in the Brooks range and finished 1000 miles south freezing my ass off October 12th hunting brown bear. I'm not sure how many miles I racked up or how many pounds I drug up some endless mountain but my body was ready for a rest. Now it's time to plan for next year! Will I try and be better than I ever was? Be as good as I should be or be the best I can be? Well to tell you the truth I may think about this stuff but it is very difficult to plan my fitness this specifically for my next season but here I go.
As a professional guide I need to be in the best shape possible every year. I have discovered over the last 17 years that my fitness now is a lot different now than it was when I was 25. Back then it was all about how fast I could go, how fare I could go and how much weight I could carry. The difference now is I know how fast I can go and I know how fare my body will last and through many miles of joint pounding meat hauls I can tell you exactly how much weight I can carry. Training now is all about making it through the season injury free.
Preventing injury durring training and being in the proper shape to finish a season injury free is a very technical and complicated accomplishment. Follow me here from now untill August 2013 for Sheep shape posts that will explain my training schedule and workouts.
Joseph Miller