View Full Version : training
squeezebox
10-30-2013, 12:10
If I start now can I be ready for a thru in 6 months? I'm 60 yr old, overweight 40 +, and out of shape. little hiking experience
I'm thinking.
change my diet.
workout 5+ times a week, inc. cardio stuff
join the local hiking group.
obviously this would better than nothing, but in that time frame will it be enough.
Sure you can! A lot of people start a thru in the shape you're in now. You can do anything you want to!
SawnieRobertson
10-30-2013, 12:21
In answer to you question, absolutely! The cross training regimen followed by triathletes is also great prep fo total body readiness. Hop onto Trailjournals.com now and share your story as it unfolds.
That is entirely up to you - build up your cardio endurance and hike as much as possible with different loads.
It's more conditioning your body (especially legs and feet!) and mind than it is getting ready for a marathon (or tri) or something of relatively short duration.
If possible, look at joining a hiking club or meetup group too.
The logistics of a thru will need particular attention - plan your trip, food, drops, schedule, etc.
Best of luck!
Rocket Jones
10-30-2013, 13:54
Start slowly. Nothing worse than overdoing it at the beginning and injuring yourself.
Slo-go'en
10-30-2013, 14:13
At your age and overweight by a significant margin, definately start to eat less and work out more. And have your heart attack risk apprased. Having a heart attack on the trial is not all that uncommon for older hikers. Every so often someone even dies as a result.
One of the best things you can do to get ready is simply do a lot of walking. Now that it is winter in St. Louis, you might want to do that inside on a tread mill, but braving the elements can help you addapt to conditions you'll find on the trial in the early spring...
Teacher & Snacktime
10-30-2013, 14:21
All of those things will help, but most here will tell you to just start doing it...comfortably.
illabelle
10-30-2013, 14:35
You might not succeed in reaching whatever you define as your target weight and conditioning level. You might never take the first step on the AT. The busyness of life might interfere with the workout and the meetup schedule. But anything you can do to improve your health and fitness is a BIG WIN!
So, go for it, for you, not for the AT. :)
rocketsocks
10-30-2013, 14:57
Good for you dude, my advice if your not already doing so...walk each and every day, and at some point start carrying a pack with what ever weight you feel like carrying to get your shoulders and hips use to carrying weight...slow and steady wins this race. hit some bleaches too if you don't have any grades you can climb...best of luck, you can do it.:)
squeezebox
10-30-2013, 16:10
On I can go to the gym and take the elevator to work out on the stairstepper.
On I can go to the gym and take the elevator to work out on the stairstepper.
do not know if this is TIC or not. But taking the elevator to work out on the stairstepper is a bit of a headscratcher. How about taking the stairs? By all means, do as much as you can to prepare. It will help you, what I noticed is that most people who show up at Springer aren't prepared for the elevation changes.I wasn't. I could hike 15-18 miles locally per day but in those mountains I was happy to do 10 at first. The camping part is easy. I hadn't really backpacked when I hit Springer but you can master that fairly easily (within first 3 weeks or so). The physical part is what separates those who finish from those who don't. When I started, I was 50 and about 30+ overweight. However, when I got to NJ or so I was in the best condition of my life since about the age of 20 or so. when I got to Maine and Mt.K I was just plain wore out. Go for it...you will never regret it.
StovieWander
10-30-2013, 18:34
Section hiking the AT might be the best training for a thru hike. I started in 2011 at 240 pounds, 5'11", 44 years old. I carried too much weight in my pack, suffered joint pain, and only hiked 200 miles in 2011. Now after 1700 miles of AT section hiking, I am down to 205 pounds, and finally feel like I have some trail legs. I did my first 26 mile day on August 20, 2013, hiking south from the Mason Dixon line through Maryland, with about 12 pounds on my back. I stopped because I ran out of sunlight. As long as I keep pack weight under 40 pounds, and stay under 3 MPH (2 MPH is typical), I do not have any problems with joints. Your mileage may vary.
Absolutely go for it. Just don't jump in over your head until you can at least tread water. Slow and easy at the beginning and build up gradually. To fill in all the questions I'm sure you will have read the articles on this site. They are a treasure trove of information and it's all free. What a deal. Take what you need, leave the rest and do it your way. No one is the same, do what works for you.
