“I couldn’t go back to the trail without my stick! The constant ups and downs with 30 pounds on my back were very hard on my knees, and without a stick they would be unbearable. My hiking stick had become an extension of my hand — I was lost without it.”

That’s 33-year-old Jennifer Pharr Davis of Asheville, who has hiked more than 13,000 miles on six continents, including a 2011 thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail that set the record for hiking the 2,175-mile trail faster than anyone at that point: 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes (that’s about 47 miles a day).

Her painful discovery, recounted in her book, “Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trail” (about her first AT thru-hike) came as she discovered that the truck she’d hitched into town on had departed with her beloved hiking stick — her crutch, to a degree — on board.

We came across the passage as Jennifer Pharr Davis prepares to hike the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in celebration of the 1,175-mile statewide trail’s 40th anniversary. We share the anecdote in our ongoing effort to get more of you to embrace trekking poles.

Why use trekking poles? We’ll defer to an expert, Dr. Edward R. Laskowski with the Mayo Clinic.

“Walking poles work your arms, shoulders, chest and upper back muscles through a functional range of motion as you walk — which can help you turn your daily walk into a full-body workout,” according to Dr. Laskowski. “The arm movement associated with walking poles adds intensity to your aerobic workout, which helps you burn more calories.”

Further, he adds:

• Walking poles improve balance and stability. This is especially helpful on the rocky, rooty trails of the Southeast, a region where stream crossings are common and balance and stability is especially critical.
• Walking poles help you maintain proper posture, especially in the upper back, and may help to strengthen upper back muscles.
• Walking poles take some of the load off your lower back, hips and knees, which may be helpful if you have arthritis or back problems.

Hiking poles aren’t expensive. You can spend around $20 on a pair just to see if you like them. Lighter poles that are easier to adjust to your height will run $70 and up.

For a reasonable price, trekking poles will make your hikes happier today and simply possible on down the line.

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Poles apart?

Not sure how to tell trekking poles apart, to determine which ones may be right for you? Check out these recommendations from two of our favorite sources:

SectionHiker.com: Top 10 Backpacker Recommended Trekking Poles

Outdoor Gear Lab: The Best Trekking Poles

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Jennifer Pharr Davis

Jennifer Pharr Davis, who lives in Asheville, will head out on the MST in mid-August, spending three months on the trail and making appearances along the way. Learn more about Jennifer’s hike as part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail’s 40th anniversary celebration here.

And learn more about Jennifer in this profile we wrote for Great Outdoor Provision Co.

The post Trekking poles: Jennifer Pharr Davis uses them (so should you!) appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

My favorite correspondent reported in from Colorado that she’d been hiking an area known as the hogback, a geologic formation that constitutes a precursor to the foothills of the Front Range. Having once lived near the hogback, she knew that in itself would interest me. Then she sweetened the pot.
“A lot of the hikers were using hiking poles,” she said. And no, she confirmed, they weren’t all older hikers. “It was a mix.”
It struck us both ironic that in the fitest state in the nation hikers are quick to use the aid, while here in one of the least fit states we continue to wobble along poleless. One thing those Coloradans may know that we don’t: using poles makes for a better workout.
“Walking poles work your arms, shoulders, chest and upper back muscles through a functional range of motion as you walk — which can help you turn your daily walk into a full-body workout,” according to Dr. Edward R. Laskowski with the Mayo Clinic. “The arm movement associated with walking poles adds intensity to your aerobic workout, which helps you burn more calories.”
I lead a couple of hiking groups, including GetHiking! Triangle. Courtesy of Great Outdoor Provision Co., I keep six loaner hiking poles in my car trunk. Before every hike I announce their availability. On a recent outing with 43 hikers, four took me up on the offer, with two making comments to the effect of, “Guess this makes me old now.”
No, using doesn’t make you old. In fact, it keeps you from getting old, at least parts of you. Other advantages to poles, according to Dr. Laskowski:

• Walking poles improve balance and stability.
• Walking poles help you maintain proper posture, especially in the upper back, and may help to strengthen upper back muscles.
• Walking poles take some of the load off your lower back, hips and knees, which may be helpful if you have arthritis or back problems.

