How To Train For The Overland Track

In this podcast episode, I dive into how a hiker can get fit for the Overland Track.   

This episode is split into two halves. In the first half, I interview Andrea about her experience on the Overland Track. And she explores her journey on the trail, and talks about some of the challenges she faced on this fantastic adventure.

In the second half, I take over and dive into the details about how I would recommend hikers approach their training for the Overland Track. And I talk through some of the exercises, workouts and strategies which can help physically prepare hikers for this type of multi-day adventure. 
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How To Get Fit For
​The Overland Track
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Episode Transcript:

Introduction 

Right. Hello, hello guys. So in today's episode, we are talking all about how to train for The Overland Track. Now for the non-Australians listening, the Overland Track is an iconic trail in Tasmania, which is part of Australia. It's a multi-day hiking adventure, deals with quite a bit of elevation, and it's something that's on a lot of Australian's bucket lists. And it's something that a lot of people are leaning into in the next three, four, five months in Australia. And I thought this would be a great opportunity to do an episode to really dive into the nitty gritty and the details around how to get fit for a track like the Overland.

Now, the structure of today's episode is a little bit different than what we typically do. And essentially what it's done is broken up into two halves. Now, at the first half of this episode, I interview Andrea about her experience on the Overland Track itself. Now, if you haven't come across Andrea before, if you haven't listened to one of her episodes and previously she was a previous client with Summit Strength and we trained together quite a while ago, as she was preparing for the Overland Track. And we took through a training to help her get a fit, strong and resilient for this particular trail. And then since then she's actually come on board as a coach with Summit Strength, and now she helps hikers as part of Summit Strength prepare for adventures like these.

And essentially I wanted to get her on an interviewer about this particular trip, but I figured seen it's been a little while since she actually done this trip, I figured interviewing her about her training and preparation, it may be a little bit tricky, because who remembers what training we did 12 months ago or whatever may be. So essentially the first half of this episode is diving into her experience on the Overland Track. And she talks through some of the details, some of the specifics around the challenges she faced on the trail, the track conditions, the different climbs and all of this, and we went through all the details of that trip for her. So hopefully if you are preparing into Overland, it'll give you a little bit of insight around what to expect.

And then essentially the second half of the episode I take over and I just talk about the specific training and workouts that I would recommend any hiker use if they're preparing for the Overland Track. And I talk through my ideas that I use for my hikers, who I train, and also what I would recommend for any hiker who's trying to get fit for the Overland or any other multi-day adventure in general. And so I go through in the details and specifics around what may be good to include. So hopefully with the two harms of this episode, both the actual trip report and the recommendations around training, this can really fill a few holes in gaps in knowledge when it comes to preparing for a trail like the Overland and help a lot of people who are leading into an adventure like this.

And I will give apologies in advance. In the interview section, there is a little bit of a weird feedback coming from my microphone, which has a bit frustrating, but hopefully it doesn't put you off. Hopefully you can deal with it and hopefully you can still get some good value from the interview. So with all that being said, let's get into the first half of the episode now, which is going to the interview with Andrea, and I really do hope you enjoy it.

Hey, my name is Rowan Smith, and I want to welcome you to The Training For Trekking Podcast. Now, this is the world's very first podcast which is entirely dedicated to helping you train, prepare and conquer your upcoming hike, trek or mountain adventure. So once a week, I'm going to be giving you quality and practical information on the subjects of physical preparation for trekking, dealing with altitude and nutrition on the trail. So you can know everything you need to be doing to have the best chance of a safe, enjoyable, and successful adventure. So now you know what you're in for, let's get into today's episode.

Interview With Andrea: What Is The Overland Track Like? 

Okay. Welcome Andrea. Really, really, really great to have you back on the podcast. Thanks so much for getting involved.

Thanks, Rowan. Thanks for inviting me back again.

No, my pleasure. My pleasure. So I guess to kick things off for people who may not have listened to one of your previous podcasts or may not know who you are, do you just want to give me just a little bit of a background around who you are, where you're from and what is your background in hiking?

Okay. So who I am, is I'm a 60 year old woman who only got into hiking, well, I think I'm coming up for about six years now as a middle-aged unfit, never hiked before woman. I found it by accident, hiking by accident, literally, because I'd had an accident in the gym, couldn't do my gym anymore, one thing sort of led to another and I just inadvertently found hiking and was hooked from day one. I hadn't walked with any bush walking clubs or anything like that, so it really was initially learning as I went as a solo hiker for probably a good year or two at the start.

Long story short, I progressed with my hiking, started a hiking group, got invited to do a number of different hikes, thought I should get strong. Trained with Summit Strength, got strong for the hikes I wanted to do, revisited my dream of becoming a fitness instructor, or a PT, during lockdown and now I'm an adventure coach with Summit Strength. And I live in Victoria in Australia. I've just moved from Melbourne down to regional Victoria at the beautiful Phillip Island with the penguins and the seals and the whales.

Oh good. Sounds good. Well, there we go, six years, pretty much wrapped up in a couple of minutes. You've done pretty well there, Andrea, I'll tell you that.

Well, as you know, and as I said before, I tend to waffle, so I thought I better try and keep it succinct.

Well, we don't mind a bit of waffle on this podcast as the listeners, I'm sure, are sure used to me waffling on when I'm trying to find my words, so that's all good, that's all good. So we have had you on the podcast before to talk about a few bits and pieces, but today we are specifically talking about the Overland Track because it's a big track that a lot of people are preparing for, in Australia, a big sort of bucket list item for a lot of people and something that's getting more and more and more popular these days. I know at the time of us recording this episode, a lot of people are getting pretty close to their trips coming up or they're booking them in or whatever may be. So I know you're going to be talking us through some of the details of your Overland Track adventure. To start with, do you want to share, well, first of all, when did you do the Overland Track and also what was the inspiration behind choosing this particular venture? Why did you want to do this particular trail?

Okay, well, I did it, I think it was last year, so that's 2021. I know that it must have been, because there was a lot of anxiety about whether or not we were going to be able to go with all the various lockdowns. The inspiration, so that's an interesting one. A friend of mine decided that she was going to take a group of people to do the Overland down in Tassie, and she put the invitation out there that there was X amount of people she was prepared to take. She'd done it twice herself before that time and loved it and wanted to share it with us. And she said to me, "I want you to come. I want you to come." And I said, "I don't want to come. I don't like cold. I don't like snow. I could think of nothing worse. I'm sure it's beautiful, but it's not my bag." But she convinced me.

So I signed up for it and I pretty much dreaded it, and wasn't all that excited about it, to be honest. But as we got closer and as I started getting stronger for it with my training, I did get really excited about it. So it's probably not like a lot of people who leap at doing it. I wasn't dragged into it kicking and screaming, but it wasn't something that was high on my list, I have to say, I prefer warmer weather.