Another Kevin
10-30-2013, 19:13
But taking the elevator to work out on the stairstepper is a bit of a headscratcher.
Beauregard Claghorn voice: It's a joke, son, I say, a joke. You're supposed to laugh. (Kid's 'bout as sharp as a sack of wet mice!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi_X4BFpvnY
WingedMonkey
10-30-2013, 19:28
Step away from your computer.
Walk to the front door.
Walk 'till you are tired, then turn around. You will be more tired.
Do it again tomorrow.
Pedaling Fool
10-30-2013, 20:00
Forget about training for a thru-hike; train for a life of independence. This means that you must become active, period.
Don't do this and your chances of becoming dependent on others as you age becomes far more likely. True health must include physical fitness, you can not just eat healthy and maintain a healthy body as you age.
This is just another article that shows this to be fact, it's really about fat people, but it makes good points on the importance of working the body.
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/fat-fit-185800781.html
Can You Be Fat but Fit?
New research shows you can't judge a person's fitness by looks alone. Here, the surprising new thinking on size and exercise.
Related: What Your Gut Says About Your Health (http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/health/body/head-to-toe/digestive-system-health/)
Your Weight and Fitness
There are two large women who've been in boot camp with me for years. They almost never miss a class and never take it easy. Yet as I've lunged, squatted, and planked alongside them nearly daily, I'm ashamed to admit that one question has occasionally bounced around my brain: With all that exercise, after all this time, why aren't these women in better shape?
Then came the 2012 Olympic Games. The world was poised to witness its most formidable female athletes lock horns in London. And what did we hear? Slams against Australian swimmer Leisel Jones, declaring the eight-time medalist fat and thus unfit to represent her country.
Cheap shots about muffin tops and saddlebags on the British women's beach volleyball team. And tweets about British swimmer Rebecca Adlington's physique that became so vicious, she dropped off Twitter altogether. "These women made it to the Olympics, for god's sake. How unfit could they be?" I found myself ranting at the TV.
Then I thought, sheepishly, about the women at boot camp. It became clear to me that the knee-jerk connection I and apparently others might make between how much a person weighs and how physically fit and healthy she is needed some serious reevaluation.
The New Thinking on Weight
Recent research suggests that being overweight or even obese may not, in and of itself, be the health threat we think it is. A 2012 study from the National Cancer Institute found that moderately obese people actually lived about 3.1 years longer than normal-weight women and men. Another study, published in the European Heart Journal, showed that when obese people are metabolically healthy -- which means their blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and other indicators fall within a healthy range -- they are at no greater risk of dying from heart disease or cancer than those who are of normal weight.
"What we're learning is that a body that exercises regularly is generally a healthy body, whether that body is fat or thin," says Glenn Gaesser, PhD, a professor of exercise and wellness at Arizona State University and the author of Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health. Case in point, the metabolically healthy participants in the European Heart Journal study were generally more physically fit than their obese peers. "The message should really be that if you are exercising regularly, you shouldn't necessarily be looking at the scale to determine how healthy or fit you are," Gaesser says.
There are a multitude of reasons that movement is such strong medicine: Because muscles are the largest consumers of sugar in the body, increased muscle mass reduces the chance of excess sugar accumulating in the blood, which is essentially what diabetes is. Regular physical activity reduces inflammation in the cardiovascular system and affects the secretion of clotting hormones, allowing blood to flow more easily to muscles and preventing the formation of deadly clots.
Moderate exercise (at least 150 minutes a week of medium-intensity exercise like walking) combined with diet changes can also reduce the amount of potentially deadly fat in the liver. And study after study has shown that overweight and obese people who work out can reap such benefits and improve their metabolic health even if they don't shed a pound.
