It still feels weird to see how far I’ve come in my own fitness journey. Way back when in high school, I started out as a scrawny, little teenager who thought the only way to have confidence and start getting attention (of any kind) was to get big. I’m talking absolutely ripped, but the problem was that I couldn’t even get fat even if I wanted to. I just hated being small, and all the Youtube bodybuilders I watched religiously offered advice on how to fix that problem. Little did I know that most, if not all of these guys suffered something called “bigorexia”, kind of the opposite of anorexia if you couldn’t already tell. My favorite fitness influencer, the larger-than-life and helplessly charismatic Rich Piana was at least honest about his mental condition; his sickening addiction to getting big. But still, if only I could have a third of his body mass (which still probably would’ve taken some sort of chemical intervention to obtain), I thought I could achieve body-building nirvana. Perhaps it took the death of Mr. Piana, from what many assume was years and years of various steroid abuse, to get me to maybe see that not only was the goal of being a mass monster unrealistic but probably won’t make me happy either.
Now, what is happiness? As I mentioned before, a thought it would come in the form of 24-inch biceps. As I moved on to other hobbies, mainly landscape photography, I took note of the fact that hitting the gym could be for more than just building muscle, maybe it could help me just feel good and function better in life. I had been working out seriously for about 6-7 years at this point and admittedly looked pretty good when I went on a landscape photography road trip through Oregon and Washington with some friends. I felt embarrassingly out of shape however and was humbled many times over on the mountainous trails we embarked on throughout the two states. Slowly over time in the years following that trip, I experienced what some may call ego death, and began seriously trying to reshape the way I looked at fitness. My ultimate goal now was to be able to hike past the tree line of a mountain and not feel like absolute shit at the top. That way, I can maybe have some more energy left over to actually take better photos, the reason I was there in the first place.
I first had to assess how my body at the moment was negatively affecting my ability to walk long distances up mountains. I had to accept that perhaps, and it still feels weird to say, I had gotten too big. Maybe all that extra weight I was carrying around, whether it was the extra fat from all those protein shakes or genuine muscle, was just weighing me down. Long-distance runners are not big guys by any sense of the word. Besides having absolutely massive calves, most avid mountain hikers I had encountered also weren’t very big. In Dan Buettner’s book, The Blue Zones, he takes a look at the lifestyles of the healthiest and longest-lived communities of people around the world. One big similarity he noticed from place to place was that people who live healthily past the year 100 almost always maintained a relatively low body mass. Many of these people were skinny their entire lives. Huh, maybe there was a benefit to my natural proclivity to looking like a bag of bones.
As I’d mentioned, I’d been hitting the weights for quite some by that point, and losing mass would’ve been possibly as difficult as gaining mass. You see, when building muscle regularly over long periods of time, your muscular cells begin to not only grow but also multiply. Muscular cells don’t normally disappear unless you face some sort of extreme starvation or an extremely long bout of sedentariness. I wasn’t planning on enacting either situation and hey, I kinda liked the way I looked. Looking good usually means feeling good, in my opinion at least. What I needed to do was to strengthen the body I already had. which in large part meant putting a much greater emphasis on my cardiovascular health. I had not so much as looked at a treadmill since my last cross-country meet in high school several years back.
Now I’ll finally get into what I actively do to stay in shape to be a better landscape photographer. I’m not going to go too in-depth on the “science” behind my routine. I am not a health/nutrition expert nor do I feel like overextending this article with sources from all the years of part-time research I’ve put into learning about wellness. I’m stating what personally works for me and makes me feel good.
As far as exercise goes, I do not feel it is necessary to go to the gym every day. Adequate rest and recovery are what make your hard work in the gym come to fruition. If you hit your chest one day, your bench press will not improve the next. Your gotta give that muscle group time to recover and rebuild. I find that after taking the occasional extended break from the gym (one week or so off, maybe two or three times per year) I come back feeling good and strong. Cardio exercise is a slightly different story. From what I know, there is no upper limit to how many days in a row you can do it. If your goal is to be able to hike really far up steep terrain, well then I think it probably couldn’t hurt to practice it as much as possible. A good cardio session is honestly what makes me feel the best afterward, regardless of how tough it is during the act. I don’t do it every day simply because I get bored of doing the same thing every day. If I skip a cardio session, then I generally add a few more sets to my weight training for that day.
My training sessions almost always range between sixty and ninety minutes. I used to go for much longer but I changed that as I felt I was taking too many long breaks between sets as a result. I figure if I can keep a much more focused, shorter session with shorter breaks, I will not only keep the heart rate up but also train my muscles to get used to more constant, repetitive, and strenuous activity, like say, hiking up a mountain. I aim for three to four workouts at the gym per week. The goal is to effectively target one muscle group per session. There is back/pull day, leg day, chest/push day, and deadlift + accessory day. As I mentioned before, I try to end every session with some good, hard cardio. This usually means 20 minutes on the Stairmaster at a moderate to brisk pace. For reasons that I think are too obvious for an explanation, I think that training on stairs is beneficial for getting good at hiking up inclines.
Back/Pull Day –
Pullups (6 sets of 10-5 reps)(I do many variations such as wide grip and narrow grip, weighted and unweighted), cable pull-downs (3 sets of 5 reps), cable rows (3 sets of 8 reps), and dumbbell bicep curls (4 sets of 10-12 reps)(only if I feel like it. Growing your biceps is not the best use of time for someone looking to simply be more athletic).
