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Go Hiking But What If You Can’t?

Go Hiking, Keep Moving Forward

Loss is not a fun topic, but I lost my hiking. The government shut down the trails die to the current Pandemic and I am sure with good intent and probably a lack of knowledge. The fact remains I can’t go hiking.

So what does someone do when they lose something they depend on for sanity and life? Be flexible and adapt!

The facts

So no hiking trails are available. Oh, and the gym is closed too. Not good. It is temporary, but how long this will last is anybody’s guess.

There are places you can walk just outside your door. Maybe even some hills, even steep hills. You might even get to know your neighborhood. That is what I did.

Be Creative And Flexible

So I created an at-home workout that is actually harder than the gym workout I did. I filled my backpack full of one-liter water bottles and use it for shoulder presses, curls, and squats. I just put another water bottle in it every week. After doing three rounds of multi exercises including Burpees, Turkish Getups, and sprints I go for a walk. The whole workout not including the walk takes an hour.

On Sunday, normal hiking day I do four rounds each being twice as long as during the week and then add an hour walk.

Loss is Hard

Even though I was able to put together a hard Sunday workout it is not as hard as a hike. I still miss hiking. Nothing really replaces it.

Like Barbara Hansen says in her book, Picking Up The Pieces,” “Loss is usually unexpected and unwanted.” You have to be careful not to go into denial at least permanently, and make room for anger. All of the emotional turmoil has a place.

Of course, we aren’t talking about losing your ability to walk like Barbara. It is just not being able to go hiking. Poor me! But the process is the same.

Silver Linings

It is always important to look at silver linings in every loss. You can find them. I discovered that I don’t need the gym as much as I thought and that I will be changing my gym workout when I go back to make it tougher.

Not hiking saves wear and tear on my car and saves gas money. Not hiking saves me time to do other things I never seem to have time to do. Finally, not hiking makes me appreciate hiking, even more.

Go Hiking And Live the Charged Life

Go Hiking, Keep Moving Forward

Book Titles really lend themselves to discussing hiking. I mean that if you are hiking then you are living the charged life. No doubt about it. So now you want to know why that might be, right?

Here is the deal. There are four ways hiking contributes to living a charged life. So here they are for your consideration.

Nature

Just being in nature rejuvenates the body and mind, but appreciating it is even more important. You need to love that tree and the sky and the wind. There will come a time when you won’t be able to feel the wind on your face. Think about that every time you feel a breeze. You will appreciate nature and life.

Consistently exposing yourself to the elements makes you stronger. You could even take a lesson fro Wim How, the “Ice Man” and go hiking with in shorts and no shirt when it is 30 degrees or colder. No, that is appreciating nature.

Energy

Any kind of exercise will provide you with more energy, but there is something about climbing a mountain that takes it to another level. Maybe it is that you feel you have accomplished something significant and no matter what the rest of your day holds you will have that spark to face it.

It doesn’t matter if your muscles are sore and tired. The energy is still there. It will fuel you throughout the rest of your day.

Purpose

You hear a lot about having a purpose these days. Every self-help book discusses it. I don’t think people have only one purpose, they have multiple. One purpose might be to provide for your family. Another to become physically healthy and fit. All of these keep you charged.

My favorite purpose is to make it to the top of a mountain every week. There is nothing like to keep you charged and focused.

In his book “Charged,” Brendon Burchard quotes Tom Robbins on purpose. Tom says, “Our purpose is to consciously, deliberately evolve towards a wiser, more liberated and luminous state of being.” A great way to get to that state is to climb a mountain every week. You get wiser, more liberated and definitely more luminous!

Challenge

There is nothing like a weekly climb up a mountain to stoke your need for a challenge. Even if you have climbed the same mountain a hundred times (and I have done that), it is still a challenge every time.

Challenge in life is seriously important. Think about the people that enter Spartan races. My guess is most of these people are extremely successful and live a comfortable life. They need adversity and challenges in their life so they go looking for it. At my age, a weekly climb up a mountain is plenty of challenge and I don’t have to pay an entrance fee.

Go Hiking Because You Matter

Go Hiking, Keep Moving Forward

That seems pretty logical, doesn’t it? Hiking adds to your life and is one more thing that helps you be the person you need to be for the world.

Stay Screwed Into The Socket

Brian Johnson of Optimize Me fame, reviews books and one author asked if we were the light bulb or the light. Light is the energy source of life. Another author he reviewed said we all just needed to keep ourselves screwed into the light socket. The was our job. Exercise helps do that and that is one reason hiking helps with it.

Another reason would be that no other place has more energy than nature. So you are tightly screwed into that socket when you are out there.

Death Again

Yes, this has been a subject of these posts from time to time, but bear with me because it is important. It is one of the reasons you do matter. If you were immortal then your life would not be as precious. But you are not so you have a unique fingerprint that you have placed on life.

Now, during this COVID-19 Pandemic, we are all reminded of death. They have locked down the hiking trails at the state parks. No hiking. That is a sort of death for me. It will be another month at least before they open again. Nothing can be taken for granted. So when you get a chance go hiking. It might be the last time you are able to for lots of reasons.

More Life

One of the reasons hiking became so important to me is that as I aged I realized that a person needs to remain vital and active as long as possible. Many folks in their 60s and 70s are retired, sitting around waiting for the grim reaper. You have to have interests that stoke your passions.

