Fitness Gear For Hikers

What fitness equipment can I use that I have already in my home?

Fitness gear you may already have in your home could be a bicycle or cycling machine. Cycling is an excellent cardiovascular activity to progress to as part of a gentle and sensible fitness training plan. Uphill cycling is great for building strong leg muscles and stamina for mountain hiking.

As a hiker you may already have one or more items of hiking equipment…

• Pedometer
  Instead of measuring distance most pedometers can track approximately how many calories you are burning. They are great for walking, speed walking and jogging as they have countdown timers and pacer tunes to help you keep a steady rhythm up.

• Trekking poles or Nordic Walking poles
  Fitness walking with poles can give you a good cardiovascular workout and helps build upper body strength. Simply swing your arms further and push harder through the pole step.
  
  

What other fitness gear is there that is low cost and effective?

• Rebounder / Trampette
  A rebounder, or trampette, is a mini trampoline that is at least 3 ft / 1 m in diameter. You can jog on them or simply bounce up and down indoors or in the garden. Using a rebounder gives you a good workout and the shifts in gravity when bouncing has a beneficial effect on every muscle. You can pick one up from $30 / £15.

• A small step machine
  These machines are also quite good and have different resistance settings. As with the rebounder they are portable and can be used indoors allowing it to fit in with watching your favourite television programme or continuing a conversation with family. You can get a reasonably good one from about $40 / £20.