Training For Ultralight Hiking

The ultimate goal of ultralight hiking is to increase your comfort and enjoyment on the trail. Reducing pack weight can work for this, but only up to a point. Another way of getting the same result is by improving your physical capabilities. 

For one reason or another, the concept of training is a bit foreign in the ultralight community as a whole, which is a major shame! Because even a small amount of time and effort dedicated to training can pay massive dividends on the trail.

In today's video, we explore the concept of training for ultralight hiking and the areas of fitness an ultralight hiker should focus on to see the best results on the trail. ​

You will learn:

• The potential pitfalls of the ultralight approach, which I see many hikers fall into
• How training can give a similar outcome on the trail to reducing pack weight on your back
• The three aspects of fitness an ultralight hiker should develop to see the best results on the trail

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Access our free 'Strength Training For Hikers Mini-Course': https://summitstrength.com.au/strength-mini-course  
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Learn about our online personal training for hikers: https://www.summitstrength.com.au/online.html

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Chapters0:21 
Introduction to Ultralight Hiking
1:30 
Importance of Training
5:18 
Training for Ultralight Hiking
6:42 
Strength Training Essentials
13:31 
Overcoming Strength Training Myths
17:01 
Understanding Endurance
23:39 
Developing Aerobic Fitness
26:53 
Structuring Your Training Schedule
29:26 
Conclusion and Training Resources

Video Transcript: 

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, and in today's video, we are talking all about how to train for ultralight hiking, and I'm going to be exploring some ideas and some strategies which I truly do believe can make a dramatic difference to any ultralight hikers' enjoyment, comfort, and ultimately their performance out on the trail.

[0:21] Now, when it comes down to it, you know, there are many, many hikers out there that want to make their adventures a little bit easier. So many of us have gone out on an overnighter or multi-dayer and be like, oh my gosh, that was way harder than it needed to be. And typically when we are in the hiking community, when things do feel tough, the first consideration most people lean towards is to drop their pack weight, which is absolutely fair enough. In all honesty, most people, and myself included, when we go out in the early beginning days of our hiking, we absolutely overpack. We carry too much weight and shaving a bit of weight off can make a big, big difference.

[1:00] However, as we are going down that approach and as we're reducing pack weight and reducing base weight and really, really, really taking things down, this ultra light approach, it can definitely be beneficial, but it can only really take you so far. There does become a limit where you can't really produce things down so much more anymore, or you can't safely reduce things down so much more anymore.

[1:25] And it does get you to a point, but sometimes things still feel a bit tough. And while many people out there are perfectly happy to spend a tremendous amount of time, attention, and money, because obviously ultralight hiking isn't the cheapest thing in the world, into reducing their pack weight, I would argue, and I firmly do believe, there is one thing which just seems to be neglected in the ultralight community, which can actually make a dramatic difference to your hiking, and that is your training and physical preparation. So today, what we're going to be exploring is just some simple ideas around training and why an ultra-like hiker should consider this and prioritize this, which I personally would argue will make such a bigger difference to your time on the trail than shaving off 200 grams or 500 grams or a kilo on your back.

[2:18] So why train for ultralight hiking? Let's cover this at first. At its core, we all know ultralight hiking, pretty simple. We do what we can to drop our pack weight. The less pack weight we carry on our back, the easier things will be on the trail. Therefore, the less fatigue we'll have, the more fun we'll have, the more accessible other adventures will be, and all of those good things. Now, obviously reducing, this is absolutely fine, and I fully encourage reducing unnecessary pack weight, but it does have a few limitations. Sometimes people will get a little bit obsessed about this. They'll take out some good amount of weight, but then they'll be like, hey, I want to do more and I want to do more. I want to do more. I want to get lighter and lighter and lighter. And that's perfectly fine up to a point. However, once we get rid of the main extra weight, it can run into a few issues. I often have often sort of talked to hikers who've kind of taken this a little bit too far. And you sometimes see people who are sacrificing their food. They're like, food is a significant weight out on the trail. So they'll say, look, what is the bare minimum of food that I can get when I'm out on the trail? And they sacrifice that. Or some people go down the route of just thinking about calories first, and they get all their fuel from olive oil or these high fat things, which will definitely have a lot of calories, but may not be the best approach to actually fueling your energy. And the issue here is we're sacrificing food, we're sacrificing this, which yes, it may end up being lighter.

