Bow Hunting-oklahoma

Bow hunting season starts in 44 days.

Wood walking, tracking, rub/scrape spotting is always in vogue this time of year.

Unfortunately, in April I had a bout of pneumonia.

I had been running 7 minute miles (not bad for 47)

I'm down to 8:45

I've been cutting down on coffee, bumping up on teas, lots of pushups (100 on waking and another 100 before bed) high protein, low carb.

I still have lung problems. Still have a deep chest rattle in my lower left lung. Feel like I'm running  about 75-80% of normal.

Since the doctors and hospitals cost me 25% of my last 4 paychecks (with federal government approved health insurance), I have to get myself back into reasonable hunting condition in an affordable manner.

Any ideas on my situation?

If your knees and feet will stand it, climb stairs. You should be able to do a 14 step flight up and down in a minute. Do 100 flights round trip. It will do stuff to increasing your wind. Don't expect to do that many your first time, 10-15 flights is great for a set of stairs cardio.

Again, it can cause havoc with knees and feet. I wear a fitbit for doctor orders, and the court house steps (1.4 miles round trip to them) are the only ones that register as a flight that I can get to. 100 flights is about an hour and fifteen minutes for me. (it gives me 'active minutes' 'steps walked' 'miles walked' and 'flights climbed'. Note it only counts up as climbed). So be ware. I worked into it over several months and some days my knees say NO.

My knees and other joints are great.

I work at the local fairgrounds, so I think I'll try running/jogging the bleacher seating of the rodeo arena.

How's your breathing? Most people take fairly shallow upper chest breaths. Try breathing in deeply thru your nose, then out thru your mouth. It can be a hard habit to get into but keep remembering to breathe deep. "Exercise" your whole chest, whole lungs, your diaphragm.

Swimming is good exercise without over taxing or heating the body. Its amazing how far i can swim underwater holding my breath at the beginning of pool season vs the end.

wayne fajkus wrote:Swimming is good exercise without over taxing or heating the body. Its amazing how far i can swim underwater holding my breath at the beginning of pool season vs the end.

Dog paddle or breast stroke, you want the chest to feel that burn.

I studied opera for five years in my teens, and there were exercises just to help make more lung capacity. The idea was you needed to store some air in there. And learning to breathe with your abdomen moving, not your ribs. I preferred to dog paddle instead of run a mile. I can WALK a mile faster than I can run it. I'm not a runner.

It may take more time than you hope. I had a pulmonary embolism a few years ago. It took almost a year to get back to normal. You might recover fast. I'm just saying that if you don't heal fast, it doesn't mean that you won't heal.