Last year when I turned 50 all my family and friends asked me the usual question, ³so how does it feel to be old²?  Honestly, for me, 50 was just a number.  Sure, I pondered or thought about a few things like, I am officially closer to the end of my ride on this roller coaster of life than I am the start but being 50 didn¹t really bother me.

Then this spring, I started to battle some issues from some old injuries and I started to ponder 50 again.  Not the years, as I still feel it is just a number, but the mileage I have put on my body over those 50 years. For the most part, most of my life I have managed to stay fit or in shape.  Right out of high school I joined the Marine Corps which held me to a high standard of fitness but, it wasn¹t always the most body friendly fitness.

After the Marine Corps, I came home to work on our farm, work as a millwright, build houses and, squeeze in as many outdoor activities I could to include but not limited to, fall off roofs, crash atv¹s, fall out of tree¹s while hanging deer stands and many more fiasco¹s I am too embarrassed to put in print.

Then in my forties, I started hitting the gym grasping at the fitness of my 20¹s however for those of us who have been thru our forties or are in them achieving that level of fitness you had in your twenties while your body, is in its 40¹s is no easy task so I pushed it to its limits and beyond to achieve my goals.  Couple this with the afore mentioned activities put miles on my body some of which were not good miles or were hard miles.  Though for the most part I ate healthy and maintained my body well those hard miles still took a toll on my body.

So what does this have to do with hunting?  Simple, being smarter now so you can hunter harder later.  I think if you survey most hunters you will find that our best hunting years are between 40 and 60.  These are the years for most of us of middle-class moderate means whereas we have the most time and expendable monies to pursue the hunts we have always wanted to do.  As a majority of hunters will tell you, those years between 40 and 60 they have a good stable career, have raised their children or their children are at least teenagers and, they are financially stable enough because of the first two and/or they are able to stash away enough expendable cash to afford the gear and the tags for the hunts they want to do.

Point being, if you are in your 20¹s, 30¹s or 40¹s don¹t make the same mistakes I have made with regards to your health and fitness.  Now I am not saying don¹t join the Marine Corps, please do, trust me it will one of the most honorable awesome things you will ever do in your life nor am I saying don¹t be a farmer or a millwright or an ego driven 40 something striving to be 20 again.

What I am saying is be smarter so later in life you can hunt harder.  Make smart choices with regards to the type of fitness training you do so as you do not cause an injury that will haunt you or limit you when you hit that sweet spot in your life when you can both afford the time and monies to enjoy those hunts of a life time.  Slow down your life a little bit while working on the job, around the house/farm etc. so that you do not have an accident and thus an injury that limits you later in life.

Trust me when I tell you ascending 4000ft in 20 minutes to get a shot on a herd bull you have been stalking for 4 hours sure will be a lot easier if you don¹t have a pile of hard miles on the odometer.