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The first two articles (here and here) in this series on way-finding were about skills and preparation. In this one, our resident navigation guru Terho Lahtinen take the training wheels off. Now he distills the essentials to stay on track when you’re on an adventure out in the backcountry. Terho has been map reading and navigating since he was six years old, when his father taught him. His love of the outdoors grew in the Boy Scouts, and eventually he competed in orienteering at the national level for Finland for more than 20 years, and was lead navigator for adventure racing team Salomon X-Act which competed around the globe for eight years. “Mountain sports took on a bigger role in my life while adventure racing,” Terho says. “I was the lead navigator in our team. Nowadays, I’m hiking, biking and ski-touring in the mountains as often as I can get away with.”   Clearly explain the route ahead to your group. This ensures everyone learns. © Arc'teryx / Piotr Drozdz Do a gear check You’ve just parked at the roadend, get out of your car, and gaze up at the mountains around you. You and your group will be alone there. It’s time to get locked in. First things first: check you have all the essential gear packed. The right maps, head torches, first aid kit, your trusty Suunto 9 or other GPS, maybe your avalanche safety gear, and that all electronic devices are fully charged. Brief the group Before charging up the trail, get your group together and hold a short briefing. This ensures everyone is on the same page and means less questions or confusion later. Talk about your intention for the trip, for example to stay safe, have fun, and be patient with one another. Then do an overview of the days ahead; where you are going, distances each day, points of interests, and where you’ll be sleeping. Lastly, preview the day ahead, the first leg of the day and what you will be encountering, and when you’ll be having lunch.   Remember to factor in breaks and toilet stops. Photo by Ted Bryan Yu on Unsplash Keep a schedule Knowing what you should encounter on each leg of your trip is the key to staying on track. Terho advises scheduling check points (to reach specific locations at particular times), consider safety margins, and when to turn back or change plans, perhaps due to tiredness, darkness, or inclement weather. Review the second article in this series to consider pace and average travelling time. Pause for a few minutes between legs, look at your map, and identify what’s coming up. “It’s good to have an overall idea of the day, and a more detailed understanding of the next logical leg of the route (usually a few kilometers or the next hour or so),” Terho explains. “Always identify the next clear navigation point you are aiming at to make sure you are staying on the planned route.” Use handrails Handrails are distinctive, guiding terrain features that can guide you to your destination. For example, you might go off trail in a certain direction until you reach a creek you’ve identified on the map. Then, you might use the creek as a handrail to find a bridge. “Suitable handrails are hills, ridges, contours, ditches, lake sides, rivers, or any other long terrain feature that take you towards the desired location,” Terho says. “Be sure you follow the hand rail in the right direction!” Aim with landmarks In addition to hand rails, you can also use distinctive landmarks near your next destination as navigation aids. “Instead of trying to directly find your destination, identify a clear terrain feature on the map that’s near your destination and find that first,” Terho says. “Then you’re sure to get close to where you want and then use more detailed navigation for the last part of the leg.”   The direct route isn't always the fastest route. Study the terrain. © Arc'teryx / Piotr Drozdz Test your memory Building on the previous two tips, Tehro suggests you test your memory to see what you recognise. First, review the plan for the next leg of your journey. Look at your map and identify the handrails and distinctive features or landmarks you should see on the way to your next destination. After getting a handle on that, put away your map and follow your plan to the next destination. How many times do you need to look at the map? “Mentally visualizing the upcoming route in advance and memorizing the essential features, trail forks, points of interest, is a useful technique,” Terho explains. “It helps you to recognize those locations on the go and gives you freedom to put your map or navigation device away and enjoy the surroundings and the activity itself.” Be willing to hit pause If you start to get the feeling you have gone astray, don’t keep going. Pause and gather yourself. One of the things that gets people in trouble in the backcountry is when they go off course there they double down and keep moving forward rather stopping, taking stock, and turning back if need be. “If you are uncertain, stop