where can one purchase weighted leg or arm bands ? would it be possible to just wear them everywhere one goes to increase muscle strength from general activity ?
Usually you pick those up at a sporting goods store. However, you carry your pack weight on your waist and shoulders, so don't I think the weights on ankle / wrists would work the correct muscles. A weighted vest might work, but I just do some walks with my pack filled with rice in ziplocks.
I suppose the benefit to wearing those weights would be to strengthen the ankles and wrists, which could help while hiking as injuring those parts can happen easily with all the motion in them and the opportunity (particularly the ankles) for them to twist with the uneven terrain, causing falls where a wrist trying to catch yourself may be injured.
https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults
A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White
what reasoning do u have that wearing weights around one's ankles and wrists would be bad for one's health ?
at a minimum they should help to strengthen many muscles, hip, arm and shoulder joints that one uses daily by providing mild resistance.
Putting weights on the end of your arms or legs while walking creates a greater amount of force on your hip and shoulder joints than you should. When you put a weight on the end of a "pendulum" you vastly increase the amount of force at the "pivot point."
These weights can be used safely for some exercises but not while walking/hiking for miles or being worn for hours.
Keep in mind that wrists and ankles don't get stronger as they are joints. Muscles surrounding those joints is what you are actually strengthening to help with stabilizing those joints. Also, muscle balance around the joints is imperative to provide proper alignment. Muscular imbalance causes joints to move incorrectly. Along with strength (stability) you want to make sure you have good mobility in the ankle joint. There are ways to measure this actually and a good personal trainer can help you with that and show you how to correct that. I did a lot of this when I was in personal training, correcting muscle imbalances with clients.
If you want to strengthen "your ankles" there are easy exercises you can do with elastic/resistance bands (the exercise style, not the office supply type) or a cable machine if you have access to a gym.
https://www.physioadvisor.com.au/exe...-joints/ankle/
Similar exercises can be done for wrists.
https://www.healthline.com/health/ho...s#resistance-1
https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults
A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White
2ACEA769-CCAB-460F-AC9D-5C4E2356C7DF.jpg
I did 2 miles to train and pump up the local economy.
I have been doing about 5 mpd walks.
76 HawkMtn w/Rangers
14 LHHT
15 Girard/Quebec/LostTurkey/Saylor/Tuscarora/BlackForest
16 Kennerdell/Cranberry-Otter/DollyS/WRim-NCT
17 BearR
18-19,22 AT NOBO 1562.2
22 Hadrian's Wall
23 Cotswold Way
Mountain biking on gravel roads 6+ miles a day and hiking the Foothills Trail in SC. My thru is not cancelled just postponed. If we get the all clear in June or July, I'll depart from Katahdin and plan on a Fall/Winter hike. The 2020 class is going to be really small but I still want to be a part of it!
Good advice on many of these answers. I'm older now and did my long hikes when I was young. I didn't really prepare at all for those trips but I was already fit and youth allows you to break a lot of rules.
I'm in my 50s now and I find injury much easier and slower to recover from. If I were preparing for a long hike now I'd just increase the amount of time on my feet per day slowly. I think walking is the best exercise to practice and hiking the best way of doing it. Running is different than hiking. If you run regularly it will certainly help but the issues that tend to pop up are foot, knee related for me. Cardio is nice to have but what ultimately limits the miles I can hike are foot/knee issues. The only way to stress those in small doses (training) are to use them like you do on a hike.
I'd also treat the first month on the trail as training time. I'd intentionally limit my milage, I'd plan a lot of zeros, and I would religiously listen to my body during that beginning phase.
I am recovering from an injury from running. I had just got back to running and did something I probably would have warned a client against doing when I was training clients, especially on a treadmill run. I lost probably 8 weeks because of that injury. I also have other injuries to that side of the body from a couple of accidents years ago.
I have been walking. Just walking. Monday I start back running as I am doing my first marathon on Oct 25th. I originally wanted to do my marathon this year and thru hike next year as I would at least be able to get my legs used to mileage and conditioning my cardio system. Now I will be attempting my thru in 2022 as we have commitments here in TX that will likely keep us here until too late in the summer next year.
https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults
A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White
Penny Pincher's wrote: Putting weights on the end of your arms or legs while walking creates a greater amount of force on your hip and shoulder joints than you should. When you put a weight on the end of a "pendulum" you vastly increase the amount of force at the "pivot point."
Keep in mind that wrists and ankles don't get stronger as they are joints. Muscles surrounding those joints is what you are actually strengthening to help with stabilizing those joints. Also, muscle balance around the joints is imperative to provide proper alignment. Muscular imbalance causes joints to move incorrectly. Along with strength (stability) you want to make sure you have good mobility in the ankle joint. There are ways to measure this actually and a good personal trainer can help you with that and show you how to correct that. I did a lot of this when I was in personal training, correcting muscle imbalances with clients.
Well said. I second everything 100% (and not just because we both call the 'plex home). I too can't believe they even sell those anymore, and it's one of the only pieces of exercise equipment that I am always tempted to tell total strangers to stop using... because I care, of course. I will drop a little cred here: I'm a 'slow speed hiker' in the 25-30 mpd range for AT, marathon/ultra competitor, and lifelong fitness nut (turning 50 this year). STAY AWAY from those god-awful things is my two cents' worth as well.
While it's true that 'direct practice' of any targeted activity is almost always the most essential prep for the activity itself (eg hiking is best prep for hiking), in the case of hiking there is a greater opportunity cost by not doing the 'indirect/supplemental work' that are part and parcel of training for many other physical/athletic endeavors. Think of the prep for football (or any other sport, if you like) and how much time players spend in the weight room, doing agility drills, etc. So as odd as it sounds, IMO 'just hiking' as prep is less than ideal. As someone has already mentioned, trail running is among the best ancillary exercises because it promotes development of skills that enhance hiking ability (foot placement, balance, endurance, etc.) to a degree that is actually well beyond what one could reach by hiking alone. The silver lining to this philosophy, of course, is that those of us who don't have the opps to practice the type of hiking we intend to do, can still prepare well wherever we are.