Effect of long-term long-distance hiking on health

Fieldwork is the only way to answer this question. Otherwise you risk biased conclusions based on romanticized images of what a healthy life is and various other persuasions. I will share what I have learned, and maybe others thru-hikers can do the same.

I would love to believe that thru-hiking promotes longevity and happiness, but a year and a half after my PCT thru-hike, there’s still a brief moment of tenderness every morning when I first get on my feet. At least two other veteran PCT thru-hikers related to me that they had this for a year or more after their thru-hike.

For a month after returning home, it was painful to run. My legs and particularly knees felt stiff and hurt upon impact. Then it went away.

I believe Ray Jardine when he writes that the body becomes weaker as a thru-hike progresses. Minerals run low. Long-term muscle fatigue sets in. I talked with someone on the PCT who had participated in a study of AT thru-hikers. The study, run by Alma College students, found that after 500 miles hikers had the cardiovascular indicators of elite athletes, but made essentially no further fitness gains.

As for the emotional effects, I think that for most modern Homo Sapiens the effect will be positive compared to their normal lifestyles. However, two people can leave the border on the same day and arrive in Canada on the same day, and yet one will have spent 95% of his hike among people, and the other just 5%.

Thru-hiking also lowers reproductive function:) You’ll find a negative correlation between the number of hiking miles under someone’s belt and the number of children they have. But is that correlation or causation?:)

I loved my thru-hike and will do it again.

Buckwheat’s PCT Pages

Richard,

I can just see it now: you standing outside REI, after just getting slapped, "I said long HIKES! Really, I just want to study your reproductive functions after a long hike!"

unless you have a medical condition … its like anything else

if you love it, just do it

otherwise youll be like me watching reruns of CSI on my couch eating cheezy poofs

if it gets you out and about .. jus do it !!!

> "calories in calories out" is a truly unfortunate myth. If it really WERE that simple, don't
> you think a whole lot more people would be a lot less obese?

No.
First of all, if you don't have too much of the 'calories in' bit it will be very hard to get fat.
Second, in addition to limiting the amount of food you eat, you need exercise. For many people that is just too hard.
Third, modern food marketing is aimed at getting your to eat more, more, more of product X (and Y, and Z), in total disregard for medical sense and consumer welfare. The Salt Institute and various sugar suppliers are especially at fault here.

The FACT is, obesity is a very recent 'epidemic', and is mainly confined to America and other very well off western nations. Guess what countries have an over-supply of foods high in fat, salt and sugar?

But limiting your own food intake and getting enough exercise seems just too hard for western man.

Cheers
PS: 'man' means the 'human race' here.

This has been on my mind for the last few days after going thru Jack Haskel's CDT photo journal and examining the changes in the folks he continually photographed over the couple thousand miles they walked. I have never hiked anything longer than the JMT, both times after age 60. While on the trail I felt fine but with a couple of nights of lousy sleep. The concern I had was on return experiencing the need for extra sleep, going to bed at about 8:00 and sleeping the night thru. This need for extra sleep continued for about 2.5 to 3 weeks after this last JMT in 2009. Except for this need for more sleep for a prolonged period, I felt fine. Normal sleep for me is 6.5 hours waking fully restored and ready for the day.

I wonder if this type of hiking can lower the body's resistance diseases or, in fact, trigger a latent propensity for a disease. I would like to hear from you long-distance hikers about any recovery issues you experienced. thanks, John

> The concern I had was on return experiencing the need for extra sleep, going to bed at
> about 8:00 and sleeping the night thru. This need for extra sleep continued for about
> 2.5 to 3 weeks after this last JMT in 2009.

But why should this be a 'concern'? It's just your body taking the opportunity to do some repair and restoration, after all. Nothing wrong with that.

> I wonder if this type of hiking can lower the body's resistance diseases

That depends on whether you stay within reasonable limits or not. It is well-known that Olympic athletes live on a bit of a knife-edge, and can easily break down. That is why they (or their coach) tries to bring their training to a peak a day or two before their main event. Then they relax.

For someone doing a long thru-hike at a reasonable speed, the situation is very different. By 'reasonable' I mean that you are (mostly) enjoying it. During such a thru-hike your body is operating at a high level of performance. Your metabolism is revved up, your cardio-vascular system is revved up, and so is your lymph system. In fact, provided that you are staying within your limits, it would be fair to say you should be at a high state of good health, and very resistant to most diseases.

So the moral is – go and do it again!

