Hiking for Beginners

Hiking is a great workout choice and offers something for every one of all fitness levels and is a great way to burn calories. Not to mention that you will get fresh air, see new sights, and gain a new appreciation for the great outdoors. It's so much fun that you may even forget that you are getting a workout!

If you are new to hiking, then it is best to start with a short hike and little to minimal elevation gain. A good first hike might be one that is 6km or shorter with 100m or less of elevation gain. You will still want to bring a pack with plenty of water, some snacks and some extra layers of clothing, but your back pack will be relatively light.

Once you are comfortable with this distance you can gradually increase either your distance or elevation gain, but it is best not to increase both by too much. It’s much better to pick one that you want to increase. For example, you may choose to do another 6km hike with 250 m of elevation gain and see how that goes or do a 10km hike with only 50 m of elevation gain. How quickly you increase your distance and elevation gain will depend on your current fitness level, but the more you do, the more quickly you will be able to increase both your distance and elevation gain. You can also mix it up for variety, by one time choosing a longer hike with minimal elevation gain and the next time doing the opposite.

Hiking is a great calorie burner. A 140 lb person will burn 444 calories/hour of hiking, so if you go on a 4 hour hike, you would burn 1776 calories, which is almost ½ pound! Calculate how many calories you would burn hiking. Hiking for 4 hours is very reasonable since you have beautiful scenery and likely changing terrain to get you motivated, where most people would not be inclined to do 4 hours on a treadmill or other exercise machine in the gym since boredom would likely kick in long before the 4 hours was up.

As you become a stronger hiker, you can also increase your time, so perhaps after a couple of months of hiking you start choosing hiking trails that are 8 hours in which case you would burn 3552 calories, or an entire pound! If you go hiking once a week, that means you could lose 4 pounds in a month, just by hiking!

In addition to increasing your time, you can also increase your calorie burn when hiking by increasing the weight in your backpack, but do so slowly, i.e. 5 lbs at a time, since extra weight makes hiking much harder. Once you are able to carry more weight, you are open to a whole new world of hiking which may include backcountry camping, in which you carry your tent, sleeping bag, food, etc. and hike to a remote location where you spend a night or two.

Hiking with collapsible trekking poles is also another way to increase your calorie burn by as much as 20%. I would recommend always hiking with collapsible trekking poles since besides the additional calorie burn; it also reduces strain on the legs by 20% and reduces pressure on the knees, especially on the descent. You definitely want collapsible trekking poles though, since there may be parts of a hike where they are a hindrance and you want the option to collapse them and attach them to your back pack.

Perhaps the best reason that hiking is such a good workout is that is it quickly becomes addictive. Before long, you will be sousing out new trails in new territory, comparing hiking trails with other hikers and have a new group of hiking buddies. Something this much fun, doesn’t seem like a workout and the best workout is one that you will stick with. Although hiking is a great workout and calorie burner, you rarely hear hikers talking about how many calories they’re burning as people do on exercise machines where they’re counting every minute - hikers are too busy enjoying the journey.