With so many of us cooped up indoors pounding the treadmills and working the stationary bike, in climate controlled environments, the idea of hiking in the great outdoors, as a fitness option may not strike readily. And yet hiking is an excellent option for meeting your fitness and health related objectives – and summer may be the best time to take that road not taken!
Depending upon your fitness levels and your fitness goals, your hike could mean a leisurely paced trek to an arduous one on a steep gradient.
Hiking up hills can itself be fairly taxing physically, particularly when you are also carrying a back pack – this can help burn calories and also help increase body strength.
It isn’t just the physical impact of hiking that is positive – being outdoors and communing with nature is also more tranquil.
Hiking can help you de-stress as well as help you get stronger and lose weight.
It can be a fun group activity, wherein you may enjoy the activity so much, it doesn’t even seem like a work out.
Hiking is not something that requires a lot of skill and as a group activity one can get a big boost of encouragement and support as well. Since it is an enjoyable activity, even a sedentary person may be tempted to persist with it.
