Our Most Common Questions

Hunters and Mountain Athletes from across the globe have been making an investment in their body subscribing to MTNTOUGH+ and dedicating themselves to consistently following the programing. It has been amazing to watch and hear the stories coming in. 

We have received a few common questions, and we wanted to answer some of them for you all in one place.

2) What MTNTOUGH Workouts Do I Start With?

New MTNTOUGH+ Subscribers should generally start with the Foundational Programing Series, which ramps you up to a level where you can confidently challenge yourself with our other programs. If you have access to a full gym, you're in good shape and feeling confident in your readiness, we recommend our flagship Backcountry Hunter Series, and Minimal Gear or Body Weight programs if you don't go to a gym.

In the video below MTNTOUGH Director of Digital Content, Nate Hill breaks down each program in detail so you know exactly where to start to accomplish your goals. You can reference our Recommended Program Flow Chart below to visualize all our programs, and find the right place for you to jump in.

4) What equipment do I need for the Backcountry Hunter Program?

Many guys wrote in asking if they could do the Backcountry Hunter Program from their “home gym." The answer is... it just depends on what equipment you have but hundreds of MTNTOUGH'ers do the programs from a home gym.

Our mountain hunting fitness program is pretty robust. We know that many of you don’t have the time or money to pay for a personal trainer to work with you 5 days a week for the next 12-months (which would cost you somewhere in the range of $10,000-$13,000) so we’ve designed an extremely powerful system – built, tested, and executed by our team – that you can run on your own at a fraction of the cost.  With that in mind, it will require some equipment.

Here’s some of the equipment you will need in order to get the most out of this program. You can definitely substitute some items and we’ll try to help you with that but to get the most out of the program we recommend the following:

• A full set of dumbbells ranging from 10 pounds to at least 80 pounds ( Don't need the larger dumbbells if you have a bench press with plates)
• A standalone bench
• Squat rack (you can substitute dumbbell exercises for the squat rack type work but, again, there are some limitations)
• A barbell or trap bar and around 250 pounds of plates
• Cardio machines (like treadmills, stationary bikes, rowers, stair masters, etc) – we recommend a variety but, again, you can substitute for these workouts and we’ll try to help you with that.
• Pull up bar
• Kettlebells
• Step-ups or box jump platforms

When we had guys coming to us asking for this type of Backcountry Hunter Program, they were trying to avoid the expense of working with a specialized personal trainer, but hoping for similar results.

This program was built to replicate roughly 260 sessions with a personal trainer for the next 12-months, which would have cost them around $13,000.

You get more than just a personal trainer with the Backcountry Hunter Program. You get specialized, hunting specific training created by an experienced team.  A team that includes die-hard elk hunters, years of strength and conditioning experience, a former Navy SEAL, a former Army Colonel, Army Ranger and Westpoint Physical Education Instructor.  

5) Will It Work For Me?

We don’t know. That depends entirely on whether or not you can put the work in.

We're not going to lie to you, this is not the easy button.  

What we do know is thousands of man hours have gone into testing these workouts, and we get emails every day from people telling us how their lives have changed because of it.

If you have any injuries or conditions that you aren’t sure about, contact us and we can chat more about whether or not this program is the right fit.

BUT REMEMBER: If you’re unhappy for any reason, you can cancel at any time. Our goal is to give you a tested program that we know works and help you put the work in to get results.

Here are a few examples of those results right from MTNTOUGHer’s in the program that might help you decide:

“I’m 44, feel like I’m 14, and more fit than I’ve ever been in my life. 100% due to following the MTNTOUGH programs to the letter...

So I’ve been into sports and fitness my whole life. Been through the cycles of a young beefy meathead to becoming an obsessive and accomplished ultra runner and triathlete. Started far north and western mountain hunting 9 years ago. And really into serious mountain hunting the last several years. Goats, ibex, moose, etc all successful and always had the fitness to make it but still had to “dig deep” ( and all the other clichés) to do so.

I crammed through both the MTNTOUGH backcountry hunter online programs pre and post-season along with some extra running in about 6 months leading up to my lifelong dream sheep and caribou hunt in NWT. Most of this type of training was very new to me but adapted quickly and am obsessed with it now.

My guide and I did over 160 miles in 10 days with between 50-70 lbs on our backs depending on the day. Not counting the ridiculous heavy pack-outs. I took my caribou at 7 pm on day 10. Felt amazing every day and each day was awesome. There were no valleys. Only peaks. Nothing ever got physically hard. Nailed nutrition. It was all perfect. No physical compromise meant zero doubting mental moments. Zero. I’ve never experienced that kind of total physical success. It made for the greatest adventure and greatest hunt of my life.

I’m 44, feel like I’m 14, and more fit than I’ve ever been in my life. 100% due to following the MTNTOUGH programs to the letter, except for going through it a bit faster. I had a 10X better experience than everyone else in camp. So not that you’re probably looking for validation but this program is spot on. You guys nailed it. I tested it to the max. The daily crazy miles and getting both animals out were walks in the park. Used every minute of ten full days. And the hardest thing I’ve ever done was easy. That’s badass. Thank you.” ~ Online MTNTOUGH'er, Barrett Simms

“As I packed my first elk out yesterday I had a ton of things going through my mind but at the front of it all I was thinking about how happy I was that I decided to start MTNTOUGH earlier this fall. I feel great and can see a huge difference in my physical shape. It’s been an awesome decision and I can’t wait to keep it going.” ~MTNTOUGH’er Roby Burch

"I wanted to personally tell you thank you for the program. 2 years ago, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (genetic not due to weight). Your program has helped me in so many ways. Frist it has helped me to have a program that helps me keep my medication amounts very low - combat the diabetes with more exercise and less medication – exercise that does not injury me. Secondly it has helped me “kick the butts” of 5 guides in the past two seasons. They all want to know how somebody that weighs 150 pounds, carries a bunch of stuff in my pack, can out walk them and climb them at age 54! My kids won’t walk with me anymore – they say I go to fast!! It is really a compliment when your son in law says to you at the pool…..dad you are ripped….it feels great! So again, thank you for all that you guys do up there!"  ~ Online MTNTOUGH’er Mike Mantelli

If you have additional questions, feel free to shoot me an email at dustin@mtntough.com

My Best,

Dustin Diefenderfer

MTNTOUGH Founder // CEO