Yeah. Fair enough. And yeah, I guess that is a little bit different to how a lot of people will approach a hike like this, but I'll tell you what, I do hear a lot of stories of people who maybe in similar situations of they may be book on because of a friend or a family member. Or maybe just a burst of inspiration and then between the date of booking and the date of actually going, yeah, it's not something they're super excited about. They've got a little bit underlying anxiety or just not really worried about it or whatever. So I guess there's a surprising number of people who, fall into that category there. So I guess before you hit the Overland Track, so when you sort of decided, "Look, I'm going to do this, I'm going to make this happen," looking towards the track, what did you think were going to be the biggest physical challenges that you were concerned with for this trip?

Oh God, Rowan, everything. Because at the point where I'd signed up, I'd never done an overnight hike, so I'd never done a pack carry. I'd never done anything more than maybe 10 kilometers, maybe, might have been my upper limit. I remember I used to say, "Anything beyond 10 kilometers is just too much for me, I can't do it or I wouldn't enjoy doing it." So coming from someone who probably used to do, I don't know, maybe six, seven, eight kilometer hikes, knowing I was going to be doing the Overland, everything had me concerned pretty much.

Fair enough. And then let's get into the actual trail. And obviously this is a little while ago, so fair enough if your memory's a little bit rusty, but we'll see how we go. Talk me through the trail and the actual trip itself, what were highlights? What were challenges? Yeah. Just give me the whole rundown of the trip as you remember it.

Okay. So we did it a little differently in that our group did it over eight days, a lot of people do it over six. It didn't mean that we did... What that means, the reason we did it over eight days is we took an extra day at Pelion Hut, I think it was, which is kind of halfway because some people wanted to go and do some side trips to climb Mount Ossa or Mount Oakley or relax, or whatever it was we thought we might want to do with a spare day. And then the other extra day, we decided rather than take the ferry out from one of the points to the end of the trial, we were going to hike, so that was an extra day. And I think that's around, it's around 17 kilometers, but we did it in a way, I think it was about 11 kilometers, so that was eight days out on the trail.

So we stayed in Launceston and got track transport down to Cradle Mountain where you go through your whole briefing and all that sort of stuff, safety, going through your gear to make sure... And the weather was absolutely horrendous. Now we did it in, I think it was the end of Feb. The girl who organized this for us, Cassie, she's done it, this was her third time. She's had snow in summer and she's had 30 plus degrees in summer, so one thing I'll say is, don't think just because you're going there in summer, it's going to be summer conditions. So the day we got there, it was pretty much blowing a, probably a blizzard is a bit too strong a word, but it was pretty awful. So I did not want to get off that bus at all, but of course I had to. So day one... Do you just want me to start with day one or no?

Absolutely. Take it from there.

Yeah. Okay. So day one, so getting off the bus, taking all those photos that you do at the start with the sign and it was really just head down into the wind because the rain was blowing horizontally into our faces and biting our skin, it was pretty bad. And I was concerned about Marion's Peak, which is a bit that you climb up, it's climbing up rocks using chains. And I was actually really concerned about how I'd go with that with my loaded pack. I think I was carrying, from memory, 17 kilo. It was around that. So yeah, that was a real concern to me. But I have to say, with the training, I was up that thing, like a rat up a drain pipe and it was almost like it didn't exist. So had I not done the training, I think I would've really struggled going up that bit, so that was good.

Look, we all, after initially starting together as a group there, I think there were 10 of us, it was either eight or 10, initially starting off. We did have the agreement that we would all just hike our own hike and regroup if and when we wanted to and clearly we'd meet up at the hut. So there was a bit, it was probably from memory, about an hour out from the first hut, which was Waterfall Valley Hut, where you're going downhill and the track was pretty much a river there was so much water on the track. It was rocky, there was a lot of stepping down off rocks down, because we're descending into a valley.

So what happened for me, I was on my own at this point. I lost my balance coming down off of rock down onto the track. I sort of jabbed my pole into the ground and somehow lost my footing and swung around and smacked myself into the side of a rock. I was fine, but my pole snapped, which was not what I wanted on the first day of the Overland Track, because I rely heavily on my tracking poles when I hike and never hike without them. So that was a bit of concern on day one, but I was super, super lucky because as I'm coming into the Waterfall Valley Hut and it's pouring rain and I'm wondering what the hell I'm going to do for the next seven days with only one pole, one of the rangers from the Tas Parks office came out and said, "Oh, what's happened here?" And I said, "Oh, I've broken my pole." And he did some magic with my pole and fixed it for me. So I was able to use it for the rest of the trek, which was awesome.

Day one. So yeah, we get into the hut, everyone's drenched because the weather was awful. It wasn't snowing, but it was just nonstop hail, rain, wind, everything. Everyone was drenched. Everyone had all their shoes and socks off around the fire there, and that was day one. It was lovely, the hut was nice, it was cozy, and that was my first experience camping in a hut with a whole heap of people that I'd never met before, but it was awesome, I really liked it.

So tell me a bit more about the hut. What does it actually look like? What's the layout like? How does that actually look on the Overland?

So you come down to the valley and you just see it off to the right there and it's pretty modern. I think from memory that, this wrong, but I think that was one of the ones that was upgraded or replaced or something not that long ago, I think it was that first hut. It's pretty spacious. There's different bedrooms from memory there. Our group were able to have one of the bedrooms, had bunks in it, plenty of room to be able to sit around and the kitchen there was good. I mean, clearly you had to have all your own stuff, your stove and what have you and all your food. But look, it was comfy. It was comfy, it was warm. The drop toilets are outside. Yeah. I can't even remember.

And I'm sure there probably were platforms to camp on out there, but there's no way anyone was doing that with the weather. Yeah. So the hut was lovely. At nighttime, you've got to sleep in with other people and you get all sorts of noises going on at night, whether that be someone's mat scrunching or the snoring or all the other noises that come on in the night. That's okay, it's just something you just have to suck up if you're going to do those sorts of hikes and stay in huts.

Fantastic. So that's day one then. Let's talk through the rest of the trip. Do you want to hit us with some of the highlights, some of the challenges and talk us through the rest?

Yeah. Look, I won't talk you through eight days individually because then we'd go on forever, so what I will talk about are some of the things I loved, some of the things I didn't love on different days. So a highlight for me... Well, the whole thing was a highlight. Let's face it, you're in the Tassie wilderness. Everywhere you look a beautiful are beautiful mountains, beautiful lakes, you know your miles from everywhere and it's just you're in nature. Absolutely amazing. But I loved, there was a day there where we went for a dip in a lake, even though the lake was freezing, we dropped all our stuff at a hut and then we decided to come back and just jump in. And it was invigorating, but oh, it felt so good to get clean and just refreshed. It was lovely, I really loved that because I do love jumping in a lake anyway, regardless of where I am, so that was huge.

