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My absolute favorite workout program is trail hiking.
I think a hike in the woods is nearly the perfect workout for men or women. You walk in the woods, clear your head, sweat, burn calories, listen to music and just take time to think.
I think it’s a great way to stay fit and keep your older body working.
It’s almost free and requires no membership to a gym. If you are considering a new workout program, you should put local hiking on your exercise agenda.
There is a huge county owned park near my house that has about 7 or 8 miles of mountain bike trails.
I use these trails for hiking. They are great because you have rocks, roots, elevation changes, twists and turns.
It totally beats going somewhere and walking on a track or around the neighborhood.
A good power hike on trails is more like taking a run but easier on the knees.
All you need is a good pair of trail shoes and I like to bring a cell phone with me just in case I should need it for an emergency.
Where I hike, I’ve gone several miles without seeing anyone else on the trails. Equipment needed is minimal and you can’t duplicate this type of workout in any gym or track.
Check out my hiking video below that I made at our local mountain bike trail.
Hiking, my favorite workout program
I use an app on my iPhone 5 called Map My Hike. It’s free and it uses GPS to upload a Google Map of your hike.
It shows you the track you took, calories burned, elevation changes and how long you hiked and some other goodies.
After you finish your hike, your info from your smartphone is automatically uploaded to the website for you to view.
One feature I really like is the ability to view your hike as a flyover video on Google maps. Map My Hike gives you a free embed to code to place on your website just like the video below.
Here is a screenshot of the information from this particular hike. This is directly from Map My Hike. It gives you the option to share your information on social media also.
I believe that smartphone technology can actually enhance your workout program. You can use these type of apps to determine if you are making progress or not.
Click images for larger view. All photos taken with iPhone5
Hiking in the woods is so much fun for me. It’s my favorite workout program, what’s yours?
Hi Steve – Thanks for this – very cool. I really admire the way you take the time to figure out all these neat gadgets, apps, and gear and share it with us. I wouldn’t have the patience or brains to do the same. I particularly like the way you added the audio clip at the beginning. What tool/trick do you use to do that? As always, your photos are awesome. Best, Ken
I tell you what Ken, I’ll do a blog post this week and explain how and you can do it on your site buddy. It’s very simple.
Thanks, Steve – that’ll be great and I’ll look forward to it.
Ken