I am very fortunate that I am not retired. That I am working every day, exercising and hiking. It makes life feel full. Now if they would just open the trails again all would be well.

Go Hiking Because “Everything is F*cked.”

Go Hiking, Keep Moving Forward

As I write this all of us are quarantined. We can go out of doors alone to exercise or for a walk as long as we stay ten feet away from people. I am not sure who determined ten feet as the magic number. I thought that a sneeze traveled much farther. Anyway, here we are waiting to see if we are going to die. I am 74 so the experts say there is a good chance I am a goner if I get this Covid-19 sickness. So I would say that everything is indeed fu*cked as the title to the book I reviewed says.

What To Do

So go hiking!! Just be sure you are alone. I go early enough that nobody is on the trail. If I encounter anyone I go by them pretty fast except for one woman and she blows by me even faster. They have closed the campgrounds, but I do not think they ave closed the trails.

So what better way to relieve the stress of waiting to die that getting out into nature. Getting some good exercise and letting the elements beat you up. You will come back refreshed and ready to take on the next week of being quarantined.

Walking

If for some reason your health will not allow you to hike go walking. Walking by yourself in a park with trees is in some ways even better the hiking. Did I really just say that? Well, think about it. It is less stress on the body and less stress means you will probably last longer over time. Hiking can beat you up pretty bad. It is bad on the knees, but even if you have bad knees or hips you can do a little walking.

Walking is my plan for when I am not physically able to climb mountains. My goal is to be able to keep climbing mountains until I am 85. Of course with this new virus trying to kill me I am not so sure I will make it.

The bottom line is if you can’t hike then walk! But if you can hike the, by all means, go hiking!

Go Hiking And Go Faster Than You Think You Can

Go Hiking, Keep Moving Forward

Yes, it is always possible to get to the top of a mountain faster than you did before. You don’t need special technology as described in the book, “The Future is Faster Than You Think.” You just need to train harder and smarter?

Training Harder and Smarter

Sure, you can improve your time by incorporating step-ups at the gym, doing HIIT workouts, and pushing yourself beyond your current fitness level.

You can also take supplements that help you adjust to the altitude. You can take magnesium to keep you from cramping after seven or eight hours on a climb. It all helps, however, these things may not be the best way to improve times.

Lose the Fat

Here is the secret. When my time has improved significantly it was because of reduced body weight. Hopefully, that was just reduced body fat.

If you carry a backpack filled with weight to make things harder for you then you understand this. As soon as you lighten your load you speed up significantly.

When trail runners fly by me it is rainy because they are not carrying weight. So if you are 10 pounds overweight or more then dropping the extra pounds will result in much better times for you.

Hike More Often

This is huge! You can cut your time by climbing more often. If you can climb a mountain two or three times a week then you will have a big advantage over anyone climbing less. Volume is important.

The minimum should be once per week. Any less than that and you are just a casual hiker.

Why Should You Care?

Some might ask why it is important or necessary to improve your time to the top of a mountain. It sure isn’t for those on a nature walk, but for those that use hiking for developing their fitness levels, it is critical.

First, it gives you a weekly goal. Something to shoot at. Second, you will feel pride in beating your previous record. Third, it gives you a reason to train hard.

So set some target times on your favorite mountains and get busy. Go hiking!

Go Hiking and Stop Doing That Sh*T

Go Hiking, Keep Moving Forward

This one is pretty straight forward. Instead of sitting around on your rear end get outdoors and go hiking. Stop doing that “sitting around sh*t.”

Many of us are sedentary. Unless you work at a physical job you are a sedentary person. I myself sit at a desk all day. Sure I exercise at the gym, but that doesn’t matter much. It is the constant sitting that takes its toll. So what should you do?

Go Hiking

Sure you should go hiking. If I could go hiking every single day I would. That would solve a lot of problems for me personally. I met a woman on the trail last week and she climbs a mountain multiple times a week. She was very fast. However, I can’t and you probably can’t do that. You can go hiking on the weekend so do it.

Hiking on the weekend will improve your cardio and your resting heart rate will drop. I am almost 75 and my resting heart rate is 46.

Stay Active All Day

In the meantime, between hikes when you’re sitting on your butt hour after hour you can do something. Get up every hour and do kettlebell swings. If you don’t have a kettlebell use one of those cloth grocery bags they give you at the store and fill it with five five-pound water bottles (1 liter). Then every hour, get up and do those swings. Do 15 reps at least. Maybe every half hour. That way you are active all day which is best.

Does this mean you can skip the gym? No, the gym is necessary for mental stability. It is your daily Zoloft. Yes, it has been proven that exercise is the same as taking anti-depression medication (without the side-effects). Can you get addicted to exercise? Sure! So what? It is much better than getting addicted to many other things. And you probably won’t.

Don’t do it

Remember, don’t do the sh*t that you know keeps you fat and sick. Don’t eat the cookies and the donuts and the cakes and the ice cream. If you don’t stop doing that sh*t it will set you on a path to Type II Diabetes or even worse. Experts on the Covid-19 pandemic say that people at major risk are those that are obese.

Maybe you are not a sugar eater. Maybe you like salt so you eat chips and frys. Maybe, you eat fast food. Well, stop doing that sh*t. Your body will thank you. Your future self will thank you and you should be looking out for your future self all the time.

And once again go hiking!