and check the location with your map,” Terho says. “If you don’t know where you are, don’t continue until you find it out.” Technology rocks While for way-finding purists, navigation should only involve a map and a compass, let us speak honestly here; technology is awesome and makes things easier for many of us. “If you upload your planned route to the GPS in advance, you can immediately see from the screen if you are off course and where the right course is in relation to your current location,” Terho says. “Most GPS also have an off-course alarm, notifying you if you left the intended path.” A Suunto 9, or other GPS device, includes an altimeter, which is a useful navigational support. It tells you your current elevation to help you identify where you are on the map. You can then stay at the correct elevation for your course. For example, as you cross a mountain saddle. Getting back on track In the event you do go off course, remember that not knowing exactly where you are is not the same as being lost. It’s important to stay calm if you realize you don’t know your location. Take a break, sit down, and think things through. “Start off by spotting landmarks around you to match them with the map,” Terho advises. “Think about where the last point was on the map where you knew where you were, and how long ago, in terms of time, that was. Work out how far you have traveled since then, what you’ve seen around you, and where you might have ended up. When you identify your location, plan the best option to get back on track.” You have three options: You can follow your track back to the point where you made a wrong turn. Alternatively, you can follow a new route to get back to your planned course. And lastly, you can follow a new route directly to the next destination. “The tactic you choose depends on the terrain, the skills and experience of your group, and the time of day,” Terho says. “If you are losing light, or in rugged terrain, always take the safest option.”   Stay tuned for the final article in our series on way-finding: Tips and tricks for handling challenging situations in the mountains.    Lead images: Photo by Krisjanis Mezulis on Unsplash Photo by Fabrizio Conti on Unsplash Read more articles: How to find your way in the mountains7 tips to plan a route in the mountains8 avalanche safety checks to tick off before the ski season7 tips to find a safe route up the mountain  

Suunto ambassador William Trubridge knows a thing or two about deep breathing. In 2016, he set a new world record by diving to 102 m on one breath. In 2019, he became the first man to complete an 'underwater crossing' of one of the world’s major channels, swimming across the wild Cook Strait as a series of 934 breath hold dives. William has recently taken another deep dive, this time into the medical world and its treatment of COVID-19. Concerned about the impacts of the virus, he researched how it attacks the body and the medically accepted treatments that help people recover from it. In the process, he learned therapeutic breathing can play a valuable role. Read on for his in-depth report! Scroll down to see William demonstrate a deep breathing exercise!   Therapeutic breathing for COVID-19 By William Trubridge   SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that targets the respiratory system. It attacks our ability to breathe. Now it’s emerging that a strategy to combat this infection may be through breathing itself. First, I need to state clearly I am neither an epidemiologist nor pulmonologist. Everything I describe in this article has been recommended by experts (who I will reference) in one or both of these fields, and I will not speak or extrapolate beyond their recommendations. My career in freediving has meant that I have spent almost two decades harnessing the power of breathing, and I hope to use this experience to help describe and demonstrate how to achieve the recommendations of the experts.For example, the instruction to ‘breathe deeply’ is like telling someone to ‘swim smoothly’– there is a lot of technique inherent in the action. A ‘deep breath’ could have vastly different results depending on whether you start at the base of the lungs, sucking air into the belly, or if instead you simply lift the shoulders and ‘gasp’ the air in. These are the distinctions where I hope to add value. When JK Rowling contracted Covid-19 in April, she employed a technique described by physician Sarfaraz Munshi from Queen Hospital UK that is aimed at maintaining lung function and preventing secondary pneumonia during the illness.1 The Youtube video of his description is here, and the sequence he advises can be summarised as follows: 1. Sit with a straight spine and feet flat on the floor (I add this instruction, since deep breathing while standing risks fainting).2. Breathe in deeply, hold for 5 seconds and exhale – repeat 5 times.3. Breathe in and do a big cough from the base of the lungs (covering your mouth) 4. Repeat Steps 2 & 3.5. Lie flat on your front with a pillow in front of you, taking fairly deep breaths for 10 minutes. This sequence is taught by respiratory physiotherapists also, where it sometimes goes by the name of ‘Active Cycle of Breathing Technique.’ It is important to remember it's a therapeutic treatment, not preventative: there is no reason to expect that it will help to protect against infection with the virus in the first place. The deep breaths help to ventilate alveoli and remove debris that has accumulated on the walls of the alveoli due to damage from the virus. This debris is what blocks oxygen from being absorbed into the blood, which can lead to a condition called ARDS. Lying on your stomach benefits aperture of the smaller airways: since these are distributed closer to your spine if you are lying on your back the weight of your torso will impede them from opening fully. Here is where I will add some extra directions/descriptions to ensure the exercise is as efficient and targeted as possible.   STEP 0 - Motivation   Many reports from Covid patients describe how it completely cripples energy levels. Even sitting up can be an ordeal, and the idea of committing to an exercise like this might require more motivation than what is in the tank. If that’s the case, then don’t commit to it to begin with. Just tell yourself you’re going to change position (which is recommended by pulmonologists to help prevent pneumonia) and come into a seated position. Once you’re there, the idea of one full breath might be feasible. Then see if you can complete just one round of steps 2 & 3. If that’s your limit go straight to Step 5, otherwise stick with it for another round. This way we only commit to doing something easy, that we know we can manage.   STEP 1 - SITTING   Support behind the spine is fine, as long as the spine is kept straight. What you want to avoid is being hunched, as you would be if you’re sitting up in bed leaning back against the headboard, or seated in a soft couch. Instead, try sitting in a chair or on the edge of the bed, with your feet on the ground in both cases. This allows you to access the full range of movement of your breathing muscles, and gives your torso space for your lungs to fully inflate.   STEP 2 - DEEP BREATHS   This is the key part of the exercise. The aim is to maximally inflate the alveoli (air sacs in your lungs, similar to how a sponge has tiny air chambers). In order to do this, we need to ensure that we are ventilating the entire volume of the lungs. Most of that volume is in the base of the lungs (they’re shaped like pyramids), and we actually have to think about breathing ‘into our belly’ in order to inflate this part. This activates the diaphragm muscle: a plate-like muscle that sits flat in your torso and separates the lungs and heart above from the digestive organs below. It works like a plunger, so that when it contracts and moves downwards then it pulls air into the lungs above it. The effect is also to push the stomach down and out, so it looks like the belly itself is inflating. This ‘diaphragmatic’ breath is the most efficient way of breathing, and it is how you should start the deep breaths. Visualise the air being sucked deep into the base of your torso. If you have one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest then your lower hand should move outwards as the stomach ‘inflates’, while the upper hand stays still during this phase. During the second phase you will breathe into the chest. This uses the intercostal muscles to expand the ribcage, and is how we breathe when we ‘gasp’. You will feel outwards movement in your upper hand, and also expansion as the ribs separate away from each other. It is important in this, and all phases of deep breathing, to stop if you ever experience sharp pain. It’s also important to try and maintain relaxation in all muscles that aren’t involved in the breath - check that your head, neck, arms and hands are all completely relaxed. Contraction there can inhibit your ability to breathe deeply. In the final phase of the inhale you will breathe into the upper ‘clavicular’ zone of the chest. Raise the shoulders and chin slightly and continue inhaling until you reach your limit. This phase has a lot less airflow than the previous two phases, and can be removed from the sequence if you’re already experiencing any discomfort or pain.   So Step 2 is actually: 2.1 Breathe powerfully into the belly, using the diaphragm2.2 Breathe into the torso by expanding the ribcage2.3 Elevate the shoulders to allow your breath to fill the upper part of the torso Again, stop at any point if you experience sharp pain or dizziness.Also, breathe through the nose to avoid irritating a dry cough, as the nose warms and moistens the air you take in.   Watch William demonstrate here and try to follow along.   STEP 3 - INHALE AND COUGH   The deep inhale should be the same as those in step 2. When you cough, in order to activate the base of the lungs, focus on squeezing your abdominal wall as you cough - this will make it more powerful and explosive, which should help to expel debris accumulating inside the lungs.   