[3:48] But we're not going to have quite as much energy. Fatigue is probably going to creep up a bit quicker. Our recovery is probably not going to be as good as compared if we've had enough food and we're eating the right things. And therefore it ends up being a bit self-defeating. The same thing, you know, when we get into the stage where we sacrifice comfort, yes, reducing certain things down is a good idea. But if it gets to the point that, you know, with our sleep systems, maybe we are just getting so, so light that we're sleeping terribly at night on the trail, that's going to be a bit self-defeating as well because sleep plays a massive role in our recovery, in our energy. And if we are not sleeping so well and waking up in the morning tired, then that's probably going to make things harder as opposed to maybe carrying a few extra hundred grams with something that may sleep a little bit more comfortable. Or safety. Some people take this to absolute extremes and they just don't bring the appropriate clothing or they don't bring enough first aid or they don't bring enough water or whatever it may be. And obviously, that's not a great idea. And then on top of that, obviously everyone knows ultralight hiking is not the cheapest hobby in the world. Yes, we can invest stuff in, but as we get lighter and lighter and lighter, it definitely does get a little bit more expensive.

[4:57] None of these things are particularly amazing and none of these limitations are something we really want to fall into. But as we said before, there is definitely other things that a hiker can explore, which can make a dramatic difference to your comfort and enjoyment and level of ease on the trail, which is ultimately what we're trying to get out of our

[5:16] ultralight hiking, but doesn't have these drawbacks. It's not going to sacrifice your comfort. It's not going to sacrifice your safety. So, if you get to this point where you can't really reduce things down too much anymore, but you want to improve, well, this is where our training and physical preparation comes in. So.

[5:36] The whole idea around training for ultralight hiking. As we said before, the whole concept of ultralight is to reduce your pack weight by removing weight. Pretty simple. Now, where training comes into this is essentially another way of getting ultralight. Another way of making things easier, feeling more comfortable, is we may not actually reduce our pack weight, but what we can do is reduce our relative pack weight. And what that means is if we can increase our physical abilities. We can increase our strength, our fitness, our tolerance, our resilience, so that whatever pack weight you're carrying feels easier, therefore, we are making things easier. Our relative pack weight gets easier. This is a really, really simple concept. And most people, you know, you don't need that explained to you. It is common sense, but it seems like something that the majority of the ultralight hiking community just seems to overlook. And we just get absolutely narrowed in on reducing pack weight, but we completely forget about this relative pack weight. So today I'm going to talk you through a few ideas around how to go about this.

[6:41] It is pretty straightforward. It doesn't have to be too complicated, but I'm going to talk you through ideas.

[6:46] In our training as an overview, we essentially just want to expose our body to some challenges which will make it uncomfortable, which are relevant to hiking. So we want to put our body in a state of discomfort, which is relevant to hiking, and over time that discomfort will stimulate adaptations in the body to improve our fitness, improve our strength, improve our endurance, improve our stability, resilience, all of these good things, and therefore it will make our pack weight and our hiking that much easier. That's training in a nutshell, very, very simple. Now, in broad strokes, when we are looking at ultralight hiking and when we're looking at improving this relative pack weight, There are three main areas of fitness that we want to improve on as a hiker.

[7:29] Strength, endurance, and aerobic fitness. So I'm going to talk you through each of these, what they're about, and how we can improve them. Because each of these, when we break it down, are going to play a significant role in making your pack weight and your hiking in general just feel much easier. So let's break this down. And we're going to start on strength. Now strength, muscular strength, is essentially the maximal amount of force your muscles can produce. We all know muscle strength, how we can move things around, and it is very, very relevant to hiking. Now, to best understand strength's role in your hiking performance, we're going to talk about something called strength reserve. Because I know at first, a lot of people are like, well, I'm a hiker. I'm not going to the gym. I'm not lifting weights. I'm literally doing an endurance sport. Like, why does strength actually matter? And this strength reserve concept really, really lays it out quite clearly. Now, essentially what strength reserve is, is the difference between the maximal amount of force that your muscles can produce and the force needed for a given task. So in the hiking context, put yourself in this example. Let's say you go out and hike and got a pack on your back and you go up a certain, a really, really steep hill with a bunch of steps. And in the situation of going step after step after step, every single step that you take going up those stairs takes 10% of the maximal force that your quadriceps, the front of your thighs, can produce. So every single step takes 10% of the maximal force.

