<p>Couldn’t you rent the burros for you and the kids and let “super” (i.e. 200 lbs++ fitness) dad speed-walk along with the merry group? </p>
<p>PS-- make sure HIS insurance is in full force.</p>
<p>Boy, that’s tempting! :)</p>
<p>Hi MissyPie:</p>
<p>I’m going to check out the website IloveLA posted after I finish posting this; I suspect she/he and I are on the same wavelength. I get the impression the workout you have been doing is so strenuous that you are not really working aerobically. (This is essentially what Hops Scout said.) Had you started on the level and very gradually worked up to where you are, I suspect you would have seen the difference in heartrate you seek. My experience as an athlete has run the gambit from marathon runner and weight trainer to walker–I’m in walker mode working up to running right now. Your post actually reminds me that I too will be visiting the Grand Canyon over Spring Break (just a day trip from Vegas) and hubby will likely want to hike some.</p>
<p>Any way you look at it, hiking the Grand Canyon is both a strength and an endurance endeavor. I’ll bet you’re in pretty good shape in the strength department; endurance is built with long (even longer than the anticipated event is best) easy training (in your case, brisk walking where you can continue to converse). If I were you, I wouldn’t completely abandon the incline training, but I would change it up by abandoning it altogether on days when you have more time (weekends?) and work on lengthening the time you walk. I’d aim for six days a week and do purely aerobic three days a week (the long days) and half and half (aerobic/anaerobic strength training) or, if time won’t permit both, just anaerobic the next day. Take a day off to allow muscle fibers to heal and build.</p>
<p>Like dieting, everyone has an opinion on what’s optimal training for athletic endeavor. (You can probably even find training regimens tailored for the Grand Canyon somewhere online.)</p>
<p>[Grand</a> Canyon National Park Hiking Guide](<a href=“Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park – national park”>Welcome to Grand Canyon National Park – national park)</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll see you there! (I’m the tall thin woman with the complaining hulk of a teenage son being dragged by my chipper husband!)</p>
<p>I googled aerobic vs. anaerobic and my eyes glazed over once the articles started talking in terms of chemicals.</p>
<p>In third grade English, please tell me:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Which do I need to do (aerobic or anaerobic) to walk up the Grand Canyon without dying?</p></li>
<li><p>What is an example of each type of activity?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I really appreciate everyone’s patience. Those of you who are into this stuff must realize that there are those of us who are perfectly nice human beings who have absolutely no interest in knowing what chemicals our bodies are producing at any given time when we attempt to exercise. We just want to be fit. Muchas gracias!</p>
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<p>[Anaerobic</a> Exercise](<a href=“todays-women-and-health.com - todays women and health Resources and Information.”>todays-women-and-health.com - todays women and health Resources and Information.)</p>
<p>I’d say you need to do both! 
(Uh…and I guess I do too!!)</p>
<p>No treadmill (even at an angle) is even going to come close to the Grand Canyon experience. I’d do some real hikes on the weekends and I’d do some running on that treadmill. I agree that in some ways climbing down mountains is almost worse than going up them, especially with 50 year old knees. Interval training will help, real hikes too.</p>
<p>You should do both sorts of exercise. Weights are good for building up bone and muscle mass, while the aerobic stuff is good for your heart.</p>
<p>Couldn’t you just rent one of those handheld oxygen-face mask do-da’s, have hubby carry it and you *oxygen-up *throughout the hike?</p>
<p>Or, to use a 1960s solution, get some biphetamines for hubby and he can carry you up as he jogs the trails. [no flames please–its a joke] </p>
<p>PPS --if you chose option 2, really, really make sure HIS insurance is in full force.</p>
<p>“I have no desire to stare down adversity. I want to be able to live through spring break.”</p>
<p>LOL ^</p>
<p>If it’s any help, missypie, I do free weights at LA Fitness every time I go. I just do my little thing, w/my 15 lb hand weights & ignore everyone. Most guys are very nice and polite. </p>
<p>My one-time trainer made me work until I really hurt. However, I’ve run for years & years without a single injury or even a strain and have kept pretty much in the same weight zone, without needing to get all testosterone pumped. I think there’s definitely a benefit from pushing it, but you can be reasonable & not all complicated & aggressive about it. </p>
<p>I like the idea of real hikes, if you are training for a hike!</p>
<p>I’m working on my building up my aerobic capacity for spring hiking and biking. OK, not Grand Canyon level, but elevation for sure.
MP…too bad you can’t try running on the treadmill. This is what I do - spacing out with walking over a half hour and I’ve noticed big changes just in two weeks. I stopped running two years ago due to a bad knee but regular yoga has taken care of that - and so far so good on the TM.
