Wild Women on Top are always keen to get more adventurous women out there on the trail, regardless of age, ability or experience. They’ve been around for a while now, and Paddy Pallin has always loved keeping up to date with them, and supporting what they’re doing. Their tips for staying fit and active when you can’t be doing everything you want to do are really great! Read up and put them into practice.

wild women on top - 28 day fitness challenge

One of the worst things about the pandemic for hikers is not being able to travel, adventure, and explore trails near and far. We miss weekends away, exploring stunning wilderness areas while clocking up the kilometres, falling into bed at night thoroughly exhausted but blissfully happy.

Instead, we’re limited with where, when and how much we can hike, and it can be hard to maintain our trail fitness.

Fortunately, we have come up with some ways to stay feeling fit and fabulous, even when the ‘trail’ is your local park or the wildlife is your cat, asleep on the couch!

wild women on top

Here’s how:

  1. Walk 10,000 steps per day! Try to incorporate walking into your daily routine to maintain your general health and wellbeing. This will give you an excellent ‘base’, which can be ramped up when you get closer to your next hike.
  2. Alternate strenuous and moderate activity days. Consistency is more important than intensity, so don’t push yourself too hard.
  3. Seek out soft surfaces and reconsider your footwear. If we don’t work to avoid it, our daily lives involve a lot of walking on concrete and other hard surfaces. Our musculoskeletal system is not adapted for this, and as a result, it can cause injury. Seek out “soft” surfaces, such as grass, sand or bushy trails wherever you can, and wear shoes that support you properly. You’re more likely to get incidental exercise if you’re wearing the right footwear!
  4. Get in the high intensity interval training (HIIT) twice a week. HIIT involves intermittent bursts of moderate-to-high level intensity exercise with intervening periods of rest and recovery. One easy way to incorporate intervals into your daily routine is walk up every set of stairs you see!
  5. Carry weight twice a week. Our modern, highly mechanized culture has largely engineered lifting, carrying, and climbing out of our lives… but our bodies need it! So we get the lucky opportunity to stimulate this by lifting heavy things regularly. Make a habit of lifting the shopping, the furniture or your kids a few times a week for improved strength.
  6. Get outside: As a hiker, you know how good the outdoors makes you feel! But you don’t need a national park or wildness area to get the benefits. Simply head down to the coast, local park, reserve or botanic garden to enjoy the health-boosting effects.
  7. Find a buddy or tribe. This can be in-person if regulations permit, or virtual… it doesn’t really matter! The important thing is having someone else to support your goals and keep you accountable.
  8. Rehabilitate. If you have little niggles or sore spots that get aggravated whenever you do a big adventure, now is the perfect time to rest, rehabilitate and recover. Bring out the foam roller, do your exercises from the physio and keep stretching!
  9. Sleep! Plentiful time for sleep, relaxation, and rest will facilitate complete recovery after physical exertion. Aim to get 8 hours of quality sleep, and you’ll maintain a level of wellbeing that will set you up perfectly for when it’s time to hit the trails again.

If all else fails, just keep walking. Wherever you can, whenever you can. And when those big adventures become possible once again, you’ll be ready to ramp up your training and achieve some big, hairy, audacious goals. And we’ll be right alongside you.

wild women on top

Are you looking for a challenge that’ll keep you motivated and inspired to exercise? Register for the 28-day Stayin’ Wild Challenge today. It’s only $25 and your first buddy goes free! Sign up now.

#ExperienceIsEverything | #PaddyPallin

About The Author

admin

Some 80 years ago, a young bushwalker's dissatisfaction with the limited and heavy bushwalking equipment available prompted him to design and make his own. Before long, word spread, and Paddy Pallin's lightweight, functional designs were soon in demand among fellow bushwalkers. From its early days the company has concentrated on supplying bushwalkers, travellers and adventurers with the highest quality and most advanced products and knowledge. Since 1930 the company has grown to become Australia's leading supplier of specialist outdoor and travel gear. The company, still owned by the Pallin family, now has thirteen stores throughout Australia as well as online, mail order and corporate sales divisions. We are using our vast wealth of knowledge, and experience, to build an online community where we can share our stories, reviews and tech tips to help you research and plan your next adventure.

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