I absolutely loved the day we stopped and had that extra day at Pelion Hut. I went with a group of girls and we went up Mount Ossa, which is the highest peak in Tassie and that was hard and it was scary in some parts because it's not a track, it's not like you have handrails or anything to hold onto. There was one or two spots there where I thought, "Well, it's good night Irene for me," but look, I made it to the top, took me twice as long to come down because despite my training, I'm still really slow on dissents, but I'm absolutely chuffed that I was able to do that and to do it with such awesome other women as well.

Other highlights were, can't remember what day it was, but you get to see the waterfalls, so there's three waterfalls that you can go side tracks off and you just dump your pack and you just go off to check out these waterfalls, and they were pumping, because there'd been so much rain, the waterfalls were just beautiful. That was a highlight. Oh, look that the last night we camped at Echo Point on the beach, so that was where some people just before that they'll, I think it's at Narcissus Hut they'll catch the ferry and then cross Lake Saint Clair to the finish line. We decided to walk past Narcissus Hut and camp on the beach at Echo Point, I think it's called, there is a hut there, it's really small, and apparently the rats are horrendous there, so we all camped on the beach. The weather was pretty ordinary, but it was just an awesome way to finish off. That was our last night on the Overland, so that was a highlight as well.

If you get a chance to do that and walk out, and no way of doing it is right or wrong, I mean, if I did it again, I'd get the ferry out next time because I've walked out, but if you've caught the ferry before, maybe walk out because that's a whole other experience as well. But for me, that very last bit, I think we had about a kilometer to go and you cross a bridge across the river and we all regrouped, we all caught up with each other and we all walked together to the end. And it actually just makes me what a cry now with emotion, because it was just a beautiful thing for us all do together, to walk to the very end of that last whatever it was, 15 minutes or so, just amazing. And just to realize what you've accomplished. It's pretty big to do a multi-day hike.

Good and how fantastic that even after all this time, just reminiscing on, on that particular point, is bringing up those feelings. It's such a special thing and that's so amazing to hear. So diving into a few particulars of the trip, you mentioned on day one where you had that incident with poles and the pole broke and you were lucky enough to that the ranger had a trick to get it sorted and get it fixed and all of that. Aside from the poles, was there anything else that maybe went wrong during the trip either for yourself or for someone in the group, and if so, how did you go about overcoming it?

Yeah, nothing wrong. I guess some of us had injuries that we may have carried into the hike or things that may have flared up along the way. For me, I felt pretty happy with myself because I didn't feel any pain or fatigue or anything for the whole thing until... Literally it was on the last day, I think there was probably two hours of hiking left to do, and something happened with my hip flexor. I don't know, it just became really painful. So I started to get a little bit concerned. I was sort of hiking on my own at that point, every now and then catching up with others or others would catch up with me, but they knew I was okay and I'd be able to hike out, but I was really worried about how I was going to hike out, "Was this going to take me two or three times longer because the hip flexor pain?"

But look, I just sort of sat and I did some stretching. I did take the drugs just to get me through, the painkillers, but the stretching helped as well. Because I think it was just the matter of it, it had just had enough of me carrying this pack. And in hindsight, I don't think my pack was sitting on my hips for the whole thing particularly well. And this is a thing I think sometimes you'll find too is as you get further and further into a multi-day hike, well, this is me, most people are probably better at this than me, I tend to get a little slacker with how I packed my pack when I'm getting near the end.

Now on that last day, because we'd been camping on the beach the night before and it had been raining and the tent was wet and all that stuff, I was really, really careless with how I'd packed my pack. I'd just shoved things in anywhere just really wanted to get out of there, get on the track. So in hindsight, I think I didn't pack it as well as I should have, and I probably didn't have it adjusted as well as I should have, which is probably led to that hip flexor issue, because I hadn't had that hip flex issue the whole time. And that's what I think it was. I think it was laziness that brought me unstuck there.

I guess maybe you touched on the end of the trip before, but looking the next couple of the days, week or whatever may be after the trip, how did you feel after it, both physically and mentally?

Oh, amazing. Well, that's not just say there weren't parts of the trip that I didn't enjoy. I did get to sometimes to points and I'd just think, "Oh my God, I'm sick to death of walking through mud. I'm sick of walking through..." This track is just a river, it didn't really dry out much the whole time we were on it. "Just get me off this thing." It wasn't all beer and Skittles, there were times where I just thought, "Oh God, I'm just..." I don't even know if it was physically exhausted, it was just kilometer after kilometer, after kilometer of this mud and rain and tree roots, because there's a lot of tree roots. And of course you have to be careful that you don't slip on those, so it's where do you place your feet? A lot of mental energy goes into where you're placing your feet because of the mud and the tree roots.

So at the end of it and the days afterwards, I guess I was exhilarated that I'd done it, but tired, but I think more from the mental fatigue than the physical because physically I actually pulled up okay. In fact, I think it was within a few weeks that I went and did Three Capes with my daughter, so I felt fine.

Awesome. And then if you did have to do it again, or if you chose to do it again, I should say, is there anything you would change in the way maybe you approached it or that you brought on the trip or the itinerary or anything like that if you did do it again?

Tell you what, I actually don't think I'd change anything apart from on that rest day in the middle, because I've done one thing I would go and do something else like Mount Oakley or something like that. The girls that did Mount Oakley said it was absolutely beautiful. So I didn't get to see that because I was doing something else on that day. So as far as my preparation, I would not change a thing because I worked hard for that time leading up to that trip because I knew that when I signed up to do that trip, I was probably, I'm not even going to say probably, I would've been the most unfit person that signed up to do that Overland trip. So I kind of felt like I needed to do it for myself, but just to prove, I don't know, sounds stupid, but I felt like I needed to prove to other people that I was capable of doing more than what I'd previously done. I knew I was capable of it, but I felt like other people didn't know. And I know that seems like a silly motivation, but it was motivation.

So I worked really hard with my training and I think I've said before to you and to other people, I didn't want to just do the Overland, I didn't want to just get through it, I wanted to actually enjoy it rather than endure it. So the prep, absolutely, I would do it exactly the same. The itinerary, I loved how Cassie who put it together, Cassie and Shaney, well, there were three of them actually put it together. How they came up with the idea of the day break in the middle, I think that was a really good idea. Particularly for those of us who had never done multi-day hiking before, it was a whole new ball game, fatigue can set in and it was nice to know that on that day, if you wanted to do nothing you could. As it turned out we did the hardest day we have ever done on that day, but there was an option to do an easy day if you wanted or do nothing. But I love that idea.

Yeah. I don't think... To be honest with you, I wouldn't change. There's nothing I'd change. I'd probably stay down the night before, I'd probably stay down closer to Cradle Mountain, but that's not a biggie. It didn't really didn't really matter, it's just that we had to get up super, super early to come down from Launceston.

Okay. And then if someone was preparing for the Overland, whether it's this year, next year, or anytime in the future listening to this episode, what is one piece of advice you would give them?