[8:58] You can do one step, you can do two steps, you can do three, four, you can do a bunch, but over time, fatigue's going to creep up pretty quickly. The quads are going to get burny, you're going to get tired, you're going to be like, oh my gosh, I need a rest, and you're not going to have a huge amount of fun. So maybe you come out the other end of that hike and you're like, you know what, that sucked. That was way harder than it needed to be, and I want to make this a little bit easier. So then you say, you know what, I haven't got another hike for six weeks. I'm going to do a bit of strength training. You start doing some workouts, you start building up your strength, you start being consistent, and over those six weeks, you improve your muscle strength and essentially this time after six weeks you go out on this trail you come across the same set of stairs with the same pack weight but this time because you've improved your strength every single step you take uses five percent of your maximal force this is going to be significantly easier for you it's going to feel easier it's going to reduce fatigue it's going to help you go quicker and ultimately just get through the hike this is the idea around how strength can help our hiking. A lot of hikers overlook this, but it's so, so, so significant. And when we're looking at this relative pack weight in the ultralight hiking context, you know, this can make dramatic differences. Now, the way we develop muscular strength is through challenging strength training, or we can call challenging resistance training. So applying challenge to the muscles by using dumbbells or barbells or a backpack or bands or body weight or whatever may be, applying challenge, giving it stimulus to adapt and to get stronger.

[10:27] Now, beyond this example, we talked about strength reserve. If you are a little bit hesitant about starting this, just the good news is there are so many other benefits of developing strength for hikers, even outside of this relative to pack weight. On top of that, increasing your strength can play a massive role in reducing the risk of pain and injury. So foot pain, shin pain, knee pain, back pain, very, very common in the hiking community. Strength training can play a big role in reducing the risk of these things. It can improve our stability and balance. So if you're a little bit unsteady on certain sections of the trail, or you're a bit worried about jelly legs on descents, this can really help. It can improve our speed. Not every single hiker out there really cares about speed, but sometimes it can be nice, just be confident you can go a bit quicker and strength plays a role there. And also improving our strength can improve our movement economy, meaning if we develop a bit more strength as we take steps, step after step, it'll just use a little bit less energy. Therefore, over the day, we'll feel a bit fresher. So strength in all can be really, really, really valuable. Now, with all that being said, a lot of people listening to this might be like, oh, you know what, Rowan, that makes sense. But I'm not a gym junkie. I'm not a bodybuilder. I'm not a powerlifter. I don't really like the idea of having to go and lift heavy weights or whatever it may be. And we often do see people when they're considering strength training kind of fall into a couple of different traps with this. Yes, we do see a lot of people who train like a bodybuilder. If you've gone into a gym and you've been given a program by a trainer.

[11:53] 80, 90% of the fitness industry kind of takes this approach where you go in and do chest days and arm days and you do this and that and you do 20 different exercises on a certain body part. And yeah, this can be good if you're just trying to build muscle, but as a hiker, it's not super relevant. It's not super necessary. And you can definitely develop strength in a much nicer way. Now on the flip side, a lot of hikers fall into the thing. They're like, I don't really like the gym environment. So maybe I'm just going to do some training at home. So then they just look online and they just pull a few random exercises. They do some squats and some lunges and this and that. And you know, this isn't bad, but you're leaving a lot of benefits on the table. To get the best results out of strength training, to best help your hiking, you want to be following a well-rounded and structured program, which is going to cover all the necessary bases for a hiker. Meaning it's going to work on your quadriceps, the front of your thighs, your hamstrings, the back of your thighs, your glutes, which are your bum muscles. Going to work your calves, going to work a little bit of upper body, a little bit of core, bit of stability, covering all of those bases relevant, but in a way that isn't going to be a huge time commitment.

