A couple of years back, I met a fitness guy at a seminar who advocated what he called “hill sprinting.” Needless to say he was about three, and possibly four, decades younger than yours truly. Now, at my age, hill sprinting is an occasional variation, to add spice to my exercise regimen. But the great thing about almost all exercise is that it’s very adaptable. I searched around for this guy’s card the other day and found it, so I gave him a call.
He recognized me almost immediately, and we traded information on what we were doing, and so on and such forth.
Then, I asked him a few questions about adapting his program for those of us who aren’t exactly world class athletes. I wanted to know what benefits and results you could get from hill walking, and much to my surprise, they weren’t much different from hill sprinting.
Now if you want to lose weight fast, and you are capable of very vigorous exercise (and impact), there is a big difference, but that’s not most of us. Hill sprinting will help you drop some big poundages, if you do it on a regular basis. But I caution you…this is something you need to work up to.
Hill walking, on the other hand, is something tha almost anybody can do. I certainly would suggest stretching your legs a bit, and even your back. And don’t try to climb Mt. Everest on your first attempt. Where I currently live, there happen to be a lots of hills, with a wide variety available, from gentle slopes to medium grade, and a few steep ones, here and there. I put together three different courses, by a simple drive in my car, mapping out all the twists, turns, and climbs.
My beginner course consists entirely of gentle slopes.
The medium course has gentle slopes, and some intermediate climbs.
The tough course has both of the former, and a couple of hills that force you to work pretty hard.
My friend the trainer says he has all kinds of 50+ plus people on this kind of routine, and that they really enjoy this kind of walking. He even has a “TOB Club.” That stands for Tough Old Buzzards. All the members are 70+ and they meet and map out some hill walks that would leave many younguns in the dirt.
The great thing about hill walking is that it engages almost all the muscles in the body in a number of different ways, that you don’t get when walking a flat surface, or using a treadmill.
I highly recommend this form of exercise, but as with any other exercise…start slowly. If you take on some big hills too early, you’re going to wish you heeded my advice. Not to mention the throbbing you’ll be feeling, from some muscles you didn’t even know you had. And I don’t have a pain reliever in my arsenal… yet.
For regular aches and pains, along with soreness in your joints, you can take my Powerhouse Omega Formula, which can help to alleviate that kind of problem. But goodness gracious…get moving. Bodies were built to be in motion, and the longer you sit, the bigger problem you’re going to have.