Monday, 12 May 2014

Hard Core Hiking: Some Tips To Make It Easier

By Kamryn Mattson


If you have decided to enjoy the world of long-distance hiking or backpacking, you are not alone. Many Americans enjoy communing with nature in wilderness areas that few people every get to see and enjoy. Consider the following helpful tips to make your hiking experience as successful as possible.

If you are planning on hitting the Pacific Coast Trail, the John Muir Trail or Grand Canyon National Park, these are fantastic experiences. But you have to work up to a hike of this magnitude. Your body needs to be prepared, so set up some difficult day hikes and overnight hikes and do daily cardiovascular work to increase your body's stamina. Don't forget to also hike with a fully loaded pack to truly be prepared. If your hike will be at a higher elevation, it is imperative that you train at altitude.

Your feet can be your best friends or your worst enemy on the trail, so protecting the feet is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a great hiking experience. Find the best possible, highest quality hiking boots as well as buying proper hiking socks and other helpful items, such as moleskin. Don't wear new boots on this big trip, break them in first and break them in while hiking with a full backpack. Assess any areas that seem to rub a particular area of your foot and find solutions to these problems to prevent blisters.

Of course, your pack also is highly important and this needs to fit comfortably against your back. You need to actually go and be fitted for the pack, as well as the boots to ensure optimum comfort. The pack also needs to have enough space to hold your water, tent, sleeping bag, food and many other important supplies. Be sure to go to a store where the staff is highly knowledgeable about the different backpacks.

It's not uncommon during a long, multi-day hike to strain a muscle or have some muscle pain, and this discomfort can really put a damper on your whole hiking experience. The usual remedy of rest, ice, compression and elevation can be a bit difficult to apply when you are in the middle of the wilderness, so instead, consider using a physiological hybrid shape to reduce the pain and still allow you enough freedom of movement to continue the hike.

These shapes are a type of muscle support remedy that contains no medicines or drugs, but instead provide support and pain relief by acting like an exo-skeleton for a muscle that is sore. The physiological hybrid shape features a unique design, and the center point of the shape provides structure while the "arms" of the shape borrow stability and strength from underlying muscles, ligaments or tendons. There are physiological hybrid shapes designed to provide shoulder pain relief, lower back pain relief, upper back pain relief, shoulder pain relief and knee support. They are also lightweight, which makes them easy for backpackers to tote.




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