Hiker hobble is a phenomenon that most hikers experience as they spend miles on any long-distance trail. However, in most cases, it will occur more after the hiker has over 100 miles on their legs, and it doesn’t always seem to ease up. If you’re considering thru-hiking, then you should know about hiker hobble before you start your journey!
Thru-hikers tend to suffer from physical and nutritional ailments from the long hard treks daily and sleeping on the hard ground. This lends itself to exaggerated jerky movements when first moving again, and the moniker of “hiker hobble” was born.
While it may look funny, it is uncomfortable, and dealing with it in the middle of the night to use the restroom is beyond irritating! This is why you want to look at physical problems or nutritional issues to help reduce these issues beforehand.
Understanding Hiker Hobble
While many choose to be day hikers or maybe go out for long weekends, they may not hit the point where your body fully aches. For these people seeing a thru-hiker look like an elderly person when they get up might be laughable, but it sucks.
The typical hiker hobble walk involves some limping due to injury, blisters, muscle aches, and, finally, sheer exhaustion. Toss in a side dish of poor nutrition and constant use of electrolytes, and you have a storm in the body, causing movement-related issues.
The good news is that none of this is permanent, and some may get better without anything other than the body adjusting more to the consistent effort and work it has to perform.
Others may find and fix their dietary concerns or find a good electrolyte option, like pickle juice, on the trail or buy single-serving packets of electrolytes like LMNT or whatever a local grocer carries in a trail town.
The Onset of Hiker Hobble
For many, it begins after the first week or so as they are hiking. The body uses all the stored nutrients and electrolytes while the muscles have to output far more energy than they have in their lives.
This unique mix of exhaustion and nutrition deprivation will cause issues with your body’s ability to recover effectively from the damage caused by a consistent workout. Think about gym-goers constantly supplementing their hard work.
Unfortunately, for a thru-hiker, this isn’t easy to manage without carefully considering foods and what is explicitly carried out to manage these recovery issues. Let’s dive into some of the leading causes of the hiker hobble feeling.
Causes of Hiker Hobble
There are many reasons why you can develop achy, stiff muscles, and most of the problems come from just a few problematic approaches to the trek. The main thing is pushing your body too hard, and then pairing that with diet inconsistencies, leading to imbalances and poor body recovery and healing.
Improper Diet
Much of the hobble takes a while to hit in full force due to your body having much of the minerals and stored energy, but the hiker diet of pure carbs and very little in the protein department can lead to improper recovery.
Most diets consist of pop tarts, candies, and less valuable food the longer into the trail hikers go. They start to resupply from gas stations and smaller Dollar Generals, which offer fewer options and even less quality in carrying food options.
Electrolyte Imbalances
A close second to nutritional issues, you sweat out electrolytes when under duress and working hard. These losses can lead to issues like cramping and a range of other ill feelings.
This is why having a good hydration option with electrolytes added is a good thing to use during the day when the most stressful exercise and main sweat is happening.
A lack of magnesium can lead to leg cramping. While I don’t have a dietary degree, I understand that sodium, magnesium, and potassium are all needed to stay balanced for the best body function.
Sodium is simple for the most part due to the high sodium content in nearly all foods that a hiker will carry. As to magnesium, the easiest way would be to absorb it with a nice Epsom salt bath in town when you can access a tub and give yourself 30 minutes.
Potassium I would allow my body to get from the foods I eat as supplementing with it can cause heart rhythm issues with some people, which is NOT good on a trail away from civilization and should be avoided without a doctor or similar consults prior.
Exercising & Lacking in Relaxation
A large issue for hikers is pushing it to get in miles. Pushing themselves past where their body is comfortable happens, but you need to work on proper relaxation, stretching, and generally giving the muscles the ability to maximize recovery while stopped.
Frequently, this will be skipped at the end of the hiking day when it would be beneficial in favor of hanging out with other hikers. You could do this, but you need to remember to stretch, roll out, do what you need to help the muscles get more relaxed, and allow better blood flow!
Preventing and Managing Hiker Hobble
With some solid pre-planning, you can defeat many issues related to the hobble, like taking the time to have a better balanced nutritional approach to your foods.
Then you can look at doing some solid stretches and rolling out the muscles after a heavy mileage day on the trail can lead to your body recovering easier and faster, which is perfect to get rid of the aches and pains.
Better Food Nutrition on Trail
Find ways to add additional nutrition while on the trail. Finding more ways to add protein to help your muscles rebuild and recover is important, whether you use protein powders or something similar to help those muscles keep working.
You definitely will not be able to eat enough food while on the trail to balance out the amount of energy you will be utilizing, so if you are skinny, finding a way to add on more fats will provide an additional source of energy as it is far more calorically dense.
For the overweight individual, you will slowly see your body fat reserve depleted over a long-distance hike if you don’t overstuff yourself while in town as you will be in a caloric deficit for nearly 4-6 months, but you don’t want to overstress your body.
Rolling Muscles Out After the Long Day
I used to laugh when I saw people using the little cork massage balls by Rawlogy to roll out their muscles after a long day of hiking, but I decided once I saw them show fewer signs of aches and pains and I can say I was missing out.
Rolling out your muscles helps them to relax and promotes better blood flow in the area, which aids in recovery. These little details add up over the course of months and will help keep you on the trail and less exhausted than others you will hike with.
Patience With Your Body on the Trail
Many like to start fast and hit miles hard right out the gate. Instead, have some patience and give your body time to adjust to the workload the trail brings.
The people you see fly past you who are just attempting to look impressive will invariably slow, and you will often pass them up as you take care of yourself and have patience with how it performs.
Any of the triple crown trails come in over 2000+ miles, and this is by no means a sprint. It is instead a marathon where people will drop out as they go for speed and their bodies can’t maintain it.
Learn Yoga Stretches
A good thing to learn and practice while on the trail Yoga is a fantastic way to loosen up all your muscles from your toes to your head while promoting a full range of motion overall.
In addition, it can help you improve balance, enhance endurance, and help you to prevent injuries on the trail by keeping you loose and not locked up.
You’re putting in long hours, so be kind to yourself. If you do yoga daily, your body may not feel the same on the trail as at home, so take it easy.
Doing yoga after a long day of hiking is good for your body and shouldn’t be a stressful thing you do.
Key Takeaways for Avoiding Hiker Hobble
Hiker hobble is where thru-hikers start to limp and wobble after taking their backpacks off. This usually develops after the first hundred miles and doesn’t let up. There are several reasons why this happens, but most can be avoided with some pre-planning.
Adding additional nutrition while on the trail, stretching and rolling out muscles after a heavy mileage day, and being patient with your body, you can avoid the hiker hobble altogether.
Yoga is also a great way to loosen your muscles and prevent injuries. So remember these tips next time you hit the trail!
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