AUTUMN. As decent hiking weekends get fewer and further between, it might pay to look for a sport that will keep you involved for the next four or five months. Pick a sport that places demand on your legs, of course, and involves changes of direction. Tennis has a good profile to match your needs, given its mixture of short and intense output and the overall length of the game, and the intense demands on the ankles and knees. Spend some time with a training partner working on precise technique with a wide variety of gym exercises, so that you restore quality patterns of muscle recruitment. This will help to undo any imbalances of muscle tension that developed during the months of walking through spring and summer.
WINTER. In the gym, spend 3 or 4 weeks in a circuit format, with a lot of exercises and not a lot of rest, to maintain muscular endurance and develop cardio performance under load. Pay close attention to making sure the technique you were so good at I the autumn doesn’t go out the window when the number of reps is increased. In February, a four-week phase of 12 slow reps per set will build muscle mass and ensure the development of stable joints. Start to speed up the movements as spring approaches, and then in early March you need to introduce dynamic lunges and small jumps off steps to conform more closely to the specific demands of hiking, especially downhill sections.
SPRING. Beautiful walking weather means you’ll not need to spend so long preparing in the gym. Make sure that you get a bit of a warm up on the flat before you hit the first uphill, and stretch out the hip flexors with some lunges if you’ve just got out of the car after a long drive. In the gym, core training with a gym ball will stabilise the spine and pelvis, which means that the legs are under more control and less prone to injury. Make sure you spend time stretching after a walk. Yoga-type stretching is the best as it integrates the body completely rather than just stretching muscles individually, which fails to reach into the joint capsules.
SUMMER. A frequent yoga practice will keep the body balanced and unwind specific tension that develops with constant up and downhill sections. Fortunately, walking over uneven ground means that the nervous system is continually adapting to a changing environment, so communication with joint stabilising muscles will remain at a peak. Use this raised neural activity midweek in the gym to complete three short, heavy sets of 4-6 reps per exercise, cutting down to jumping lunges, medicine ball throwing jumps, shoulder presses, gym ball jack knifes, double-handed cable pushes and double leg raises.
LATE SUMMER. Hiking is predominantly a one-leg activity so to ensure you get to the end of the viable hiking season without any troubles, spend one session a week working on your core strength and balance. Any exercise on one leg demands more of the inherent stabiliser muscles in your pelvis and spine, and you can combine weights with other balance equipment like gym balls and balance boards to get more activity in the core. Kettlebell swings are great for developing power to decelerate the body’s weight, which will come in very handy when you’re walking down that third mountain of the day!