Are Limitations Hurting Your Hiking?

In this episode, we explore why sometimes advice about limiting certain movements and activities can be detrimental to your hiking and life. 

​Chapters:

0:23 
Breaking Self-Imposed Limitations
1:32 
The Impact of Poor Advice
4:16 
Preparing for Hiking Challenges
8:51 
Exposing Yourself to Stairs and Hills
11:25 
Reflecting on Personal Limitations
13:23 
The Path to Overcoming Limitations
14:27 
Seeking Personalized Help for Hiking​

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Want to get fit, strong and resilient for your hiking adventures?

Check out the Online Summit Program: https://www.summitstrength.com.au/online.html

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Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we are talking about limitations that we place on ourself, either self-imposed limitations or limitations that have come from, I guess, a well-meaning health professional, but ones that, while may sound

[0:19] good in theory, may actually be hurting your hiking significantly. So bear with me, it takes a bit of explaining, but let's get into it. Now, this particular episode was inspired by a video I was watching the other day around knee pain and hiking. And I was watching this video as I tend to do and just been seeing what people are saying about things. And then I went and read the comments because I'm always interested in what people have to comment on videos, whatever it may be. And there was this really interesting comment here on this video about knee pain while hiking. and it's a really, really, really, really common situation that I hear from people and it's something that we definitely need to dive into. Now, this particular comment said, my osteopath says that with weak knees and then in my situation, I have bone-on-bone cartilage and a worn-out meniscus that I should never squat greater than 45 degrees. Does this sound right to you.

[1:16] Now, this is a really common thing. People often get told. They get told from physios or osteos or massage therapists or whatever it may be that, hey, you have got this limitation. You've got this change in your joints or this change in your knees. You've got arthritis or whatever it may be.

[1:33] And to stay out of pain, you need to be really, really, really careful about avoiding certain positions, certain angles, which may load these things up. And in everyday life, if you are just trying to avoid discomfort in everyday life, following this approach, it may do the job. Because if your knees get uncomfortable in certain positions, if you just never go in those positions, yeah, that can make sense. But if you are a hike.

[2:02] This advice, nine times out of 10, is gonna really not be great. Because as a hiker, even on the most tame hikes, even on the most manicured, casual hikes, your body will get into many weird and wonderful positions. If you step off a step, if you step on a rock, if you're doing a traverse, if you're doing some rock scrambling, or whatever it may be, your body will get in all these weird and wonderful positions. And if you've been spending pretty much your entire day-to-day life and all the training you may be doing, and you've been really, really, really limiting how you move your body and not going into certain angles and not going into certain positions, and that's how you've been spending your day-to-day life and your training.

[2:56] But then you go on a hike and all of a sudden you're exposed to something where yeah you get a little bit deeper maybe those knees go past 45 degrees or whatever may be this is an absolute recipe for pain not so much because like your knees will automatically get pain when it goes deep but because you're not used to it you're not exposing the body that and it's a brand new thing and this is a recurring cycle we often see from people in the sense that they get told they have an issue. They get told they need to limit what they're doing. They do that. They feel okay. Then they go out on a hike. All of a sudden they get exposed to this thing and they're in pain. So in this head, they've got this self-fulfilling prophecy where they're like, well, whenever I go out and do hikes like this, I get in pain. I can't do these types of hikes. I can't do this. And a lot of people drop out of hiking altogether, but it's not really.

[3:48] The hiking that's the issue it's how you're actually preparing your body because if you take the time to actually teach the body hey these types of movements are okay and actually strengthen the body in these things even if you have particular issues that aren't going to change like osteoporosis or or arthritis or worn out meniscus or whatever may be those things may never change. But there is a lot of good you can still do.

[4:16] So, if you're in this situation, if you're in this recurring cycle and you've been told you need to limit certain movements, but then you go out on the trail and you're always getting the pain, well, what is the solution? Well, one solution is you can just give up hiking altogether. And you can be like, hey, don't go out on the trail because therefore you will never get in those positions. Yeah, may not be the greatest solution. It definitely works, and I've seen people recommend it, and a lot of doctors say, hey, you shouldn't be hiking in your position or whatever it may be. I've heard some horror stories on that, but in all honesty, it's not a great solution. The better solution, because hiking should be something we can do into very, very, very, very old age and pretty much our entire life. The second solution to facilitate that is just be smart with your training. Be smart about preparing your body for this type of thing and if you have particular limitations which cause discomfort which cause aggravation we absolutely want to respect them we want to be aware of them we want to work within them but also you want to slowly challenge them you want to slowly expose the body to this type of limitation. And very, very, very gently.

