Yoga to Compliment…Hiking.

I believe there’s nothing better than getting out in the fresh air with friends, family or even solo especially at the moment when we’re still in the midst of Lockdown 3.0. Whether it’s hiking a mountain, walking the beach or going on a decent stroll around town, it’s a great way to spend a couple of hours, getting in lots of movement and helps to clear the head as well!

Currently with restrictions in place to within 5km our homes, climbing mountains might not be available to you but the following advice is definitely something to keep in mind once we can move a bit further afield. In the meantime, we’ve all been on very long walks recently (or most of us) and you’ll have probably noticed how tired and sore your legs can get. Yoga can really help with sore muscles and stiffness in the joints.  

As I always say, warming up before any sort of exercise is important so who’s to say you can’t incorporate a bit of gentle movement such as yoga into your weekly routine to prepare and help your body’s ability to recover quicker and improve your hiking performance and reduce the risk of injury. Pre-hike warm-up will really help reduce the risk of muscle soreness and cramping, as well as post-hike cool-down and soreness relief.

The movements involved in hiking use repetitive motion along the sagittal plane (forward and backward) that pulls on the same muscles group repeatedly throughout the hours of your trek. With the thousands of steps we take up a mountain, our hips, ankles, and shins are being flexed and extended repeatedly, which also causes our shoulders and neck to round in. This can leave us with tight hips, quads, ankles, and IT bands as well as with a sore back, shoulders, and neck.

Yoga can help to not only balance hiking, making it a well-rounded exercise, but can also prepare your body to better handle the repeated use of certain muscles. as we strain to keep moving forward and up.

Benefits:

·        Loosening up your muscles and giving your body full range of motion.

·        Strengthening your core.

·        Improving your balance.

·        Helping to prevent injuries while hiking

·        Improving hiking endurance

·        Making that mind and body connection stronger and helping to keep your positivity up.

We want to help the body not hinder it!