Balance and stability: This is an especially big plus on our trails, most of which are peppered with rocks and tree roots, and where the occasional stream crossing, over slippery and unstable rocks, is required.
Maintain proper posture: Ever get to the end of a six-mile hike and realize you look (and feel) like Quasimodo? Poles help keep you upright and minimize unhealthy strain.
Take a load off: Stop me if you’ve heard this story before — because I know I’ve told it a couple hundred times — but when I was reporting “Backpacking North Carolina” a few years ago, I’d return from a week in the field with my knees puffed up like beach balls. Three days would pass before the swelling subsided and I didn’t walk like Walter Brennan. I relented, bought a pair of trekking poles and haven’t had trouble since.
There are other practical uses for hiking poles — 25 are enumerated at TheNatureofHiking.com — making the resistance to them even more baffling.
Hiking poles aren’t expensive — the Black Diamond loaners in my trunk range from $79.99 to $149.99 — and they’re convenient, breaking down for easy storage.
If you’re tired of your knees, your back, your hips being tired, come on a hike with us and I’ll loan you some poles. Two minutes of instruction and you’ll be on your way to healthier, happier hiking.
Just like they do in Colorado.

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Check out our GetHiking! Triangle hiking group here. Find a hike and come borrow some poles.

The post Why don’t you hike with poles? appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

The following story, which I wrote for the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh, originally appeared in those papers on January 10. It appears here in expanded form, with links.

When Sidney Eagles Jr. went in for his annual physical a dozen years back, his physician reminded him that he was overweight, that his blood pressure was high, and that his cholesterol was up there as well. The reminders had become a perennial checkup ritual for Eagles, who at the time was 60 and Chief Judge of the N.C. Court of Appeals.

The annual ritual changed, though, when Eagles mentioned that he’d been short of breath recently. His doctor became alarmed, which in turn alarmed Eagles. A few days later he went to the hospital for some routine cardio tests and wound up having an operation to remove an aortic blockage. Eagles had never been big on exercise up to that point, but the event got his attention.

“I don’t have the willpower to [exercise] unless I’ve got some skin in the game,” says Eagles. With his skin literally in the game now, Eagles became devout, hitting the Rex Wellness Center three to four times a week. He still doesn’t like to exercise, but he can’t ignore the difference exercise has made in his life.

“I am — and this really sounds like braggadocio, but facts are facts — I think my balance is better and I know I’m stronger,” says Eagles, who is now 72 and in part-time practice with the Raleigh law firm Smith Moore Leatherwood. “I feel good almost all the time.”

In a state where 30 percent of all adults are considered obese and thus are at significantly higher risk of suffering a variety of maladies — from diabetes to a variety of cardiovascular-related problems — Eagles’ example is a model for the vast number of North Carolinians who have neither the inclination to exercise nor, in their minds at least, the time. Like Eagles, they don’t want to exercise, but they know they need to.

No time?

Think you don’t have the time to exercise? Can you find a half hour every day? That’s all you need to make a difference in your health, according to the National Institutes of Health. “Most adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days per week. Examples include walking briskly, mowing the lawn, dancing, swimming for recreation or bicycling.”

Those 30 minutes can come in bits and pieces scattered throughout your day.

“Start small,” suggests Kelly Roberts, wellness specialist with Carolinas Medical Center’s LiveWELL Carolinas program in Charlotte. “Take the stairs vs. the elevator — that’s five calories right there. “Get up from your desk as many times during the day as your job allows. Keep [walking] shoes under your desk: Even 10 minutes walking at lunch is better than nothing.”

