WTF is this exercise for??

Such an interesting thread.

I've always had the best results from powerwalking up hills for 90 - 120 mins. Time consuming, yes! But it burns calories like Hell, keeps you in the fat burning zone for hours, is low impact so can be done every day (try doing HIIT every day and see how long it takes you to cough up a lung!) and can be relaxing mentally, too. That is what has always worked for me.

The best thing IMO is just to try things then see what works for YOU....

Yes, yes, yes! I always feel guilty if I'm not logging lots of gym classes etc on MFP but the reality is the only exercise that doesn't bore me to death is hiking up hills and mountains. Bit difficult to do mid-week over winter due to dark nights but I more than make up for it at the weekends with a good five-hour hike. I'm lucky in the north of England to have three amazing National Parks on my doorstep. I can't think of a better form of all-round exercise than clambering over rocks on all fours to get to the top of a mountain. Amazing fun too.

I don't do hillwalking per se - I just do a 7 mile circuit around my house (a circuit which has a few hills, both up and down, on it - I live in a hilly area). Last time I wore my heart rate monitor I burned 1200 calories doing this circuit, walking at around 3.5 - 4mph pace. I'm 6 foot and was 235 lbs at the time. Bear in mind that walking at that pace up and down hills means I spend almost the whole walk (about 100-110 minutes) at between 65-85% of my max heart rate and I have gotten to 85% of my max heart rate while pounding up some of the longer, steeper hills.

Now true, I burn up 900+ calories in an hour of RPM or Plyometrics (and my heart rate gets higher and I work my muscles more). But I can do that walk every day - I can't do those more intense activities without having a day off from them.

Such an interesting thread.

I've always had the best results from powerwalking up hills for 90 - 120 mins. Time consuming, yes! But it burns calories like Hell, keeps you in the fat burning zone for hours, is low impact so can be done every day (try doing HIIT every day and see how long it takes you to cough up a lung!) and can be relaxing mentally, too. That is what has always worked for me.

The best thing IMO is just to try things then see what works for YOU....

Yes, yes, yes! I always feel guilty if I'm not logging lots of gym classes etc on MFP but the reality is the only exercise that doesn't bore me to death is hiking up hills and mountains. Bit difficult to do mid-week over winter due to dark nights but I more than make up for it at the weekends with a good five-hour hike. I'm lucky in the north of England to have three amazing National Parks on my doorstep. I can't think of a better form of all-round exercise than clambering over rocks on all fours to get to the top of a mountain. Amazing fun too.

Question for you guys then: how do you log hillwalking? I can only find Hiking - hills which seems to give a very high calorie burn which I'm not sure is justified.

If I'm just doing a normal ramble (across fields, bit of up and down hill etc) I just log it as walking at a fairly fast pace (usually judge it by how hot or out of breath I have got while walking). I then use the hiking log if I'm doing some serious uphill climbing or scrambling using my hands (mountains near me are around 2,000ft to 3,000ft and generally straight up and down (Google 'Helvellyn' or 'Pavey Ark' for a sample). I think I get a serious calorie burn from these as I can barely breathe, get very, very red faced, and it takes me about five hours to cover just six or seven miles (including break for lunch).

I could really do with getting a heart rate monitor, though, to be sure. Just don't know where to begin when shopping for one.

Such an interesting thread.

I've always had the best results from powerwalking up hills for 90 - 120 mins. Time consuming, yes! But it burns calories like Hell, keeps you in the fat burning zone for hours, is low impact so can be done every day (try doing HIIT every day and see how long it takes you to cough up a lung!) and can be relaxing mentally, too. That is what has always worked for me.

The best thing IMO is just to try things then see what works for YOU....

Thanks for this!

Yes, yes, yes! I always feel guilty if I'm not logging lots of gym classes etc on MFP but the reality is the only exercise that doesn't bore me to death is hiking up hills and mountains. Bit difficult to do mid-week over winter due to dark nights but I more than make up for it at the weekends with a good five-hour hike. I'm lucky in the north of England to have three amazing National Parks on my doorstep. I can't think of a better form of all-round exercise than clambering over rocks on all fours to get to the top of a mountain. Amazing fun too.

Question for you guys then: how do you log hillwalking? I can only find Hiking - hills which seems to give a very high calorie burn which I'm not sure is justified.

If I'm just doing a normal ramble (across fields, bit of up and down hill etc) I just log it as walking at a fairly fast pace (usually judge it by how hot or out of breath I have got while walking). I then use the hiking log if I'm doing some serious uphill climbing or scrambling using my hands (mountains near me are around 2,000ft to 3,000ft and generally straight up and down (Google 'Helvellyn' or 'Pavey Ark' for a sample). I think I get a serious calorie burn from these as I can barely breathe, get very, very red faced, and it takes me about five hours to cover just six or seven miles (including break for lunch).

I could really do with getting a heart rate monitor, though, to be sure. Just don't know where to begin when shopping for one.