[12:56] It doesn't have to be like 60 minutes, five times a week. You can get a lot done with strength training a small amount of time, but you want to be intentional and smart about this. Now, with that being said, I fully understand if you're a hiker, you're like, I don't really know how to go about this. And there's so much conflicting information online. I'm not really sure. If you are interested in learning a little bit more about strength training for hiking and seeing how it may be able to help you on the trail. I do have a free mini course which you can get access to which is all about getting started with training for hiking.

[13:25] Now essentially inside this mini course it'll teach you a little bit more deeper

[13:29] in regards to the benefits of strength training for hiking. It'll go into the principles of effective strength training so you can actually really understand how to get the most out of this type of training to best help your hiking and also more importantly it will actually teach you how to create your own simple strength workouts to help with your hiking so you can go through it follow the instructions follow the templates and you can basically put together your own workouts which you can do at home outdoors or in the gym which can help your hiking now if you want to check it out you can basically just go to summitstrength.com.au slash strength dash mini dash course on that page a little bit information about it you can sign up and get free access so if you're interested in exploring this check out the course it's a good place to start now last thing i will sort of say on the strength side of things before i move forward is one common hesitation i often see and i often hear from hikers when we talk about strength training and particularly in the ultralight community is muscle gain in the sense that a lot of people will be like hey.

[14:29] I don't really want to do strength training because I don't want to put on extra muscle because that's just going to be extra weight that I have to lug around on the trail or lug up the mountain or whatever it may be. And the ultralight philosophy is obviously just get as light as possible.

[14:41] Now, realistically, when it comes down to this, the whole idea around strength training, putting on muscle, and it's going to happen automatically, it's this kind of training myth which just doesn't really disappear. It is a myth. It doesn't really happen. It is easier said than done to put muscle on, but a lot of people are really hesitant about it.

[15:00] Realistically, if you are doing strength training, as long as you don't train or eat like a bodybuilder, meaning you're not eating and eating and eating and eating, and you're not going to the gym and spending all of this time and doing exercise after exercise after exercise on certain muscle groups, you're probably not really going to stack on extra weight. It is difficult to put muscle on, and it's probably not going to happen to you if you follow some simple workouts like what I did in the mini course. It is very, very, very possible when it comes down to it to dramatically improve your strength without putting a gram of extra weight. And that may sound a little bit backwards because a lot of people think about, okay, bigger muscles can equal more strength. And that's absolutely true. If we build up bigger muscles, we can probably exert more force and increase more strength. But one thing a lot of people don't understand or don't realize is more strength doesn't always come from bigger muscles. Yes, we can get extra strength from more muscles, but that's not the only way we can get stronger. The majority of strength development we get from our strength training or from anything else we're doing doesn't come from more muscle. It comes from improving the efficiency of the pathways between our brains and our muscles. And essentially improving that connection, that efficiency will actually allow us to get stronger and stronger and stronger without any change to our actual body weight. It's something a lot of people don't consider. Very, very, very important.

[16:24] And then finally, if you are still like, oh, Rowan, that makes sense, but I'm still a bit worried. Maybe I've done a training program in the past and I did a few weeks and I put on some muscles, I didn't really like it. Maybe you're just genetically made that the second you look at some weights you put on muscle, some people are like that. If you are concerned about muscle gain, then manage your nutrition. How much muscle you put on if you are that person who genetically just is very disposed and predisposed for putting on muscle you just need to manage your nutrition making sure you're not eating loads and loads and loads but you're managing what's going in there if you're concerned. Outside of that you know it is very difficult to put on muscle.

[17:01] So that is strength. Next up let's talk about endurance. Now essentially endurance is the ability of your muscles to produce a moderate amount of force repeatedly. So maximal strength or strength was that maximal amount of force your muscles can produce. Endurance is the ability to just go and go and go and go and go. Very relevant for hikers. For a hiker, if we are looking at developing this.