Caveat: If you do the same thing at the same intensity level during those 30 minutes, you’ll only notice the health benefits for so long. “You either need to increase the intensity during those 30 minutes or extend the length of your workout,” says Logan Johnson, an instructor with the Rex Wellness Center in Raleigh.

“Otherwise,” he adds, “your body adapts and those same challenges are not enough.”

Four areas of focus

It’s also not enough to focus just on one area. Frequently, when people think of exercising to improve their health, they think of aerobic exercises, such as walking, bicycling or doing the treadmill. In fact, there are four areas you should concentrate on to improve your health:

• Strength training. Wellness experts suggest you consult one of their own before embarking on a strength training program. “You want to make sure you’re targeting the proper muscle groups, and that your form is good so you avoid injury,” says Johnson. A personal trainer can prescribe an appropriate workout program based on your time, needs and resources. (The cost of a personal training session varies. At Rex, non-wellness center members pay $45 for a half hour session, $65 for an hour session. The per session cost goes down if purchase multiple sessions.) Resistance training, using simple rubber bands available for $20 or less, is a popular home strength training option. Or, you can fashion an effective strength training program using your body weight for resistance. “The value of doing things with your own body weight” — wall sits, planks, curling a can of tomatoes — “can’t be underestimated,” says Roberts. “There are things you can do using three- and five-pound weights in the privacy of your own home while watching TV.” Exercises: For a rundown of resistance band exercises, visit About.com here.
• Flexibility. Stretching to improve your flexibility may be the easiest exercise to incorporate into your daily routine. For instance, the Mayo Clinic suggests seven quick stretches — shoulder stretch, upper arm stretch, chest stretch, chin tuck, head turn, side neck stretch, lower back stretch and standing thigh stretch — you can do at your desk. (See an instructional slide show here.)
• Balance. Of new clients, Rex’s Johnson says, “Where I find the greatest improvement is in their balance.” Strength training exercises can help improve balance, as can basic yoga poses. Exercises: To learn basic yoga poses, check out ABC-of-Yoga.com here.
• Aerobics. Walking may be the best elixir out there for improving your health. To make your walk really count, says Johnson, get your heart rate up to 75 to 80 percent of your age-predicted heart-rate maximum. To figure that out: Start with the number 220 and subtract your age. Multiply the resulting number by .75 (for 75 percent) or .80 (for 80 percent). For example, a 50-year-old person wishing to increase his or her heart rate to 75 percent would multiply 170 (220 minus 50) times .75 to come up with a target heart rate of 127.5 beats per minute. Take your pulse (your wrist or neck are the most common spots for an effective reading) for 15 seconds, then multiply by 4. To make sure that you walk regularly, Roberts is a big advocate of pedometers. “People who wear pedometers consistently are 27 percent more active during the day,” she says. Pay less attention to the actual mileage tally (pedometers are based on your average stride, which can vary considerably) and more on the number of steps you take. Shoot for 10,000 a day, Roberts says.

Payoff

Don’t expect results immediately, says Roberts. “We feel you should be feeling significant differences in within a couple weeks,” she says. “If you’re taking the stairs, for instance, within a couple weeks you shouldn’t be as winded.”

Give it another couple of weeks before really putting your new lifestyle to the test.

“After a month or so, go do something you haven’t been able to do in a while,” says Johnson. “I had one woman who began lifting a stack of plates over her head. She’d never been able to do that before.”

Again, he stresses that if you want to see continued progress you’ll need to increase either the intensity of your workout or work out longer.

Buddy up, muscle up

You’ve had a long day at work, you’re tired and — sniff! — is that a cold coming on? Maybe I’ll skip tonight’s workout, just this once.

And you likely will, unless a workout buddy is expecting you to show up.

“A support system is important,” says Logan Washburn, fitness director at UNC’s Meadowmont Wellness Center in Chapel Hill. “Someone to keep you accountable, whether it’s a trainer or someone who comes and works out with you.”

