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Health + Fitness
Yoga is an ancient practice dating back some 5,000 years or more, but it’s not as old as the act of walking.
Studies have shown that hiking offers some parallel benefits to yoga bringing you not only physical but also mental well-being benefits.
The great thing about yoga is it offers total body conditioning, incorporating strength work, aerobic exercise, flexibility training and stretching. Like hiking, yoga brings you into the present moment and can be part of a soul-full practice.
The importance of maintaining a strong and flexible body for improved physical fitness while hiking in the mountains goes without saying. But many of us take it for granted that we need to keep our bodies in good condition to help us enjoy the sports we do and love.
After a day of hiking, you might develop some soreness and niggles in your body. More specifically in the back, shoulders, legs, hips, knees, ankles and feet.
Hiking in the mountains for several days or weeks at a time, carrying a heavy pack, camping or sleeping in unfamiliar beds, can take its toll on your body. Completing a fitness regime and training for your trip will ensure you are physically ready. But maintaining your body while you are hiking is just as important.
So why include yoga as part of your training regime for a hiking trip?
(and continue your practice on the trail)
Yoga helps to improve your balance, which reduces your chance of getting injured while hiking over varied terrain
Doing yoga strengthens your core muscles, which are important for your hiking endurance
Yoga promotes strength and mobility and will enable you to move more efficiently through the mountains and expend less energy
Yoga will reduce tightness in the key areas affected by hiking, that being the hips, hamstrings and lower back
Regular yoga practice will maintain loose muscles, and allow you a full range of motion
Yoga helps you feel more mentally balanced and helps you to relax, and that in turn brings physical health benefits
The beauty of yoga is that you can do it almost anywhere. To learn proper technique, like any new exercise you should seek out a qualified yoga instructor. Yoga is something you can do at the start of your day to warm up or at the end of the day as a reset. Yoga will maintain your body so you can continue to hike for longer with less risk of injury and reducing fatigue.
So how does yoga help you in other ways with your hiking experience?
Breathing is the most important thing you do; aside from keeping us alive, it is a way we connect to one another and all living creatures on the planet. It goes without saying that breathing techniques in yoga – pranayama (prana – vital life force; yama – to control), bring concentration to your practice and allow you to tune into your body.
These same techniques can be used during your hiking adventures, to center yourself and bring you into the moment, but also to help you get up those steep alpine climbs.
A slow and steady breath should be practiced while doing yoga and whilst hiking, and by learning to control your breath you will in turn keep your hiking at a steady manageable pace and bring yourself into the present moment.
A regular yoga practice will bring you a greater awareness of your bodily proprioception and control. Yoga builds your form, developing your strength, flexibility and balance. It can help reduce bodily pain and can calm the mind and reduce stress. By practicing a regular yoga routine, you will see the benefits throughout your life including when you hike the mountain trails.
Yoga teaches you to listen to your breath and to your body
You will be able to tune into the small signs that something may need attention when you are out hiking, and you will be able to rest up before you potentially do damage that could take some time to heal.
By practicing yoga, you will more easily be able to bring yourself into the moment.
As a result, when you are hiking you become more present in the experience of nature, and you will be aware of your surroundings and appreciate the very moment you are in.
What are you waiting for? Invest some time today in a new yoga practice, a mental and physical practice that will bring benefits to your hiking form and to the rest of your life.
Author: Alistair Crompton, France
Alistair is a hiking and running guide, and a yoga teacher based in the Chamonix Valley in the French Alps. After using yoga to help train for the Sydney marathon in 2014 he decided to qualify as a yoga teacher and since moving to the Alps, his love for trail running in Chamonix has led him to train as an international mountain leader, where he now combines his love of hiking, running and yoga. He is now trying to figure out how to combine his passion for paragliding!
All photography by Alistair Crompton.
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