HIKING VS TREKKING: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Healthy outdoor activities are important for everyone to have a healthy and fit lifestyle. However, people actually don’t know the difference between Hiking and Trekking. Both sound similar but there is a difference that we all need to know. Getting familiar with the difference will help us in preparing better before leaving for any outdoor activity either Trekking or Hiking. One thing is for sure that both activities are healthy for everyone to go on. After getting to know about what is trekking vs hiking, we’ll have a look at the advantages of these activities. Let’s start discussing both Trekking and Hiking to find out the difference between the two. 

Hiking VS Trekking

Let’s start with Hiking, Hiking is like a one-day long walk that might stay for a day or for overnight. You’d find well-established hiking trails and tracks when going on hiking to enjoy that natural environment to relax or for fun with friends. Besides on day hiking, you can do hiking overnight according to your preferences so there are no such limits regarding time. The distance of hiking might range from 5 to 50 Km. Hiking sounds fun and interesting outdoor activity 

On the other hand, Trekking is a journey as compared to hiking. Trekking usually lasts for more than 2 days and the distance of trekking varies from about 50 to more than 24,000 Km which is way more than the distance of hiking. When we talk about trekking, there are not any well-established tracks to go on. There would be roads full of dirt, mountain trails, unbalanced roads, and many other tough conditions when going on trekking. 

The comparison between Hiking and Trekking is simple, Hiking is for one day and Trekking is for multiple days. Hiking is way easy and smooth to go on as compared to trekking due to some hard circumstances. The distance difference between both activities shows how much you have to be well-prepared if going on trekking. 

Hiking VS Trekking

Benefits of Hiking and Trekking

After going through the difference between trekking and hiking, it’s time to have a look at the benefits of doing these exercises. The circumstances and conditions of both activities might differ but their advantages are almost the same. 

1- Boost Your  Strength

There could be nothing best than a Hiking or Trekking if you are looking for increasing your strength and stamina. Making any of these activities as a part of your life will benefit your bones and muscles in terms of giving you that stamina. In short, Hiking and Trekking both are ideal activities to keep yourself fit and active. 

2- Reduces the Chance of Heart Attack

Nowadays, everyone is getting a heart attack even the young generation. There could be lots of reasons behind heart attack and diseases but an unhealthy lifestyle is one of them. Going on Hiking or Trekking increases your blood flow which is good for your heart. As per one research, walking for an hour in a day for 5 days a week helps in decreasing the chance of heart disease. If you are a heart patient or have any heart disease, make walking or hiking a part of your daily routine.

3- Burn your Calories

A healthy lifestyle is the need of every single person either young or old. Most people want to burn their calories due to different health issues. You would be surprised to know the research-based fact is that hiking for an hour will help you in burning about 400 to 500 calories. That’s more than enough to ask for, so make hiking or trekking as a part of your routine if you want to burn your calories. 

4- Improves Mental Health 

Last but not least, Hiking and Trekking both play an important role in improving your mental health but how? Going on hiking or on a long trekking trip will let you take off from your busy routine of works and commitments. Beautiful nature scenes will let you relieve all the tensions and problems off your mind, your mind will get relaxed in that natural environment. Going on hiking or trekking along with friends will bring positivity and relief to your mind. Also, both outdoor activities help in fighting against stress and anxiety. 

These 4 were the only advantages we’ve discussed so far, there are many other benefits of these activities to make your lifestyle and health better. You must have a  first aid kit, water, food items, OTF knife, extra clothes, proper hiking gear boots, etc if planning to go on hiking or trekking especially. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

On a concluding note, we can conclude that Trekking and Hiking both are different in terms of distance and circumstances. We’ve realized that Trekking goes on for multiple days unlike hiking, Also, we got to know that the distance and road conditions are tough for trekking as compared to hiking. We’ve gone through some amazing advantages of Hiking and Trekking to know these activities contribute to use for living a healthy and active lifestyle. In the end, it is recommended to start going on Hiking or Trekking if you want to have good physical and mental health.


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