Studies have shown that people are more likely to remain true to an exercise program if there’s a little peer pressure, be it a workout buddy, a a group you train with, or simply a friend who likes to hear about your progress, and thus, someone you don’t want to let down.

“You’re not in this alone,” advises the Mayo Clinic in its “7 Tips for Staying Motivated.” “Work out with your partner or other loved ones. … Organize a group of neighbors to take fitness classes at a local health club.”

“If you’ve got a group environment for support,” agrees Washburn, “you tend to be more successful.”

Ultimate motivation

Non-exerciser Sidney Eagles Jr., who’s been exercising religiously for 12 years now, says the ultimate motivator for anyone in poor to marginal health is pretty simple:

“If you had been in my position and didn’t perceive it as a wake-up call, you’d either be foolish, slow or temperamentally doomed to be in trouble — soon.”

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If you’re looking for a time of year that’s hardest on your body, you’d be hard-pressed to beat the one that kicked off with pants-unbuckling Thanksgiving and ends with a cold pack on your head New Year’s Day. Think about the damage alone done by the one-two punch of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Thanksgiving: overeating. Estimates place the typical holiday meal at 3,000-plus calories, or closing in on twice the recommended daily calorie intake for the average person. And that’s just for the main meal; in the case of Thanksgiving you can nearly double that amount if you throw in the follow-up leftover meals that will be consumed by day’s end.

Black Friday: stress. First, there’s the business of consuming nearly 6,000 calories on Thanksgiving, then heading out at midnight to elbow your way to the $2 waffle irons table. Add to that your wacko fellow shoppers — a female shopper at a California Walmart used pepper spray to keep her competitors at bay — and you’ve pretty much taken 10 years off your life with those two days alone. And the bulk of the holiday season remains.

You want a truly happy holidays, or at least a holiday season that won’t do you in? Then you need to do something that helps you deal with both overeating and stress. Lucky for you that some thing is one thing:

Going for a walk.

Walking is the nation’s most popular form of exercise. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, 95.8 million Americans walked for exercise in 2010 (exercising with equipment was a distant second, with 55.3 million participants). There’s good reason for this: most people can walk, it doesn’t require special equipment, you can do it spontaneously, out your front door, so it can be done quickly.

There’s more reasons to walk. According to the Mayo Clinic, walking can:

• Lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol)
• Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol)
• Lower your blood pressure
• Reduce your risk of or manage type 2 diabetes
• Manage your weight
• Improve your mood
• Keep you strong and fit

Walking isn’t a magic bullet. It won’t completely diffuse the stress of the holidays; but it will take the edges off and make the season more manageable. And it won’t exactly act as a cross to that batch of Christmas fudge your vampire coworkers bring in, but it will help in keeping the damage to a minimum. And, truly, a half hour at lunch, after work or at some point during the day can make a huge difference.

That said, are you ready to commit to a daily walk? And if not daily, then what is a realistic goal? Take our survey and we’ll report back in a week or so with the results. And take a minute to tell us your favorite place to walk. It could serve as inspiration to others.

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[highlight]Survey says: Are you ready to commit to walking daily through the holidays? If not, then how many times, realistically, do you think you can vow to hit the trail? Take our survey and let us know. Click here to take survey [/highlight]

The post Footing the bill for a truly happy holidays appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Yoga helps Darlene Jonas cope with Parkinson’s disease, enables scientist Lynn Conley to sit at his desk for long stretches, lets Bill Glasheen keep playing golf and has helped Nancy Wren cope with the death of her husband. Robin Kneeburg credits yoga with saving her life.

Once perceived as the domain of the uber fit, lithe and limber, yoga is being increasingly embraced as a kind of holistic drug for a plethora of physical and emotional issues.

Yoga, according to the Mayo Clinic, can help with cancer and high blood pressure, and anxiety, depression and insomnia.

“While you shouldn’t expect yoga to cure you or offer 100 percent relief,” advises the Rochester, Minn.-based research, education and health-care provider, “it can help some health conditions when combined with standard treatment.”

