Ruminations on Exercise – Introduction

Four very quick points up front.

First, I use the words exercise and training here almost interchangeably. The only difference is that training refers to a planned, ongoing exercise program that has a physical conditioning objective.

Second, no exercise program will help if it is not sustainable. Exercise must become a part of everyday life and continue “forever” if it is to be part of a successful training program. That requires an easy start, small increments, and the formation of habits that are automatic parts the person’s life. My experience is that the big goals I used to articulate as New Year’s resolutions usually failed almost instantly because they were too big and applied too abruptly to become habits.

An example of something small: Just promise yourself (this is all about promises you make to yourself, nobody else is involved) that you will take the stairs whenever possible. How hard is it to climb a single flight of stairs? Ultimately, however, every one of those stair treads contributes a tiny (and it is tiny) bit to your conditioning. And you didn’t have to buy a stair climbing machine or join a gym to use one!

Third, every training program has to be for the specific person working to improve their physical condition and their goal. YOUR training program must be designed for YOU. It should also be designed for the Camino route you plan to travel and for how you plan to make that journey.

All the assumptions in this website are that you will hike the Camino, but that is not necessarily correct. People often ride a bike for their Camino journey. My Camino friends Ariane and Casio were making their pilgrimage on electric bikes. Some people ride a horse. A training program that features walking will not be the best training program for someone planning to travel by bike or on horseback.

Forth, at our age, training should begin with a visit with the sawbones as the foundation for designing the training program, NOT for permission to hike el Camino. My experience has been that a good physical therapist associated with a “sports medicine” doctor’s practice is a great place to start. The sports medicine community is likely to see supporting the athletic goal getting you ready for the Camino as a natural objective. Other specialties, such as orthopedic doctors, are focused on fixing the particular thing that needs fixing rather than your goal.

Why train?

There are two reasons to embark on an exercise program with the specific physical conditioning objective of preparing to hike el Camino de Santiago.

First, the Camino itself. People undertake a Camino Journey for many reasons: to participate in a religious experience; to find spiritual growth; to experience the exhilaration of a physical achievement; to become a part of the community of people who make the Camino special; to test their body; to see an interesting part of the world at 5 km/hr (3 mi/hr); and, I am sure, many other reasons.

People do not undertake a Camino Journey to experience pain, frustration, disappointment, exhaustion, and even fear on finding themselves alone in a strange and suddenly threatening forest as the light fades on their first day hiking.

The way to avoid an unhappy beginning to your Camino Journey is to be as ready for the physical challenge as possible before arriving in Europe. That means planning your exercise program to be a bit more than you believe you need for your body AND your Camino plan. A solo hike in hilly country is a lot different than being with a tour group that has planned each day’s hike, reserved hotels at conservative intervals along a relatively easy part of The Way, and has the contacts needed to call for help if you need it.

Second, there are a lot of side benefits to a good exercise program. I can attest to having at least five good side effects to my exercise since I started serious exercise aimed specifically at spending a month at a time hiking on el Camino.

• Energy / endurance – my energy is vastly improved and physically demanding days are no longer a problem
• Weight loss – I weigh between 10 and 12 kilograms (22 and 27 pounds) less than I did at age 73 in 2018; yes, a little care about my diet helped
• Posture – my posture has improved so much that people comment on it
• Appearance – the combination of weight loss and posture has led to many positive comments about how good I look
• Pain – the chronic pain that has been a part of my life for the last quarter century and more is mostly in remission; much of that is medical intervention, but stronger muscles holding bones where they belong helps maintain needed gaps in worn out knees and protect delicate nerves as they exit the spine

Bad advice

It is easy to find experts who write, as Tour Radar does, that “Though some part of Camino de Santiago are harder to walk than others, it is largely hikeable to most skill and physical fitness level. Climbing requirements, therefore, are minimal.” This is the kind of advice that expert hikers in their thirties and forties give because it applies well to people who, like them, are hikers.

It is terrible advice for people who are not hikers and horrible advice for a senior citizen contemplating his or her first Camino.

My experience, which is limited to about 640 km (400 miles) of el Camino del Norte, is that the uphills, while perhaps not “mountain climbing,” are sometimes very challenging and that the typical day not only requires hiking 20 kilometers (12 miles) or more, it also requires climbing and descending 300 or 400 meters (1,000 feet or so).

Pretending that those things are easy to do leads to peregrinos (pilgrims) who are not physically ready for that exertion on the first day of their Journey finding the experience to be a disappointment at best. While that is true regardless of age, it is especially true for those of us who are a bit older.

Some links that offer different advice and comments about it

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.