Oh, God, train and train on a sense, like going up, going down. Do your loaded pack training, just train. Don't just think going for a walk with a pack on your back is enough because it really isn't. The terrain is all over the place, it's rocky it's, it's muddy, it's all that stuff. And as you know, I was doing a lot of training on a place that was local to me at the time called The Fire Trail and that was sort of going up the side of a local mountain that had rocks on it, that made such a difference. But of course not everyone has access to that, but if you don't, there are other sorts of training you can do. And that might be your hill training with your pack on or stuff like that. Definitely train. I don't think I'd attempt it without training.

And then that goes perfectly into the second half of this episode, which we'll get into in a moment and we'll dive into the specifics of all the training. But I guess before we wrap up this first half and this interview section, is there anything you'd like that we haven't really or anything else like that?

I'd like to, actually this goes back to one of the questions you asked before, if I'd do anything differently, and look, I probably wouldn't do this differently, but I would like to go back and do Cradle Mountain summit, which is on day one. That makes for an awfully long and hard day if you're going to do that, I didn't do it. Friend of mine has done it, she went, I think, the week before me and did it solo, and it's horrendous, but I think I'd like to go back and give that a shot at some point. But yeah, you'd have to make sure that you've allowed yourself plenty of time to get in before daylight before it finishes and stuff like that. No, that's about all I wanted to say about that, I guess.

Okay, fantastic. Well, I think this has been awesome, Andrea. I think this has been really, really great to talk through a few bits and pieces of this trip. And I think for people listening to this, particularly when they booked onto something and they just may not know really what to expect, I think it's been really good just to touch on a few of the things you've talked about and just give a bit of insight into what they've got ahead themselves on this absolutely fantastic adventure. So thank you so much for coming on and taking the time to talk through all this. I think it's been absolutely fantastic and I really do appreciate it.

No worries at all. And look, if anyone's thinking of doing it, look, just do it. What have you got to lose really? It is a beautiful part of our country and I'm just so, so grateful to be able to get down there and experience it and experience it with people who have the same appreciation of the wilderness. And if you can go with people who... Everyone, most of most people in my group were more experienced than me, and that was awesome because I learned so much along the way, it was great. So if you can do that, whether it's with a tour operator or with a group of friends, it's nice to share all of that with people.

Training For The Overland Track 

Okay. So in the second half of this episode, we're going to be diving into the training side of things and I'm going to be talking through a range of different areas that I would typically recommend when you're looking at training for the Overland Track, getting fit for the Overland Track and generally just preparing for a multi-day hike like this. So essentially, when you're looking back on that interview with Andrea that we just listened to, when we're looking at something like the Overland Track, there's really four big considerations that you need to be aware of when you are trying to plan out your training. Now, number one is just purely being in the position to hike day, after day, after day, multiple days in a row for eight days, nine days, whatever it may be, and just purely be in that position that not only can you get through one, two, three days of hiking, but you have to fitness the strength, the endurance that your body can recover from day, to day, to day and not just absolutely fall apart halfway through, so that's number one.

Number two, is carrying a pack, whether you're carrying a full pack, whether you're carrying a day pack, if you're on a tour of some type, or anything in between, that is a consideration you need to get ready for. Number three is the steep elevation. So obviously there's quite a bit of steep stuff on the Overland. Day one when Andrea was describing Marion's Peak with the climbing the rocks using the chains, that's obviously going to be a bit of a surprise for quite a few people. Maybe if you're going up Mount Ossa, and you're going up to that highest peak in Tassie, that's going to be a challenge. And obviously there's lots and lots of up and down on the Overland, which you're going to need to be ready for.

And then finally, there's just the rough, the rocky, the slippery terrain, the tree roots, the waterfalls Andrea was talking about, the mud. This is obviously going to vary from when you actually go in the year to what the weather's like, but there's no doubt there's going to be a reasonable amount of rough, rocky and slippery terrain. So they're really the four things you need to be considering in your training and the four things you need to be getting your body and your mind ready for before you hit this trail.

Now, when it comes down to training for hiking, there are typically four areas of training and four general areas of training that I typically recommend to pretty much all hikers. And so today we're going to be breaking down each of those areas and also how they specifically would relate to the Overland Track. So if you've never heard any of my stuff before about training, this may be all new to you, the people who may have already heard my staff, maybe it's been a while since you've heard this all in one place and you probably haven't heard it related obviously specifically to this track. So essentially the four areas of training that I recommend to all hikers fall under strength, training, hiking specific conditioning, hiking programming, and recovery and mobility work.

Strength Training For The Overland Track 

Now to start with, let's talk about strength training for hiking. Now, strength training is one of the most significant things you can do in your training in your preparation. It is absolutely one of the best things you can do to help reduce pain and reduce the risk of injury, which is so typical for a lot of hikers, whether we're talking about sprained ankles or knees or feet or whatever may be. It is a significant, significant thing about making elevation much, much easier, with the thought is your legs are stronger every single step you take on steep elevation is going to feel much easier.

Therefore, over time, you're going to have less fatigue and you're going to enjoy yourself much, much more. It can also play a big role when preparing for a heavy pack, because obviously we've got to prepare for all that extra load on the body and it can also help improve our movement efficiency, meaning every single step we take we'll use less energy, which over days and days and days of hiking is obviously pretty significant. So strength training is a really, really, really beneficial and important part of training that I'd recommend to any hiker looking to tackle the Overland Track.

Now when you do book onto the Overland, and say you're going with a hiking tour company, quite often you'll get given a recommended training plan. And one thing that I often get seen recommended to hikers, particularly for the Overland Track or any other multi-day hike in general, is these training plans when they're talking about strength training are not very comprehensive and they're really, really, really one directional. I don't know if that's the right phrasing, but they're just very, very focused in one particular area. And typically what they recommend is doing exercises like step up, squats, lunges, maybe a little bit of calf raises and that's kind of about it. Maybe some planks, maybe some sit ups occasionally, whatever it may be.

And don't get me wrong, step up squats, lunges, calf raises are great, but they're only really working a small part of the body because step up squats, lunges, the things that always, always, always get recommended in these plans, they all work the same muscles, they all work the quadriceps predominantly. And calf raises, yeah, work the calves, but there's so many more muscles that are relevant for your hiking. And if you're only doing these exercises, you are really, really, really, really, really missing out. Because in general, when we're preparing for hiking, we want to be developing the entire body through strength training, not just one or two main muscle groups, and yeah, other muscles get a little bit of work, but not really focusing just on one or two muscles, but making sure we're targeting the whole body in one way or another, because everything is going to be doing one job or another.

So for the legs, we don't only just want to walk the quadriceps, which are the front of the thighs, but we want to make sure we're working the hamstrings, which are the back of the thighs, the glutes, which are the bum muscles, the calves, which are the lower limbs. Some people may want to be working the shins or the feet if they got particular issues there. Some people will be wanting work the hip flexors if they've got issues there. And as you can see, there's a lot more going on the legs than just quadriceps. They also want to be working the upper body because if we're carrying a pack on the trail, the upper body's going to be doing a pretty significant job. And if you're trying to clamber up a certain section with chain ropes to pull yourself up, you need upper body strength to pull yourself up.

