How To Listen To Your Body When Hiking
It's good practice to listen to ourselves especially when we're hiking. If you take care of your body, it will take care of you and take you to new peaks and summits.
In today's busy world we often tune out our body's signals no matter what they are. If we ignore symptoms for too long we can get sick, end up in our doctor's offices or worse yet, the hospital.
Often we can ignore simple signs such as hunger and be cranky and tired as a result. Or our need for more sleep or rest but when we're hiking it becomes more important to start listening to ourselves again.
Staying in tune with what our body needs and wants is really important all the time and especially when you have a few pounds or more on your back and are hiking for a day or more possibly up steep terrain.
There are no medical clinics or doctors out in the backcountry. You need to be your own medical practitioner, have the resources and know what to do in minor medical situations.
I think the most important ways we can listen to our bodies is to be in tune with our surroundings as well.
Hiking in heat is going to require more water and liquids such as Gatorade with electrolytes to stay hydrated. You are burning more calories when you are hiking and need more water to replenish yourself.
Remember that if you feel thirsty than you've waited too long before drinking.
Because you are burning more calories than normal when hiking, you also need to replenish lost calories with nutritious and energy packed snacks such as nuts, dried fruit and some dark chocolate thrown in. Energy bars with protein are great sources of both quick and slow releasing energy too.
If you feel any pain or discomfort then stop, analyse and re-adjust before continuing. If you need to cancel or cut your hiking trip short due to pain then head back down and try again another day.
It may be as simple as back or neck pain that adjusting your pack can alleviate. Never forget that our gear shifts slightly when hiking with a full backpack and adjusting the load is part of hiking.
Pain in your feet should be dealt with right away. This comes from the mistake of not dealing with an oncoming blister soon enough. If you feel a blister coming on, stop, take care of it before continuing.
Remember your hat and sun protection. It doesn't really matter whether you are hiking in hot sunny weather or in snow or winter weather. The sun catches us all and protecting our skin from the sun is really important. Cover yourself in sunscreen to prevent sunburn and other harmful effects from the sun.
It's good practice to listen to ourselves especially when we're hiking. If you take care of your body, it will take care of you and take you to new peaks and summits.
Happy Hiking!
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