Ruminations on Exercise – Introduction

Planning your exercise program

Forget about all the “one size fits all” training recommendations like the ones linked below. They are interesting, to be sure, but they are not customized for you and can even be dangerous. Thus, I recommend following these nine steps:

1. Spend some time on Gronze.com looking at the various Camino routes they describe so well. Look at the individual stages, one at a time. Pay special attention to things like the profile (just click on the plus sign (+) on the lower right of the map) to see how much climbing and descending is required. Look at the map to see how long the hike is between services.
2. Pick a route that both excites you AND that you feel you will be able to hike successfully after completing your exercise program.
3. Decide HOW you want to make your Camino Journey. The assumption here is on foot, but you may have other plans.
4. On the “HOW” topic, do you want to walk fast or, like me, slowly. How far do you want to walk in a short day? An average day? A really challenging day? Make sure that fits with the services along the route you’ve chosen.
5. On the “HOW” topic, also consider how much you expect to carry. The general rule is that one trades weight carried for money. For example, a fellow I met along the way, Bjorn, carried a backpack that weighed about 13 kilograms (28 pounds) and included enough camping gear for him to never pay for lodging. Another Camino friend, whose name is hidden somewhere in my memory, carried almost nothing because she relied on Camino con Correos to move her luggage between hotels each day.
6. Visit with a doctor and a physical therapist or trainer to establish what your current physical condition is, what it has to be for you to enjoy a successful Camino Journey on the route you’ve chose the way you plan to do it, and what you must do to “make it so” as Jack Aubrey might say.
7. Promise yourself that you will follow that plan, one day at a time. Include in that promise a note that not living up to your promise one day changes nothing for the next day and the day after that.
8. Live up to your promise. This is for you and by you. Nobody else is involved. There is no good or bad, just levels of success in keeping your promise to you. For me, part of being successful is comparing the effort I put forth and what I accomplished yesterday with what I promised myself that I would do and writing it down, which is why my Daily Success posts are titled as they are.

Who really should train?

(Almost) everyone really should do some training to prepare for a successful, joyous Camino Journey. That is true for the young and reasonably fit. It is critical for older folks.

The reason why almost everyone should train, even those who engage in a lot of physical activity, is simple: walking a significant distance every day is a highly specific form of exercise. Other exercises may develop muscles or cardiovascular health, but none other than distance walking conditions one’s body for the experience of hiking for four to eight hours per day and five or six days out of the week. Each day can be exhausting and, without the stamina developed through a good training program, the days can quickly become a daily battle with fatigue rather than a marvelous experience.

How much training is needed

Young folks who are in fair shape can reasonably be ready to begin hiking after a few months of progressive exercise. Older folks need more time. My completely arbitrary opinion on this is that if your doctor is not already pressing you to get more exercise and if you are:

• Twenty years old, just go ahead and skip the training effort. You won’t pay any attention to me anyway.
• Thirty years old, figure three months of progressive intensity to be reasonably ready.
• Forty years old, make that four months. Plan for the first month to be building a general foundation before beginning progressive hiking exercises.
• Fifty years old, make that six months. Plan for the first two months to be building a general foundation before beginning progressive hiking exercises.
• Sixty and above, plan on dedicating a year to preparation. The first six to eight months should be foundation with the last four to six progressively more intense.

What should YOUR training include?

The remainder of this post is under construction. Check back from time to time for updates.

Walking for endurance is the floor

What else do YOU need

What does MY training include?

Walking for endurance

Core strength

Leg strength

Upper body strength

Some other links

I’ve googled the words “Camino de Santiago” many times and read lots of advice. The following are typical of what I’ve found, not an exhaustive list.

Follow the Camino has a very nice guide for a training program to get ready for the Camino and it’s my favorite of those on this list. Sadly, it’s “one size fits all,” so the phrase continues “but not very well for a lot of people.” It is a bit short on details, such as what “hilly” means. My feeling is that it is a minimum for that “three months of intensive training” discussed above. The company organizes Camino adventures, so they have motivations both to make it easy and to have it be enough.

Very Well Fit does not seem to address the Camino at all. It has lots of links, at least some of which seem aimed at selling things.

Camino Adventures gives good advice and shows real honesty about the fact that the recommended training is only a minimum that will not really prepare someone for the Camino experience. That minimum is aimed at the reasonably fit 30-year old rather than a senior citizen as discussed above.

Camino Ways gives the same advice as One Step Then Another (below). It’s not designed for older folks.

One Step Then Another makes no effort to address older folks and the general advice seems awfully light.

amaWalkers Camino has an excellent piece of advice: If you’re not a regular walker, start a year before setting out. IMHO, that’s good advice for anyone over 50; important advice for anyone over 60; and really mandatory if you’re over 70

Tour Radar offers little of value and no detail; it seems to assume that all are young and fit, thus requiring little training. It does admit that it will be necessary to develop some leg muscles, but offers no advice on how to do it.

The Road to Santiago is very general and seems to be selling stuff

Wayfaring Views seems to assume that the reader is reasonably young and fit with some encouragement, but not real advice, for those who are not.