As a travel physical therapist, you already know that exercise is one of the critical keys to maintaining overall health and wellness. With summer here, maybe it’s time to take advantage of nature's gym and use hiking to improve your strength and skills to become a better physical therapist! Here’s how hiking can make a difference in your work:  

Aerobics Like it’s The 80s

Obviously, exercise is a necessary component to healthy living and should be a main priority in all of your patients' lives. The Mayo Clinic says adults should dedicate at least 150 minutes to moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. Of course your patients may hear this and immediately think "No. It’s hot." Here’s where you come in. While your patients may not be able to dedicate a lot of time and effort to exercise, you can help them set goals to aim for by assigning them specific hikes. As you know, hiking is a great form of aerobic exercise that builds muscle, improves balance, helps maintain a healthy weight, improves cardiorespiratory fitness and more. Frankly, it can be the perfect starting point for someone who's neglected their health and needs to get back into a workout routine.

Practice Patience Like A Stoic

Much like any career in the healthcare field, a job in physical therapy takes patience. This is especially true when you're a travel PT since you're constantly changing work locations, and getting comfortable with new coworkers. Improving your ability to exhibit patience to your clients is essential to your success in physical therapy. That’s where hiking comes in. It’s  the perfect way to sharpen your practice at patience. Not only are hiking trails unusually crowded since COVID-19 sent everyone outside, hitting a rocky area or passing throngs of people on narrow trails are a great way to become more patient in your practice. Not to mention the amount of time it takes to hike a trail beginning to end.