Hiking is a great way to add a little variety to your exercise routine and some simple safety precautions will ensure an enjoyable trip. In addition to being prepared physically, you will want to select the right trail, pack the right gear, and know how to take care of yourself in an emergency.

Hiking and Backpacking Safety Tips

A Seattle-based hiking organization called the Mountaineers, recommends all hikers carry the following 10 essential items.

The Ten Essentials for Hiking

After more than twenty years the Army has changed its fitness tests for recruits as well as the enlisted. The new Army fitness assessments do more than measure how many sit ups and push ups one can do, they actually help prepare a soldier for combat. The specific five exercises performed in the test provide a better measure of strength, endurance and mobility and include:

1. A 60-yard shuttle run
2. Standing long jump
3. One minute of 'rowers'
4. One minute of pushups
5. A 1.5-mile run

But the Army doesn't stop there. In addition to the new fitness test measures, there is a Combat Readiness test that includes a challenging obstacle course filled with drills, lifts and jumps that look a lot like a CrossFit WOD (workout of the day).

Every year, soldiers will have to complete the test that includes a 400 meter run carrying a rifle, moving through an obstacle course in full combat gear, and crawling and jumping over obstacles while aiming a weapon. Soldiers also will have to run a balance beam while carrying 30-pound ammo cans and then do an agility sprint around a course field of cones. If that's not enough, next they will drag weighted sleds to simulate carrying a "causality" from the field.

To learn if you have what it takes to complete these assessments, read all the details and set up your own training routine. Read More: Army Fitness and Combat Readiness Tests

Need a little spice in your push up routine? Try adding a few variations to the standard push up.

If you can only do one exercise, and want to make it count, push ups will be on the top of the list. Great for upper body and core strength and endurance, adding a few modifications make it an effective total workout. Some of the most common ways to modify the push up include:

Alternating Medicine Ball Push Up
This variation adds core stability as well as a modified range of motion during the basic push up movement. Roll the medicine ball between each hand after a reps and add a new balance challenge.

Push Up Lat Row
Add a couple of dumbbells to the push up movement and you have nice push-pull upper body workout.  This modification increases the intensity of the exercise, activates the core stabilizers and engages the latissimus dorsi (back) muscles.

Stability Ball Push Ups
If you are ready to move beyond the basic push and add some core stability work try stability ball push ups. This variation of the push up increases the difficulty and effectiveness of the standard push up. Adding the balance requirement takes some practice an good core strength, so make sure you can do about 20 basic push ups before trying these.

Incline (Table Top) Push Ups
If you're not quite ready for basic push ups, start by doing push ups against a wall, a table or a sturdy chair. Stand several feet back  use the same push movement to lower yourself until the elbows are 90 degrees and then raise back up. Keep you core tight the whole time.

There are a variety of methods for determining exercise intensity levels. You can invest in a complicated heart rate monitor, religiously measure your morning resting heart rate, or track your training times and miles day by day. By for those not worried about winning by the slightest margin, you don't need anything more than listening to your own body.

One of the easiest ways to judge how hard you are exercise is to use a basic Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. This is a simple scale that allows you to choose how hard you think you are exercising on a scale from no effort at all to maximal effort. You may think that because this scale is purely subjective, it can't be very accurate or reliable. On the contrary, research shows that a person's self-reported exertion ratings provide a fairly good estimate of the actual heart rate during physical activity.

Read more about the RPE scale and how you can use it during your workouts.

The Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale

6 No exertion at all
7 Extremely light
8
9 Very light - (easy walking slowly at a comfortable pace)
10
11 Light
12
13 Somewhat hard (It is quite an effort; you feel tired but can continue)
14
15 Hard (heavy)
16
17 Very hard (very strenuous, and you are very fatigued)
18
19 Extremely hard (You can not continue for long at this pace)
20 Maximal exertion