Cheers

Here is my own personal observations on the subject and from that you will see why I am so interested in the subject.

I have been more or less constantly hiking or cycling since 2007. Every year I have hiked between 5,000 and 7,000 km and have done some serious cycling and a bit of paddling as well between trails. The maximum down time between serious long outdoor activities has been 3 months twice, when I had gone home to Germany to visit friends. I hike at normal thruhiker pace at about 20 – 22 miles per day. When cycling I average about 100 day. I have been doing this for four years straight now and I start wondering what the effects on my body will be if I continue much longer. So far I could observe the following:

Nutrition: I have lost the hiker hunger. On previous long-distance hikes the hiker hunger kicks in after about 3 weeks on the trail and I could just pig out. I have lost these cravings almost completely. When on a long and demanding hike I still eat a lot, but AYCE buffets have lost much of their appeal. Also, I don't suffer from the yoyo effect any more, probably because I just don't have enough long down time to seriously gain weight.
Another problem for me that has not been mentioned here is the long-term effect of water treatment. I have been using Aquamira for 4 years straight now and wonder if this could have a carcinogen effect on the long run.

Physical effects: I have never had any serious orthopedic issues – no stress fractures, no knee problems, no shin splints, no tendonitis, no nothing. Maybe about 3 blisters in 4 years. But now my hip starts hurting a bit, not only when I am hiking, but also when I have down time, but it is not very painful or serious. I will have to look into this problem more closely.
Whenever I go back to Germany I have done standard testing of blood and urine for cholesterol, diabetis and the like. The results have always been perfect. Despite the fact that I eat about 300 gr of chocolate every day on the trail even my blood sugar is ok. Apparently the malnutrition on the trail (too much sugar, crappy processed food etc.) has not had any ill effect on me (yet). My test result are so good, that last time my doctor thanked me for coming in – she said she hardly ever sees patients as healthy as I am. What a compliment!

Psychological effects: This is actually a big issue. I do love what I am doing (elsewise I would not have been doing it for 4 years straight), but on the long run it is difficult to deal with loneliness. Sometimes I don't talk to people for a whole week – just because nobody is on the trail. On the other hand I seem to look younger the more I hike. When I ask people to guess my age now I am generally estimated about 7 to 10 years younger than I actually am. (I am 43 years now). When I was still pursuing a "normal" life, people would normally guess my age more or less correct. Therefore I guess that all the hiking must have some positive influence.

I find it very difficult to deal with doctors now because they just cannot comprehend the lifestyle and deal with me like with a "normal" patient. I tried to talk to my orthopedist about the "wear and tear" problem, but I did not get the impression that he really grasped the concept of long-distance hiking. This is one of the reasons why I was hoping for some input here.

Christine aka German Tourist

Well, obviously if you eat a lot of high-calorie food and don't exercise, you will get fat. But I also know a lot of people who watch what they eat and exercise almost religiously and are still overweight. I also know people who eat like crap (and lots of it) and at most walk from their home to the bar and are still thin going into old age. And then I know people who've lost a lot of weight while pigging out and just avoiding certain foods.

The human body isn't a bank account for calories (calories being a rather abstract model, anyways). The types of foods you eat matter; your body reacts differently to protein than it does to fat than it does to carbohydrate, not to mention the myriad other substances in any food item.

Oversupply of sugar should be first on that list, in my opinion. That sugar, of course, comes mostly from corn (and thus the grain industry), the politics of which are simply delightful. So I expect they'll keep marketing little cups of sugar like low-fat yogurt as healthy because, well, they're "low fat." Well, what stimulates fat storage like nothing else when you eat it? Sugar.

There is a lot going on with your body. Doctors and biochemists don't know everything. I certainly don't, being neither. But, I do know your body is one of the most efficient chemical processing plants that nature can produce through millions of years of evolution.

If you need calories for some reason, it will break down parts of itself to get them. This is weight loss. If you have just enough calories this is status quo, this doesn't ever happen. You body is always fluctuating between too many and too few. This is the NORMAL state for your body and nothing to worry about. Too many calories means they will get buffered in the body (liver, bodily fluids, and tissues.) Continued excessive calories will decrease processing levels, and increase fat production. This all happens at once, actually. So exercising can move things around without changing your weight.

Hiking, or walking on uneven terrain with a light to moderate load (at least for most of us,) is one of the best exercises you can do, generally.

Hi Christine

Opinions only!

Hiker hunger – yeah, we settle into a steady diet too. Seems normal to me.

