Fitness Prep - Stephen
Ahhh a nice stroll in the woods. Sounds relaxing right? You are completely right! It is really relaxing, until you try to get up the next morning and you can barely move. Fitness is important!
Jack and I are both college students so obviously since we are young and have amazing fitness facilities available to us on campus we were already in shape. Ok maybe not. Jack and I took different approaches to how we would physically prepare. Jack...
(Jack here hijacking Steve's post)
For my workouts, I focused on a few different things. My first and major focus was weight training. I have tried my best to get to the gym every day and work out. My weight training involved a three day split of chest and back then arms and shoulders and lastly legs. The most important of these days was my leg workout. Last year on the trail I had severe tendonitis in my quadriceps muscle group. This caused severe pain in my knee joint especially when hiking downhill. The best way to prevent that is to strengthen your leg muscles. To do this I focused mainly on squats, and increasing the weight I could lift.
My second focus was on cardio and core strengthening. To do this, I have been taking both spin (bicycling) and yoga classes two times a week. While these classes may sound silly, it greatly increased my endurance and core strength! Endurance is one of the hardest aspects of hiking. Being able to exercise harder for longer will help me keep my breath on the long, steep uphill climbs.
(Alright Steve you can take over from here.)
I took a different approach with my training. Over the last year I had lost weight and am trying to gain in back. (yea terrible problem to have right?) I went through five months of spinal therapy to fix some issues and limit the impact of an old injury. Because of this I wasn't able to to work out as much as I would like and my body went back to that of a distance runner, or as my Dad calls it, emaciated. I initially began bulking at the beginning of the winter and am just now switching my workouts. So what is bulking? Bulking is essentially eating a lot and doing heavy mass gaining workouts. I usually try to eat a minimum of 2600 calories if not 3000+ if I am doing a particularly intense workout.
I am also doing full body strength training with a small amount cardio interspersed throughout. My goal for the last 5 months has been purely to rebuild the muscle and strength that I have lost. For cardio I was doing a mix of running on the track, playing basketball, and also using the rowing machine. Now with a month left before we hit the trail I have switched my workout up a little. I am still doing the same strength training workout for my chest, arms, and shoulders. For core, back, and legs I am adjusting my workouts. I have switched to a more endurance/toning workout. The reason for this is that I want to build endurance in the key muscle groups. I am now doing more repetitions with with less weight. As for my legs, the most important workout to me has become lunges. I take a 20 lb. dumbbell in each hand and do lunges up and down the basketball court, stopping to do squats at each baseline. The reason I like this workout so much is that it helps build important stabilizing muscle for my knees and ankles and also helps with balance as I force myself to maintain good posture throughout. My workouts currently are spread out every other day with chest/triceps, then back/core, then shoulders and biceps. On the days in-between I do a mix of cardio, hiking, and light-weight/high-rep resistance training for my legs.
The most important workout for Jack and I has been just walking with our packs on. We live in a part of eastern SD that doesn't have many options for hiking. However we are lucky enough to live in Brookings, where the town has a reclaimed landfill that has been turned into a nature park. The park has a combination of paved and gravel paths as well as a couple large hills that can be walked up and down. So we strap our packs on and get a couple weird looks. To simulate the full pack weight we put all of our base gear weight in, fill up our water bottles/bladders, then we throw a couple chemistry textbooks in (finally a use for them!) to simulate food weight. We try to do at least 3 or 4 miles when we go out and are planning on doing a few days of 10+ miles. When it comes down to it the best way to train your body to carry a pack over long distances, is to carry a pack over long distances. If you are interested in other fitness tips and techniques you can check out these links Training Tips and Exercises and Train for a Thru-Hike
Thanks
-Stephen (Prof)
Jack and I are both college students so obviously since we are young and have amazing fitness facilities available to us on campus we were already in shape. Ok maybe not. Jack and I took different approaches to how we would physically prepare. Jack...
(Jack here hijacking Steve's post)
For my workouts, I focused on a few different things. My first and major focus was weight training. I have tried my best to get to the gym every day and work out. My weight training involved a three day split of chest and back then arms and shoulders and lastly legs. The most important of these days was my leg workout. Last year on the trail I had severe tendonitis in my quadriceps muscle group. This caused severe pain in my knee joint especially when hiking downhill. The best way to prevent that is to strengthen your leg muscles. To do this I focused mainly on squats, and increasing the weight I could lift.
My second focus was on cardio and core strengthening. To do this, I have been taking both spin (bicycling) and yoga classes two times a week. While these classes may sound silly, it greatly increased my endurance and core strength! Endurance is one of the hardest aspects of hiking. Being able to exercise harder for longer will help me keep my breath on the long, steep uphill climbs.
(Alright Steve you can take over from here.)
I took a different approach with my training. Over the last year I had lost weight and am trying to gain in back. (yea terrible problem to have right?) I went through five months of spinal therapy to fix some issues and limit the impact of an old injury. Because of this I wasn't able to to work out as much as I would like and my body went back to that of a distance runner, or as my Dad calls it, emaciated. I initially began bulking at the beginning of the winter and am just now switching my workouts. So what is bulking? Bulking is essentially eating a lot and doing heavy mass gaining workouts. I usually try to eat a minimum of 2600 calories if not 3000+ if I am doing a particularly intense workout.
I am also doing full body strength training with a small amount cardio interspersed throughout. My goal for the last 5 months has been purely to rebuild the muscle and strength that I have lost. For cardio I was doing a mix of running on the track, playing basketball, and also using the rowing machine. Now with a month left before we hit the trail I have switched my workout up a little. I am still doing the same strength training workout for my chest, arms, and shoulders. For core, back, and legs I am adjusting my workouts. I have switched to a more endurance/toning workout. The reason for this is that I want to build endurance in the key muscle groups. I am now doing more repetitions with with less weight. As for my legs, the most important workout to me has become lunges. I take a 20 lb. dumbbell in each hand and do lunges up and down the basketball court, stopping to do squats at each baseline. The reason I like this workout so much is that it helps build important stabilizing muscle for my knees and ankles and also helps with balance as I force myself to maintain good posture throughout. My workouts currently are spread out every other day with chest/triceps, then back/core, then shoulders and biceps. On the days in-between I do a mix of cardio, hiking, and light-weight/high-rep resistance training for my legs.
The most important workout for Jack and I has been just walking with our packs on. We live in a part of eastern SD that doesn't have many options for hiking. However we are lucky enough to live in Brookings, where the town has a reclaimed landfill that has been turned into a nature park. The park has a combination of paved and gravel paths as well as a couple large hills that can be walked up and down. So we strap our packs on and get a couple weird looks. To simulate the full pack weight we put all of our base gear weight in, fill up our water bottles/bladders, then we throw a couple chemistry textbooks in (finally a use for them!) to simulate food weight. We try to do at least 3 or 4 miles when we go out and are planning on doing a few days of 10+ miles. When it comes down to it the best way to train your body to carry a pack over long distances, is to carry a pack over long distances. If you are interested in other fitness tips and techniques you can check out these links Training Tips and Exercises and Train for a Thru-Hike
Thanks
-Stephen (Prof)
-Jack training hard-
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