Last month I had a very nice time hiking the Liahona Loop trail. My first real hike ever! I can admit my main motivation to start hiking is to promote weight loss and burn calories. It has at once destined to become one of my favorite activities. The whole trail is well marked and nothing better than hiking on a clear sunny day, being overwhelmed by the immense beauty of nature. I was able to get some nice vistas regardless of wherever I stopped along the way.

It’s been quite tough for me to complete the loop even though my trekking poles helped a lot on latter half of the trail. It actually should be filtered by easy and didn’t really need gear like poles, just got them from Timberbrother on Amazon because of affordable price and thought they might save my knees. They are absolute strong, lightweight and certainly took some of the load off my knees, but despite all of these I was still pretty sore and tired in half way mainly caused by my weight and other physically problems.

I really want to be in a better physical condition next time, how should I physically workout for next hike?

Actually, if you're not in good shape yet, hiking itself is a great way to improve. If you keep doing it regularly (at least twice a week), you'll find it gets easier, and then you can go on longer or more strenuous hikes, or do it more often.


When you want to do more than hiking, there are lots of activities to consider.

• Walk as much as possible instead of taking the car; take the stairs instead of the elevator.


• Any cardio exercise is good, including (but not limited to) running, cycling, swimming. If you start any exercise routine, take it easy. An overly enthusiastic start often leads to injuries. Work up a good sweat without exhausting yourself, between half an hour and an hour, two to three times a week. After a couple of weeks you can slowly increase the intensity. There are plenty of schemes on the internet that you can choose from. You can stick to one cardio activity or combine several. When you go running, make sure you've got well fitting running shoes.


• To make it easier on your knees, you can strengthen your quad muscles. Here are some exercises for that (you can order or filter them, e.g. select only those that need no equipment). On descending, tightening your quads right when your foot touches the ground lessens the impact on your knees. And keep using those hiking poles.

I agree with the advice given by rgg.

I agree with RGG but I'll add that 80% of weight loss is diet. This means that it deserves more attention until you have gotten your weight down to an acceptable level for you though you should also be exercising.

I generally agree with RGG, I'll just emphasize that walking is about the easiest form of exercise there is. You don't do other forms of exercise in order to train for walking, you train for walking by just walking. If you get tired, slow down or take a break. If you're struggling at the end of a hike, try a shorter or slower or flatter hike next time. If you're sore the next day, take a day off, but stick to a schedule where you're doing *something* at least three days a week. It doesn't have to be "real hike", just walk around the block if there's nothing more interesting available, but get moving for at least half an hour at a time.

A 3.6-mile loop is a good start, if you can do that and feel good at the end of it, you'll be ready for some bigger challenges, like a hike with more elevation gain. Lots of great places to explore in your area.

If your only exercise consists of two hours or so of walking "last month", then yes, you also need to be restricting your diet if you're hoping to lose weight.

You want to become a good hiker, then run, run like forest, run a marathon and then run some more. Get your self so streamline that you could duck a punch from Mike Tyson and then come up and slap him before he brings his arm back. Then when you go hiking, it will be so easy for you that you will be able to take the grill and a 12 pack of beer to bust out for the lovely chick that you are trying to impress.

There really is a lot of things to learn and unlearn. For example, stretching before starting. Stretching is only really needed before explosive fast sports. For hiking, start slow and you are OK.

Breathing, at certain points, if you are breathing heavy you are burning protein and not fat.

There really is too much to go into in a post so, you have to question and research for yourself.

I would focus on breathing efficiently, and doing cardio can help with that. Having a good weight is also crucial, and you could always work out legs so they don't get tired as quickly

Just stay physically active and eat properly (as most above mentioned). Pick the physical activity you might like and so be able to stick to it. Any cardio/endurance would definitely help but the most important is go hiking frequently enough, regardless of destination and distance, just for the enjoyment. If you over do it, you will most likely quit it.

The question is, however, what have you done since you initiated this topic?

clmbr wrote: The question is, however, what have you done since you initiated this topic?

"Last Active: Oct 30, 2016"

s/he's been lurking, errrrr, hiking.