I remember the wonderful feeling of standing at the top of Acatenango and feeling invincible.
And then as I set out to hike down, every step I took I felt like my knees and ankles would give out.
Why were my joints so badly abused on my way down that mountain?
3 Ways Your Joints Hurt from Downhill Hiking (and What to Do About It)
Speed, step length, and fatigue.
- I was drawn downhill, exerting more and more pressure on my joints with each step.
- The drop was so steep that I actually had to squat more as I took the next step down, which meant that my muscles had to be more engaged each step down.
- Last but not least, the exhaustion of the continuous hikes made my body sloppier and I ended up falling down instead of stepping down firmly.
The good news is that I was able to defeat these 3 things through trial-and-error in my training.
Step-Down strength movements enabled me to isolate the step-down and exaggerate the process so I could gain a greater level of control on my way down the step. And I didn’t even need weights!
And I know that by pushing my conditioning workouts further, I’m helping my body to increase blood flow, energy production and oxygen transportation so that when I get to the top, I’m less fatigued, and my movements remain sharp and in control.
Related article: How to Strengthen Knees for Hiking
Lastly, mobility training helped to increase my range of motion so my body was more fluid during the transfer of force of impact.
Hopefully someone else with the same problems can find this useful!
I’m from Houston so I don’t have many mountains to climb but what I have personally learned is that the better I’m able to train, the more I enjoy my time there instead of just survive it.
But more importantly perhaps it provides the motivation and the goal I look forward to when I am home.
