When Hiking, Do You Lose Muscle?

Hiking, especially with a weighted vest, is an excellent way to strengthen your legs. On the other hand, the body will eventually find ways to preserve energy for thru-hikers, which could lead to muscle loss. The three main muscles developed by hiking are the gastrocnemius (your two calf muscles), hamstrings, and quadriceps (the front of your thighs). By hiking with a weighted vest, you can increase the amount of muscle in these places even more.

Exercise using Weights

Several factors, such as your daily mileage hiked, energy levels, and dietary habits, affect whether or not you lose muscle mass when hiking. With proper training and planning, though, it is very possible to avoid losing muscle during a thru-hike. Your legs, including your quadriceps (the front of your thighs), hamstrings, and gastrocnemius (the two calf muscles), are the muscles you use the most when trekking. Try weighted step-ups to strengthen these leg muscles and add some extra strength for when you're carrying a hefty pack. Hold one dumbbell in each hand as you stand in front of a chair, plyometric box, or bench that is knee-high. Once your front leg's thigh is parallel to the floor, push through your heel to raise yourself back up. Perform ten reps for each leg. Include some lower body workouts as well, such as hip flexors, glute muscles, and hip strengthening exercises. Workouts should include lunges and squats.

Healthy Eating

Your diet is the most crucial thing to keep up throughout a thru-hike. For the most part of your hike, you will be below your daily energy needs, therefore you need to make sure you are receiving enough protein to avoid losing muscle mass. This is especially true for the more strenuous hikes, when your legs will be working overtime. For your meals and snacks on these hikes, try including turkey jerky or individual packets of chicken or tuna (which provide roughly 7 grammes of protein per ounce). The quadriceps (front of the thigh), hamstrings (back of the thigh), and gastrocnemius and soleus (two calf muscles) are the main leg muscles used in hiking. These muscles enlarge while trekking due to a phenomenon known as muscular hypertrophy. the same mechanism via which muscle fibres rip and subsequently heal when lifting weights in a gym. Hiking alone might cause your legs to enlarge dramatically over time.

Good Night's Sleep

It takes high-quality sleep to maintain and grow muscle. Sleeping soundly at night increases muscle regeneration and recovery after strenuous activity. It also enables us to maintain our energy and attentiveness throughout the day. Although a lot of individuals concentrate on how long they sleep for, it's also vital to think about the quality of sleep. Health issues including depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity can all be brought on by sleep deprivation. A person's subjective level of happiness with their whole sleep experience is what is meant to be defined as sleep quality. It covers everything like falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up feeling rested, and so forth. Although there are numerous devices available to test sleep quality, you may also determine its quality more easily by observing how exhausted you feel upon awakening. To track your progress, you might also consider maintaining a sleep journal. While hiking, getting adequate restful sleep will assist you prevent muscle loss.

Recuperation

A fantastic way to maintain the strength of your legs and lower body is to walk. Maintaining upper body strength is crucial, particularly while hiking with a large load. Training in the gym at least twice a week with exercises that focus on the main muscular groups—the legs, hips, back, chest, and shoulders—is the most effective approach to do this. Running and stair climbing are two cardio exercises that you should attempt to enhance your cardiovascular fitness. It's also critical to adequately hydrate, particularly on extended hikes. Dehydration will be avoided, and performance will be enhanced. It is advised to ingest 20–30 grammes of protein at each meal and snack throughout the day. Maintaining muscle mass requires protein since it is needed to both create and repair muscular tissue.