Walking Fitness for the Camino

Preparing your walking fitness for the Camino does not mean training like an athlete. It means understanding your current comfort level, building stamina gradually and choosing a pace that feels realistic for you.

This is the most frequent question our clients ask us. Firstly, don’t be worried about not being fit enough. People of all ages, fitness levels and walks of life can walk the Camino. However, to avoid the possibility of struggling with daily walks that are just too much for you, we ask you to consider the following:

1. Decide how far you are able to walk comfortably on a daily basis given your present lifestyle.
2. Decide how much time you have to your Camino walk, the overall distance you want and ideally where your start and finish points will be.
3. We will help you calculate just how far you will have to walk each day to reach your goal. It may be that you have to revise your plans or undertake a short programme of walking to get in better condition.
4. We provide a short programme for getting into walking fitness that starts very gently and gradually builds your stamina. The Camino is not a race, and you don’t need to be working out heavily to prepare well.
5. In the build-up to your walk, start gradually increasing the distance you walk each day, as well as varying the terrain you cover. This will greatly improve your stamina.

We recommend to all our clients planning to walk for two weeks or more that they take a rest day once a week.

Over many years and quite a few Camino journeys ourselves, we have witnessed other walkers coming unstuck as they try to cover too much ground in too little time. So far this has never been the case with any of our clients. They usually all arrive in Santiago hale and hearty, with body and feet intact.

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