According to a 2008 survey by the Yoga Journal, about 16 million Americans practice some form of yoga, and nearly half took up yoga “to improve their overall health.” A similar study in 2003 put that number at just 5.6 percent.

“It’s not a cure, but a better way of life,” says Glasheen, a 73-year-old Monroe resident who credits yoga with helping him not miss a Sunday morning tee time in more than a decade despite the crippling effects of Parkinson’s disease.

Four years ago, Wren’s husband Tom started attending a yoga class to help with his Parkinson’s. She joined in, quickly realizing the physical relief yoga offered from the demands of helping her 300-pound, wheelchair-bound husband. When Tom died two years ago, she quit going to class. It was then, as she struggled to deal with her loss, that she realized she needed yoga more than ever.

“It helped me to sit and be calm, to focus my mind so I’m not flying all over the place with a million thoughts,” says Wren, who is 61. “It helped me get hold of my emotions.”

The practice of yoga predates written history, going back at least 5,000 years. While its origins are uncertain, its focus has been to help achieve total health through exercise, breathing and meditation.

Instructor Nancy Nicholson, a licensed clinical social worker certified in various yoga techniques, explains: “The breathing exercises help to calm, to focus the mind. It can be very grounding.”

If you’re considering yoga, talk to your doctor. Physicians are becoming well-versed in yoga and its applications for various maladies.

Perhaps most important, see whether you can sit in on a class before signing up, and pay close attention to how the teacher interacts with students.

During a recent Gentle Yoga class at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, instructor Carol Krucoff approached one of her students and said, “Your expression tells me this (move) isn’t good for you.”

She then recommended a less taxing variation. Pain, she emphasizes, is not part of healing yoga.

“It should be challenging,” she says, “but not straining.”

Conley, 54, was already having back issues when he and his wife, Anne, moved to Durham from San Diego three years ago. The stress of a new job didn’t help, nor did six months of physical therapy. “That only made it worse,” he says.

Anne, who is 58, had been doing yoga for her back problem, and Conley decided to follow suit, enrolling in a Gentle Yoga class taught by Krucoff at the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine.

It was a good fit: Krucoff had spent years experimenting with her own yoga to develop a practice that would help the neck, shoulder and back issues she had developed hunching over a keyboard as a journalist. (She wrote a book on the subject, “Healing Yoga for Neck & Shoulder Pain,” published last year.)

The focused exercises make it possible for Conley to sit at his desk for the long stretches required of a Research Triangle Park scientist, while the breathing exercises help him deal with job stress. Relaxing is no longer a problem.

“Didn’t you hear him snoring?” Anne asks after a recent yoga class.

In 2005, Robin Kneeburg was living a normal life in California. Then, overnight, her body became permeated with pain. Though her doctors were able to attribute the pain to a repetitive motion injury, they were mystified by its origins and how to deal with it.
“It shut me down,” says the 42-year-old Kneeburg. “It hurt to breathe. It hurt to cough.”

Three years ago, she and her husband heard about the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine and decided to move to Durham and give it a try. She met with a team that included everyone from a neurologist to Krucoff. Gentle yoga was prescribed as part of her treatment.
“When she first came here,” says Krucoff, “she couldn’t even get down on the floor.”

After three years of Kneeburg being in constant pain, the class’ emphasis on breathing, focusing the mind and movement resulted in a breakthrough: “It didn’t hurt to breathe anymore,” she says. Kneeburg continues to make progress, and though she isn’t pain-free, she says she’s getting there.

“It’s ongoing improvement,” Kneeburg says of her progress through yoga. “I did better this week than I could last week.” She pauses, then adds:

“This is freedom for me.”

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Read on?

Interested in reading more about the various applications of yoga? Check out yesterday’s post.

The post Yoga: A physical, emotional elixir appeared first on GetGoing NC!.