Now, when I don’t have access to a treadmill (the one in the basement is broken) - I go in the basement and…DANCE. I put my ipod on and let loose with songs like “What is Love” (yeah the Pepsi song) and others. Gets my heart rate up and it’s fun. Of course all the blinds are closed and no one is allowed down there during these times!<br>
IMO, anything that makes you sweat and builds your aerobic capacity will help enormously on the hike up.
BTW, I did use a heart monitor when I was running and maybe I’ll give it another try based on the posts here. Just seems like I’m doing fine without that fancy equipment - but it’s always better to be safe at this age.</p>
<p>So back in the 80s, when we all took “aerobics” in our hot pink leotards and leg warmers, we sweated like pigs for 50 minutes and our hearts were pounding. Even though it was hard, was that “aerobic” because we *could *sustain it for 50 minutes, or was it anaerobic?</p>
<p>To make sure you are thoroughly inundated with information: :D</p>
<p>I have done (more or less) what Iloveagoodbrew recommends in the form of the “Body For Life” program: [Body-for-LIFE</a> Exercise](<a href=“Innovative and Science Based Nutrition Products | Abbott”>Innovative and Science Based Nutrition Products | Abbott)</p>
<p>To learn about the excercise portion of the program, scroll down to where it says “Official Body-for-LIFE exercise program” in blue and click on the two red links. </p>
<p>The “long conversational walks/runs” way is a much more pleasant way of building cardio endurance, and with 8 to 10 weeks left (depending on how much hiking you plan to do per day), I would think it preferable, but if you really can’t find/make the time for distance comparable to and longer than what you plan to ultimately do (working up, that is), the interval training in B for L does work expediently. I can’t speak to the science behind it, (although I understood it when I did it) but I’ve done it both ways and can vouch for the efficacy of both.</p>
<p>What is “intesity level 5” etc.? Whatever you think is half way as hard as you can exercise? Or does it explain on a video that you buy?</p>
<p>Ok even though I write it out there still seems to be confusion. If you can do something for 50 mins, its <em>aerobic</em>. Repeat after me…short and hard=anaerobic, long and low intensity=aerobic. If you can do 500 bodyweight squats, thats aerobic. They key isn’t how you ‘feel’. I just got done doing intervals on the concept 2 rower…That was just fun fun fun. Its entirely physiological. There are three energy pathways; phosphagenic, glycolitic, and oxidative. The chemical reactions are not relevant here. Actually here is a decent article skimming the background of the three. I would highly recommend against long distance running, especially in women, or if you are out of shape trying to get in shape.</p>
<p>[The</a> Three Muscle Energy Systems and How to Train Them: A Conditioning: Tactical and Martial Arts article from Dragon Door Publications](<a href=“http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/261]The”>404 | Dragon Door)</p>
<p>p.s.: DMD, . I seriously don’t appreciate condescending talk from an adult who feels its justified to mock ‘20 something beer drinking guys’. But whatever.</p>
<p>edit: Jolynne Smith. First, a trainer who pushes you till there is structural pain is a jackass. Actually 95% of the ‘trainers’ out there have an online ‘degree’ and couldn’t tell you the difference between periodization and perestroika. However you seem to be ill informed about ‘testosterone pumped’. I won’t even bother to refute all the junk science behind ‘testosterone poisoning’ and whatever have you. Just know the only bad thing about testosterone is when it aromatizes to estrogen…incidentally, drinking too much elicits a high estrogen response. When you think of idiot bar drunks, its not testosterone that is fueling them.</p>
<p>Being ‘pumped’ is generally about lactic acid build up from the glycolitic and aerobic systems at work. Testosterone increases during training and generally only achieved by multiple sets of heavy resistance excercise, utilizing at least 80% SRM for multiple sets and lower reps. What may surprise you is that free testosterone in the body <em>drops</em> immediately (~10 mins) following termination of a session. However in the longer run athletes who push maximal weights have better testosterone profile. </p>
<p>What is so bad about testosterone? Along with insulin it is probably the most important hormone in the body. Increased musce mass? Increased bone density? Lower propensity for cancer? Better mood? Better control over your emotions? Higher libido? Lower triglyceride levels? Improved immune system? Jeez, who would want to have that?</p>
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</p>
<p>If you recommend against trying to get in shape if you’re out of shape, then I should abandon all hope! </p>
<p>(Maybe we’d take you more seriously with a different screen name.)</p>
<p>You are obviously more knowledgable about all this than many of us (certainly me) but some of us have lives with very few free moments and we just can’t devote the attention to fitness that you can.</p>
