This Montana Man Will Make You “Mountain Tough”

This guy looks like a beast. And from what I hear, if you really want to get ready for a backcountry hunt- he's got the team to back you up.

We got to spend a couple days hanging out with MTNTOUGH founder Dustin Diefenderfer down in Las Vegas for UFC 300 and a tour of UFC's Performance Institute. Diefenderfer grew up in Billings, and hunting has always been a big part of his life. (Read more about the UFC 300 trip by clicking here)

What is MTNTOUGH?

Dustin Diefenderfer: "MTNTOUGH is mission specific training for the backcountry hunter and military athlete. And, it's expanded since our original founding year in 2016 and 2017 to now it's a great program for anyone looking for a very high level functional fitness, which we define as being a hybrid athlete. And the hybrid athlete is really strong, so they have a great strength baseline, but they also have a great amount of endurance and stamina as well."

You can get the MTNTOUGH fitness app on your smartphone or a smart TV and basically work out from anywhere with an Internet connection.

What did Dustin with MTNTOUGH think of UFC's Performance Institute in Las Vegas?

Dustin Diefenderfer: "The UFC is pumping out a lot of data and research from that innovation lab. In a lot of ways that is what MTNTOUGH is doing. It's a very similar model where we have this amazing facility in Bozeman, and we're testing and researching and studying athletes every day all the time- but we're delivering that information through our community through the app. And so we'll test programs on hunters, and then we'll release that program in the app once we know that it works, or we'll test like a smoke jumper program, and then we deliver it through the app."

I first heard about MTNTOUGH through Brian Gilman, a retired Marine colonel who now leads Warriors & Quiet Waters. He's Butte tough, he spent a career in the Marine Corps, he's a big hunter, and he highly vouches for the MTNTOUGH workout.

By the way, here's the full audio of our chat with the Montana crew about UFC 300 and UFC's Performance Institute: