Schritt um Schritt zur aktiven Er­holung

Recreational leave as a contrast to the stressful everyday work? Let’s take a look at this question together and find out the role of hiking in relaxing holidays.

Active versus passive relaxation
On vacation you want to recover from the stressful everyday life – that’s clear! But what’s the best way to relax? Some say by doing as little as possible, which is called “passive recovery” in technical jargon. In recent years, however, based on the findings of training research, there has been increasing recognition that active rest is the more effective way of recovering – of course only if you don’t overdo it with the “active” word.

Anyone who just lies around lazily on a vacation is less rested afterwards than someone who was physically active during the vacation. This is pointed out by Prof. Froboese from the Center for Health at the German Sport University in Cologne. “After a relaxing, active vacation, you have demonstrably fewer stress hormones in your body for up to ten weeks and are therefore more resistant to stress,” he says. “The immune system is also strengthened and is more resistant to bacteria and viruses in everyday life.” Read more

The neuroscientist Schneider from the DSHS Cologne sees a clear connection between the increasing lack of exercise and the increasing number of mental disorders. The neuroscientist sums it up succinctly: “Only those who exert themselves physically can also relax afterwards.” However, everything in moderation! If the sport itself only serves to compare yourself to others in competition, the positive effect is reversed. If you rush from a marathon to the next triathlon at the weekend, the sporting activity increases the stress symptoms. More

Persistent exercise in the fresh air
So if you want to relax as best as possible on holiday, it is about the balance between physical activity and regeneration. When it comes to sporting activities, outdoor endurance sports are particularly suitable. Fresh air, inspiring landscapes and companions, flowing movements that move the whole body are ideal. And prerequisites for sporting activity that allow both the body and the mind to regenerate most effectively. All of the attributes mentioned can be found when hiking!

Pure relaxation: when walking becomes a meditative exercise! Here on the Wörthersee circular hiking trail ©Wörthersee Tourismus GmbH

Anyone who has walked for several days can understand that walking takes on a meditative character over time. You begin to perceive the landscape differently and time seems to take on a different quality. But it is about more than just the archaic movement pattern of walking. It’s these special moments that we claim for ourselves.

Hiking impressions for your relaxing holiday
Let yourself be taken along on such trail impressions for a relaxing holiday: stretch your feet and let your soul dangle – follow the course of the clouds and think about nothing – watch the stars in the night sky and stare obliviously into the fire – hear the buzzing of the bees and lose yourself in the murmur of the mountain stream – adapt your walking rhythm to the landscape and secretly hug a tree – feel yourself again and so to yourself find it yourself.

Physical and mental regeneration
Many people don’t just want to relax physically during their holiday. As many current studies show, psychological regeneration and further mental development are becoming increasingly important. This is a new way of life that will increasingly replace the more passive, connoisseur variant of “wellness”. You can see a change in values, away from the late-industrial culture of consumption and fun, towards a culture of change. In this cultural change, goals such as knowledge, transformation and autonomy are at the center. The futurologist Horx says: “When we have “experienced” everything, including all well-being and all relaxation, we expect experiences to have a lasting change effect in the future. Experiences should make us fitter, more competent and more powerful. Everything else is not enough for us.” 

This need is aimed at “the active strengthening of mental fitness and can thus also become a typical lifestyle of modern hikers,” writes Michael Hahn from the proreg institute, because “through the direct experience of nature and landscape, the view into one’s own inner life becomes clearer”. In this experience of external and internal interaction, the surrounding landscape plays an increasingly important role, especially for the urbanized population.

“Untouched natural but also extensively cultivated cultural landscapes are characterized by the fact that we, as sensitive beings who have always been close to nature, feel safe and connected there. As soon as we reconnect with nature, instincts that we thought were lost are reactivated, even for people who live in urban centers and have hardly any contact with this environment,” writes Dr. Rainer Brämer from Wanderforschung Deutschland. Read more

Experiencing and relaxing is becoming increasingly individual
This is also the reason why the experience unfolds by itself along the hiking trail. And this experience is highly individual! This is clearly shown by the hiking profile study by the German Hiking Institute. You hike more and more in small groups of friends or in couple constellations, with whom you feel comfortable and with whom you want to discover the landscape together.

You can hardly reach these individualists with the usual package tours! Fixed dates, random group composition, specified stage lengths, defined start and end points and no possibility for individual rest days no longer fit the expectations of these guests at all. Just have a look at our website: www.bookyourtrail.com and discover a world of unimagined possibilities for your relaxing holiday. She is as individual as you!

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