Joe, You can start doing one exercise to make your "nature walks" more enjoyable by the end when you are tired which is exercising your vastus medialis (that lump just above the kneecap on the along inside of your thigh.
I had a rough recovery from a leg surgery and its atrophy of disuse did not respond to cycling, which did get me up on my feet, just not with the stability to feel confident on paths and trails. Once I was tipped to the muscle's function in providing the final stabilization of the knee joint in extension and any degree of flexion during effort. Underused in cycling since the movement is so isolated from much necessity of lateral stability, you'll find benefit from 5-10 minutes of effort to improve the condition of yours over a couple weeks' of commitment. What I did was lie flat on the ground, tighten one leg's muscles to lock it in a straight stiff posture, toe pulled toward your chin. Lift your rigid leg five inches and hold for a few seconds. Lower it, relax, repeat. Do the same for both legs building both the duration and reps. Add shoes for more resistance, heavier shoes for incrementally more. Ankle weights if you're going for the Mr. Olympia look. Your knees will feel better after your walks by having maintained their alignment better during the trip instead of tiring and allowing the play and the subsequent pain associated with it. Those muscles appreciate the exercise after surprisingly little regular exercise. Interestingly, the gear junkie who just pops in to REI and buys a pair of Asolo 520 backpacking boots as their preparation for such walks will find themselves aching and in persistent discomfort afterward because the weight of those clodhoppers accentuates the poor condition of their vastus medialis, combining to produce some increased displacement and inaccuracy of their knees' movements. Any footwear more constructed than what you walk in on a daily basis will require some conditioning in preparation both by exercise and incremental distance and terrain acclimation to prevent being the source of discomfort from your activity. Yeah, running shoes are easier. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 5:35:13 PM UTC-4, Joe Bernard wrote: > > What's funny after all this input - which I appreciate - is it looks like > I'm already using my walking/hiking gear on my bike. Well ok then! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
