Trail Hiking For Fitness

This past weekend I went on a backpacking trip into the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania with a couple of friends of mine.  Today I feel great; a little tired but my mind and spirit is completely refilled.  There is more to back packing than just going for a long hike with a heavy bag on your back. You have the scenery, fresh air, mother nature, and best of all; no radio, no TV, no cell phone, no deadlines to get work done, no busy traffic…………I think you get the idea of where I am going with this.

Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I am a simple person and have a few things that I really enjoy doing; weight training, drinking good coffee, sports, spending time with my family, and going trail hiking/backpacking.  This past weekend’s backpacking trip was three days long but I have gone on a couple of five day trips and would love an adventure of a two week trip or more.

OK, so let’s talk about the fitness side of trail hiking.   First, it is nothing like walking or running on a treadmill.  Secondly, it is not like riding a bike.  But what it is like is it’s own little adventure challenge.  You have a task at hand-the trail, and you want to complete that task.  But before you jump on the first trail you find; make sure you do your homework first.  Things like how long and the difficulty of the trail.  Almost all marked trails have information listed about them on the internet.  Find a trail that is close to where you live that might only be a mile or two or up to a few miles.  After you have researched your trail and are all set; find a friend to walk it with you or at least a portion of it so you have an idea about how the terrain is laid out and how long it took you to cover a certain amount of distance.  Each time you walk the trail see if you can decrease your time and if you are more efficient in completing your distance.  You might be surprised at the amount of distance you are covering as you are taking in all that nature has to offer.  Another thing you will notice is your renewed sense of being.  There is a real difference training outside verses being in a fitness center with TVs and/or a radio.  That’s right-I recommend you leave that I-pod at home while you are on the trail.  Enjoy your surroundings and I bet you will look more forward to a nice but challenging hike than going to find that treadmill or elliptical.

I mentioned backpacking also in this post.  This post is a little preview of an article that I am writing that will go into much more detail about hiking and some of the safety precautions to be aware of.  It will also contain information pertaining to multiple day trips with everything you will need to survive in a back pack and some of the measures to actually train for a trip like this.

If you like the idea of going for a hike on a trail for a different type of workout and you have a specific question or information you would like me to contain in the upcoming article; please just let me know so I can help supply you with this information.

Train with a purpose,

Jerry