How To Add Hiking to Your Fitness Routine

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Already have a fitness routine and wanting to add something new to mix it up? Looking to start a fitness routine? Hiking may be just the thing you are looking for. I love that hiking is the perfect exercise for any level. Beginners or advanced level fitness aficionados will find that it’s easy to add hiking to your fitness routine.

How To Add Hiking to Your Fitness Routine

Don’t Rush Into Hiking

A really important thing to remember before you add hiking to your fitness routine is that it is not something you will master right away. Just like you can’t run 10 miles after never running before, you won’t be able to go on 10-mile hikes on the first day either. As you start organizing your fitness schedule, make sure you allow yourself time to adjust to hiking. Start with short hikes of just a mile or less in distance, then when you get used to those, gradually increase the length, time, and difficulty level of the hikes. This smooth transition makes it a lot easier to stick to the workouts.

Get Friends or Family Involved

Another way you can add it to your fitness routine is to include others. This doesn’t have to be something you do alone, and in fact, it is a lot more enjoyable with a friend or family member. When you start hiking, ask a friend if they want to join you. Then you can workout together, and possibly even add other forms of exercise to a fitness routine you are doing together. Teamwork is what it is all about!

Find New Trails

As you begin getting more advanced in your hiking adventures, add new trails to the mix. Perhaps you want to try more incline at least one day a week, so when you are putting together your fitness routine for the following week, you will find a trail that might not be longer in distance, but has more hills for you to walk up and down. This is going to increase the difficulty level, but it also helps to burn more calories.

Mix in Other Workouts

For the hiking to truly fit into your fitness routine, you need a good balance of workouts. So if you want to hike 2 days a week, perhaps you hike over the weekend, then during the week you have a few days where you combine other aerobic activity with some weight lifting days. This can be out of the house, in a gym, or right in your living room.