Related: What Really Works (and Doesn't) to Get Rid of Cellulite (http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/health/body/head-to-toe/get-rid-of-cellulite/)
The Skinny on Fat
None of this is to say that we can pack on pounds without worry. Carrying a lot of weight around increases stress on joints and can make us less inclined to be active. There's also the plain reality that the more overweight you are, the more likely it is that your metabolic health will take a hit, now or in the future. "Given the choice, I come down almost always on the side that being overweight is a bad thing," says Walter R. Thompson, PhD, a professor of exercise science at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
But choice is a loaded word for many obesity experts, as well as for countless individuals who have waged a lifelong war with their weight. "I spent the first part of my life struggling with being fat. I would lose weight on diets, gain it back, and each time end up feeling horrible about myself," says Hanne Blank, the author of The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts. "Only as I've come into my own as an adult have I made peace with the fact that I may always be big." It's a brutal realization that seems to bear itself out in the big picture: As many as two-thirds of us end up regaining more weight than we lose while dieting.
Pinning ambitious weight-loss hopes on exercise hasn't panned out too well, either. At five feet four inches and 172 pounds, Sherry Norris, 42, of Norcross, Georgia, knows this firsthand. A dedicated exerciser, Sherry alternates running and working out to the Insanity DVD program on most days and ran her first marathon last year. "I've followed all the directions and done the training plans, and I've lost exactly five pounds. At this point I have no idea how to get the weight off," she says.
Within the past few years numerous studies have borne out exactly what Sherry is experiencing: Despite the extra calories we burn, many of us fail to lose weight -- and may even gain some -- after embarking on an exercise program. This could be because our appetite is triggered by vigorous activity; we reward ourselves for our efforts with food, or we spend more time vegging out on the couch when we're not at the gym.
Then there's the tricky topic of metabolism. "Exercise doesn't rev up the metabolism, as we've been led to believe," says Diana Thomas, PhD, an author of a study from the Center for Quantitative Obesity Research at Montclair State University in New Jersey. "We found that when volunteers who were put on an exercise regimen began to lose weight, their metabolic rate -- how many calories they would burn while sitting and doing nothing -- actually began to drop." Thomas and her colleagues suspect that metabolic slowing may be the body's protective attempt to preserve energy when it senses that more calories are being burned through exercise. Plus a fit body operates more efficiently -- the heart doesn't have to pump as fast, breathing is less rapid -- and that also reduces how many calories we burn all day.
Making long-term weight loss even more elusive is the fact that we each may have our own personal set point, a range of about 10 to 20 pounds in which the body biologically tries to stay despite our efforts. This means that weight loss is biologically resisted in some people.
Also, our appetite makes it too easy to override the upper threshold of our set-point range, so we gain weight, says Linda Bacon, PhD, the author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.
The net result of these many hurdles: Even if people do lose some weight from exercise, they often don't lose as much as they expect to. For many, that's reason enough to abandon boot camp and head back to the couch.
Eyeing a Different Prize
That, Thomas says, is a crying shame. Because even if pounds don't disappear, a big fat change is probably taking shape. "Adding regular physical activity can reduce the proportion of fat to muscle and affect where fat is distributed," Thomas says. In particular, as little as a 20-minute daily walk can reduce the amount of visceral fat that reaches deep into the abdomen. That's the fat that health experts worry about, because it is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and a higher mortality rate. There's even evidence suggesting that exercise stimulates the production of a substance called irisin in muscle tissue. This hormone appears to transform white fat cells, like those in belly fat, into brown fat cells, which are metabolically active and actually burn calories.
"The scale doesn't necessarily reflect all of this," Thomas says. Neither does the body mass index (BMI), which uses only height and weight to estimate how much body fat we ostensibly have. This is why a growing number of doctors are now measuring patients' waist circumference as part of their standard physical exams. And it's why Thomas and colleagues at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, have devised an index that takes body shape into account when assessing a person's health. The body roundness calculator (pbrc.edu/bodyroundness) uses hip and waist measurements in addition to weight and height. The closer to a circle shape a person is, the more visceral body fat she has.
"We're catching people who are out of the 'safe shape' zone but who are not visibly apple shaped. There are also people whose BMI may indicate obesity but whose body roundness is healthy. It's a much better reflection of a person's health overall," Thomas says.