> using Aquamira for 4 years straight now and wonder if this could have a carcinogen effect on the long run.
I would be a little bit concerned here. Continued ingestion of chemicals … That is one reason we switched to UV. Lighter than filters, and also handles viruses.

> But now my hip starts hurting a bit, not only when I am hiking, but also when I have down time,
Just a thought. Walking is mostly a straight line action. The problem here is apparently known, and the recommended solution seems to be stretching exercises for the OTHER muscles around the hips. My wife found this out on the net, as we both sometimes have the same problem. Seems to help.

Cheers

>> But now my hip starts hurting a bit, not only when I am hiking, but also when I have >down time,
>Just a thought. Walking is mostly a straight line action. The problem here is >apparently known, and the recommended solution seems to be stretching exercises for >the OTHER muscles around the hips. My wife found this out on the net, as we both >sometimes have the same problem. Seems to help.

Hi Roger, do you happen to have a few links to this info? Haven't taken any long treks but I do walk a lot outside of winter and I have this same problem once I get more than a few hundred miles behind me each year.

@Jim — >>Hi Roger, do you happen to have a few links to this info? Haven’t taken any long treks but I do walk a lot outside of winter and I have this same problem once I get more than a few hundred miles behind me each year.

I’m not Roger, but Wilderness Sports Conditioning has a full range of training tips for hiking, including how to get your hip muscles engaged…

"calories in calories out" is a truly unfortunate myth.

I'm sorry, but I disagree. A calorie IS a calorie.
What your body does with it is another matter. Is it glucose, amino acid or lipid? What's the current blood glucose? What are the glycogen stores like? Do you need it to burn or can it be stored?
Also, everyone has a different metabolic rate. And why do people eat in the fisrt place? Are they genuinely hungry, or are they just not full, or a bit bored? I think in many people the feedback loop between hunger and appetite is broken.

Christine,
Drill down for doctors specializing in sports medicine. Start with coaches and trainers of professional teams. Look for physical therapists taking care of players. There are folks out there who have been observing for a long time, and if you can find them, you will also find some answers.

[By the way…do you have a purple zipper slider on your sleeping bag?]

Greg,

I do have a purple zipper on my WM Ultralite bag – and I often tell the story of how I got it thanks to an incredibly nice guy on BPL… ;-) Thanks again for your help there.

My GP gave me the same advice on sports doctors – the only trouble is finding them, as doctors are not allowed to advertise in Germany. So finding a doctor with a certain specialisation can be a bit of a problem, but I will pursue it.

Also thanks for the advice on stretching the OTHER muscle groups. I will look into that more deeply.

Christine aka German Tourist

We are each a statistic of One, and didn’t have much control over who our grandparents are, but, the following video has some nuggets when it comes to the health, happiness, and physical integrity of the
Tarahumara,who also spend a lot of time covering a lot of ground.

YMMV.

Hi everyone,

Last year I walked from Santa Monica, CA to Coney Island (Brooklyn), NY. I started the 3,500-mile walk on February 14 and finished on September 12 (211 days), carrying an average of about 55 lbs between my backpack and camera gear.

For a couple weeks after finishing the walk, my body held together pretty well. Soon, though, I began feeling numbness in my hips/buttocks area, which gradually worked its way down my legs to my feet. Within another couple weeks or so, the numbness mostly went away, and I felt like it was just part of the healing process. Ever since then, though, my legs have not worked very well, and I'm not sure it's getting better.

For the past four months or so, it's been hard for me to pick up my feet more than a few inches. It's hard to walk up or down stairs. My balance is all messed up. I still don't have much feeling in my legs or feet (but I wouldn't call it numbness). About the only thing I can do with my legs is walk slowly and clumsily. This is really frustrating, and that's just the short list of problems I've been dealing with.

When you do what I've done, the way I did it, there's basically no one to turn to for answers when your body starts falling apart, and it's a really lonely place to be. So I'm hoping to find some answers here, and I also hope sharing my experience will help others avoid the misery I've been going through. I have plenty more to say, but I need to get to sleep.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Ryan

guys like skurka, trauma and the like should chime in. Colin Agnus and his wife Julie too crazy long distance trips and the keep going on them year after year.

Just for a start: Google 'piriformis' or 'sciatica'

From Wikipedia, under 'piriformis'.
Caution: I have NO idea whether this is relevant to YOUR problems (anyone).

