What's going on? This is Andrew Schubert and I want to talk to you about body recovery after hunting. So you've been successful. You shot your elk or your high-country mule deer and you have officially packed your last pack out to the truck. You're dead. You're tired. I get it. We're all tired at that point. We're all exhausted.
But you earned it. At that point, you have officially earned the hunt and you can just feel the rewards of all that hard work. One thing that’s going to happen is you're going to wake up tomorrow and you are going to be incredibly sore. I don't care how you do it; you're gonna be sore. But there are some ways to help speed up your body recovery after hunting.
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Supplementation
One thing I use as far as supplementation goes is Dark Mountain Kodiak Recover. The BCAAs and the electrolyte blend in there is fantastic for helping with muscle soreness, muscle pain, and cramping. I actually use that during the workout. So while I'm hiking, I usually have that in my water bottle on my hip and I will sip on that all day long. That helps me after day-in and day-out of hiking, it helps my muscles just recover. It's not a standalone fix, but it will help with recovery.
Nutrition
And then nutrition. Let's eat plenty of food and let's eat a lot of protein and a lot of carbs. That is going to just help your body recover. It's going to help your muscles feel better. It's going to help fill your muscles back up.
Hydration
Drink lots of water. Water is magical as well when it comes to body recovery after hunting or any hard workout. Oftentimes, when you're packing that elk out, you will be dehydrated. And a lot of the muscle pain and muscle soreness is going to be caused by dehydration. So I recommend just drinking as much water as possible. I try to drink a gallon of water a day, whether I'm on the mountain, whether I'm working in the gym, whether I'm working in the office. Wherever I'm at, I'm trying to drink a gallon of water a day. Some of those days when you're packing an elk out, or you're just on a backcountry hunt, you need more than a gallon a day, because you are putting out so much sweat. You're just losing water weight on a daily basis. So hydration is incredibly important.
Stretching
There is some mobility stuff you can do. Some stretching. If you just take a little bit of time - stretch, really loosen your back up, loosen your legs up. Most of the soreness is going to be in your back and it's going to be in your Glutes and it's going to be in your legs and your knees. If you take some time and just stretch all of those, it's going to be a tremendous help.
Rest
The next thing you can do is rest. Rest and relax. You might be going right back in for another elk for your buddy. I get that too. But rest is going to be the best thing for body recovery after hunting. Your muscles are going to need a little break. If you can't rest, I would recommend not hunting quite as hard as you have been and maybe just trying to get some sleep. If you can get a little bit of sleep, it will go a long ways. For recovery to work, you just need to rest. That's the magic.
Active recovery is a thing too. Just be listening to your body. If you are so sore that it hurts to walk, you should not go back in there. You should take time to rest, relax and recover. I just can't focus enough on just taking a little bit of rest. If you can run to the butcher, run wherever you're going to drop your meat off, and then just take a four or five hour nap before you go back out there and chase more elk. That going to help you tremendously.
