The World's Best Hiking Tips from an Army Ranger

Recently on a Warrior Poet trip to Kenya, Evan and I (John Lovell) took a long hike with our group up the inactive volcano Mount Longonot. This 13-mile trek up to 9,000 feet reminded me of some easily-forgotten hiking basics that I learned as a soldier and Army Ranger. 

In addition to making sure you carry the basics like plenty of hydration (PRO TIP: sip, don't chug, your water as you hike), food, and other essential gear, there are some considerations and mechanics that a lot of people don't think about when they go out for a long stroll in the mountains. These can make you a faster, more efficient hiker and also save your muscles and joints for the long haul.

Hiking Tip #1: Stretching Before Hiking is Important, but Warm Up First

Before jumping into your stretching routine, it's a good idea to warm up your joints and muscles with 10-15 minutes of walking. This starts to get your limbs and connective tissues loosened up a bit and a bit warmer before jumping into full stretch mode. So I like to go ahead and get a mile or two in before a good stretch. 

Stretch 1: Quads Find your balance or use a tree. While standing, bring your foot behind you, grab and pull it with the opposite hand and hold (don't bounce) for several long breaths. Using the opposite hand is easier and aligns everything properly to help save your knees and joints as you stretch. You'll do this on both sides. This stretch also loosens up hip flexors, shins and all the way down to your toes. 

Stretch 2: Hamstrings Now, simply (gently and slowly) bend forward toward your toes. You don't have to actually touch your toes for this to work, but if you can that's great. Hold this stretch for several long breaths. 

Stretch 3: Knees This one may look a little silly, but it's important. Put your feet and knees together and put your hands on your knees. Now bend your knees slightly and simply draw a circle with your knees. Clockwise and counter clockwise. This loosens the connective tissue in your knees. 

Stretch 4: Ankles Another funny one. Plant one toe in the dirt and gently rotate your foot in a circle. Clockwise and counter clockwise. Then do the other foot. This helps loosen your ankles. 

Stretch 5: Calves Now lengthen one your legs behind you and put that rear heel all the way to the ground. Hold for several breaths and do the other leg. This will elongate and stretch your calve muscles.

Hiking Tip #2: Take Care of Your Feet

Socks Socks should be comfortable and NOT cotton. Good, stretchy wool blends or synthetic blends (such as smartwool or thorlo) that breathe, and wick moisture are essential. 

Shoes Shoes should be broken in and comfortable. Typically, heavy, deep-lugged hiking boots aren't totally necessary unless that's what you're used to. But whatever you wear, make sure your feet are used to them and that they have several miles on them. New boots on a long hike can make you absolutely miserable. 

Reduce Feet Heat If you start feeling any friction and your feet are really heating up, loosen your laces just a little bit. Make sure they don't heat up too much. Heat as your enemy. Because if your feet get hot, you start getting blisters. That starts some really, really bad stuff. 

Mitigate Pack Strain If you're new to thinking about and breaking down the mechanics of traveling by foot across terrain, then maybe you thought that pack weight is intended for shoulders. WRONG. Hiking backpacks have waist straps (I call them kidney straps) and sternum straps so that the pack rides on your hips and stays nice and snug against your back so your arms can swing freely and you can forget that your pack is there. So put on your backpack with shoulder straps still loose. Tighten the waist strap first, riding on top of your hip bones. Then tighten your shoulder straps. And lastly the sternum strap. Just don't tighten this one so much that it constricts the movement of your chest for breathing. 

If you don't have a pack with these weight distribution straps, you should seriously consider investing in one. It'll save you a lot of pain and trouble down the trail. Don't Let Gear Swing from Your Pack Everything needs to be inside or tightly strapped to your pack. A water bottle dangling and swinging will become an annoyance, will mess up your balance, and ultimately will wear you out faster.

Hiking Tip #3: 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Walking Technique

And now to get into some actual walking/hiking techniques. 

1. Take A Lot of Baby Steps. If you've seen the movie "What About Bob," you probably know what I'm talking about here. Baby steps. This is especially important when hiking up hill. You almost want to shuffle without dragging your feet. The whole bottom of your foot should make contact with the ground in short, even strides. If you can take 10 steps instead of 5 to get around or over something, take 10 steps. 

The idea here is to use your biggest muscle groups for the hardest work, and your legs biggest muscle is your thigh, or quad, muscle. By taking baby steps, you're bending your knees less and making your quads do most of the work.

2. Engage Your Upper Body on Steep Terrain. Sometimes the terrain is just so straight up you can't get away with baby stepping. If that's the case, there's a little bit of a cheat you can do. Take two hands, place them on your bent knee and push down, thus aiding that leg with the strength of your upper body. This little trick relieves a lot of strain on the legs. You can also pull yourself up. Other times you can use something to help you pull up a little bit, such as a tree or strong roots. 

3. Don't Forget to Look Up. Let's say you're getting gassed and it becomes hard to breathe. First, loosen your clothing, make sure your pack isn't constricting your chest, etc. But also, you need to remember to look up, especially when walking up hill. 

When you're tired, it's easy to slump and lose good form, but this actually will make you more tired. If you maintain good posture and keep your head up and your eyes forward, you breathe better, your morale stays boosted and you're not getting ambushed by someone you can't see. 

This is a particularly good shoutout to military, because that's a breach in military security to walk to closely and to keep your head down. If you're looking up, you're able to scan. So particularly if you're in a military context, but it also could just be general safety for hikers that you're not just walking up on a mama bear with her cubs or something. 

So even if I need to look down, I still want to keep my head up as much as possible.

4. Don't Forget to Breathe It's important to make sure you're pacing yourself, and one way I do this is by breathing in rhythm. I take one big inhale when I take a step and a second big inhale. So I have a little bit of a rhythm. I do this also when I'm jogging and I start getting out of breath. 

Every third step is a big exhale and every first and second step is a big inhale. And I know that sounds weird as well, but it works, and it keeps your muscles oxygenated. 

5. Walk Downhill with Style. This is where baby steps will save you fatigue and save your joints as well. Taking big steps downhill can really shock your muscles and will absolutely smoke you. Plus, you have a greater risk of rolling an ankle or blowing out a knee. So make sure you're doing baby steps down the mountain as well. 

And all the way down, you're looking for little rest spots along the way—grassy nolls, little flat spots or ledges—that can baby step toward and then very briefly rest before moving again. This helps you to maintain baby steps and helps you to pace yourself on the most dangerous part of any mountain hike—the downhill. 

As always, no advice is helpful until it's put into practice, so don't forget to Train Hard. Train Smart. Baby Steps.