Main article: Piriformis syndrome

This syndrome occurs when the piriformis irritates the sciatic nerve, which comes into the gluteal region beneath the muscle, causing pain in the buttocks and referred pain along the sciatic nerve.[1] This referred pain is known as sciatica. Fifteen percent of the population has their sciatic nerve coursing through the piriformis muscle. This subgroup of the population is predisposed to developing sciatica. Sciatica can be described by pain, tingling, or numbness deep in the buttocks and along the sciatic nerve. Sitting down, stretching, climbing stairs, and performing squats usually increases pain. Diagnosing the syndrome is usually based on symptoms and on the physical exam. More testing, including MRIs, X-rays, and nerve conduction tests can be administered to exclude other possible diseases.[1] If diagnosed with piriformis syndrome, the first treatment involves progressive stretching exercises and physical treatment. Corticosteroids can be injected into the piriformis muscle if pain continues. A more invasive, but sometimes necessary treatment involves surgery exploration as a last resort.[1]
(My italics)

Cheers

That definitely sounds more like a nerve issue than anything else. Perhaps an aftereffect of spinal compression that your heavy-ish backpack caused on the trail?

If it is a nerve issue (sciatia sounds about right) then it's likely that you could see a full (or nearly so) recovery. There's nothing wrong with your legs, just the interface between your legs and your brain (assuming a nerve disorder, of course).

Erik and Roger: Having spent the last couple hours looking into the things Roger mentioned, I just saw Erik's post. I think both of you are leading me in the right direction, as Piriformis Syndrome seems to be what I've been dealing with. I probably would have figured it out on my own sooner or later, through exhaustive googling, but this message board was only the second page I read last night when I began searching for an answer. So thank you for directing me down what appears to be the correct path.

Even though I've carried a backpack 7,000 miles over the last four years, I don't consider myself a hiker or backpacker. I'm more a tramp/traveler/hobo who decided to walk across the United States, so I've never spent much time in environments where I could learn about this kind of stuff.

I feel really relieved now, thanks to your help. Hopefully I'll be feeling better and more mobile soon. I'll try to remember to post some updates here if/when I start feeling more mobile.

Thank you!

A proper diagnosis from an experienced knowledgeable sports medicine professional (very hard to find IMHO) would be a great place to start. But…

+1 piriformis impacting the sciatic nerve

A GOOD physical therapist will know exactly what to do and how to help you do it. It is Not easy to stretch the piriformis, so specific guidance from someone who knows is critical.

Be sure to work on both sides, even if one is not (yet) symptomatic.

Hey all,

Fun thread, loving the trail offshoots the topic is bringing up. Sounds like the TIFLTHOTH (of course, referencing "The Institute For Long-Term Health Of Thru-Hikers") has it's work cut out for them.

Roger, quick question from a few posts back. Regarding your statement:

"By 'reasonable' I mean that you are (mostly) enjoying it."

What did you mean by this?

Glorious sunny day here in the Bay Area of Cali, after a week of rain. Hope this holds out until the weekend for the BPL event!

Dug
http://thf2.wordpress.com

> "By 'reasonable' I mean that you are (mostly) enjoying it."
> What did you mean by this?

Um …. gee …. how to answer this one? :-)

Like anyone else, I have sweated up a steep pass and muttered under my breath … but I enjoyed the view from the top and was happy once there.
And I have trudged along in freezing cold rain and mumbled a bit then too, but a hot dinner in my tent and a warm sleeping bag sorted that out. And the next day was fine and sunny.

Cheers

Roger said:

"In fact, provided that you are staying within your limits, it would be fair to say you should be at a high state of good health, and very resistant to most diseases.
So the moral is – go and do it again!"

FWIW, I've not come down with anything like a cold, sniffles or whatever while long distance hiking, nor have I seen anything like that among thru-hikers. Not very convincing evidence, but this makes a lot of sense to me. As does the "go and do it again" advice, iterate until too old or infirm to continue (and then what … ?).

Extended Aqua Mira use: I'm certainly no expert here, but my recollection is that chlorine dioxide is what's used in city water systems — no? Perhaps it's a matter of concentration or something. Would be interesting to get some truly knowledgeable, expert feedback on this, as I've been using A.M. on my trips and plan to do so again starting in June. Steripen is nice, but I've heard multiple stories of them not being sufficiently reliable — even if I can get batteries whenever I need them, chemicals also are unlikely to get damaged (not impossible to puncture the little bottles, I suppose, but I've not heard of this happening to anyone).