[pct-l] What do others do to get/stay in shape

[Melanie Clarke]

Dear Greg,

Working out on a regular basis is very important to stay in shape and
prevent injury, especially when one gets older.  When preparing for an
event, you want to train and load the muscles as specific to your sport as
possible to achieve the best results.

Here is what I do to stay in shape for the trail:  I take two 15lb dumb
bells (to simulate the weight of a pack) and put them on my shoulder.  Then
I do deep squats, forward lunges, backward lunges, and step up and down on a
14" step stool.  I work out this way intensely for about 1.5 hours and then
I do some core exercises.  This will give you legs like a race horse!
Actually, before I do this workout I do my push-ups, about 60 of them in
sets of 15.  Push ups are good core and upper body workout.  Do this at
least once or twice a week to stay in shape.  This will power up most of
your muscles except for the Gastroc and Soleis or the lower leg calf
muscle.  I have 5 children and when they were young I worked and needed to
supervise children so I couldn't get out much and only did the above work
out in my house.  When I finally got around to hiking, I was in great shape
except my calves were killing me!!!!!  You need to work out this muscle
group.  I discovered that all you need to do to keep your gastroc (calves)
in shape is to go for a run!  Run about 8-10 miles a week and then you won't
have any problems.  Powering up on a run seems to load that muscle just like
hiking up mountains with a pack.  I go trail running.  I'm not "the rat on a
tread mill" type!  We have a lot of nice parks here and portions of the Bay
Trail where I can run.

You really need the power in your legs to take you up mountains day after
day with a back pack.  I also bicycle up hills for fun.  I go with a group
and it is a social event.  Cycling is not as specific to hiking as the above
workout but you have to enjoy your exercise or else you won't keep it up.  I
still get aerobic, cardiovascular benefits and still a pretty darn good leg
workout but it is more Quadriceps intensive.

Kinesiology, UCLA 1984

Melanie



On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 7:27 PM, greg mushial <gmushial at gmdr.com> wrote:

> I'm wondering what others do to stay/get into shape for section or
> multi-section walks (on a daily or weekly basis)? Assuming most people have
> 9-5 jobs, what do you do? I've been walking either before or after work, at
> least a 4.5 mile up, over and down the ridge fire road loop 5 or 6 times a
> week; and if I can find the time, especially in the evening, try to do a
> longer 8 mile extension to the shorter loop once or twice a week. Sometimes
> I can especially go walking on a saturday or sunday - 15 to 20 miles, but
> generally weekends are taken up with family-time.From reading various trail
> journals (for thru or longer section hikers), I see more weekend warmup
> hikes, but don't notice much daily walking. Is this the norm? What works
> for
> other people? Your input, please...
> thanks...  TheDuck
>
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