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Exercises for walking steep rocky trails downhill

Exercises for walking steep rocky trails downhill


Postby Frihed89 » Tue Jun 19, 2018 11:59 am

On May 26 and 27 my son and our partners walked the Affric-Kintail Way. London-based son and partner hike and rock climb a lot. I am 75. I prepared for the trip by taking 8-16 km hikes twice a week for 2 months before the trip. We had previously walked the Glenn Affric route a year ago and I had no problems, then or during my training. I did several 19km+ walks. Unfortunately, Denmark is flat!

The first day of our trip to the hostel was easy. I had no problems. On the second day, everything went fine until I came to the descent into Kintail. My thighs started cramping, my balance deteriorated and I became dizzy, even though I drank a lot of water, which did help, but only a little. I made it, but it took me almost an hour and I had a lot of help. I regained some of my energy on the rest of the walk, but was certainly slowed by my experience.

I am determined to the route again and have to train for the downhill.

So far the only help I have gotten is to do a lot of squats, until its really hurts each time. Do weights help? Any other suggestions, long- or short-term.
Frihed89
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Re: Exercises for walking steep rocky trails downhill

Postby Chris87GER » Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:47 pm

Hey there,
yes, squats will help! Carefully adding weight even more so, as soon as you are sure your squats are pretty enough (safe).
Then: stairs. After I slowly added up to 20kilos to my squats I could control my descend on stairs a lot better.
I am 31 and run stairs as part of my every week work outs since November 2017. Before running stairs I warm up and actually started out with just walking them until I felt comfortable in control.

I have walked the Fisterra Camino for the third time in April 2018. There is a steep descent that stretches a long way before a certain town that had killed me the years before. This time I took it in my stride and pushed on. So that was effort well spent.

Also: Magnesium Supplements! No more cramps since I take these pills :?
Also: Electrolytes! All that water won't help without these.
Chris87GER
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Re: Exercises for walking steep rocky trails downhill

Postby Scottk » Tue Jun 19, 2018 11:01 pm

Sounds like you were quite badly dehydrated which can affect balance. I would also say that using walking poles helps a lot on descents.
Scottk
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