Why Do I Get Sore Glutes After Hiking?

Sore Glutes after Hiking – DOMS Explained

Many hikers complain that they experience sore muscles after hiking, especially sore glutes, and generally the next day. So why do we get sore muscles, and are there ways to prevent it? These questions and more will be answered in the next few short paragraphs, so read on.

More often than not, Hiking, Hill Walking or Rambling is a sedentary, low impact period of exercise. So why do so many hikers experience sore Glutes after hiking? The answer, is that we are experiencing Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS.

DOMS is normally experienced after overloading and overworking our muscles, by doing something like a few hours of heavy Deadlifts in the gym of heavily weighted Squats. All we have been doing is walking around the hills, stepping over a few rocks and clambering up a bit of shale. Surely that isn’t the equivalent of the Gym Torture we mentioned earlier? Actually, most people are really surprised when they find out what a tough, all round workout Hiking really is.

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