[5:40] Introduce it to the body so it can get used to it so it doesn't be so much of an aggravator and so when you're actually faced with this type of thing out on the trail you can be in a much better position so going back to that original that original comment in this situation their osteopath had said with their particular knees they should never do a squat beyond 45 degrees which is like a quarter squat or maybe a half squat or whatever may be if we're in this type of situation we had this type of limitation, what would I suggest? Well, if you've just seen your osteo and you've just had a flare-up of knee pain and they've given you this recommendation, then yeah, maybe if you're doing squats to try to build up your quads while that knee is a tender, while you're in that initial stages of aggravation, maybe stick to that. Stick to the 45 degrees. If that is comfortable, do that for two or three or four weeks. Build a little bit of initial strength and let the knee settle.

[6:38] But then we want to start challenging things. We may take that squat and say 45 degrees. And you know what? What we're going to do this week, we're going to go an inch lower. We're going to go one inch lower, just a little teeny tiny, expose the knee to a slightly different angle, a slightly different range of motion. And we may do this for a few weeks. We may do this for 10 repetitions of this lower thing for week one. And then week two, we may do 12 repetitions. and then week three, maybe we'll just add a little bit of weight with a dumbbell and slowly build this up for four, five, six weeks. Then we go a little bit lower and we add another inch and slowly but surely, we really, really, really gently expose the body to this.

[7:22] Now, this sounds good in theory. And a lot of people are like, hey, cool, that sounds good. And then they go out and try to do it and they increase their distance and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm in pain all of a sudden. And 99% of the time, people overestimate how they go about things. They just jump right in the deep end. If you've got a long history of discomfort and pain, if you've got limitations in the body, which are not going to change, such as bone on bone, I hate that term, but a lot of people get told that, or worn out meniscus, again, I hate that term, but a lot of people get told that, then you need to go slower than you would think. Be patient with this. And if you've had a really, really good run for four weeks, don't just all of a sudden accelerate stuff. Be very, very slow. Spend three weeks at a distance, then add an inch. Spend three weeks at a distance, then add an inch and slowly but surely build things up. As a long-term goal, you don't have to be in this position where you can squat all the way down to the floor like a baby where they just hang out like that. That may not be realistic and that's just not the idea, but you kind of get the idea here. We're taking some restriction we placed on ourself for our body, and we're slowly but surely just challenging that, exposing the body to that. Now, that's a simple example in regards to squat, which hopefully makes sense. Now, a similar thing, and probably more in the hiking context, which a lot of people run into, is like stairs or hills, in the sense that a lot of people are like, hey, I am aware that I get uncomfortable when I go downstairs.

[8:52] And I've been told by a physio or physical therapist or an osteo, whatever it may be, that I should just avoid all stairs in my hiking or whatever. And so they do this, but then they come across some elevation, they get in a pain or whatever may be. So in this context, you would do a similar thing for stairs or hills. You would sort of say, okay, how can I expose my body to this? Maybe I'll go find a nice set of stairs around the local neighborhood. And what I'm going to do is I'm just going to practice going downhill and going down the stairs. But I'm not going to spend ages doing this and push, throwing myself in the deep end. Maybe I'm just going to start and I'm going to do five minutes of this, where I basically climb up the top, go down. Climb up the top, go down.

[9:36] If you can do that without discomfort, awesome. Next week, maybe we'll do seven minutes. Next week, maybe we'll do nine minutes. Next week, maybe we'll do 11 minutes. Next week, maybe we'll do 11 minutes and we'll add a bit of pack weight and slowly but surely, really, really, really patiently build that up. Or alternatively, say you get to seven minutes and you're like, oh, you know what? Actually, the knees get sore. Then next week, pull it back down to six minutes and then build up. And as you can see, it's really, really, really slow. But this type of thing is just so important if you are a hiker. Because as I said, there are so many trails out there, which you just cannot avoid this type of stuff. And even if you are so, so, so diligent with your track notes and you do all the research, you talk to people and this and that, and you're like, I'm only going to choose hikes which are within my movement levels, which don't put stress, that don't have stairs, whatever may be. You know how many times track notes just miss something? And you may come across it and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm in pain. As a hiker, we do not want this.

