Not All Fitness Is Created Equal

I am currently in what many people would say 'great shape'. But on the weekend, I spent hours and hours walking, and my body got sore. What gives?

​ In this episode, we explore this situation and why not all types of 'fitness' are enough to feel comfortable when hiking.

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we are talking about probably one of the most common mistakes or common misconceptions

[0:09] that I see in the world of training for hiking.

[0:13] And to illustrate this issue and illustrate this situation, I'm going to tell you a little story about myself to kind of like make this crystal clear. Now, over the last five months or so, I have been going through a big, big, big training journey. Now, I haven't been training for hiking specifically, but I've been training for another mixed martial arts event. And I've talked about this on this podcast previously when I was going through a training process. I did a whole mini series talking about this training and I did it again. And over the last five months, I've been training a lot. I've been doing as a minimum five days a week in the gym, typically more, sometimes doing extra double sessions or whatever may be. I essentially got myself up to the point where I had an event a few weeks ago. I was in a position with my fitness where after 20 weeks of training, I could happily sprint up a hill a bunch of times. I could wrestle with people who are much heavier than me and literally fight and wrestle and get through that multiple times and multiple minutes in a row. I could jump around and be really explosive and be really powerful. I could exert force for extended periods of time. I could get on the assault bike and do big, big, big sprint sessions.

[1:30] We had long training sessions of up to like 90 minutes where I'd be pretty regularly moving and producing force and huffing and puffing and all of that jazz.

[1:41] And I was by many, many, many definitions in really good shape because literally I had to go into a cage and go head to head with someone where we're doing our best to defeat each other. And fitness is a massive component of that. So by any definition of the word, I was in fantastic shape. And I had my event a few weeks ago. Then last weekend, I went away and we had a little bit of time away in a city, me and my wife, and had a nice casual holiday. And each day we probably spent maybe about three to four hours worth of walking. And this was just walking around the city. There were plenty of.

[2:24] Breaks. It wasn't too strenuous. It was all very, very flat, but it's probably about three to four hours worth of walking for about four days. And do you know what? I got really, really, really sore legs. After two days of that, I was like, oh my gosh, my calves are really tired. I woke up in the mornings and I was like, oh, you know what? My legs are a little bit achy. And even by the end of the trip, I was getting a little bit limpy just because my calves were so tight.

[2:54] And you may be asking the question like, okay, you are super, super, super fit or by definition, very, very, very fit. You've been doing all of this training. You've been doing all of this stuff. You've been sort of working so hard,

[3:07] but then you go and just walk around a city and you get sore. Well, what's that all about? And this is exactly the trap and exactly the situation which this episode's all about because this is a trap so many people fall into. Because when it comes down to training, when it comes down to fitness, there are so many types of fitness out there. There are so many definitions of fitness. There's so many definitions of peak performance. There are so many definitions of being in really, really great shape. And while there is a lot of crossover between different types of activities and different types of training, you really don't want to assume that if you have been training for a particular sport, or if you're really, really, really fit in the gym and you're great doing classes or great lifting weights or great doing whatever may be, don't assume that this is going to be enough for hiking.

[3:59] Because in my case, I've been doing loads of higher intensity training and I had been doing a lot of lower intensity training as well. But that had either been stop start where I was basically going for a couple of minutes and then resting, then going for a couple of minutes and resting, or my extended stuff was usually like on a bike where I was just cruising along. And then when I was walking, my feet and my calves were just not quite used to it. It wasn't a case that I was out of shape or out of condition, but they're just different types of fitness and different types of conditioning. And if I was actually going out on a hike and I was like, yeah, I really need to get ready for this particular adventure, my training would have looked very, very different. My training would have definitely included other things and we need to keep this in mind. If you have a big adventure coming up or if you have a friend with a big adventure coming up. And you already consider yourself very fit. You go down, do local gym classes, you play a sport or whatever it may be. That's great. That's fantastic. And you can absolutely keep up with that. But just make sure if you have a hike in your sights that you fill in the gaps

[5:03] with some specific hiking training. You fill in the gaps to ensure that your building is ready to go for hour after hour after hour.

[5:14] Which may not seem outrageously strenuous for some people, but it is a different type of fitness. So if you typically do your training or do your sport for 45 minutes, 60 minutes, even 90 minutes, make sure that you are fitting in some longer walking. Make sure you're getting out on training hikes and you're exposing the body to that hour and hour and hour of just going. If you're going to be carrying a pack on your trip and you may be super, super happy wearing a weight vest in the gym to do certain exercises or lifting really, really heavy weights. That's fine, but make sure you are practicing carrying a pack.

[5:49] Do some load of pack walking, do some extended walking sessions on the treadmill or whatever it may be. Get the body used to that. Same thing with stairs. If you're getting ready for stairs, yeah, if you can do step-ups for two or three minutes and really, really, really get huffed and puffed, that's great. But also incorporate some longer sessions. Put a timer on for 40 minutes. See how you go. See how your body responds. Just going up and down, up and down stairs. These are really, really simple things, and they're the foundations of a hiking training program.

[6:17] And just don't get caught up in the mindset of thinking of all fitness is created equal, because it's definitely not. Now, I fully assume that I'm probably preaching to the converted here. If I'm talking about this on the podcast, you're interested in training for hiking, you're probably already doing these things. But hopefully, this can be a little of a reminder. If you do, start exploring something else. If you find a new sport that you really enjoy, you find a new sort of approach to fitness that you really enjoy sometime in the future or now or whatever may be, that's totally fine and do what you enjoy. That's all good. But if you still want to be a hiker, make sure you are still incorporating some of this stuff. The same thing goes if you have like a friend who's going on a trip with you and you're like, hey, they're super fit.

[7:03] Maybe try to get them out for doing a bit of pack walking or maybe try to get them out with you to do some of your hikes. It can really, really go such a long way. So with that being said, I might wrap things up here. I'm not going to harp on about this too much because as I said, I'm probably preaching that to convert it here. But the main thing to keep in mind is there are so many different definitions of fitness out there. And if you are in a really good spot to do certain types of activities, that's great and that's a good foundation, but don't assume it's entirely going to cross over to hiking. Fill those gaps, make sure you're doing the right things and give yourself the best chance of performing when you're out on the trail, staying comfortable and not falling in my situation where, you know, some simple walking ends up getting you achy or painy or sore or tired or whatever may be.

[7:50] So with that being said, I'm going to wrap it up here. Hope this helps a few people. Hope it's maybe a good reminder. Hope you've enjoyed today and we'll talk to you very soon. Bye.

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