You're also going to be wanting work your core because the core is the connection between the upper body and the lower body that helps you transfer your power through the body, that helps you support a full pack, and that helps you move efficiently on the trail. All of these things do play a big role in your hiking. And as I would definitely recommend to any hikers in general, to make sure they're covering all of these areas.

Now getting into the actual specifics of talking through the exact, exact, exact things of preparing a structured and comprehensive strength training program for a hiker. Yeah, it's a bit beyond this podcast. It's a bit hard to describe because there's so many nuances and so many different things that go into that, but just ask yourself if you're looking at your preparations and the exercises you're doing, if any, is only really working one or two muscle groups, you may want to be exploring something that's a little bit more comprehensive. Now that's generally talking about strength training.

If we want to get a little bit more honed in a little bit more specific, beyond this, when we're talking about the Overland specifically, there's a few really, really, really particular additions that I might recommend beyond a typical structured, comprehensive strength training program. Because as we said in the previous, when it comes to the Overland, we're got to be dealing with really steeper ascents, we're going to be dealing with really rocky terrain, and we're also got to be dealing with slippery terrain. So there's certain things you can do in your training specifically, which can be really handy here beyond just the generals of getting strong.

So when we're talking about steepest ascents, one thing that's super, super, super easy, super, super practical to do, and it can be very, very, very effective when it comes to preparing for steeper ascents, is train yourself to do some heavier step-ups in your strength training. So what I mean by that is step-ups, as we sort of said before, very, very popular in the world of hiking, literally on a box going up and down, up and down, up and down, very, very popular because it's obviously very similar to hiking. And the typical way a lot of hikers will do this, is they'll do lots and lots of repetitions. So they'll do 15 repetitions on each leg or they'll do 20 on each leg and they'll slowly build it up, build it up and maybe they'll carry a kilo or two or a little bit of weight, but that's about it. And this can be a really, really good way of training in developing what's called muscular endurance and the ability of the legs to sustain force again and again and again and again and again and again for long periods of time.

And that can be very effective, but another way of approaching these step-ups, which can be awesome. Awesome. Awesome for steep ascents, is doing some slightly heavier, slightly more challenging step-ups. So the way you go about this is find a step or a box which is relatively low, it doesn't want to be super high. And typically you'll want to find a box which is no higher than about three quarters up your shin. So typically between about halfway to three quarters up your shin, you want to find a box. Then essentially you want to throw on a pack or hold some weights, which are relatively heavy. Then you step up on that box and you go down, up and down, up and down. And you choose a weight in which you can only really do about five, six, seven, maybe eight repetitions at the most. Then you have a rest, do it again. And then over time you increase this weight and get it heavier and heavier and heavier.

And teaching the body to deal with this movement with significantly more weight than it's planning to do on the trail, and only doing small amounts of repetitions, this can do really, really wonders for steep ascents. And you don't have to do this for your entire training period, but you may just put this in for a little bits. You might do this for four weeks before you head off on your trip, or you might do six weeks during a training journey or whatever may be, but putting this somewhere in your preparation can go a long, long, long way. So that's number one, a great inclusion doing some heavier step up.

Now, number two, when we're talking about rocky terrain. So we sort of said, look, there are a lot of rocky terrain. There's lots of roots, there's lots of dodgy stuff. One thing that often gets caught up when it comes to this type of thing, particularly when we're talking about rocky terrain are the ankles. Now the ankles, if they are a bit unstable or if they aren't quite as strong as they need to be, they can really cop a battering, which they can fatigue early, which can sometimes lead to a little bit of foot discomfort, a little bit of shin discomfort. Also, if you're stepping on really rough stuff, some people will tend to roll their ankles or have issues like this. So working on ankle stability can be a pretty important thing. And there's a few different ways you can go about this, but somewhere in your training, probably what I would recommend to hikers is making sure you're getting three things in one way, shape, form, or another.

Number one, it's just making sure you're doing some type of single leg strength training, so that can be anything when you're standing on one leg at a time. So it might be step-downs, it might be single leg dead lifts, it might be the step-ups, or whatever may be so long. As you're doing some type of training on one leg at a time, that can go a long way purely just for ankle stability. Number two, when we're talking about ankle stability is doing some type of direct ankle strengthening. So doing exercises, which directly will strengthen up the structures around the ankle.

So probably the most simple way of going about this is doing banded ankle exercises, which are really, really simple. You basically wrap a band, like an elastic band around your foot, and then you push your foot in one way. And so you push it straight forward and you do 20 repetition in that way. And then you wrap your band and you anchor it somewhere else and then you pull your foot towards you for 20 times. And then you're going do foot to one side foot to the other, and then you're working your ankle in all these different directions. And it's a really simple wave of just building up a little bit, extra stability there. Now you don't have to spend a huge amount of time doing this, but it's a handy thing you can do in front of the TV, or you might do it in your rest periods, in your strength training, or you might just do as part of your warmup. And over time just slowly increase the resistance with your bands and that can be really easy way to add things in.

And then finally, to help with your ankles another great things is making sure you're doing plenty of calf strengthening. So strengthening up your calves through calf raises are probably the easiest ways and making sure you're doing plenty of that in your training, both straight leg calf raises, which is going to work the upper calves, the gastrocnemius a little bit more, and also bent leg calf raises, where you're doing a calf raise, but your knee's actually bent. And that actually strengthens up, what's called the soleus, which is another muscle in your calf, which just as important. And if you don't know what a calf raise is, go on to YouTube, just type in C-A-L-F raise, and you will know what that is. And those three things can go a long, long, long way for your ankles.

*Building Ankle Strength For Hikers 

And then finally for the slippery terrain, dealing with that. And this also does fall into the ankle stability as well, but putting some type of attention into balance and proprioception training in your preparation, because developing your balance, if you're aware that your balance isn't so, so good can go a long, long way. So this can be as simple as just standing on one leg at a time and holding that for 60 seconds and just seeing how that goes. And then if that gets easy, then standing on one leg with your eyes closed. And if that gets easy, standing on one leg on a pillow, which adds a little bit extra instability and doing that for a while. And when that gets easy, doing that with your eyes closed. And if you can do 60 seconds standing on a pillow with your eyes closed, you know what? You got better balance than me and you're probably pretty good. But that can be a really, really simple addition, again, as part of your warmups, just as part of your day or whatever may be, and that can be a really nice inclusion.

So to wrap things up on the strength training side of things, strength training as a whole, very, very, very beneficial for any hiker who's preparing for the Overland Track. As a general rule of thumb, you want to be making sure you're having a comprehensive strength training program, which is hitting all the different parts of the body, because everything will be doing one way or another. And then on top of that, somewhere in your training, maybe incorporating some of those heavier step-ups, maybe incorporating some of that ankle stability work, and maybe incorporating some of that balance work, I think putting that all together can go a long, long, long way. And obviously, you may not know how to go about this, but that's where you may reach out to professional help to get some structure around this, to make sure you are ticking off all your boxes there.