Related: 7 Harmful Health and Fitness Shortcuts (http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/health/body/head-to-toe/harmful-health-shortcuts/)
Big Accomplishments
But can women who are packing an extra 25, 50, or even 75 pounds on their frame actually kick ass athletically? "They might pay a price when it comes to speed," says Chuck Hobbs, the head coach for Fit2Train, a triathlon team in Dallas. But in terms of strength and endurance, the answer is, hell, yes. Consider the group of athletes recruited for a recent study at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. All of them are seriously accomplished, having participated in multiple Ironman competitions, marathons, or distance cycling events. And all of them are obese, with fat making up more than 30 percent of their body weight. "From a cardiorespiratory standpoint, they are very strong and very healthy," says the study's lead author, Santiago Lorenzo, PhD, a cardiopulmonary researcher at the institute. "They have outstanding endurance and are comparable in fitness to fellow athletes of normal weight."
What's more, Lorenzo and other experts suspect that an obese athlete's body can actually become stronger from carrying its own weight. In essence, the extra pounds provide built-in resistance training, especially for the lungs, which can have trouble inflating fully when there is a lot of fat in the chest cavity. "The bodies of the obese athletes in our study have adapted after years of conditioning," Lorenzo explains.
"They have developed an ability to generate higher airflow and deliver ample oxygen to their blood and muscles. For typical obese people who want to become active, this may mean that they are not going to have the limitations we previously assumed they would."
Minor Changes, Major Benefits
For those who set their sights on the fat-but-fit paradigm and aspire to a healthier body, metamorphosis doesn't come easy, however.
Packing extra poundage can make it hard to get down on the floor or up from it or to move freely. There's also an emotional component:
"They need to find environments where they won't be bullied and where they can actually enjoy and excel at what they're doing," Hobbs says.
"When they are confident about what their body can do, they become more motivated to take good care of it. Real change begins to happen."
When the author Hanne Blank retrained her focus on exercise instead of food, her eating habits and her weight finally reached an even keel after years of yo-yoing. And every one of the active large women interviewed for this story drove home the fact that making regular exercise a part of her life has caused her to feel happier as well as more empowered, attractive, and inclined to take on greater physical challenges.
All of which is reason for us to stop using the word normal when we talk about weight and start focusing on realistic goals and expectations, including exercising regularly and being more active every day. These are words to live by for Blank, who is happy just to get out and get sweaty. "It's been almost 10 years since I took my life off hold and decided to become physically active in spite of my weight. I'm out there almost every day, walking, biking, hiking, or weight lifting. I feel comfortable in my body. I'm energetic and healthy," Blank says. "But even people close to me sometimes shake their heads and ask why I'm still fat. And I tell them, 'Because I am. That's just what I've got!'"
I just briefly scanned the advice given above so, if this is redundant, I apologize.
It seems this activity level will be a departure from your norm. Please check in with your Primary Care Physician early and often. Even if just for motivation: it can be pretty satisfying to lower your Blood Pressure, Cholesterol and A1c through diet and exercise alone. Also your MD might actually help you identify health issues that should be addressed prior to starting your thru-hike: ie Vaccinations, pill-in-the pocket therapy for the trail ect.
Good Luck, Get Hiking, Stay Healthy
Seatbelt
10-31-2013, 08:27
Three most important things--Strengthen your quads, build up cardio endurance and lose weight (both in you and your pack)
Definitely get a full physical exam and possibly a cardiologist checkup, but if all is clear try running as a training program. Almost all of my exercise when not hiking is distance running. I found that my typical marathon training program worked well in preparing me for the John Muir Trail this year.
lush242000
10-31-2013, 08:58
If I start now can I be ready for a thru in 6 months? I'm 60 yr old, overweight 40 +, and out of shape. little hiking experience
I'm thinking.
change my diet.
workout 5+ times a week, inc. cardio stuff
join the local hiking group.
obviously this would better than nothing, but in that time frame will it be enough.
Yes. You could be ready. Stop eating sugar. Walk each day. Start off with 10 to 20 minutes. Work up to a good hour and keep adding more as you feel stronger. Add a pack. Then add weight. Get comfortable with about 30lbs of weight. Learn to setup and breakdown your tent. Learn to stuff your pack. Spend a day walking in the rain. Learn to use your stove. Figure out what you like to eat. Do a overnight trip. Do a weekend trip.
Best advice I heard? Start slow and then slow down.
Sent from somewhere.
I did weight watchers and lost 30 lbs. and I used this book by Clyde Soles-"Climbing: Training For Peak Performance" Works every time.