[17:25] It is a little bit different between developing endurance for hiking and if you just went into an everyday gym and you'll say, hey, I want to improve my endurance because we need to keep the hiking context in mind. Because if you went down to your local personal trainer or if you went into a local gym and you said that told someone, hey, I want to improve my endurance, in the gym environment, the general environment, endurance might be doing an exercise for 15 repetitions. You might do a squat and do 15 squats at a time, which will take you like 75 seconds or so. In the general population, that is what endurance equates to, muscular endurance, and that's fair enough. But in the hiking context, it's a little bit different because when we're talking about endurance for hiking, this may involve you going up a steep hill with a pack on your back, the step up, the step up, the step up, the step. It may involve hundreds and hundreds, like 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour of climbing. That could be what endurance is for you. So when we're looking at training for endurance, we need to keep this hiking context in mind and not just think like any old gym trainer because it may fall us a little bit short.

[18:28] Realistically the most relevant way for us to train endurance for hikers is to use specific conditioning sessions which are relatively similar to demands of hiking and i'll explain what these are in a minute and the idea behind these is they basically bridge the gap between the strength training we're mentioning before and our actual hiking because strength training even though it's really beneficial it is general in nature it is general training which will help us but it's relatively general. Our hiking, when we're actually out on the trail, that is our specific stuff. We're getting the exact demands of hiking.

[19:02] But there is a bit of a gap between those things. So these endurance sessions kind of fill that gap. They help bridge the benefits and can be really, really useful. Now, what I mean by this is, you know, this might involve doing something like load-of-pack walking. The most simple session you can do, you could put on a pack, walk around the local area, and slowly build up that weight over time. Or this may involve stair or hill climbing, going up and down a set of stairs, going up and down a hill, and week by week by week, adding on an extra weight or whatever it may be. Or it may involve box step sessions where you get a small aerobic step or you find a bench in a park and you step up and down, up and down, up and down on that box for three minutes, four minutes, five minutes at a time. This may involve going to the gym and doing treadmill incline walking or a stairmaster or a step machine, but essentially getting this kind of specific movements where we're loading up the muscles in a way that's similar to hiking and we're building out that endurance. We're getting that burn on the muscles and slowly improve it. This can be really, really, really useful from so many situations on the trail.

[20:03] Now, the key to this type of training, to get the most out of it, we just need to keep in mind, whatever we're doing over time, we want to progressively overload the body to force it to adapt and improve. Because so many hikers out there, they're like, hey, yeah, I do something like this, but I just go do the same treadmill session every single week. Or I go up and down the same set of stairs and I do that every single week and that's fine. Good, that's better than nothing, but if you want to get the most out of it, we want to progressively make things harder to challenge the body to improve it and ultimately improve your endurance to improve our hiking.

[20:37] Now, when we're looking at this for an ultralight hiker, there's two things we want to keep in mind here. Number one, as I said before, over time, we want to increase the challenge of these sessions. We don't want to stagnate, just do the same thing over and over. On top of that is when we're looking at this as an ultralight hiker, it can be really, really really beneficial to use these sessions to actually get heavier with your pack weight than you would with your trail so what i mean by that is if you're an ultralight hiker and you've dialed in your gear and you're really really good and the heaviest you ever go out on the trail is seven kilos these sessions you don't want to limit to seven kilos these sessions you want to overload it you want to get up to eight nine ten eleven twelve whatever but you want to challenge the body here to develop this endurance so when you have that pack on the trail it feels much easier now to give you an example of kind of how this may play out over a training process because i know that's like yeah endurance sessions this and that like you know it's a little bit airy fairy to give you a really clear cut example of how this may look this is a really simple example 12 week pan and let's say in this context your pack weight on the trail when you go out on your adventures. You've dialed it into seven kilos. You're like, that is what I carry. I never carry anymore. So in this situation, we may look at, okay, first four weeks of training. Once a week, I'm going to do some load of pack walking. I'm going to put on a pack. I'm going to walk around the local area for 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, whatever it may be.

[22:04] Week one, we may do seven kilos. We carry the same amount of pack weight. We do a hiking. That'll feel pretty easy because it's only like 40 minutes compared to five or six hours. Week two, we do eight kilos. week three, we do nine kilos, week four, we do 10 kilos. At the end of that, the seven kilos will feel much easier. It's very, very basic, but very, very simple.

