Volcanos hikes are not just climbing. Mountaineering and volcano hiking are more than tests of physical strength; they are profound exercises in patience and technique. For many, the journey begins with a simple step, overcoming the inertia of a sedentary lifestyle to embrace the rigour of the outdoors. This article explores how the gradual mastery of your body’s movements and the strategic conditioning of your mind play pivotal roles in preparing for the steep ascents of volcano hikes.

Patience and technique
Mountaineering and volcanoes depend on your physical condition, but as you practice more and more you will discover that patience and willpower are the key part of all promotions. Over time you will also learn to measure your steps and control your breathing saving energy. This comes with time.

Activity level

Age and your level of physical activity determine much of the difficulty. If you are a person with sedentary habits (auto + tv x 365 days of the year) you have to have patience. Do not start training hard from scratch, start walking short distances. Go increasing the distance to exceed 30 minutes of walking (from this point you are already exercising). Walking three blocks or from parking to the office is NOT exercise.

Let’s start training (low impact)

Some knee and spinal conditions require you to avoid the impact of running. You can train at a low impact, you do not need to run long distances. You can walk at a normal pace and then walk lightly for at least 30 minutes for about 3 continuous weeks. Add a backpack (weight) to tune even more and you’ll be ready for average volcanoes. Bike, this avoids impact and helps you in the cardiovascular area. Do not limit yourself to just cycling, the bike is NOT training for volcanoes. Although it helps, we need your knees to get accustomed to the impact little by little and we will only achieve it by walking and running (if you have no problem).

Squats

The muscles most used to ascend and descend are the quadriceps, the muscle that sits on your femur. You can climb stairs and-or do squats to exercise. Do from 15 minimums every day to about 40 days, of course, gradually increasing. You can use your backpack and add weight little by little to improve training.

The ideal is then to exercise these muscles for long periods of time (ideally walking on steep slopes) or squats are enough. Climbing a volcano requires 2 to 7 hours of continuous walking. We need to increase the tolerance of your muscles against lactic acid (waste produced by your body when you strain).

Lactic acid

When we use a muscle for a long time we will have a feeling of heaviness or that it becomes less flexible. This is a product of lactic acid accumulated after continuous effort. Therefore, if you train walking short distances you will not be able to adapt to the coming effort. The ideal is to exercise slowly until you begin to sweat.

Food and rest

You become stronger when you rest. Eat well, healthily, the proteins of the meats will help you build muscle and the calories to have the energy necessary to exercise (or you will be knocked out and drowsy when training). Rest, sleep well is vital for your muscles to rebuild.

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