WingedMonkey
10-31-2013, 09:48
Step away from your computer.
Walk to the front door.
Walk 'till you are tired, then turn around. You will be more tired.
Do it again tomorrow.
It's been two days now.
How far have you walked?
DeerPath
10-31-2013, 09:55
If I start now can I be ready for a thru in 6 months? I'm 60 yr old, overweight 40 +, and out of shape. little hiking experience
I'm thinking.
change my diet.
workout 5+ times a week, inc. cardio stuff
join the local hiking group.
obviously this would better than nothing, but in that time frame will it be enough.
Yes you can!
And, don't let anyone say you can't.
Happy Trails
It's been two days now.
How far have you walked?
x2. You have to stop posting on here and get outside. Don't get sucked into the WB vortex. Many of your questions you've been posting will be answered through direct experience. Well, that's 100 posts for me. Thanks WB, I'M OUT!
fredmugs
10-31-2013, 14:53
Three most important things--Strengthen your quads, build up cardio endurance and lose weight (both in you and your pack)
Concur. I'll also add walk as much as you can to strengthen your feet. When I cap my net carbs at 100g or less a day I am a fat burning machine. There are many ways to lose weight but I hate putting on that pack when I have belly fat.
Start slow and build up. Do something (anything) ridiculously easy the first month to get into a good habit. Then up the duration, variety, and intensity of your workouts. Some light weight training will be beneficial as well.
Blissful
10-31-2013, 15:47
It's more mental than physical. You can be buff Joe and still fail miserably on the AT. You need a passion to do it first and foremost. The rest will come.
Slo-go'en
10-31-2013, 16:41
It's more mental than physical. You can be buff Joe and still fail miserably on the AT. You need a passion to do it first and foremost. The rest will come.
True, but the more buff you are when you start, the less passion you need to keep going.
If you start out of shape, overweight and with little or no experiance, you need A LOT of passion to get through the first couple weeks - or days. Of course, there are those who show up in poor condition who go on to make it, but for every one of those, there are hundreds which didn't.
Pressure D
11-01-2013, 11:54
I agree with Blissful. It is all about passion. The mental side is everything!!! I am a coach so I made finishing the trail a game. I wanted to win the game. I was 56 years old and 40 lbs over weight, I won. I had a fairly light pack and was usually the first one on the trail. I liked to give myself as much time everyday to get the job done!
I also trained hard and consistent prior to my start. I did a lot of walking with a pack heavier than my real pack. I did squats, lunges and dead lift three times a week starting in November. I would do more step -ups next time. I had a friend on the trail lose 90lbs . It was an amazing transformation!!! You can do it!! Good ***!!!!
Passion is important.
However, if you are 40 lbs overweight, never backpacked and smoke you are more than likely to be one of the 4 out of 5 who do not finish the AT.
Notice you worked out BEFORE the hike. :)
I find hiking, and the outdoors in general, is more fun when I am in shape.
Traffic Jam
11-01-2013, 14:48
do not know if this is TIC or not. But taking the elevator to work out on the stairstepper is a bit of a headscratcher. How about taking the stairs? .
Made me laugh...at myself. My knees ache a bit so I justify riding the elevator to "save my knees for running, biking, and hiking." Maybe if I climbed more stairs my knees would be stronger?
Another Kevin
11-01-2013, 17:46
Passion is important.
However, if you are 40 lbs overweight, never backpacked and smoke you are more than likely to be one of the 4 out of 5 who do not finish the AT.
Notice you worked out BEFORE the hike. :)
I find hiking, and the outdoors in general, is more fun when I am in shape.
It's a cycle.
I was about 40 lbs overweight a couple of years ago. (Never smoked, though....) And I find that I have a rough time keeping up with an off-trail training program. So I've trained by getting out more. Now I'm 40 lbs lighter; my doc says it's a 'normal' weight range but I can feel that I'm still carrying a few extra. For me, the only thing that keeps the weight under control is hiking.
Slo-go'en
11-01-2013, 18:00
It's a cycle.
For me, the only thing that keeps the weight under control is hiking.
Yup, even it you try not to eat too much, just sitting around puts on the pounds. Ya gotta stay active, which is easier said then done, even for those of us who just have to walk out the door to start hiking. Its gonna be even harder with it getting dark before 5 PM starting this Sunday.