And the final thing I'd say is some people might be asking, "Okay, that all sounds good. How often, how much do I need to do this?" Typically, I'd recommend for hikers maybe fitting this in one to two times a week for 30 to 60 minutes at a time. Some people, if you've got all the time in the world, maybe do a third session, but most of my hikers aren't really doing more than two strength sessions a week. And if you structure out the right way, you can include all of that stuff I was talking about within that time period, it's very, very doable. So one to two times a week for 30 to 60 minutes, so that's your strength training.

Cardiovascular Training For The Overland Track 

Next up what I want to talk about is the hiking-specific conditioning. So hiking-specific conditioning, what that actually means, and what I'm talking about here, is essentially shorter cardiovascular training sessions, which you do off the trail, which can help your fitness and your conditioning for the trail. Because not all of us can go out and hike two, three times a week. We may be lucky enough to hike once a week if that, so we obviously want to be developing our cardiovascular fitness off the trail, and this is where hiking specific conditioning comes in. Now there's lots and lots and lots and lots of different things you can do here. There's so many different approaches to this type of training, but there's definitely, specifically for Overland, and specifically for the demands we're talking about, there's two types of workouts that I would definitely recommend any hiker in incorporate into their preparations at one stage or another.

Now first one, the simplest thing in the world, but so, so, so effective are loaded pack walks. Now, essentially loaded pack walks are basically walks that you would either do around the local neighborhood, in a park, on a treadmill, or whatever it may be, which you do for a shorter timeframe. So you might do it for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, maybe 90 minutes as a maximum. But the intention of these walks is slowly over time you want to build up your pack weight so ultimately you're going to be significantly heavier than you're planning to do on the trail, but obviously at a much shorter timeframe.

So for example, say someone was planning on carrying, let's say, 15 kilos on the Overland. Maybe once a week, they might plan to do a 45 minute loaded pack walk around the neighborhood. So they're throwing on a pack, maybe they start off with six kilos. Then next week they do seven, then it's eight, then nine, then 10, and every single week they add up an extra kilo. With the intention or before they actually hit the Overland, maybe they built up to 20 kilos during these shorter walks, because that can be a really nice way of just exposing the body to some heavier loads, so when you're actually on the trail, it can make your full pack much more manageable. Not to mention it's a really specific way of just sort of developing fitness for hiking anyway, and it doesn't require much effort. So that can be a really, really significant thing and I would definitely recommend any hiker, give that a whirl.

Now the other thing that you'd include as well, that I'd definitely recommend including, and again, this is all pretty straightforward. A lot of hikers will naturally lean towards this, but it's definitely something that's worthwhile, is doing some type of stair or heel intervals, because as we sort of said, elevation is a big factor when it comes to the Overland Track. So obviously you want to be preparing your body to get used to that up and down environment. So essentially setting yourself a session where you will do extended periods of time going up and down some type of elevation can be really, really beneficial. And again, you're probably going to be doing this during your week, so you don't have to spend huge hours and hours and hours of doing this, but these sessions may go anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, where you put a timer on and you literally just go up and down the stairs as many times as you can.

And then next week you'd either try to do more ups and downs within that time period. Or you might add a little bit of pack weight and make it a little bit more difficult. And each week, by week, by week, just make it slightly more challenging for yourself, either adding more repetitions or more time or a little bit more pack weight, really, really, really simple. So this is typically done on a set of stairs nearby or a steep hill nearby if you have access to that. Obviously a lot of people don't have that conveniently accessible and sometimes it just doesn't work. You can also do these sessions on a step machine at the gym where you might do six minutes of climbing on the step machine and have two minutes off and then do that three or four or five times. And then next week you might do six and a half minutes and the next week you might do seven minutes and so forth and so forth.

Or you can do this just purely doing step-ups. If you're just training at home or you're training in your backyard, you might find a box and just step up and down, up and down, up and down for extended periods of time, or whatever may be. Some people do do this on an incline treadmill at home or in the gym. It's sort of a last case option there because it's probably not quite steep enough to get the elevation you really want, particularly for something like the Overland, but it can do at a stretch. So those are two things I definitely recommend for any hiker preparing for the Overland, loaded pack walks and stair or heel intervals.

And the key to these workouts is making sure you do have that way of progressing week, by week, by week. So you're not just doing the same workout every single week, but in one way or another, it's getting slightly harder, slightly harder, slightly harder each time you do it, and that is critical. Now around all that, other stuff you can fit in, is potentially fitting in some type of off-feet conditioning, if you have extra time. So what off-feet conditioning means is just doing some type of cardiovascular exercise which doesn't put pressure through your feet.

Now, the reason I say that, as opposed to doing more and more and more walking is essentially, this is a really easy way of exposing the body to more, more and more cardiovascular work. But it reduces the risk of just doing too much on your feet, which can often lead to overuse injuries like plantar fasciitis or shin splints or whatever may be. Not to say you are automatically going to get those things if you just do lots and lots of walking into training, but this can be really nice way of mixing things up and minimizing the risk if you're doing too much. So doing things on a bike, whether it's a stationary bike or riding outdoors, going on a rower or elliptical in the gym, heck even doing kayaking or paddle boarding or whatever, all of that can go into it. Basically any type of cardiovascular exercise where the feet aren't doing much, that can be a nice thing of just adding in little bits and pieces, if you want to do more.

Now, typically when it comes down to this hiking-specific conditioning, I would usually recommend to hikers maybe fitting in one to two times a week of this type of session, anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, maybe up to 90 minutes, if you've got plenty of time, but really one to two times a week is typically enough for this type of thing.

Hiking Training For The Overland Track 

Now the third type of training I would recommend fitting in, is your hiking training. Because when it comes down preparing for hiking, there is nothing that's going to be able to replicate the uneven undulating, just unpredictable nature of the trail as hiking. And it does really need to be, if possible, a part of your preparation. But one thing that a lot of people really stress about when it comes down to this, is they look at the Overland, they're like, "Okay, I've got eight days worth of hiking to prepare for, but there's no way I'm going to be able to do eight days worth of hiking in my training. How the heck am I going to get ready for this if I can't practice this?"

And in all honesty, you've got to take that thought out of your head because there is no, no, no way you're going to be able to replicate the trail in your training. Sure, if you're lucky enough to live new mountains and be retired and have all the time in the world, yeah, you may be able to do, but 99% of us don't, so just take that thought out of your head.

Now, some people as well, on top of this, is they'll recommend in their preparations, and you'll often get this from hiking companies, hiking tour companies, is they'll recommend in their preparation, in the lead up, to go out and hike two to three times a week, every single week leading up to it. And yeah, if you can do that, great, if you have the time and accessibility to do that, fantastic, but in all honesty, this isn't super realistic for most people. It's just not going to fit into most people's lives and it's not something I typically recommend for my hikers.

