Companion forum thread to: Key drivers of activity-related fatigue in the backcountry
Fatigue in the backcountry is not just a subjective sensation of tiredness. It is a cumulative physiological burden that can impair movement quality, physical performance, decision-making, and safety. This article introduces an exposure-dose framework for understanding fatigue accumulation and examines three primary categories: uphill concentric muscular fatigue, downhill eccentric and joint fatigue, and metabolic fatigue. It also considers the interactions among these fatigue types and explains why their recovery and decay occur over different physiological timescales. Two routes with different grade geometries are compared using the TRIPS software platform.
