Megan Hine: how to get 'adventure-fit' this Bank Holiday

Megan Hine is an expedition leader and survival expert who has worked on all-action TV series such as Bear Grylls: Mission Survive. Ahead of another sun-soaked Bank Holiday weekend, she tells The Telegraph how to get fighting fit for outdoor adventure – from lifting rocks to sprinting through water

1. Battle Mother Nature with all-round functional fitness

“My job is very physical because I spend 10-11 months of the year on the road, in jungles and mountain ranges. My job might involve climbing or running but it involves lots of explosive fitness as well.

When we are filming I am often protecting the camera guys or the sound guys when we’re climbing, running through the environment or following the action or the presenter. There will be lots of standing around and then suddenly we are sprinting. So it is a bit like doing HIIT for hours.

My body needs to respond to lots of different and unexpected things, not the same thing all the time – and that is the same for anyone who wants to spend time outdoors. Rock climbing might work my upper-body and core but I also have to carry a lot of heavy kit and ropes which works the lower body as well. So if you want to do lots of outdoor activity it is best to aim for a really broad and balanced range of fitness.”

2. Use the Great Outdoors as your free gym

“I often spend weeks outdoors and I don’t have access to a gym so I like to improvise. We might just be in a static camp so I do a lot of things like lifting rocks and other forms of resistance training. I like improvising with anything I can find. Where I am based in North Wales, when the tide goes out we have a lot of boulders, so first thing in the morning I will go down and run across the boulders.

"The ability to boulder-hop helps me to build my reactions, change direction quickly and jump around. I also like running through water because it adds extra resistance and strengthens your legs. I go up to my waist in the water and sprint back and forth.”

3. Try to mirror the movements of your favourite outdoor activities

“If I do have access to a gym I think a lot about which exercises match the movements I will be using when I am rock climbing or running through an environment. Then I just try to copy those across. For example, I am always carrying heavy packs outdoors so I do a lot of balancing stuff as well as sit-ups and twists which help to mirror that.”

4. Don’t lift heavier than your backpack

“I do a lot of bodyweight exercises like calisthenics and press-ups to work on my strength and my core. The main thing is trying to work both sides of the body for good balance. If I lift weights above my bodyweight I end up with bulk which gets in my way. So the most I will use is an extra 20kg which is the equivalent of my rucksack.”

5. Build an iron grip with hanging raises and pull-ups

“Hanging raises are good for people who like being outdoors because you are working your core but also your grip strength, which is really useful for climbing and things like that. I also do pull-ups which also work your grip as well – very helpful in a lot of outdoor activities.”

6. Get fit with cycling and climbing

“The best thing about outdoor activities like rock climbing, mountain biking and mountaineering is that you get fit while you do it. You can build up your muscles for those activities in the gym but you don’t get the same movement as you do when you are actually doing the activity in a natural environment. So go outdoors with friends and make it fun.

"I love mountain biking. I grew up doing it from the age of 12-13. And when I am away I do running and mountaineering. But I never see any of this as ‘training’ and that is why I do so much of it. If I started viewing things as ‘training’ I would rebel against it. I don’t like being told I should be doing something! So mountain biking or climbing are activities which I just think of as being good fun.”

7. Pack some portable fitness kit on holiday

“TRX suspension training kit is a really good thing to pack with you and hang from a tree. They are brilliant for lots of bodyweight exercises. I also take resistance bands for stretching and resistance workouts and they roll up really small when you’re on the move.”

8. Don’t push too hard

“The best way to get fit for the outdoors is to build up slowly. Everybody lives such busy lives and hard training can easily become a chore. So adding a brutal training programme into your already busy schedule is a recipe for failure because you won’t be able to fit it in. Start by making small changes, like doing a few press-ups while the kettle is boiling. As your body starts getting fitter you will get more energy and naturally want to do more.”

9. Identify what fuel your own body needs

“I eat gluten-free because I am gluten intolerant so that makes things tricky on expeditions. When I am away I don’t have a huge amount of control over what food I can get. If I am living in a jungle village I know it will be rice and fish every day. But I know my body prefers protein over carbohydrates so I focus on finding those sources. I don’t eat sugar and I stick to lots of fish and vegetables and meat. The simpler the better when you’re away, but I am very conscious of finding protein sources throughout the day as I know my body needs that.”

10. Work your brain as well as your body

“You need to keep your brain active outdoors. The more alert you are when you are outdoors, the safer you will feel. The mind-body connection is important. I do something called ‘scenario planning’ which is similar to the visualisation used by athletes. Basically I run possible scenarios through my head all the time. So I imagine hiking on trails at night and I think: what would I do if someone fell down and I didn’t have a rope and we were 24 hours from help? What could I use to improvise as a rope to get them back up? I have to keep my mind active and not let it fall asleep. By running those scenarios through my head I am ready physically and mentally to react to any challenges that might come my way.”  

Mind of a Survivor by Megan Hine (published by Coronet) is out now priced £9.99