The way I like to approach hiking training and the sort of outcomes we're trying to aim for the hiking training I recommend for my hikers is essentially what we want to be doing with this type of training is getting you feeling confident and comfortable with the max time you're expected to hike on the Overland, with your max pack weight that you expect to hike on the Overland in a way that is realistic for your life and your schedule. So as opposed to trying to let replicate eight days worth of hiking, we want to isolate your longest day and say maybe eight hours of hiking on your longest day with, let's say, 15 kilo pack weight.

We essentially want to get you, before you head off, feeling confident that that eight hours of hiking with 15 kilos of pack weight, that is doable. So your body can be confident that you can get through it, your mind can be confident and get through it, and that's what we really want to be aiming for with your hiking training. So not trying to get you all the way up to eight days, but just replicating that toughest day as close as possible.

And really the key to this type of training and the key to making this happen really comes down to planning, because a lot of people will just take this approach where they'll be like, "You know what? I'm just going to hike here and there. I'm just going to go on whatever hike comes up here, here, here, here." And yeah, it can get you a certain part of the way, but it's not super, super effective, because number one, if you're just doing random hikes here and there, you can just put your risk of just doing too much too soon, doing a massive jump up and flaring up some type of overuse injury. And also number two, it may just put your risk of just being under prepared, if you just haven't had a plan and you just get to there two weeks out and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I'm nowhere near ready," or whatever may be. So a little bit of planning can go a long, long, long way here in the likelihood of reducing overuse injuries and also ensuring you steadily improving your fitness and your conditioning.

So this is what I typically recommend to hikers when they're planning their hiking training is get out your calendar. Now two weeks before your leave date for the trip, so essentially two weeks before you start Over land, you essentially want to be scheduling in sometime in that two week mark, you want to be scheduling a hike which is going to be the equivalent time, spent hiking of your longest day on the trail with the max expected pack weight. So as an example for, if you're expecting an eight hour day with 15 kilos on your back, for this day, you want to be scheduling in a training hike which is going to replicate that. Now, if you have the opportunity to do this as an overnighter and do eight hours in one day and five or six hours the next day, even better, but as long as you can get the day hike in, that's the main thing.

Now from there, once you've scheduled that one in, you basically want to work backwards in your calendar from that day, all the way to today and jot down each day, each weekend, whatever may be, you expect you might be able to hike. Now, in all honesty, if you're looking six months in advance, four in months advance, three months in advance, this isn't going to be perfect, because things are going to change, weather's there's going to change, schedule's going to change all of that, but you want to have a rough plan here. And just jot down all the days you realistically think. And here it's much better to be conservative as opposed to being optimistic, in the sense of it's not worthwhile planning out that you're going to hike every single week if you are only 50% confident you're going to be able to do every single week. If you're not 100% sure about that, plan a hike every second week, or whatever may be, be conservative here.

And then essentially what you want to do is once you've got those dates scheduled in, you want to work backwards. And so to work backwards in both hiking time and distance and also back weight, and slowly, slowly, slowly take that backwards, take that backwards, with the intention of the first hike you do now should be relatively comfortable. So the one you go out do this weekend or the one you do next weekend should be relatively comfortable. Then it gets a little bit harder, little bit harder, little bit harder, little bit harder, all the way up to that final challenging hike. That's the intention there.

Now, obviously this isn't perfect. As I said, schedules change, weathers change, things come up. Sometimes ache and pains will creep up. Sometimes you don't give yourself enough time. Sometimes we can't get out and hike as much as we might because of weather or whatever may be, or whatever it is. It's not a perfect system, but it's a good system compared to just doing random hikes. So I'd say start there and then use a little bit of flexibility to figure out as you go. And then if you're looking at this and you're like, "You know what? I actually can't hike very often," then you essentially want to fill this out with just walking around your neighborhood. So if you can only hike once every three weeks, maybe on the weekends that you can't hike, you go out and do a 90 minute walk around your neighborhood with your pack on, or whatever may be. That's an easy way of just adding in some time on to your feet. So that's your hiking training, as I said, it's not perfect, but it's a good way of looking at things.

Recovery And Mobility For Hiking 

And then the final part of training that I recommend to hikers is essentially recovery and mobility work, because when it comes down to it, the body doesn't get fitter, doesn't get stronger, it doesn't get more resilient when we actually train. It gets fitter, it gets stronger, it gets more resilient when we recover from training, and that distinction is important. And sometimes we put all the thought into the world around, "We're going to train hard, we're going to do our sessions, we're going to work, work, work, work, work." And that's all well and good, but we completely forget about paying attention to recovery. And sometimes just putting a little bit of attention into aiding our body's ability to recover between our training, between our hiking, it can make a really, really big difference in regards to our progress over time and our fitness and our strength improvements, in regards to our energy levels, in regards to how our body's feeling, and even our mental state, it can go a long, long, long way.

Now recovery work doesn't have to be complicated. Basically all it needs to consist of is any type of low intensity, relaxing exercise. That's it, doesn't have to be complicated. So some of my favorites include here just stretching, literally just doing stretching sessions, or doing foam rolling or swimming, or pool walking, or doing some yoga, doing some Tai Chi or whatever it may be. Any of these low intensity relaxing exercises, it will fall into this category here. Now these sessions don't have to be long either. Typically, I'd only recommend doing them for 10 to 15, maybe 20 minutes at most, maybe once or twice a week, depending on how much training you're doing. And that's it, but it can go a long, long way, just those little, little doses of this recovery stuff.

And essentially they're the four big things that I would recommend in regards to a training plan for the Overland, strength training one to two times a week, hiking-specific conditioning one to two times a week, recovery mobility, one to two times a week, and hiking where you can. Put that all together, personalize it to you and your personal situation, and in all honesty, that's going to be a really, really, really solid plan for you.

Now, I completely understand a lot of people will have different circumstances, different situations, which some of this advice may not fall into. Maybe you've got aches and pains, maybe you've got super busy work, maybe you work shifts, maybe you don't have access to hiking trails, maybe all this other stuff going on. And absolutely if this falls into you, obviously you need some personalized tweaks to this type of stuff. And that really comes into the personal touch of getting professionals help, which I'll talk through in a moment, if you are looking for help, how you may reach out to us. But if you do fall into categories with some of this stuff may not be entirely relevant, you really do need to take it with a grain of salt and find something that's going to be personalized to you.

Now beyond all that, that's kind of the preparation plan, which I would recommend to hike is preparing for the Overland Track. Now, before I wrap up this episode, there's just one extra topic I'd like to cover, which I think is really, really, really relevant for people going on the Overland Track and also really, really relevant for anyone who's actually on a multi-day hike, is recovery and recovery when you're actually on the trail. Because we talked about it in your training, but recovery, when you're on your trail goes a long, long, long way, because obviously if you are hiking day, after day, after day, after day, the body needs to recover in between each day's hiking.

