How Hunters Can Improve Their Physical, Mental & Spiritual Health 

A Hunter's Guide To Aging Better & Preventing Disease 

Editor’s Note: The following piece is written by Linden Loren who currently has an excellent book for sale at Amazon titled Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease. 

What’s one of the most common fears all hunters have? It’s not being able to hunt anymore. Just the thought of hunting being taken away is sickening, at least, for the hunter who lives and breathes this lifestyle. 

Fear doesn’t have to turn into reality, though. There are things we can do to ensure we can continue hunting as we age. Enter in my recently published book, Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease. This book was developed with the sole purpose of helping hunters experience more opening days and hunting opportunities by improving their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. 

If you are a hunter who wants to hunt more throughout life, this book could be the resource you need to ensure you can protect your ability to hunt. 

Insights & Takeaways 

At age two, my parents started taking me to their archery camp. There, they would get together with friends and family to hunt for various big game species to acquire food and become self-sufficient. You could argue that I was exposed to this lifestyle at a young age, but it just felt natural and right as I grew up. Over the years, despite numerous life experiences and career transitions, such as working as a director of a CrossFit gym, an anatomy and physiology teacher at a local high school, and a media coordinator at a university, there is one thing that has stayed constant and only gets stronger: my love for hunting, the great outdoors and mother nature. 

I started writing Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease in 2020 after verifying that nothing like it existed. Each morning, for three and half years, I wrote—combining my passion for hunting with my academic background and filling it with personal stories, experiences, and unique connections between hunting and lifestyle choices that would allow one to continue hunting. One of the main driving forces behind the book was my father passing away from lifestyle-related choices. It’s moments like my father passing away when I was younger that provided the incentive to write and complete the book in hopes that others can prevent a similar situation such as that from occurring to them or their family or friends. 

Fast forward to 2023, Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease is now a reality. With the goal of helping hunters experience more opening days and hunt more throughout their lives by improving their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, I’ve sparked a movement in the hunting community toward preventative wellness. The overwhelming support from the hunting community is a testament to the positive impact of this project, inspiring hope for a healthier and more vibrant hunting community. 

Book Insights 

With the title of Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease, it can feel overwhelming with the number of concepts, however, this is one aspect I bring up many times in the book on the importance of focusing on progress rather than perfection. Focus on a few things to work on and improve, and once you feel you have fully adopted new habits, consider finding new ones to take on. This keeps things manageable, realistic, and practical. I’ve tried to make it abundantly clear that one of the wonderful aspects of the novel is the variety of concepts presented. It allows hunters from all walks of life to find something for their specific situation and goals to consider. 

Here are some of the concepts discussed in the novel as a sneak preview: 

-Tools for keeping anxiety in check. 

-Uncovering confidence. 

-Gut health. 

-Love. 

-Strategies for dealing with chronic stress. 

-Dealing with opinions from critics. 

-Overcoming difficulties, mistakes, failures, and losses. 

-Recovering from physical injuries. 

-Elevating strength and endurance. 

-Crushing goals. 

-Becoming dangerously driven. 

-Minimizing regret. 

-Manageable and realistic dietary habits. 

-Overcoming dissatisfaction in life. 

-How to be consistent with exercise. 

-Losing weight and keeping it off. 

-Sleeping better. 

-Lessening the grip of depression. 

-Power of Faith. 

-Cultivating robust mental health. 

-The “will.” 

As shown in the picture with me on my favorite training machine for backcountry hunting preparation, I love to layer up for my 5:30 am garage training sessions to emulate a high-heat environment to test my “will.” Wearing long socks, sweatpants, long-sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, beanie, and a hood provides a high-heat environment where your cardiovascular system is already working hard before you even warm up. 

The hood and beanie make it feel like I am breathing through a tiny straw during my conditioning sessions. I can’t tell you how much this has expanded my capacity to handle high-altitude mountains much more as I feel I have an additional lung after weeks of training like this. 

There is a reason these high-heat training sessions are an everyday staple in my training sessions. I also prefer no music and being by myself during these training sessions. Having no music makes it so you must create your drive. Music may assist you in getting ready; however, I like to dig in deeply and mentally using internal narratives to get after it without assistance from music. It emulates being uncomfortable while on a hunt. Hearing yourself out of breath, tired, heart rate pounding through your neck, all of it. Training without music makes it feel like another typical day you are experiencing when on the hunt. This is how I start every day, seven days a week. 

It’s all about practicing what I preach. I attribute my mindset to being consistent and accountable for years and years. It's easy to say you should consider this or that or try these things. It's entirely different to follow through and do what you are saying and advocating for. I’m an avid believer in the Law of Averages. In this context, the Law of Averages states more effort equals more results. The more effort one applies to one's physical and mental health, the more results one will experience in the long run. When you are consistent and accountable with daily habits that favor your health, like training every morning, it becomes a habit like brushing your teeth—it’s just something you do. Everyone has the capabilities to make this happen. There are concepts in the book that can help guide you to adopt reasons to stay disciplined for the rest of your life. 

I care deeply about the hunting community and wholeheartedly want the next generation to be well-equipped. Together, we can start a movement that inspires hunters to make healthier lifestyle choices and to focus on preventative wellness. By doing this, we can serve as a good example for the next generation of hunters. This is how we make a difference. 

What’s Next?  

Despite the positive press I’ve received from my book around the globe, I maintain the utmost humility in how I live my life. This allows me to stay focused on where to direct my energy to create a positive impact on the hunting community and be a well-rounded role model for the next generation. Currently, I’m highly involved with the American Bear Foundation which is dedicated to the protection and development of bears, bear habitat, and bear hunting across the United States. Black bears hold a special place in my heart as this is the lifestyle I was exposed to heavily by my father who at one point used to be a guide in Alaska. It feels like a match made in heaven to get involved with an organization that supports what I grew up around, what I love, and is focused on how to preserve this way of life for future generations. 

I’m also working with a new team called Camo & Wind which is putting together a Pacific Northwest Hunting Journal set to release in 2025. We are excited about bringing this hunting journal to fruition as we have identified some areas where we are going to provide value like never before for Pacific Northwest hunters. Being from Oregon, I have a good understanding of the demands of the Pacific Northwest for hunters. We hope that the journal can help hunters be more successful when using our unique tips and strategies, help them experience more opening days, and help preserve this lifestyle for future generations. 

For More Information 

Linden Loren takes pride in living by a set of core values: continue to be a better husband for his wife, father for his kids, and create a positive impact on others. Loren may be a man of many hats, but now he is an author who is dangerously driven to give back to the hunting community. Find Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease on Amazon and anywhere else books are sold. For more information on Loren’s future projects and to get in touch with him, check out camoandwind.com and @linden_loren on Instagram. 

Your Hunting Healthspan: 73 Ways Hunters Can Age Better & Prevent Disease Reviews