Up For An Extreme Adventure? Fit For Trips Can Get You Off And Running

by Susan Kime (RSS feed)
Feb 22nd 2011 at 9:01AM

Recently, I wrote piece for Luxist about Abercrombie & Kent's new extreme adventures, five new ones that test the endurance many travelers: including trekking and/or snowmobiling across glaciers, going on road rallies in Morocco, sleeping in tents on glaciers and in deserts, hiking in Bhutan, climbing to the Base Camp of Mount Everest or Mount Kilimanjaro, and the like. It was suggested by Abercrombie & Kent that those who would like to do adventures like these might also like to partake of services provided by Fit For Trips, a company that provides fitness training for these extreme adventures and other, softer adventures as well.

The popularity of adventure travel has grown exponentially in recent years, due to many socio-economic factors: the Gen X/Y population and Boomers who want to experience places they have only seen in movies or read about, those who want to combine sports with adventure, those who want to include sports, risk, and adventure, and those who want a far out and far away, once-in-a-lifetime-experience.

"The consensus is there would be double or triple the number of people who would be up for these adventures if they felt fit enough to go, and this is where we come in," Marcus Shapiro, Founder of Fit For Trips, told Luxist recently.

In a perfect world, or even in a semi-perfect one, the many who wanted to do adventure travel would indeed be fit enough -- to cycle, climb mountains, hike all day, swim lakes, and ford rivers, ride horses, and camp -- but that seems not to be true. Many do not feel fit, many have had sports, accident, and just simply, life injuries. This is why Fit For Trips was created -- to partner with travel operators, like Abercrombie & Kent, so that people who wanted to take extreme adventures actually could.

Marcus Shapiro, founder of Fit For Trips, is by nature and education, a fitness trainer, world traveler and adventure enthusiast. After receiving his degree in Exercise And Sports Science, he traveled the world, and began conceptualizing two (then) diverse ideas -- fitness and adventure travel. He realized that in order to fully enjoy adventure travel, the traveler had to be fit, or fairly fit -- else he or she would be suffering from rolled ankles, torn meniscuses, rotator cuff injuries, and that once-in-a-lifetime adventure would REALLY become one, mainly because the traveler would never want to go on another adventure again.

"So, I started developing this idea in 1999, and in 2009, ten years later, Fit For Trips was launched. Here's how it works. A client is referred, we review the itineraries, and then we create personal exercise training programs, so the travelers can physically prepare for the activities on their trips. We can create programs for an easy adventure all the way to an epic challenge -- from going across the Arctic, photographing Polar Bears (see below), or going on a Horse or Camel Safari in Africa. You can have home or gym training, and you can test yourself as we have online the virtual steps and videos to help you see what you'll need to do to attain your fitness level. We call this the custom evolution of your fitness process. But we are here to help every step (literally) of the way."

"As an example," Marcus continues," if there will be substantial hiking involved in your adventure, there are three parts to the hiking program -- the ascent, the elevation, and the descent. Our program deals with exercises that will enhance all three parts of the climb. And these climbs are for everybody. Gentlemen in the seventies recently went on both the Mt. Kilimanjaro climb and the Mt. Everest Climb. One of them went with his grandson."

Mt. Kilimanjaro climb

Finally, each Fit for Trips program includes exercises and workout intensities that simulate the same stresses and forces on the body that the traveler will experience during his or her travel adventure. This enables the body to handle the unique challenges of the chosen trip itinerary in advance of actually traveling to the destination. By the time the traveler begin the adventure, after completing the Fit for Trips program, both body and mind will be optimally prepared to get maximum fulfillment from the adventure.

In addition, the Fit for Trips programs systematically change the exercises, level of intensity, repetitions and other elements of training over a period of 8 to 15+ weeks to ensure gradual improvements in the level of fitness and leading to a peak level of optimal physical performance at the exact time of departure for the adventure vacation.

According to Marcus, their most effective programs are between 8-15 weeks in duration. But Fit For Trips has created accelerated programs of four weeks for adventure travelers who can't wait to get off and running.