[22:23] Now then at that point, then we have the option. We're like, well, we could keep on increasing this and bumping it up, but that can get a little bit boring, that can get a little bit stale. So for the next four weeks, maybe we're going to change it up. Maybe we're going to do one of those box step sessions where we'll get an aerobic step or we'll get a bench at a park and we'll step up and down for four minutes at a time and have a minute rest. And we'll do that five or six or seven times. Week one, we'll go back to that seven kilo pack. We'll do that and work through it. Week two, eight, week three, nine, week four, 10. Again, we've got this progression. We're challenging the body. We're getting used to this stepping with this heavier weight. So therefore, at the end of these sessions, it'll be much easier on the trail. Again, we could look at this situation and say, hey, we could keep on doing this, but maybe it's time for a change. So the next four weeks, maybe we'll go do a stair session. We'll find a local set of stairs and we'll go up and down, up and down, up and down for 30 minutes or 40 minutes or something like that. And again, we just follow that progression. We pull the pack weight back and slowly build it up. As you can see over these 12 weeks, we started off with something's pretty simple. It's pretty easy, but it does overload the body over time. Then we get a bit harder, then we get a bit harder.

[23:27] And you can see if you go through this, if you go out on the trail and you're doing your hikes and you've got those seven kilos on your pack, it's probably going to feel way, way, way easier. So very, very simple. So that's our endurance.

[23:39] Next up, let's talk about aerobic fitness. So aerobic fitness ultimately is the single most important area of fitness for any hiker out there. There's no argument about that. Developing aerobic fitness basically will allow us to go for longer periods at faster speeds with less fatigue, meaning that through longer hikes, quicker with more energy. Pretty good. This is ultimately best developed through long duration, lower intensity cardio sessions. So sessions where you can go for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, multiple hours at an intensity that doesn't really get us outrageously tired, but we can just sustain it for long periods of time. Now, if we're hiking regularly, this will develop us. Hiking is an aerobic sport. Hiking is an aerobic activity. If you were doing lots and lots of hiking over time, this will improve. On top of that, a lot of those endurance sessions I just mentioned before will improve this as well. If we're doing low to pack walking, that's pretty low intensity. If we're doing those step sessions, we're not going super, super quick, that can be an aerobic session. If we're doing those stair sessions, they're not super, super quick, that can be an aerobic session as well. All of these things fall into this category as well.

[24:50] I would sort of say, if you are not hiking regularly, and what I mean not hiking regularly, if you're not hiking every single week, it is probably going to be beneficial to include some other type of aerobic fitness in your week. So maybe once a week, you go out and do a cycle for 40 minutes or 60 minutes, or maybe just go out for a nice long walk, or maybe do some extra endurance sessions. You do some stair and heel stuff, but without a pack, so you're not doing too much pack work in the week or whatever. If you're not hiking every single week, it's probably worthwhile slipping something in here. So over time, we can develop aerobic fitness and over time on the trail, we're going to feel much more comfortable.

[25:27] Now, with all that being said, covering the strength, covering the endurance, covering the aerobic fitness, you know, this may sound like a lot to cram into your week. But I promise you, you would be surprised at how little time investment you need to put into this type of stuff to see significant improvements. And off the top of your head, you might be like, oh my gosh, Rowan, that's like every single day I've got to train for and I've got to put all these hours in. But if you're doing the right things, if you're being intentional about your sessions, if you're programming out in the right way, you can get incredible benefits without an outrageous amount of time investment. To give you a couple of examples here of what a typical maintenance week may look like, example number one, say you're hiking regularly. You're going out and you're hiking every single week in one way, shape, or form. You may twice a week do two strength sessions, and this could be anywhere from 20 minutes at a time up to 60 minutes at a time, depending on how much time you want to commit to it. On top of that, you may do one of these endurance sessions a week. You may do 30 minutes to 60 minutes or whatever it may be.

[26:23] Those sessions plus your hiking over four or five or six weeks you're probably going to see some really really really good improvements it doesn't take an outrageous amount of time but it can be really useful alternatively if you're in the situation where you're not hiking regularly maybe you're hiking every two or three or four weeks or whatever it may be it can be pretty similar two strength sessions one endurance session and then maybe one steady cardio session where on the weeks you're not hiking you go out for a nice long cycle you do some some just walking sessions, or whatever it may be.

