Don't Miss This In Your Preparations

Today, we explore one crucial aspect to ensure you fit your training, even if you're already following a very active exercise routine. 

​Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we are talking about one thing that you absolutely want to make sure is included in your training if you're wanting to be in a good spot for your adventures.

[0:14] Now, this particular episode was inspired by a workshop I did the other evening with a hiking company that I work with. And once a month with this company, I go on and I do a workshop with their participants and talk about different subjects around training for hiking.

[0:29] And on this particular week, we just talked through a presentation around training for hard multi-day hikes. And we just talked through a bunch of different content, a bunch of different tips. And we had a bit more of a Q&A session, in all honesty, where I talked through a few bits and pieces, but then just answered questions from people in the workshop. And there was one particular situation that came up in about four or five different questions in slightly different ways, and also that I see all the time from hikers who I talk to on a weekly basis and think to see things online, and it's something that I really want to cover today.

[1:03] Now, this particular misconception or issue or blind spot or however you want to phrase it, it usually comes from people who are pretty generally active in their life. You know, they go to the gym, they do classes, they might have an active job, they feel like they do quite a bit in their week, and they very may well be doing a lot of training or a lot of exercise in their week. And they decide that they want to do a big hike. Maybe they've never done a hike like this before, or maybe it's just been a while or quite a few years, or maybe it's just something they do once a year or whatever it may be.

[1:36] And they look at the training that they're doing and they're like, hey, I go to the gym, I do some classes, do some cycle classes, whatever it may be. And in all honesty, I feel like this is really good. This is good enough. I'm in a good routine. And they're like, look, I'm just going to make sure I'm really, really dedicated to my routine from now until the hike. And I'm going to really, really fit that in. Maybe I might just fit in a bit of pack walking on the treadmill or do some stairmaster or something just to kind of get ready for those things. And I should be all good. And while this isn't terrible you know definitely if you're working off a good basis of fitness and you're fitting in a couple of hiking specific things this can be pretty good but there's one big thing missing from this type of general preparation and when those four or five people on the workshop laid out their training for me and said hey is this going to be enough there was one big thing missing from each of theirs preparation because even if in your week you're doing a bit of strength training in one way shape or another even if you're doing a bit of cardio you know through classes or whatever may be.

[2:31] The one big thing that is often missing and we cannot neglect is longer cardio.

[2:37] Because many people are under the misconception that if they can go do a cardio session in the week, maybe a spin class or a circuit class, or maybe even go out for a run or whatever may be. And if they can work very, very hard for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, they can get a really good sweat on, have a really good workout, that that will be good enough for they're hiking. But this is a mistake because there is a big difference for the body and for the mind between working at a hard intensity for 45 minutes and, and then working at a lower and moderate intensity for four hours. And even if in those 45 minutes you gave absolutely everything you had and walked out tripping in sweat, there is still a big difference between those types of things. The body has different needs for different situations.

[3:26] And there are different qualities of fitness that we need as a hiker to get ready for those longer duration stuff. Not to say shorter sessions can't be beneficial and can't be useful, but if that's all we're doing, there's a bit of a gap. Because the body, when it's exposed to this longer duration stuff, it will create certain adaptations and certain changes to better handle those specific needs. And if you don't expose your body to this in your training in one way, shape, form, or another, then when you get on your adventure, even if you are incredibly fit and you've been doing really, really good training, there's still going to be a bit of a gap in your preparedness. Your feet might get sore, your shins might get sore, your knees might get sore. You might find yourself getting tired or agitated after a couple of hours. You may just not recover well in between big climbs or in between big days or whatever it may be, and there's going to be a bit of a gap.

[4:20] Now, filling this gap doesn't have to be too complicated. And this is like common

[4:25] sense, like what most people naturally fall into. The easiest thing here is just making sure you're doing some hiking in your training, that you sit down, you look at the plan that the hike you got coming up and you create a hiking plan which slowly builds up over time which will essentially get you up to the point where before you head off on the trip you're pretty confident that you can handle those longer distances with whatever pack weight you need and even if you can't get out every week because a lot of people like i just don't have the time to hike all the time just do what you can can you hike every couple of weeks can you hike every three weeks i've had many hikers who really only manage once a month And as long as they're doing other good things in their week, this can often be enough. As long as we're getting some type of exposure regularly and building that up to this longer duration stuff, it really does go a long way.

[5:11] Or alternatively, if hiking isn't possible, maybe one of the situations that we had was they were up far north Queensland, so very, very hot and tropical, and summer was coming up, and hiking there is just not super nice. Or other situations I've heard before, people in the middle of winter in Alaska, and they don't want to go out and hike, or it's really rainy, or they're not confident, or they're in a part of the world which doesn't really have accessible hiking, or whatever it is. If hiking isn't possible, then you just need to think, okay, I may not be able to hike. I may not be able to get out for four or five or six hours and do this type of stuff, but what is some way that I can expose the body to longer duration walking, just to get the body used to walking for long extended periods of time, sustaining those forces?

[5:55] So examples of this might be, okay, I can't go out and hike, but maybe are there some days on my weekend I can do some longer walking around the local area. Maybe on the weekend, I know there's a cafe in the local area. Maybe I'll walk 90 minutes to that cafe. I'll have a coffee. Then I'll go walk somewhere else for 45 minutes, see a friend. And then I'll walk home for another 90 minutes. That ends up being three hours, four hours worth of walking. You know, that may not sound like super strenuous, but it's a way of exposing the body to that type of stuff. Or it may be a case of going into the gym and going on a treadmill and doing

[6:28] some long, steady state walking sessions, putting on a movie and slowly building that out or whatever. Sometimes you do need to get creative here. But the point goes, even if you are doing loads and loads and loads in your routine already, even if you're the most dedicated person in your local gym who's going in and doing every single class and being really, really, really, really active, you still want to cover this longer duration base as best as you can.

[6:52] And then saying that, like, yes, obviously I would argue, you know, with all the other training, if you can take all that training time and get away from the general training and dedicate it to more hiking specific stuff, and instead of doing group classes, but actually hone in on your hiking, you probably will be much more effective in your training. But I understand some people don't want that. And this specific situation, a lot of people really like their routine, but we just need to fill that gap. So please, if you're a hiker who may be super active, may be super, super, super happy with your normal routine, and you're building up for a big adventure, just make sure you are doing this bare minimum. Find some type of longer duration, lower intensity cardio, which you can build up over time, which can expose the body to these types of things.

[7:35] It really, really, really is the missing piece, and it really will go a long way.

[7:40] So with that being said, I'm going to wrap things up here. I fully understand if this episode may not be relevant to a lot of people listening, because I may be preaching to converted here, who are already hiking and doing this and that, but I wanted to talk through it because it did come up a few times and it's definitely worthwhile exploring. So with that being said, last thing I will say is if any hiker listening to this today and they were like, yep, I do a lot of general fitness, but in all honesty, I'm interested in honing this in a little bit more to be a bit more specific for my adventures, to make sure I'm doing everything I can to get in the best possible position for my hiking, then I would love to have a chat with you. If you want to learn a little bit about our online personal training for hikers, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash online. On that page, there's a big video which talks through a bit about our training. And if it sounds like you 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 sit down, learn about you, your needs, your hiking and your situation and see if and how one of our packages may be right for you. So if you want to check it out, 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 today. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope you got a bit out of it. and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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