vertical-endeavour.com

Hi All,

Wondering what you guys do to keep yourselves 'hiking' fit?

I used to hike monthly; but have been out of the 'loop' for almost 2 years now - and want to get back into it.

Always wanted to do the Grand Traverse, so that's the goal...hoping for mid-2011 if I can get all my ducks in a row.

Looking forward to your advise & suggestions;) .

Kind Regards

Mike

Mike, in my experience as a fitness trainer (and a keen hiker) consider the basic "FITT" principle to build on your cardio (as long as you have no health limitations that you need to consider).

The FITT principle is:
F - Frequency (how often you excercise)
I - Intensity (how hard you work)
T - Time (the duration of each session)
T - Type (what kind of excercise)

If you do not build up your cardio fitness level over time, you risk injury to your body, and sickness (over-stressing the heart is hard on your general health even for young healthy people).

FREQUENCY: To build your cardio fitness level, most people will want to plan 3-5 sessions per week of aerobic excercise. Aerobic excercise means "steady-state"....rather than stop-and-go.

INTENSITY: You can estimate your MAX heart rate with the calculation (220- YOUR AGE = MAX heart rate). Then your target heart rate is calculated by multiplying the MAX HR x PERCENT). It is commonly recommended that a beginner workout at 50-70% of their MAX HR. Whereas a conditioned individual might aim for 70-85% of their MAX HR. In any case, you should be able to talk during excercise, without being too flushed or laboring for breath.

TIME: Cardio training is best achieved if you start with shorter sessions of low intensity aerobic excercise and then build on your time. If training for a long hike, then the TIME should be something you build on, rather than focusing on intensity.

TYPE: Although cross-training (shaking things up by trying different types of aerobic excercise) is recommended to prevent boredom, and for the sake of injury prevention (this reduces the chance of over-training certain muscle groups), you do want to focus training sessions around the type of goal you have. In other words, lots of skipping rope will get you in good shape for a boxing match, but not a long hike.

So the best thing you can do is to start getting outdoors and plan regular hikes! Schedule these on your calendar, as you would with anything else that is important to you, and stick to it.

Good luck! I'm sure that others will have some good practical advise for you also, but hope this helps.

Thanks for that Kel, much appreciated!

Agree fully with your suggestions...had hoped to start doing monthly (at least) hikes from end of this year. Gives me time to get the fitness level up before then.

Looking forward to more suggestions. Thanks again guys.

Cheers.

Mike

Hi Mike,
it's a common challenge to stay hiking fit, cause really, as mentioned, the only way is to do lots of hiking! I have the advantage of living at the foot of the Magaliesberg and am part of a group that does two mid-week hikes in the afternoons. The rest of the time I cross-train in the gym. I find swimming and brisk walking on an inclined treadmill helpful.

Injury prevention is something I did not consider on my first Grand Traverse, though I did have the cardio and endurance fitness at the time. The long distances and heavy pack strained my knees, though this only became apparent a week after I had finished, during a day hike in the Magaliesberg. It took over a year of careful gym exercises to get that right. So, pay attention to strengthening joints, in particular your knees, as well as your core.

Cool, thanks Chris.

Is it worth seeing a professional for knee/ankle/core strength exercises?

Also, what is the general consensus on interval training?

Ciao for now.

Depends on now much proper fitness is worth to you I guess. One can get some very good advice and insights from a personal trainer or biokineticist, though not all of them may be knowledgeable of the requirements for hiking. If you have, or have had, a sport-related injury then it would make sense to see professional so that it does not get worse. I had one consultation with a physio for my knees, and within a few minutes some issues were recognised and solutions implemented.

I don’t do any interval training, so can’t say much about that.