STEP 4 - REPEAT   Again, only if you feel comfortable. Also, give yourself a break between the two cycles. During the break you can relax and breathe normally (shallow).   STEP 5 - LIE FLAT 10 MINS   While lying on your front, the breathing doesn’t need to be as deep as it is in Step 2. You might want to concentrate on just the first phase of the breath - the diaphragmatic inhale - in order to ensure the air arrives at the base of the lungs. If you’re breathing in this way you should feel your belly swell underneath you, pushing down against the floor. There is no recommendation on exactly how many times to repeat this exercise in a day, but there should not be any disadvantage to performing it several times or as much as you are comfortable with. Also, even if you are reading this and not sick, it may be a wise move to perform it once just in case, so that your body has a kind of ‘benchmark’ for how it should feel when you’re well. That way, if the worst comes to the worst and you do contract the virus then you won’t have to learn the technique while sick, and you will be able to get an idea of the condition of your lungs from how it compares to when you were well. As always with any infection, keep hydrated, monitor your symptoms and report them to a doctor – don’t try to self-manage with these breathing exercises alone.   Lead images: Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash © Alex St Jean References https://www.huffpost.com/entry/deep-breathing-coronavirus-patients-symptoms_l_5ea1e2f0c5b6d13e4f73c856 2. lung pathologist Sanjay Mukhopadhyay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPtH42Lnt_Y3. Ema Swingwood, chair of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2241191-can-breathing-exercises-really-help-protect-you-from-covid-19/#ixzz6Linrrk4H

Practice mindful walking in your local park or forest. Photo by Biel Morro on Unsplash Mindful walking is a way of learning to enjoy the simplicity of the present moment. It’s not a weird, uptight way of walking. It’s all about being natural and relaxed, but paying attention in a particular way. Berlin based dynamic movement and mindfulness teacher Tatjana Mesar often includes mindful walking exercises in her yoga classes and teacher training courses. She says it teaches people to maintain a broader awareness of what’s happening in the moment, rather than being distracted by one thing or another. “Walking mindfully is an opportunity to make life fresh everyday,” Tatjana says. “Even though we walk the same route, with a mindful mindset it will be fresh each time.” Let’s be honest, it’s easy to get distracted while taking a stroll, especially in the city. Attention grabbing advertising, attractive people who catch the eye, and loud noises – they bombard our senses, tugginh them in different directions. “We do live in an attention economy so there are a lot of things designed to rob our attention,” Tatjana says. “Mindfulness helps us remain aware of the whole picture rather than being pulled into those things.” All this sensory stimuli can be pleasant or unpleasant, Tatjana expains, causing us to either be attracted or repelled. Police sirens might cause us to tense up, and feel the urge to move away. Colourful lights, on the other hand, catch our eyes and draw us towards them. This constant pushing and pulling is tiring. We can also get lost in our own thoughts, becoming oblivious to the world around us. Here are Tatjana’s five steps to learn how to walk mindfully. Mindful walking helps us to feel and notice more as we walk. Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash Take mindful nature walks It might be a lot easier for you to learn to walk mindfully in a nice park or forest than in a busy city. There are far fewer distractions and it’s easier to relax, which is the heart and soul of walking with presence. “When we remove ourselves from the city and go into nature, our senses become more open and curious and we immerse ourselves in the landscape,” Tatjana says. “Now the trick is to apply what we learn to the city.” Open your awareness Whether you’re practicing mindful walking in nature or the city, the next step is to learn to maintain a wide field of awareness rather than being pulled into details. There are two aspects to this: Sight: “Allow everything to enter your visual field without picking and choosing one object,” Tatjana says. “When you notice you are caught in a detail, simply widen your perspective again. It's like a camera; we can choose wide or narrow lens. We want to maintain a wide angle perspective.” Sound: This is the same as above, but applied to what we hear. Rather than zooming in on one sound, try to maintain a broader awareness of all the sounds around you. This takes time and practice to learn. “Try to keep the attention present on everything you are hearing,” Tatjana says. One footstep at