Leg Day –
Leg press (4-5 sets of 8-10 reps) (I used to do squats instead but feel the excess strain it put on my back was not necessary for my fitness goal), Bulgarian split squats (3 sets of 8 reps)(an amazing all-around leg strengthener that does NOT require heavy weights, no matter how easy they may feel), and calf presses (4-5 sets of 12-20 reps) (usually on the leg press machine).
Chest/Push Day –
Bench press (4 sets of 5-10 reps), dumbbell flies (3 sets of 8 reps), overhead tricep cable extensions superset with cable tricep push-downs for that extra burn (3 sets of 10 reps each per movement)
Deadlift + Accessory Day –
Deadlifts (4-5 sets of 5-10 reps) (an amazing full-body exercise that should not put a strain on the back if done correctly), smith machine shrugs (4 sets of 10 reps), and then any other exercise that I feel like doing /missed earlier in the week.
You’ll notice that a lot of these exercises vary in reps per set. I tend to increase the weight I’m lifting with each set, so the number of reps I can execute will usually drop as the workout progresses. I don’t think it is a good idea to lift as heavy as you can right away as that can easily lead to some kind of strain or tear on your previously relaxed muscles. I actually start every session with a 10-minute walk on the treadmill as a way to begin getting the blood pumping for the rest of my workout. It is also a good way to spend some time meditating on what I am going to do with my day from here on out.
Strengthening my abs/core is another thing that I’ve been implementing way more than I had before. My camera bag can often get very heavy and having good core stability is an excellent way to make hauling that thing on the sometimes risky and exposed trails a lot more comfortable. It also reduces the risk of getting a hernia, which is something you do not want to get in the middle of a trail because you overpacked your bag and stumbled over. Since I usually have limited time for my workouts, I landed on one exercise for my core that I try to do every time after lifting (and before my cardio session), that being Russian Twists. It is a fairly simple movement that seems to hit most, if not all, of my mid-section muscles. It would probably be beneficial to implement a more varied ab routine, but I don’t usually have the time and my core strength honestly feels adequate for my needs at the moment.
You may hear some people at the gym saying that “you have to constantly confuse the muscles” as in, you should not get locked into one routine for too long. The idea is that your muscles can become too “complacent” if you’re constantly doing the same training with them. I disagree. My routine is designed to target pretty much all the major muscle groups in the body, the ones that I use on a regular basis at least. Training takes time and if you are constantly changing your routine, you effectively aren’t training to get better at anything. You’ll be physically active, which is good, but if you are trying to get better at pull-ups and you are not regularly doing pull-ups, then in all likelihood you will not see serious improvement any time soon. You will never become the best guitarist if you practice with all the other instruments in the band every other day. Physical fitness is a little more three-dimensional than learning a singular skill, but my philosophy is still to find a full-body routine that benefits your needs and practice it until you’re too old to do it anymore.
Now you’re probably wondering about nutrition. It’s honestly just as important as exercising. If you eat complete garbage all day, you will also feel like garbage and the quality of your workouts will suffer for it. Again, I am no expert, but trust me when I say that the census has NOT been closed on what the healthiest diet is. The debate on what to eat and what not to eat is still hotly debated. There are certain foods and supplements that are generally agreed upon to be healthy and beneficial and ones that are not. Donuts are bad for you. Water and broccoli probably aren’t. Regardless, like with exercise, I will briefly dive into what personally makes me feel healthy since each other individual may benefit from a slightly or completely different diet from mine. The point of my diet is to stay as energized and as nimble as possible throughout the day and to avoid certain debilitating illnesses down the road. The goal, again, is to be able to hike comfortably for as long as possible.
I’ll start off by stating that I think animal products, for the most part, can be beneficial to your health, particularly eggs and unprocessed meats. A high daily intake of high-quality, highly bioavailable protein is essential to recovery and building strength. I find that when I eat a high protein, low carb meal I feel less bloated and feel full for much longer. This is what you should be aiming for in a pre-hike meal especially, since feeling light and not having to constantly stop for food is ideal. I eat meals like this as often as possible to get my body used to using protein and fats as a primary source of energy. Fruit is an awesome way to consume sugar and additional vitamins and nutrient without feeling a “sugar crash” like you do after eating candy. I think it has something to do with the high levels of fiber. I’m not against eating single-ingredient carbs, such as rice or potatoes, in conjunction with an animal protein of some sort. Foods with one ingredient are generally healthier than processed food, as a rule of thumb. I’ve heard that sweet potatoes are a kind of superfood, I just wished I liked the taste more. There’s almost always some sort of healthy alternative if there are particular foods you don’t like.
I don’t really know what else to add here without trying too hard to sound like a certified nutritionist. Drink lots of water, eat protein regularly, take creatine (one of the most highly studied supplements that supports muscle and brain health), eat your vitamins, and get lots of sleep. There is nothing worse than starting a tough trail while tired, dehydrated, and undernourished. That could probably go for anything in life actually.
Part of the fitness journey is figuring out on your own what works best for your body and your needs. It’s a constant process of trial and error to figure out what makes you feel the best, and what makes you want to get up in the morning to shoot a beautiful sunrise the most. My goal in writing this article was not necessarily to get you to mimic exactly my habits, but rather to get an idea of what a healthy routine could look like.
