A Silly Season Training Strategy For Hikers

In this episode, I explore a dead-simple training strategy to help a hiker keep moving and manage stress during the silly season.

​Episode Transcript:

​[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. And in today's episode, I'm talking about a really, really simple training strategy that a kahaiker

[0:08] can use over the silly season. As we are getting to the end of the year and holidays are coming up, we're wrapping up work, socializing, all of this stuff is happening. For a lot of people, training can get a little bit tricky. A lot of people are just so wrapped up in so many things going on. They're trying to maintain training, a regular schedule, full workouts, whatever it may be, it can be really, really, really tricky. And so many people fall out of just completely doing anything. And that is a shame because at this time of year, we kind of need exercise more than ever. If you're going through a big training journey and you're leading up to a big hike at the start of the year or anytime next year, you want to definitely keep something going on during this time so all your hard work doesn't go to waste and you don't go backwards over the holidays.

[0:59] Alternatively, if you're not really training them for anything in particular, it's really, really valuable to keep some type of exercise going just to help manage stress, to help you sleep, to help you just feel good and very, very valuable. And then on top of that, a lot of people in the December months, they're like, well, you know what? I'm not super stoked or keen on exercise right now. But my plan is once it comes to January, once I'm at the other end, that's when I'm going to pick things up. I'm going to get back in a routine. I'm going to get back on a workout plan or whatever it may be. And that's absolutely fair enough. But if you can just do a few bits and pieces in December, it can give you such an advantage when it comes down to January and such an advantage when you step into a plan, when you can just have a little bit of baseline fitness. Now, there are a million and one ways you can go about training during this time. But today, I want to talk you through a really, really, really simple strategy, which can be super relevant for hikers, super practical, and super, super easy to put into action.

[2:00] What it is, it's very, very simple. What you want to do is find a step. So if you've got like an aerobic step handy, or if you've got like a step at home, or you've got a bench or something like that, you want to find some type of step.

[2:14] And then over December and over the holidays, you just want to leave it set up somewhere which is easily to see somewhere that is easily accessible this may just be in your living room it may be a bit of an eyesore may get in the way but just leave it set up maybe in the spare room it may be in the garage or whatever may be and set yourself the challenge, that once a day.

[2:39] You're going to get on that step and you're just going to do five minutes of stepping up and down. Just go up and down, up and down, up and down for five minutes. Once you're done your five minutes, get on with the day. This could be done first thing in the morning. This could be done in between tasks. This could be done just before bed, whatever may be. But it's a simple, simple, simple thing where you can just get a little bit of an aerobic stimulus, five minutes of constant movement going up and down stairs, pretty decent. Get a little bit of muscular endurance stimulus where you just get a little bit of burn going on. And then also, it's just super, super convenient. And the idea behind just having this set up and somewhere that you walk past and you see, You'd be surprised around how many opportunities where you're like, you know what, I can do this. You may not feel like 60 minutes of training. You may not feel like 40 minutes of training. You may not feel like 30 minutes of training, but five minutes of just going up and down, very, very simple.

[3:35] Now, on top of that, if you want to take that a step further, and I've had quite a few of my hikers do this when they're going through really busy periods, is if you just want to leave like a load of pack next to the step. And if you want to leave a pack with five kilos in it or seven kilos in it, I've even get a high cruise, he leaves a pack with 20 kilos in his, and you literally just whack the pack on and do your five minutes. Super, super, super simple, but it can be very, very useful. And if you can end up doing this once a day over the holiday season for two weeks or three weeks, very, very great. That's a lot of extra movement. That's a lot of extra benefit. If you can just do this a few times a week, that's still going to be pretty good, but whatever it is, very, very simple. And then on top of that, you can still fit in full sessions. You can still in full things or whatever may be. But this is just a really, really nice way of just making sure you get something.

[4:23] Now, if you're in a situation where you just do not have a step, like there's nothing convenient and whatever may be, the other thing you can do here is just leave a load of pack, just leave it at your front door. So again, it's kind of in eyesight. You see it when you walk away into whatever may be. And you might say, you know what, I'm walking past. I see the pack. I'm just going to whack it on and just do a lap around the block. Might just be five minutes, might be 10 minutes or whatever it may be, can be a very, very similar thing. But either way, as you're kind of coming into this type of period, it can be really, really valuable to grab little strategies like this. Things that are easy, things that are accessible, things that don't take a huge amount of time, and pre-plan them and put them into action. On top of that, you could.

[5:03] Do a bunch of these things. You could leave a step up. You could leave a pack at the door. You could leave a dumbbell somewhere and say, hey, every time I walk past a

[5:10] dumbbell, I'm going to do this or whatever it may be. You can stack these types of things on too. It can be really useful. But either way, that's my challenge to you. Coming into a silly season, coming with everything else, if you're really a little bit doubtful about holding onto your training, this can be a really simple strategy, but it can go a long, long way. So I hope a few people can put this into action. I hope it can serve you well. And on top of that, I hope everyone can have a great, great silly season and bring on the new year so with that being said last thing i will sort of say is if you are in the situation you're a hiker and you're like you know what coming in december maybe i just have a lot of time on my hands and you know what i like the idea of doing little bits and pieces but in all honesty i wouldn't mind getting started on my training i wouldn't mind stepping things up now i've got more time i've got the inclination i've got the energy i want to start thinking something now or if you're a hiker and you're like you know what i'm looking into the new year i kind want to get organized because I want

[6:01] to hit the ground running in January. I want to get all my ducks in a row and I want to make sure 2026 is the best year possible for my hiking or whatever may be.

[6:10] Either of those situations, I would love to have a chat with you. If you want to find out a little bit more about our online personal training for hiking, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash online. On that page, there's a big video, talks a lot about our program. And if it sounds like something you want to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page. You can book a free call with our team. We're going to have a little bit of chat and learn about you, your hiking, your situation, and kind of talk you through how training works. So if you want to check it out, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash online, and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope you get a little bit out of it, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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