Health path hiking heart

Five selected circular hiking trails, a long-distance hiking trail, and a health path form a route network in the Little Mountain and Wellengarten Forest area. The mixed forest is a relaxing retreat for athletic hiking tours, easy walks, or health-promoting walks in all seasons. For hikers and walkers, it is certainly exciting to measure their own performance. For those seeking health cures, it is part of prevention or can be used to restore fitness.

However, for everyone:
• Listen to your body and avoid overexertion.
• Start with a warm-up phase.
• End with light stretching exercises.

Choose your own individual training intensity. This way, metabolism and circulation are optimally stimulated, and the heart stays in rhythm. The good rule of thumb is your personal maximum heart rate − abbreviated as MHR. With just two to three hikes, lasting 30 to 60 minutes per week, and an increase in pulse rate from 50 to 70% of MHR, your fitness will steadily improve. Another side effect is the healthy calorie burn. The body burns between 280 to 400 kcal in just one hour of hiking.

The health path "Wanderherz" is particularly suitable for light cardiovascular training to improve fitness. Check your performance periodically using MHR through manual pulse measurement or precisely with an electronic device. If you are already in the secondary or tertiary phase of prevention, we strongly recommend consulting your doctor or cardiologist about the correct dosage of your training sessions. This advice naturally applies in case of doubts or other health restrictions (shortness of breath, obesity, diabetes).

MET factor: 4-5

Caloric expenditure is measured in METs. For the MET = metabolic equivalent, there are two definitions. We choose the simpler one:
1 MET corresponds to a caloric expenditure of 1 kcal per kilogram of body weight per hour at rest. A person weighing 80 kg has a resting caloric expenditure of approximately 80 kcal per hour.
10 METs, accordingly, represent a caloric expenditure through sports, for example, of 800 kcal per hour. A leisurely walk is rated with a factor of 3 and a brisk hike with a factor of 4.5. Therefore, our example person would have burned 240 kcal after an hour of walking and 360 kcal after an hour of hiking.