a time The next step is to learn to anchor your attention on the process of walking itself. The main anchor point is the feeling of the feet on the ground. There are two stages to this: Each step: To begin with, just focus on the feeling of your feet on the ground; the weight shifting from one foot to the other. “ If your mind is very busy, you can stay with this the whole time,” Tatjana says. “Just know when your feet are touching the ground and the movement of the body. Don’t interpret it in any way, just stay with direct recognition.” Whole body: The second stage is to broaden your awareness to include feeling the whole body, as well as your feet. Notice the legs and arms swinging, and the subtle rotation in the spine. “Be aware of movement unfolding in the body as you walk,” Tatjana says. “As the body moves the mind rests in that movement rather than running away with thoughts. I compare it to lying in a hammock; the hammock is moving, but you are relaxed.” Keep it fresh Humans are creatures of habit. We like to have a comfortable routine to stick to. But this can cause us to operate on automatic pilot, so we don’t really tune into what’s happening. “If we make our walking a routine, doing the same thing everyday, then we end up on autopilot, limiting life to mindless repetition,” Tatjana says. “It’s important to realise that we have other options. So don’t always walk in the same streets. Find a way to change the route.” Practice at home Mindfulness is all about interrupting our routines so we wake up to the freshness of life. Home is usually a place we are the most routinised. “It’s nice to slow down at home and be aware of your feet on the ground as you walk around,” Tatjana says. “Learning to slow down is the key.” Lead images: Photo by aliunix on Unsplash Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash Read more articles How to walk your way to good health How to improve your walking technique 7 tips to plan a route in the mountains

As a salute to all the frontline community heroes who have kept services running throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Adidas Running has launched a donation relay to support relief efforts. From May 29 - June 7, for every hour you exercise, regardless of sport, Adidas Running is giving $1USD to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response fund. The goal of the #HomeTeamHero challenge is to inspire one million workout hours, raising one million US dollars! All you need to do is connect your Suunto app and Adidas Running accounts, join the challenge, record your next workout with your Suunto watch and, boom, your activity is automatically synced with your Adidas Running account and your time and sweat will support the WHO’s COVID-19 relief efforts. Who needs more motivation than that?   Join the #HomeTeamHero donation relay!     All the latest Suunto watches – the 3, 5, 7 and 9 – are now compatible with the Adidas Running app (formerly called Runtastic). Adidas Running is a passionate community, and offers regular challenges, tips on how to train and tools to follow your training and progress. There is both a free version of the app, and a premium membership with extra benefits. To sync with Adidas Running, go to your Profile in Suunto App and select Connect to other services. Select Adidas Running and connect your account. All your new workouts will then automatically flow to Adidas Running. To show the endurance power of Suunto users and to represent, you can also join the Suunto group in the Adidas Running app. Let’s show them how we do it!   All images: © Thomas Marzusch, Kreativ-Instinkt   Read more articles Blaze fresh routes with Suunto Heatmaps  The benefits of training to music and making your best playlist How to adapt your training when the unexpected strikes How to improve your walking technique

Rather than follow the herd, with Suunto Heatmaps you can find places where the crowd doesn't train. Then paint the town red and yellow with your own training glow. Whether you're looking for running, cycling, swimming or hiking routes, Heatmaps shows where the hotspots are, and where there's space for you to stay safe and keep your distance. View Heatmaps on Suunto app and offline with Suunto 7 Based on millions of workouts, Heatmaps show where the Suunto community loves to train across the planet. Discover new training routes in your own neighborhood, find the popular local spots when you are somewhere new or – to stay safe and keep your distance – avoid the much-travelled trails. To view activity specific Heatmaps and to plan routes go to the map view of your Suunto app and select the desired Heatmap layer. If you don’t have Suunto app yet, get it from the App Store or Google Play and start exploring. On a Suunto 7 you have easy, offline access to both Heatmaps and detailed terrain maps when you're exercising outdoors. You can see your track on the map, use Heatmaps to explore new routes, or follow your track back to where you started from.

