Re: [Philmont]: RE: 6 Months to Go

I am not convinced that you need to backpack every day to make it a
valuable conditioning exercise. As I wrote in an earlier post, we
backpack for an hour or two in a local park on a weekly basis and then
have shakedown hikes monthly. Having a backpack on while training is
the key but the extended shakedown trips stretch muscles that are not
taxed in the same manner with shorter, albeit more regular, workouts.
While I don't have a medical background or any scientific data to
back-up this concept, from my own experience it seems that the
shakedown hikes improve overall conditioning.

Dan Preston
Louisville, Kentucky
On Jan 13, 2006, at 11:09 AM, abthomson@comcast.net wrote:

> Daniel Preston writes...
>  
> I really don't understand the thinking that shakedown hikes cannot be
> for physical conditioning.  Of course shakedown hikes prepare the crew
> to work as a team, but there is nothing that prepares you physically
> for backpacking like backpacking.  Exercising and running stadium
> steps are fine but backpacking over steep terrain is the best physical
> conditioning you can do.  Doing this as crew provides both teamwork
> training and physical conditioning, not just one or the other.
>  
>  
> Comment...
>  
> If the only time your crew is hiking with a full backpack is on
> shakedown hikes, you have problem...
>  
> The shakedown will show if the crew is properly conditioning
> themselves, but if they aren't, it is not going to happen just on
> shakedown hikes.
>  
> -- Al Thomson, Troop 236,
> Schooley's Mountain, NJ
> Treks 1999, 2001, 2003
> Autumn Adventures 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006
>  

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Received on Fri Jan 13 17:14:08 2006