And our physical condition of how fit, how strong we are, goes a long way into how we feel day, after day, after day, but also what we're doing to help aid the body's recovery can be a really, really nice way to aid this, to help us feeling good, to help us wake up in the morning, feeling fresh, feeling ready or roll and not just hobble around for the first start, start of the day. And it's definitely something that's super simple, but can go a long way. So it's basically three things I want to mention here. Really, really simple.

Number one, when you are on the Overland Track or at the end of any day, multi-day hike, is plan to do a little self-care routine. And what I mean by that is just set yourself a little routine of stretching or a bit of self-massage and self-massage you can do with a water bottle or a trekking pole. Set yourself a five to 10 minute routine, plan it out before you go and do it every single day or every single night at the end of a day hiking. It's such a simple thing, but just spending a little bit of time giving some self care, a little bit of love to those muscles that done so much work in the day, it can go such a long way in just helping you relax, helping you feel a little bit better and helping you wake up a little bit fresher.

So just spend 10 minutes doing some stretching, doing some rolling every single day, it can go a long, long, long way. And if there's particular muscles that are achy that are sore, you can give them a little bit more attention. And that in itself, it can just go a long way. And I'd highly recommend having a think about that, putting together a little routine before you go so you have a plan of attack, and then planning to do it every single day or every single evening, I should say, on the trail.

Now, number two, what really plays a significant role into your recovery is your sleep. Now sleep is such an important factor on the trail in your recovery, but obviously when we are hiking it can often get disturbed. And I'm not going to go into sleep systems and all of that, because you'll probably be able to research that as much as you want and you'll go in circles and circles down that rabbit hole. But two things I really, really recommend, when we are sleeping in huts, or when we're sleeping in the campground in general, or any shared environment, sleep can be tricky because we hear other people, we hear them snoring, we hear them creaking, we hear their sleep systems doing, we hear people getting up to go the toilet, we hear animals, or maybe we're just not sleeping super comfortably or whatever may be and our sleep can be impacted.

So two things I'd 100% recommend here is bringing both earbuds and a face mask. Now, these are barely going to weigh anything in your pack, but they really, can make a significant difference to your sleep quality, particularly if they are sleeping in huts. So definitely, definitely, definitely, I recommend get around that.

And the final tip, I'd say that goes into recovery, which is a simple thing you can use, both in your training, but also on the hiking are using sports compression recovery tights. Now, if you've never seen these, these are basically like tights that you wear and you can buy them from any sporting goods store, tights that you wear that are quite tight. There you go. But they basically have particular levels of compression which are designed to help promote blood flow.

And the idea behind this, particularly when we're talking about recovery is essentially when we're exercising, we're walking, walking, walking, bloods moving around, fueling the muscles, happy days. When we stop the blood slows down, it doesn't really circulate quite as much, which isn't a big deal day to day, but if you're just done a big day's worth of exercise, this may not be ideal. But if you do wear these tights, these compression recovery tights, they will help promote blood flow just a little bit, which ultimately can just help the legs feel a little bit fresher and wake up feeling a little bit less achy and they can just feel really, really good.

And the reason I like these so much is because they don't take any effort. You literally just throw them on, you wear them for a couple of hours and they do their job. And if you're on the Overland, when it's cold, it can be a great way of keeping you warm as well. So essentially what I'd recommend here, if you were looking into this, you essentially want to buy sports compression garments. So not like the hospital grade staff, not the stuff you'd wear in the airplane, but sports compression garments. You can go into any sporting good store and go or Amazon and look at sports compression, whatever it may be. Get a set of tights and you'd essentially aim to wear them either for one to two hours after hiking.

So typically I would wear them, finish hiking, put them on, wear them around camp, or alternatively, you can wear them overnight while you're sleeping. I quite like that. I know a lot of people get uncomfortable, because they are quite tight and some people don't like it, completely up to you.But essentially that can actually go quite a long way. And it won't really weigh much in your pack, a really, really nice edition. And put those three things together on top of making sure you're eating plenty and drinking lots as well, but they can go a long way for your recovery, both during your training, but also when you're actually doing this multi-day adventure.

So there we go, guys, that is quite a bit information I've just thrown at you. And I know that's probably be a bit of information to digest there, but I really wanted to make this a pretty comprehensive episode and really, really tackle a whole bunch of different things. Because I know when you're looking at a big multi-day adventure, like the Overland Track, it can often be intimidating, it can be stressful. And I know when you go online and you're trying to find how to train and prepare for these things, the information available in a lot of sources is really, really, really poor. I've seen it so many times and I really do hope the information in this podcast can help build this gap a little bit and just give you a little bit of direction, a little bit extra advice so you can really feel confident you know what you're doing. So I really do hope this has helped a lot of people.

Now I completely understand, again, sometimes this information is okay, it all makes sense, but maybe putting into action, it's a little bit tricky. Or maybe you just don't know how to put all the pieces together. Or maybe you have a particular situation, maybe you're dealing with aches and pains, maybe you're short on time, maybe you've never done a hike like this and you're super nervous or anything like that, and you're like, "You know what? This all sounds good, but in all honesty, I just want some extra help with this." And if that's you, I absolutely understand. And I would absolutely love to help you.

Now if you were looking for extra help with preparing for the Overland Track or any other hiking venture in general, that is exactly what I do. I have a program, an online personal training program, which is called The Online Summer Program. Now this program is specifically designed to help hikers get fit, strong and resilient for their adventures. Now in this program, we will give you the personalized training program to get you in a great physical position for your trip. And we'll include the strength training, the hiking-specific conditioning, the hiking program and the recovery mobility work, all personalized to you and your particular situation, your needs and your preferences.

On top of that, we will teach you how to go about your recovery. We'll teach you about nutrition. We'll teach you about mental strength. We'll teach you about self care. We'll teach you about pacing and a whole bunch of other factors that go into a successful even like this. And we'll also give you the coaching and accountability and support to make sure not only can you stick with your program, but we can deal with any questions, any issues, any sort of busy periods in your life, any sickness, anything that pops up, what does typically happen in a training process. And putting those three things together, the training, the education and the coaching and support, we have seen time and time and time and time again that this program is incredibly effective at taking hikers and then getting them feeling so, so great and confident for their adventures.

So if you are looking for a little bit extra of help preparing for the Overland Track, you can find a link to learn a little bit more about the online summer program in the show notes below. So simply scroll down there, click on the link, or you can just directly go to summitstrength.com.au/online. From there, you can read a little bit about the program, check it all out. And if you're interested in learning a little bit more, you can leave your details and find a time that we can all have a chat. So if you do want a little bit of help, feel free to reach out, I would love to chat with you. But all in all, I really do hope you've gotten a bit out of this episode today. I hope it's given some ideas, some insight and I really do hope it helps a lot of hikers for their Overland Track adventure. So thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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