Hunting is a classic sport that combines nutrition with physical fitness. Hunters can commune with nature, enjoy this sport, and bring delicious food home to their families. The following are the Top 10 Hunting Tips Benefits of the Health Fitness Revolution by Samir Becic, writer of the book ReSYNC Your Life.

Connection with family and friends: Hunting is a type of natural physical activity. It can be done alone or socially with family or friends. Many hunters say that a family member taught them to hunt and they enjoy quality time with their families that are provided by hunting. Hunters feel they enjoy a relaxed and therapeutic feeling when they are out hunting and enjoy the quality time the sport provides to enjoy with their friends and family.

Physical balance: Being able to stay perfectly still while in your shooting stance and aiming your gun at your target works to exercise your core muscles to support correct posture. Weak abdominal muscles result in the lower back holding additional weight and pressure from basic daily tasks such as walking. When the abdominal muscles are strengthened it allows the upper body’s weight to be distributed evenly over the back and front, to improve balance.  

It is a physically demanding activity: Hunters keep busy training dogs, target shooting with their .22 with rimfire cartridge, scouting the woods, tending plots of food, and preparing blinds. All of this preparation is much healthier compared to a sedentary lifestyle and is an important component of a healthy, active lifestyle.

Exercise: Simply carrying a rifle and ammo (check out this page for bulk ammo options) is quite a workout. The majority of rifles on average weigh around 12.5 pounds and there are times that it gets heavier with additional weight from accessories such as the recommended scope for 30-30 lever action or 44 Mag. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a fairly good workout if the rifle is held for six to eight hours. For people who hunt with bows and arrows, the heavier the pull tension, the more the bow will weigh. A hunter will need to be able to keep an eight-pound draw steady long enough in order to get off a decent shot – which would all contribute to serious forearm and bicep muscular endurance for the hunter.

Enjoy nature: Many hunters love the challenges that terrains, inclement weather, and temperature can provide to their hunting adventures. A study conducted in 2011 showed that outdoor exercise is associated with higher decreases in depression, anger, confusion, and tension when compared with indoor activity. A study conducted in 2010 found that even five minutes of exercise done within a green space can improve self-esteem and mood.

Nutrition: The goal of hunting is bringing game meat home and enjoying the fruits of that effort. In general, game meat is lean protein. An animal’s meat will only be good as whatever food the animal consumes. Therefore, the meat coming from wild game that consumes a wide range of natural foods will be healthier compared to meat that is commercially raised. Animals whose diets are mainly comprised of grass will contain a wide range of vitamins stored within their muscle tissue compared to animals who are raised on grain. Elk meat and venison (deer meat) are both low in fat. Wild game such as rabbits, game birds such as pheasants and partridge are all lean meats, which means they also have less fat.

Increases mental discipline: Many people might be surprised to hear that hunting is mainly a mental sport. In fact, experienced marksmen view sport shooting as being 90% mental. Hunting helps to expand and sharpen concentration levels. Numerous problem-solving activities such as creative thinking and logic are necessary and used to be successful with hunting.

Helps the environment: Taxes coming from hunting activities go to the federal government or the states for such purposes as conducting research and surveys to determine the status of both non-game and game species, maintaining and managing wildlife refuges and parks, and enhancing wildlife habitats. Due to the above factors, hunters make major contributions to provide natural environments with important benefits.

Mental Relaxation: Hunters frequently report that being out in nature gives them time to clear their minds. When out in the woods, there are no deadlines, no schedules, no need to be in a rush. Nature moves at its very own pace. It is very therapeutic and works to counter-balance the rush that so many people feel as part of their daily lives. Another thing hunting offers a unique chance to have interactions with our natural world that can not be enjoyed in any other way. The interaction provides hunters with a deep spiritual connection with our planet, wildlife, and the land. 

It provides an adrenaline boost to the body: Holding a gun and firing it can be quite exhilarating. The adrenaline of the hunter is spiked and provide a surge of energy that pulses throughout the blood. Increased adrenaline levels within the blood provide a signal to the liver to break glycogen down, which is the substance that gives glucose to the muscles which are the main fuel source of your body.