What Does Your VO2 Max Have to Do With Hunting Success?

By G. King

No, your VO2 max is not Volkswagon’s newest line of cars. It stands for the maximum volume of oxygen your body can put into your bloodstream at a given rate, and relates to the efficiency of your cardio-vascular system. If you aren’t quite sure what constitutes your cardio-vascular system, it is your heart. lungs and blood vessels, veins and fluid. Basically it is your body’s oxygen delivery system. Your muscles use oxygen to break down carbohydrates into energy and maintain your pH. We will cover all as we go.

First your VO2 max and how it relates to your success in the field. We, as hunters, tend to go into areas that people are generally not. After all, that is where the animals feel safest, where the people are not at. Typically these places tend to be quite rigorous and vertical in their orientation. This increase in altitude and pitch tends to decrease the locomotive efficiency of the human body. We were designed to move on flat ground with high degree of efficiency. As the grade increase, as climbing machine, we tend to lose efficiency. To combat this tendency, we have to improve a few component of our fitness, namely how our body handles and deliver oxygen to the parts of our body doing the climbing work. Your VO2 max is really made up of several factors. One is how efficient your hear is, known by terms like "stroke volume", etc. Another is how much air can your lung bring in each breathe, know as "lung capacity". The third one is how efficient your muscles are at handling the lactic acid that is created as the by product of the activity, known as "lactate threshold". The combination of these three factors will give you your VO2 max.

The efficiency of all three can be increased through exercise, but it is important to utilize a program designed for the activity your are going to participate in. If you were a basketball player you would need a program that involves a lot of running and jumping because that is what you will be doing in your sport. You wouldn’t, however, need a program that involved a lot of heavy dead lifts. This principle is called "specificity". Each program should be specifically designed for the activity that most closely simulates the sport or exercise. If this is not present it may do you no good to complete the program.

As you complete a hunting specific fitness program, your VO2 max will increase as your fitness increases. This has many effects in your performance in the field. As you become more fit, your body chemistry changes and you retain a higher level of muscle in your body and a reduced level of fat. This change in fat and muscle levels will effect your tendency for power, strength and endurance each of which you need while climbing mountains and stalking and packing game. This is only the first level of positive effect hunting fitness programs will have on your performance. There is also a psychological benefit that is frequently overlooked. Regular exercise tends to decrease anxiety, depression and other negative mood states. This means that while you are in the field your mind will work better in conjunction with your body.