[26:53] And again, that's four sessions in a week. It's not outrageous, but it can go a long way. Now, this is a basic outline. There are many, many ways of going about this. And I have a lot of hikers who have different schedules or different time commitments who may end up doing three strength sessions in a week for 10 minutes and then a longer endurance session or whatever it may be. There's a million and one ways you can build this out and break it up into a week. But I just want to give you an example of kind of how it may look. A lot of people get in their head, they've got to train every single day, anything dedicated all this time. But if you're smart with your training, it doesn't need as much as a lot of people may think.

[27:32] Now, finally, even looking at this breakdown, I fully understand some people, if they're even still watching this video, you may still be thinking, why even bother? Ultraline hiking, isn't that just objectively easier for me to reduce weight? There's less effort, less time. Yes, I've got to spend money, but I don't have to dedicate hours to this. I can just click on something and buy it. And yet, this is true. Dropping weight doesn't require physical effort, just research and money.

[27:58] But beyond what we've talked about today, there are so many other cascading benefits of effective training beyond the relative strength, as we said, is specific for the ultralight community. You know, hiking specific benefits, good training will, as I said before, reduce the risk of pain and injury, so significant, will improve your balance and stability, will reduce your fatigue and ultimately just let you get out on your trails feeling more comfortable and more confident and just be able to go out and have a good time. It can help improve your speed, help improve your confidence, all of these things. As more general health benefits, You know, training can help bone density. So many hikers out there are worried about bone density at certain stages and training plays a big role in this. Cardiovascular health, just generally being healthy and reducing the risk of certain conditions, training is going to help with that. Stress reduction. So many of us live a stressful life. We use hiking as an escape, but we can't hike all the time. So good training can help with this in our day-to-day. There are just so many reasons to be smart about your training. Not just for that relative strength that we mentioned before but just so many different benefits with that being said you know ultimately if you want to become the best ultra light hiker you can be i personally believe it's absolutely crazy if you're just not doing some consistent training if it doesn't have to be much you don't have to go to the gym you don't have to dedicate hours to things you don't have to throw around heavy weights or whatever may be but if you can do the right things consistently you can be you would be amazed at just what a difference this can make to your hiking.

[29:27] So the last thing I'll sort of say before I wrap things up, you know, hopefully this does give you a little bit of insight into the value of training for ultralight hiking. However, you know, I fully understand sometimes looking at this, you're like, all right, well, how do I put this together? How do I put together workouts? How do I come up with a plan? How do I make sure something fits around my life and my personal situation or my limitations, whatever it may be? If you were looking for a little extra help with this, I would love to chat with you. What I do and what my full-time job is, is I offer personalized training programs, online training programs for hikers who want to get fit, strong and resilient for their adventures. Our online personal training packages will create a custom and personalized workout program to get you ready for anything the trail may throw at you, covering all the things we mentioned today and a few other bits and pieces to make sure you're covering all the bases you need for your hiking. We also put a big emphasis into educating you on all the peripheral factors which can make or break an adventure. Nutrition can play such a big role in your energy and fatigue, and that can make a relative difference, very, very much so. Recovery, self-care, mental strength, and a bunch of other things, we will teach you about that. And we also give you the coaching, accountability, and support to keep you on track through all the ups and downs of life or whatever it may be. If you do want to learn a little bit more about what we do, all you need to do is go to summitstrength.com.au slash online. I'll leave a link for that in the notes below.

[30:46] And yeah, on that page is a bit of a video which talks to our training, talks through our programs. And if it does sound like something you wouldn't get involved with, or at least learn a little bit more about it, you can book a call with our team through that page as well. And we can have a bit of a chat, learn about you, your situation, your needs, and see if we might be able to help you out. So if you want to check it out, go to summerstrength.com.au slash online. We can take it from there. But with that being said, I really, really do hope you've enjoyed today's video. I do hope some people get some value out of this. And hopefully some people in the ultralight community can potentially explore some training some specific training and reap the benefits from there so any questions please reach out but hope you've enjoyed it and we'll talk to you soon.