Photo by Matic Kozinc on Unsplash Walking feels like the most natural thing in the world. It’s just one foot in front of another, right? Well yes, but not quite. In this second article in our series on walking your way to good health (first article here), dynamic movement and mindfulness teacher Tatjana Mesar explains how there is more to walking well than you might guess. She runs Zen Yoga by Dynamic Mindfulness, a studio and school in Berlin, and trains yoga teachers. Tatjana is passionate about helping people find more freedom and spontaneity in their movement, and breaking out of conditioned and limiting movement patterns. When she isn’t teaching, Tatjana studies the science of movement, and implements what’s relevant into her training. Recently, she has been studying Axis Syllabus, a biomechanical user manual and movement system. How we walk, our gait, is a central part of that training. Socially ingrained gait patterns What research shows is that how we walk, our gait mechanics, isn’t as “natural” as we might believe. We learn to walk by observing our parents and the world around us. As we grow up, we embody the patterns we see. These can limit the full potential of our gait. Some of us unconsciouly prevent the pelvis and arms from swinging because of cultural taboos that frown upon having a gait as being, for example, too free. “One of the main elements regarding our gait is the counter lateral movement pattern (swinging the opposite arm and leg forward as we walk), which is an engineering marvel of human movement,” Tatjana says. “However, we don't really use it to its full potential due to the fact that walking is mostly cultural.” “Changing the gait pattern is a process,” Tatjana continues. “It’s worth the effort because there’s usually a huge leak of energy when our gait is unbalanced or restricted.” Here are three tips to improve your technique. Explore your cross lateral pattern You can do this exercise at home before you even step out the door. Its purpose is to learn to walk more freely. To begin with, stand in one spot, and practice swinging your arms forward and back, allowing the pelvis to rotate side to side. As you do this bounce a little in your knees. Once you have a feeling for this, begin taking steps forward, swinging the opposite arm and leg forward as you do so. Really allow your arms to swing. Try to relax as you do this, and don’t worry if it feels weird. Unlearning old and learning new movement patterns always feels awkward at the beginning. Practice this, off and on, when you are out walking, and over time it will become more natural. Click play to watch Tatjana demonstrating a natural, free gait. Check your head position Another common issue with how we walk is our head position. It’s common for people to look down, tilting their head forward. “Especially because so often now we are walking and looking down at our smartphones,” Tatjana says. “The head adds six to eight kilograms of weight, but by tilting the head forward it increases to something like twenty kilograms. If the head is positioned directly above the shoulders, with the chin parallel to the ground, then that weight is transferred down into the feet and ground.” When you’re walking, Tatjana advises to keep your head upright, with your eyes looking ahead, not on the ground below. “Also, relax your lower jaw, even slightly open the mouth to facilitate this, and relax the root of the tongue,” she says. In this clip, Tatjana demonstrates a fun exercise to help free the pelvis. Roll the feet How you place your feet as you walk is also important. The correct technique, Tatjana says, is to roll the feet down as you step through. First place the centre of the heel, then roll the outside edge of the foot down before placing the outer toes, and rolling down the inner toes. This is also something to take your time with exploring. Don’t force yourself to do it all the time. It’s good to spend some time noticing how you are already placing the feet. “Imagine when you are walking you are kissing the earth with your feet,” Tatjana says. “This will help your footsteps to become more sensitive and mindful.” Lead image: Photo by Noah Phung on Unsplash Read more articles How to walk your way to good health The benefits of training to music and making your best playlist 7 recovery tips for immune fitness