The Personal Trainer’s perspective

With any fitness program we need to look at the fitness components required, is it speed, agility, power, endurance (muscular/aerobic) or strength.

Now as John’s preparing for a 35 day hike he’ll need to improve on his aerobic endurance, and there’s no better way for him to prepare than actually getting out there and hiking, the only problem being is that there are plenty of other factors to consider. Factors that need to be taken into consideration are work, wife, social life and 2 and a half children, and this can take up a bit of time.

My role as his strength and fitness coach is to continue to build on his overall body strength, core strength and muscular endurance, ensure his progressing whilst maintaining perfect posture and technique, and whilst outside of our time together ensure he works on improving his aerobic endurance, as he doesn’t require me to go hiking with him.

Within the 3 fitness components that John and I will be working on, I need to develop a program which looks at his training history and skill level, any relevant injuries that may impede specific exercises and of course, his goals.

John will be spending his days hiking on uneven surfaces and climbing up and down difficult terrain, meaning part of his program in the gym will involve performing strength exercises that will be unbalanced and also on an unstable surface, this is to improve his core stability and also his proprioception. Other exercises I need to focus on need to be functional (replicating movements that will be performed 100 times a day) and balanced, i.e. not ignoring muscle groups.

With any program written, the key is to keep it varied and challenging so John doesn’t get stale or bored with what his doing, and as he’s 12 months out from the hike beginning I won’t be looking at getting 100% specific with his program until 3-6 months remaining, having said that it will only be tweaked here and there as November 2012 draws closer.

What I do expect from John over the next 12 months (whilst remaining married and in work) is to be hiking every 4-8 weeks for varying lengths of time, to experience and see how he copes with different terrain, different weather conditions, to get a greater understanding of what foods he can consume as some food may not necessarily agree with him, he needs to know how much food he will need to take before reaching the next food drop, how much fluid he requires both in hotter and cooler weather, if his equipment will do the job, if he’s lacking certain equipment, or if he’s carrying too much. This all comes down to preparation and planning, and having trained John for nearly a year now, I think a lot of his enjoyment will come from preparing his body for the hike and planning the 30 odd days that it will take him.

The hike will throw up some unexpected events and if we can reduce as many unknowns as possible and prepare the best he can, then it will make for a more enjoyable and successful journey.

Marcus Bourne

M-Power Personal Fitness