Summary:
You love to workout at the gym. Now you want to "take it outside." You may be in shape, but are you in shape for hiking? Want to the know the difference between gym workouts and conquering the great outdoors? Read on!

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Hiking for Fitness, Fitness for Hiking

By Lisa Marie Mercer

You’ve been faithful to your gym workouts. Now, as the warmer weather approaches, you long to get out of the gym and explore the great outdoors. A hiking trip sounds great. Your workouts have prepared you, haven’t they? Well, maybe, or maybe not. Mother Nature’s gym is a bit different from your local fitness center. Here’s how:

Predictability

Your treadmill, indoor bike or weight training machine functions along a predictable path of movement. When you take these movements outside, you need to be ready for a few surprises, which may include rocks, streams and weather changes. While indoor exercise enhances strength and aerobic endurance, hiking outdoors adds balance and agility to the fitness mix. Balance is related to core activation. Therefore, hiking requires more use of your core muscles than traditional weight training. You can train for balance and agility by performing some of your workouts on equipment such as the bosu or stability ball.

The added balance challenge might also help you burn more calories while hiking. According to fitness expert Joanna Hall, walking on unpredictable surface such as grass or mud means that you must expend more energy than you do while walking on concrete or a treadmill. On softer surfaces, each time your foot hits the ground, it creates a small depression. As such, the muscles of your legs are forced to work harder to push up and initiate the next step.

Muscles Used and Calories Burned

While traditional weight training emphasizes the concentric or shortening phase of muscular contraction, hiking downhill will also work the eccentric phase of movement. The eccentric phase occurs as the muscle lengthens. If you’ve ever felt quad burn from hiking downhill, you understand the importance of eccentric training. You can do this sort of training in the gym by practicing plyometrics or by slowing down during the return phase of the movement.

Muscle isolation vs. integrated movement is another distinction between gym exercise and hiking. In the gym, you might perform an isolated quadriceps, hamstring or upper body exercise. When you hike, all of the muscles of your body work as a team, which may result in greater caloric expenditure. Adding a pack while hiking can increase your workload. This is why you might see serious hikers using the treadmills while wearing their packs.

Adding hiking poles might also help you burn more calories while hiking. It also changes your level of perceived exertion. \According to Professor John Pocari, an exercise physiologist at the University of Wisconsin, using walking poles forces hikers to pick up their pace and work harder without realizing it. The DVD, Hiking Poles: Techniques and Tips for All Ages and Abilities has received excellent reviews from many sources.

Speaking of workloads, stationary and recumbent bicycles involve seated exercise. In contrast, hiking is weight bearing. Weight bearing exercises are described as closed chain exercise. This means that the moving body part moves against a fixed surface. A squat is a good example of a closed chain exercise. In contrast, in an open chain exercise, the body part moves freely through space. The leg extension machine is a good example. Closed chain exercises use more than one muscle group, as opposed to open chain, which involve isolation. Since hiking is a weight bearing exercise, it burns more calories and provides prevention against osteoporosis. It’s also a great glute toner, especially if you add steeper hills. Adding hills with steeper pitches will increase caloric expenditure by about 50 percent. You can train for these steeper pitches by increasing the pitch on the running machine or elliptical. Substituting stairs for the elevator is also helpful.

Nutritional Concerns

Any type of endurance activity requires a high carbohydrate diet. However, according to Neal Henderson, coordinator of sport science at the Boulder Center for Sports, long distance hikers may also require more protein than indoor aerobic participants. This is due to the need for muscle tissue regeneration. Of course, hydration is crucial. While a simple water bottle might do the trick in the gym, hikers require a portable bladder system. If you plan to drink water from a stream, don’t forget to pack a water filtration system to guard against dangerous bacteria.

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Written by: Lisa Marie Mercer
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