MuddyWaters
11-02-2013, 07:08
If you think your body went downhill between 50 and 60, between 60 and 70 will be like falling off a cliff.
Get active and stay active and lose weight, and your quality of life will be immeasurably better, and longer.
There are very few old men in nursing homes, and NO fat ones.
Just get your doctors OK, start slowly, and increase daily excercise. Walking with a weighted vest or pack is a good start.
Adding resistance training is better. Intense cardio and resistance training and walking with a pack is best.
Slosteppin
11-04-2013, 21:55
Yes, you can - if you want to enough. If you have the right attitude you could buy all your equipment tomorrow, start your AT hike the next day and finish in 4 or 5 months. It would be better to get your body ready and learn to use the necessary equipment.
If you haven't already, see your doctor and talk about what you want to do. The best way to train for a hike is to start hiking (someone already said this). As soon as you can walk a few miles rent or borrow the basic equipment and do an overnight hike.
Do you handle pain well? There will be pain, you will hurt! In my experience as you get older any new exercise will hurt and the older you get the longer it takes to recover.
You can't start any younger so start hiking NOW!
If I were you, I would just hike two weekends out of four for overnight hikes (Friday through Sunday evening) until you start your thru-hike, rain or shine. Hike 10 miles per day for each weekend hike. If you could get in a week long hike that would even be better. Then, in addition to that, I would do the treadmlll such that by the time you start your thru-hike you could reach 45 minutes at 6% incline on your treadmill while wearing your full backpack (30 pounds or so with weight for food and water).
If you do that, you'll be good to go from a physical point of view. Note that pretty much everyone is in the same physical state after 30 calendar days on the AT so this only gives you the physical reach for the first 30 days.
The real challenge is the mental challenge. That is where, in my opinion, most people come up with a reason to stop their thru-hike. The AT is much more difficult, for most people, from a mental standpoint. That's why if you will hike two weekends out of every four weekends from now until you start your AT thru-hike, you'll be way ahead of the game. You'll likely have hiked in rain and snow and bitter cold and that is some of what prevents people from completing their AT thru-hikes.
Datto
Fitness is one of the other things I am passionate about besides backpacking. As such, I have one page dedicated on my site to just that. Feel free to check it out for some general pointers and feel free to contact me if you have more specific questions...http://www.backpackingengineer.com/planning/fitness.html
Read Body for Life by Bill Philips, then do what he says.
fishfeet
11-05-2013, 16:18
Look Bryce, just start slowly like everyone says. This hike is going to be longer than you can possibly imagine and YOU CAN AFFORD to chill out in the beginning. Georgia is tough. JUST DONT GIVE UP. The longer you allow yourself to remain on the trail (It'll start becoming alot more enjoyable) then the better chance you have of carrying yourself all the way to and through Maine.
CarlZ993
11-05-2013, 18:33
Background - Similar age as you, thru-hiked the AT in 2013, experience backpacker before I thru-hiked, in good shape (cardio & strength), weight that fluctuates sometimes (got a sweet tooth for my wife's baking), max documented weight loss on the AT of 12 lbs.
It can be done. If you start dieting & average 1.5 lbs of fat loss per week, you'd lose that 40 lbs. Note: Weight Watchers worked for my wife & got the seal of approval from our marathon-running doctor. At 60, be sure you're good to go to start an exercise program. Get yourself wired and on a treadmill to see if the docs see anything wrong w/ your ticker. Unfortunately, you have to have some significant blockage before it shows any irregularities on a stress test. But, it's a start.
Be absolutely anal about lowering your packweight. Create yourself a spreadsheet or use Geargrams.com to see what your base packweight will be. A lower packweight will make the experience more enjoyable. There are some big-time climbs going north in the southern part of the AT.
You can do fewer miles in the beginning. Get on the trail earlier in the day rather than later. You can get to your planned destination & have a slot available in the shelter or snag a prime tent spot. Both will be at a premium at the start.
Personally, I like to hike at a pace that I feel I can maintain all day long. If you can't maintain a conversation while hiking, you may be hiking too fast. Slow down and then taper. :)
I met a lot of male thru-hikers that lost a lot of weight on the hike. If they had lost some of it before the start, I'm sure it would have been much easier.
