Ep 37: Balancing Strength, Endurance, and Recovery for Mountain Hunting with Josh Isley

Today is a special one because it’s our first episode featuring a member of our Wits & Weights Facebook community, Josh Isley.

We discuss strength, lifelong health, training for events, avoiding overtraining, and lots more. 

Josh Isely is a 42-year-old mechanical engineer who loves hunting the backcountry and mountains but who also rides a desk every day. 

He was an athlete in high school and as happens to many people, relied on his natural abilities for too long and, in his own words, “let himself go a bit.” Josh was inconsistent with training and developed a bad relationship with food. 

He spent the last several years training on and off for hunts and finally got it dialed in this year in preparation for a mountain goat hunt! 

Josh still struggles with food and binging but is getting better all the time; his program worked well as he was able to climb much better than he could last year. He is now moving into recovery mode and beginning to prepare for New Zealand in the spring. 

Topics discussed in this episode: 

• Josh’s background and how he finds time to go hunting 
• Why motivation is not enough (and what we should do instead) 
• How we avoid overtraining (especially as we age) 
• How to minimize the impact on aging/ailing joints 
• Dealing with setbacks (injuries/anxiety/depression) and how to overcome those 
• Managing the dichotomy of strength vs. endurance 
• Balancing training for longevity with specific events 
• What recovery looks like (and training periodization) in preparation for his event in New Zealand 
• Strategies to overcome the urge to binge on processed food 
• Dealing with the influences of your support structure when they don't “get” your nutrition/training 

RELATED LINKS

• Talk to Josh in the Wits & Weights Facebook community 
• Watch the episode on video here

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👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape on Instagram