Introduction: Welcome to the Backpacking Physical Fitness Forum

Introduction: Welcome to the Backpacking Physical Fitness Forum 

Skills

I believe that the most average person, male or female, possesses inherent physical and perceptive capabilities that are nothing short of amazing.

The average person can run all day long, observe the most minute details of the terrain as they pass through, and monitor their status and alter their plans on the hoof in response to changing internal and environmental circumstances.

The only thing that separates the average person from these capabilities is their environment. The requirements of urban life have made our fundamental physical and observational skills unnecessary, resulting in a society-wide degradation of the average American's physical and perceptive skills.

These capabilities have lost any meaningful role in urban culture, yet ironically they may be the key for many people in urban culture to find meaning. In a culture that perpetually serves up digital representations of every aspect of human experience, real experience physically and perceptively engaging nature is a rare treasure. This section of the forum is dedicated to developing physical engagement to engage the natural environment.

I'm not referring to physical exercise alone. There are thousands of fit people who are nothing more than big hamsters running on their big hamster wheels. They run around like big zombies. But, I'm not talking about observation skills alone. There are many good observers who are incapable of carrying themselves to good observation points.

Application

The goal of this section is to bring your physical capabilities up to speed as you build your gear, trail skills, and backpacking experience through a series of ascending difficulty pack trips.

The goal of this section is to get you physically and observationally engaged with your environment.

This means we're going to start by getting you stretching and walking. Once we get these physical basics worked out and set up on a regular schedule, we're going to set up a good hiking-jogging route, and begin to work ourselves up to seven mile runs over time. 

In the meantime, we're going to begin a light free weighlifting program.  

Trail Guide Pages

Physical Preparation

Off the Couch- Injury Recovery

Program: Legs & Lungs

Program: Upper Body, Weight Lifting

Related Topics