Fitness Advice

How fit do you need to be for your Expedition? Being in the beautiful outdoors and walking with your friends with all that you need to survive on your backs in well packed rucksacks. How hard can it be?

Well it can be pretty demanding dealing with the varied terrain and all that the weather can throw at you, sleeping under the stars and cooking your own meals.  Here at BXM we teach you how to enjoy your expedition, depending on what level of the award you are planning to achieve and this includes advice on fitness.

With the potential of carrying a rucksack weighing anything between 10 – 20 kg (depending upon your size and weight) and being out for 6 – 8 hours on a multi-day expedition you need to have a certain level of fitness.

One of the key things in everyday life is that of well- being which includes being active, good nutrition and good sleep. This is even more important when we put our body under stress and do something such as the expedition section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Fitness is always specific to the event that you are training for. If you are walking you will need to practice walking if you are canoeing you will need to practice canoeing.

If I asked everyone to go and run a Park Run, (5 Kilometres) with no training what would be the results? Some of you would find it easy but I am sure that some would struggle and may have to walk or crawl the distance! I think that everyone would complete it but with very different after effects and different times over the distance.

If however I gave everyone 12 weeks to train for the run and people built up their fitness gradually with perhaps a few walks then some runs increasing time and distance gradually. Well the results would be totally different with people finishing the race quicker and recovering quickly after.

This is the same as an Expedition you just need to gradually build up your walking. The body is an excellent machine that when well fed and with good sleep will adapt to changes in exercise very quickly.

If you are starting from a low level of fitness you could start by adding walks into your life by walking to school/college or walking yours or a neighbour’s dog. There is even a physical section in the award where you can get fitter and work towards the award (Two for the price of one).

If you are not in a position to go walking I like step ups and/or skipping to give me quick fitness improvements. In these times of being unable to go out these are exercises that you can do in the garden and in the case of step ups inside. Before you wear out the carpet on the stairs climbing the height of Snowdon (1065m in case you didn’t know) you had better check where the safest and best place to do this is with a parent or guardian.

If you are unable to partake in physically strenuous activity you may wish to check with that same person or your doctor what you can do. Often walking is allowed and as we have already said is one of the best ways to get fit. Also remember that the award is inclusive and there are options available to assist you which your Duke of Edinburgh Leader can advise you on.