Getting out and enjoying the outdoors at a local hill or mountain is a good way to improve your cardiovascular endurance and boost your fat metabolism. Hiking up a hill is a great form of exercise because it is in the category of what we would call “inclined walking.” Inclined walking puts positive stress on the muscles of the lower body that is very similar to that of prolonged jogging or running routines. By putting stress on the lower body during inclined walking, heart rate responses will increase and your Aerobic Energy System will kick in. This means that by utilizing the Aerobic Energy System, you will be going into a intra exercise fat burning mode.
The benefit of inclined walking is that it will put less stress on the knee and Ankle joints due to the angle of force that is being put upon the feet and knees when hiking uphill. Don’t get me wrong, running is a very beneficial form of exercise. However, for the population that suffers from knee pain issues such as arthritis, chondromalacia or some sort of surgical repair, prolonged running activities like jogging or interval running training on a treadmill can be detrimental to knee joints. Therefore, by walking up a hill for a prolonged period at a slower pace can still give you similar heart rate responses than that of a prolonged jogging activity.
So, go get out your favorite hill and hike around and enjoy the views! You will not only be doing a different form of activity in which you can experience beautiful landscapes, but you will also be utilizing your aerobic Energy System for fat metabolism and get a great lower body workout as well.