[10:42] This type of thing, it is so, so, so common. And I cannot tell you the amount of hikers I've spoken to who've just had some health professional just get in their head about things like this. They've gone, they've got a diagnosis, which is fair enough. But then they've said, look, you should never do this. I should never do that. You should never do this. But then forget the fact that this person, their hobby, their passion, what they get out to go out and enjoy themselves and explore and stay active and stay fit is hiking. And their advice is just setting them up for failure with this type of thing. I hate to see it, but I do see it all the time. So if you are listening to this,

[11:21] and this may sound a little bit familiar to you, here is my challenge to you. What I want you to do is get out a pen and paper or open up a document on your computer and just spend 20 minutes racking your brains and just listing down any limitations you have placed on yourself. Either limitations that you have placed on yourself personally, and you're like, you know what? I went on a hike, and this was really uncomfortable. I don't really want to do that anymore, or whatever it may be. Or limitations that have come from potentially well-meaning, but maybe misguided health professionals saying you cannot squat this movement. You cannot do this. You cannot do that, or whatever it may be.

[12:02] List out as many of these as you can. For some people, it may only be one. For some people, you may have six or seven, a whole laundry list of these things. Then ask yourself.

[12:13] Are any of these things that have been listed out, is it likely that I will get exposed to any of these things, either in my day-to-day life or during hiking? Now, going back to that 45-degree squatting, that is rubbish, terrible advice because everyone will squat in one way or another deeper than that when they go to the toilet or sit on a couch. And telling someone you can't squat deeper than 45 degrees is ultimately saying for the rest of your life, you're going to struggle to get out of a chair, which is awful advice. So in day-to-day life, we want to think about this, but also hiking. Have I limited myself on pack weight? But maybe might there be a situation where I actually have to carry a little bit extra weight if maybe a friend I'm with rolls her ankle and I have to carry out their pack? Or am I limiting myself on hills or stairs or rock scrambling or hiking a little bit quicker or anything like that? If so, and you think you may be exposed to that in your hiking, it may be worthwhile coming up with a little bit of a plan just to slowly but surely expose yourself to this.

[13:23] It can take a long time. You have to be really patient with it and really intention with it, but it can just be an amazing process to open up things that you thought were well beyond you these days, to get you back feeling comfortable, and then just make you feel good in so many different situations. Now, obviously, if this is a major medical thing, say you've got some heart issue and you've been told to avoid certain heart rate zones or whatever it may be. Yeah, okay, that is cool. But we're kind of more talking about pain, if you've just been told to avoid certain movements or whatever it may be. So, use your best judgment there. And if you are unsure about this type of stuff, if you got told a couple of years ago that you shouldn't do this movement and you're really, really, really, really, really hesitant, go book in with a physio, go book in with a physical therapist and explain your situation and say, look, this other person before, they gave me this diagnosis. They said I could never do this, but I'm worried that I'm a hiker and I need to be in these positions. What do you think I should do? And they can guide you through that process if you're not confident to do it for yourself.

[14:28] So a bit of food for thought and i know there'll be plenty of people listening to this episode who, who have experienced this maybe have these limitations in their head and i really do hope this can help now last thing i will sort of say is if you are a hiker and you're in this type of situation where you're like i love hiking i want to be doing it for years and years and years and you know what i feel like i need to improve in certain situations in certain sections or whatever may be and you feel like you need a bit of personalized help with that i would love to chat with you. If you do want to find a little bit more about our online personal training for hiking, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash online. Now on that page, there's a big video, talks a lot about our programs. And if it sounds like something you want to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page where you can book a free call with our team. We can have a bit of a chat from there. So 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, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

Want to get
fit, strong and resilient
for your
hiking adventures?

Check out
​The Online Summit Program