Other posters have recommended doing a lot of hikes & over-night backpack trips. Great recommendation (as long as your heart has been checked out). Add some other cardio & strength training. Ease into it. Good results will follow. Just gotta be patient.
Enjoy your hike. Wish you the best.
flatfeet
11-09-2013, 19:19
What's the old saying? Nobody plans to fail, they just fail to plan? If you show up at Springer out of shape with a 40lb pack odds are you are not going too far.
As For training. Do squats, lunges, and calf exercises. Strengthen your lower and upper back and shoulders and core.
The most overlooked area is your feet. The average foot doesn't walk 7 miles in a day, let alone 15. So you'll need to prepare them. Popular exercises for the foot are things like toe raises, toe presses, walking on the balls of your feet for 5 minutes. etc.
If you are close to some hiking trails load up your pack and do a shake down to see what gear works and what doesn't. If you aren't close to some trails put your pack on your back and do a few sets on the stairstepper or run up and down a few flights of stairs.
Last get your foot checked out. Examine your foot pattern. Do you pronate, supinate? Get the proper shoe designed for your foot pattern.
good luck.
Currently I am training for a 200 mile section hike by walking with my pack(25#) every day for 5 miles on a daily dog walk. On weekends, I try to do 10 miles per day, and then when I have a paid holiday from work I do 15 miles in "moderate terrain" on the trail. I am not over weight, but at 50+ yrs old, my feet have a pretty rough time of it on the 15 mile days.
Bearhawk
11-11-2013, 22:24
If I start now can I be ready for a thru in 6 months? I'm 60 yr old, overweight 40 +, and out of shape. little hiking experience
I'm thinking.
change my diet.
workout 5+ times a week, inc. cardio stuff
join the local hiking group.
obviously this would better than nothing, but in that time frame will it be enough.
If your wanting to change the way you eat-Google "NSNG" and "Vinnie Tortorich" it will change/save your life.
Bryce, it's good that you're "thinking" about things. That's a start. But, I'll tell ya, knowing what you should be/could be doing is NOT the same thing as doing what you know you should be/could be doing. Make moves. Take massive action steps forward and continue. If you don't, ahhh your just playing games with yourself - what you might do what you could do what one day you'll do. Just be honest about it. You're not ready to take action. Your health and condition will probably continue to deteriorate. Hopefully, that's not the case though! Stop the slide. Change directions. I'm not going to coddle you. I'm not here to tell ya everything is going to be great. That's what you've been doing. Where has that gotten you? physically? mentally? emotionally? spiritually? While I commend and respect you for coming this far - "thinking about it" - it is not enough. Stop talking about it. Snowball your health in the direction you want with the first steps in that direction, even if it's just walking more, eating a bit less, getting better informed of your eating habits, etc. It's like a AT thru-hike. It doesn't get done with a few big steps but by 1000's 10'000's of smaller ones. Sometimes taking those first few steps are the hardest. Chart your course. You're at the helm of your ship. Be the captain of your physique and health you were meant to be. I'm noticing people who are very out of shape even morbidly obese turning their lives around little by little. You can do it too!
If your wanting to change the way you eat-Google "NSNG" and "Vinnie Tortorich" it will change/save your life.
Interesting... thanks.
None yet
11-12-2013, 22:55
You can change habits if you want (sometimes easy, sometimes a real challenge). A couple of walking friends started with small changes by omitting all fried or adding veggies to every meal, and another dropped sweets, etc. It took each of them between two to three weeks on one change before they went one to the next. Another friend watched Joe Cross's Netlix video ' Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' , became a vegetarian and walks every day. He dropped 30 lb in three months and now jogs half marathons. You can be in great shape in six months if you put in the effort. Good luck. What's your approx start date?
It is possible that different folks perform at their best at different percentage body fat. I would recommend monitoring your fitness with some form of test every 2 weeks or so. It could be something like a 30min walk on a treadmill at a certain incline, and see what speed you can maintain at a comfortable heart rate. You might also do some strength test, like how much weight you can do 3 sets of 8 with 60 second rest. This way you don't just optimize for endurance alone. Have fun with it.