<p>Do strength training. Once you get into shape, run. Look, whatever. How many fat people do you see plodding on the side of the road? How many skinny fat people on the bikes reading cosmopolitan? What happens to them after 3 years? They are still fat or skinny fat and can’t figure out why they hell they didn’t change. </p>
<p>Look. If you are fat, out of shape, whatever, <em>learn</em> barbell lifts. I recommend Starting Strength Volume II. If you really want to, do a couple sessions of rowing per week. Rowing in a full body excercise that is very easy on the joints and will get your heart pumping very hard. Strength training is #1. If you are young, old, somewhere in between, nothing. Absolutely nothing is more productive. Obviously extreme cases like if you are a paraplegic or paralyzed it doesn’t apply, but for 99% of the population.</p>
<p>If you don’t take me seriously, maybe you will take someone who has coached more Olympic champions than just about anyone alive. Oh, maybe someone like Charles Poliquin.</p>
<p>[Charles</a> Poliquin - Six reasons why aerobic work is counterproductive](<a href=“http://www.charlespoliquin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=861]Charles”>http://www.charlespoliquin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=861)</p>
<p>Rest my case.</p>
<p>my tip though…watch what the fat people are doing, do the opposite.</p>
<p>Poliquin’s article is interesting, but I get the idea that he wants to sell me something.</p>
<p>GoodBrew: I’m sorry you thought I was being condescending. It wasn’t intended that way. I have a 22-year-old beer drinking son who would be shocked to discover I agreed with him about anything… There’s just such a huge difference in life experience. However, your biochemistry is dead on, although you’re having trouble explaining it to us 50-something moms.</p>
<p>MissyPie: (that was what my mother called me when she was ticked at me, so I hope it’s not meant that way here): working out at a pace where you can talk comfortably is aerobic. Anything that leaves you breathless (or short of oxygen) is on the way to anaerobic. If you don’t have enough oxygen for full metabolic breakdown of sugars (respiration), your body uses different breakdown pathways that leave nasty little byproducts hanging around that are one reason (not the only reason) you end up sore. </p>
<p>Your goal in hiking the GC is to complete a long walk in one piece. That means being ready to walk slowly–perhaps more slowly than the rest of your family–for a long time. There are multiple ways to get in shape to do that. One is to do a lot of very long walks over varied terrain. Another is to improve all your metabolic pathways through a variety of workouts, both anaerobic and aerobic. My preference is to do both kinds of workouts. I rest one day per week; I do sprints/intervals 2 to 3 times per week; I do long walks 3 to 4 times per week. I may still be overweight (I love to eat) but my blood pressure is low, my blood sugar is good, and I can walk for hours.</p>
<p>I was 41 when I visited the Grand Canyon. I am also thin; at that point in my life I was taking long walks but not lifting weights or doing anything that really taxed my heart. I do live in a part of the country where there are mountains, and have done some hiking – maybe 3 times a summer. </p>
<p>I’ve always been a slow hiker. I take my time and take rests when needed. </p>
<p>We hiked about half-way down the Grand Canyon, and then walked back up. I survived. I never felt that I was going to die, or that I was overly taxed. This was in April, and it did get hot – I think as we walked back it was in the mid 90s. We had plenty of water. </p>
<p>I just wonder if you are a little too worried about this. Yes people die, but it sounds to me that you are in pretty good shape. Just take it easy, have water, wear the right clothes, use sunscreen, rest when needed.</p>
<p>I’d like to go back the Grand Canyon and walk up the entire way. I’m now 50, and don’t feel that I would be risking my life by doing that. </p>
<p>I do find this thread interesting, although I am thoroughly confused about the heart-rate stuff. I should try the sprint training, so thanks for that advice.</p>
<p>My recommendation is to ditch the 200 pound guy and take the donkeys!</p>
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<p>It’s whatever you decide it is. Halfway as hard as you can is probably a good place to start. You just work a little harder at the next level, a little harder at the one after that, and so on until you get to level 9 and you should be working as hard as you can. Then at the end you work the level 10 even harder than the level 9 that just about killed you (generally, if you can work harder for the entire minute at a 10, you didn’t work hard enough for your 9.) You don’t need a video or anything. If you want to keep track of your weights when/if you start weightlifting there’s a handy form: <a href=“Innovative and Science Based Nutrition Products | Abbott”>http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/downloads/exercise_guide.pdf</a> </p>
<p>It is brutal, but pretty satisfying. When I did it I initially started my 5 at a brisk walk, 6 at a slow run, etc. I used to run the same route and I’d finish with my 10 on a very steep hill. I could track my progress by how far up the hill I managed to go. When I made it to the top I felt like a real champ. Then I had to change my route so I couldn’t make it up the hill anymore.</p>