Kris­ten Bor, Hik­ing En­thu­si­ast

In to­day’s world, nav­i­gat­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, stress and men­tal ill­ness like de­pres­sion and anx­i­ety are now part of every­day life for all. But spend­ing time in na­ture can help bring us back to the present and evoke a sense of calm and peace to our oth­er­wise chal­lenged, over­ly con­sumed lives.

There’s a lot of re­search sup­port­ing the no­tion that con­nect­ing with na­ture im­proves men­tal health and well­be­ing. Whether we are tak­ing in the spec­tac­u­lar glow of a sun­set or gaz­ing out at a field of wild­flow­ers, these brief ex­pe­ri­ences of feel­ing “wowed” by na­ture can make us feel hap­py and less stressed.

As you chart your 2022 way for­ward, we hope you in­clude Hik­ing as part of your Health jour­ney. If you are not sure why, know­ing some of the ben­e­fits may just be the con­vinc­ing fac­tor you need. While some of the phys­i­cal ben­e­fits may be ob­vi­ous – like weight loss – hik­ing has some sur­pris­ing perks.

Hik­ing al­lows us to un­plug from tech­nol­o­gy

We’ve be­come more re­liant on tech­nol­o­gy than ever, and I don’t know about you, but in re­cent months my screen time has been at an all time high. While tech­nol­o­gy makes our lives a lot eas­i­er, it al­so comes with un­in­tend­ed con­se­quences.

Liv­ing life through our phones and so­cial me­dia can re­sult in anx­i­ety and un­healthy habits, not to men­tion be­ing a huge time suck. So­cial me­dia apps are de­signed to be ad­dic­tive, so it’s im­por­tant to keep this in bal­ance and un­plug once in a while. What bet­ter way than hit­ting the trail?

Turn­ing off your phone and go­ing for a hike is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to live in the present mo­ment and dis­con­nect from the pres­sures that we of­ten feel when we are scrolling.

Hik­ing is good for the heart

Hik­ing is great for car­dio­vas­cu­lar health. Even light hik­ing can raise the heart rate to a mod­er­ate lev­el which helps im­prove aer­o­bic fit­ness and en­durance. Over time, your body ad­justs to new fit­ness lev­els and you can hike longer, faster, and hard­er with­out feel­ing as fa­tigued or out of breath.

Hik­ing can al­so im­prove mark­ers as­so­ci­at­ed with car­dio­vas­cu­lar health like blood pres­sure, blood sug­ar lev­els, and cho­les­terol. Stud­ies have shown that go­ing on reg­u­lar mod­er­ate hikes can sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duce hy­per­ten­sion, im­prove glu­cose tol­er­ance, and de­crease ‘bad’ cho­les­terol lev­els over time.

So if car­dio­vas­cu­lar health is a con­cern for you, hik­ing can be a great way to im­prove your heart health.

Hik­ing can in­crease bone den­si­ty

Bone den­si­ty refers to the amount of bone min­er­al in your bones. High bone den­si­ty is im­por­tant for pre­vent­ing bro­ken bones and re­duc­ing risk for os­teo­poro­sis. High im­pact and weight-bear­ing ac­tiv­i­ties like hik­ing help to im­prove bone den­si­ty by strength­en­ing the bone tis­sue.

But in or­der for these ac­tiv­i­ties to be ef­fec­tive in in­creas­ing bone den­si­ty, they need to be done at a mod­er­ate to high-lev­el. For ex­am­ple, the phys­i­cal im­pact of hik­ing up a steep trail is more ben­e­fi­cial to build­ing bone den­si­ty than hik­ing along a flat trail.

Hik­ing can re­lieve in­som­nia and im­prove sleep

Re­search has shown that reg­u­lar ex­er­cise can help re­lieve in­som­nia and im­prove sleep pat­terns. Sci­en­tists sug­gest that be­ing out­side and get­ting nat­ur­al light can af­fect sleep pat­terns. In his book Sleep Smarter, Shawn Steven­son ex­plains that ex­po­sure to sun­light – es­pe­cial­ly in the morn­ing – is cru­cial to pro­duc­ing mela­tonin (the sleep hor­mone) at night. So if you need an­oth­er rea­son to start hik­ing, get­ting a good night’s sleep is a per­fect ex­cuse.

Hik­ing im­proves bal­ance

Cross­ing streams and boul­der fields can give any­one anx­i­ety. How­ev­er, every time I chal­lenge my­self on that kind of ter­rain, I no­tice my bal­ance im­prov­ing, and af­ter a few con­sis­tent hikes, I’m much bet­ter at trust­ing my bal­ance. But it isn’t just prac­tice that makes per­fect here. There is ac­tu­al­ly sci­ence be­hind this.

As you walk along a trail, your leg and core mus­cles are con­stant­ly en­gag­ing and con­tract­ing to pro­vide sta­bil­i­ty and bal­ance over un­even ter­rain. As these core sta­bil­is­ing mus­cles strength­en over time, bal­ance im­proves.

But it’s not just sta­bil­is­ing mus­cles that im­prove bal­ance. Hik­ing al­so helps in­crease pro­pri­o­cep­tion, which is the mind’s aware­ness of the po­si­tion and move­ment of the body in re­la­tion to its sur­round­ings. As you hike, the brain is pro­cess­ing every rock and root and gaug­ing what it will take to step over ob­sta­cles. With prac­tice, the brain be­comes more adept at judg­ing these ob­sta­cles, and as a re­sult, bal­ance im­proves.

As we get old­er, it’s re­al­ly im­por­tant to keep work­ing on bal­ance in or­der to pre­vent falls. Hik­ing is a fun way to im­prove bal­ance while spend­ing time out­doors.

Hik­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go

There are many lo­cal hik­ing groups and en­thu­si­asts, all ad­her­ing to the safe­ty pro­to­cols of the pan­dem­ic. One such hik­ing en­thu­si­ast, pho­tog­ra­ph­er and painter ex­tra­or­di­naire Pe­ter Shep­pard shares, “Love hik­ing be­cause it is re­ju­ve­nat­ing for the mind, body and soul. Breath­ing in moun­tain air soothes the lungs, the rivers and falls soothes the body. Be­ing in na­ture soothes the soul.”