| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Backpacker Magazine – May 2009
Fight the sedentary lifestyle and get a move on with these exercised and essential skill.s
COMMON AILMENT
Years of use (and abuse) can wear away the padding between bones. For backpackers, this can be especially severe in the back–a painful arthritic condition called spinal stenosis. Compressed vertebrae choke off blood flow to nerve roots, resulting in an aching or numbing sensation. "Legs cramp and the more you walk, the more it hurts," says Kelly, the orthopedist.
Prevent Use hiking poles to shift your body weight forward. "A forward-leaning posture will open up space for the nerve roots," Kelly says, and alleviate pain.
Soothe Pop an anti-inflammatory and sit with your back curved forward. If you can't get relief, ditch your pack and walk slowly back to the trailhead, using hiking poles to support a comfy position.
Strengthen Abdominal muscles support the spine. Work on your six-pack with crunches. Kelly prescribes 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps every day. As you get stronger, increase resistance by doing crunches while holding a small weight (5 pounds) behind your head.

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READERS COMMENTS
I too am in better shape from hiking than I was at 30. Great article to encourage both genders to either keep going or start getting out there.
I find that on MSN, Sympatico and Yahoo almost almost 100% of the health articles are geared towards women. It's nice to see a good article for men.
Thank you so much.
I find that on MSN, Sympatico and Yahoo almost all the health articles are geared towards women. It's nice to see a good article for men.
Thank you so much.
At 61 I plan on doing lots more hiking, biking and backpacking. But as a woman I guess I will just have to make up my own fitness plan since you neglected to include us!
Great advice for men. How about a similar article focusing on women? We ARE different, you know.
Most of the perceived exertion scales go 1-10; can you put it in terms of 1-10, or explain your scale range?
As a 57 year old women that hikes regularly and just did a four day BP trip in the John Muir Wilderness, I say: this article is completely guy-centric. Are you suggesting mature women don't want a good outdoor fitness experience?
As a 57 year old women that hikes regularly and just did a four day BP trip in the John Muir Wilderness, I say: this article is completely guy-centric. Are you suggesting mature women don't want a good outdoor fitness experience?
Re print page. I had to go to Print page in my browser and reduce the scale to 50% to get the whole page.
I am 63 and have exercised my whole life. These are great suggestions as myself and a buddy climb a local hill in Phoenix, AZ 3-times per week and run up the last quarter of the hill. Great cardio!
We hike rim to rim in the GC every year.
Do what the article says, I am 67 and did 7 miles on snowshoes yesterday with a 25 pound pack. I regularly do 7 to 10 mile day hikes with pack at 8000 to 9000 feet in the summer. I'm able to do this because I have been following a similar program for a long time.
So you say to do endurance hiking twice weekly for 45 minutes. What is endurance hiking, would love to partake
Through regular weight training and hiking I can honestly say I'm in better shape now, at age 57, than I was when I started backpacking at 15. For example, I did a 17-mile day hike on the local trails a month ago. Couldn't have come close to that 42 years ago.
Yes, if you are going to "show" a Print the Page, make sure your program will print the page. It doesn't.
Great article! At 55 I can already relate to every item covered in the article. Maybe this will give me the encouragement I need to take corrective action before any more damage is done.
Thanks and keep up the good work. Great magazine.!
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