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Welcome to the home of Grand Canyon hiking. The Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show helps hikers plan, train for, and better understand hikes below the rim, from short day hikes to Rim-to-Rim, Rim-to-River, Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail, North Kaibab Trail, backpacking trips, heat safety, water planning, shuttle logistics, and more.
Host Brian Speciale shares Grand Canyon stories, trail-tested advice, safety lessons, interviews, and community wisdom from first-timers, seasoned hikers, rangers, Canyon insiders, and everyday people who have learned powerful lessons below the rim.
Whether you are planning Rim-to-Rim, dreaming of Phantom Ranch, preparing for your first Grand Canyon hike, or looking for honest stories of triumph, tragedy, mistakes, and trail-won wisdom, this podcast will help you hike your best hike.
Listeners call the show “an invaluable resource,” “the perfect mix of inspiration, realistic caution, and tips for success,” and “a welcoming place and wealth of information.”
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Hey, everybody. It's Brian here, and we have a little bit of a special episode for you here today. Coach Arnie, earlier this week, did a Facebook Live in our Hike Club Grand Canyon Facebook group. And if you're on there, you might have seen him practicing in the days leading up to it, getting the technical know how down the best that he the best that he could. But ultimately, coach pulled it off.
Brian:And I listened in on it, and it was just a treasure trove of information as coach sat there for an hour, and in his own way answered people's questions, and talked about feet, and walking backwards, and shoes, and and other canyon specific things, such as hiking in the heat and and just practice, practice, practice. So I thought that this was something that we should turn into a podcast, especially when it comes to health and training and what to eat, nutrition, all that stuff from the man himself, coach Arnie, Arnie Foncica Junior, our resident exercise physiologist and Canyon coach. So without further ado, here is coach Arnie. Take it away, coach.
Arnie:So coach Arnie is here, and let's see how many people we get in here. But I'm gonna start off by just a quick introduction, and and then we'll just get rolling here. Appreciate everybody being here. And if you're not here and if you're listening to this later, that's great. We've got some some good questions to get started with.
Arnie:First off, I wanna I wanna thank Pat Garner for kind of initiating this after we had a great live event at the at the dungeon. One one part that got left out of the Zoom call since with the our cameras overheated and stopped and the batteries stopped and but regardless, was we had a really neat q and a session the last, oh, half hour, forty five minutes where the ladies just asked lots of questions. And I did the best I could to answer as many as I could, and in many ways, that was the best part because we all have questions about this amazing place that we wanna visit and have adventures in. And so hopefully, coach Arnie, can help you guys. And I know there's a lot of that out there as well in in our community.
Arnie:So so she kinda pushed me to, hey. You need to do do something like that online. I said, ah, okay. So here we are. And and and thank you to Brian Special for his putting all this together with his community, with our community, and he he put up some really cool pictures.
Arnie:So so I'm just gonna get rolling here. And most of you know me, but if you don't know me, I am an exercise physiologist. I'm 67 years old. Didn't get to the Grand Canyon until I was 55, so got time. And we first went there, and this drives this drive drove a lot of people crazy initially, but my first encounter with the Canyon with my daughter and her husband was an r three.
Arnie:And everybody I told that to, they said, you can't do that. And I said, why not? Because my background first off, my background is from the athletic side is as a strength athlete, not a runner. I did do a lot of triathlons and stuff back about almost fifty years ago. But I am I got I I fell in love with with ultra running and all that stuff.
Arnie:I was able to train with some really neat people. Some of you may have heard of Aravaipa and did some really cool things with them and just fell in love with it, but I had no idea there was stuff that was called ultra. What what is this? And and then found the Grand Canyon. I always wanted to get there, but never got there till I was 55.
Arnie:And having done marathons and stuff, I thought, well, why would I do a rim to rim? That sounds too complicated. Just go all the way across and come back. So that's what we did. Now it didn't end well for my son-in-law, but I fell in love with the place.
Arnie:And we were back there the following year, and we had another mishap with my son-in-law. So he's he's actually o for three, but don't tell Mitch. And but I I continued to fall in love and and then went on and did some long 100 mile races and other things, and but I always the canyon was always pulling me back. And then I came back, well, I don't know, 2007 1819, and just started going down there. And then a friend of mine had done what's called an r five.
Arnie:And I at that point, you know, I thought I was curious enough to to ask what the heck you know, how do you even train for that? And so first thing I did was he told me, and I went he wanted me to do a rim to river and then and a rim to rim to rim. And but he goes, don't ever do the rim to rim to rim first because that's really hard, and and it's a great accomplishment, and so you may not wanna do the rim to river. So I did a rim to river and then a rim to rim to rim, and it was hard. But that started, then COVID hit, and but I just kept going and kept going, and I did an r five.
Arnie:No one even knew about it. It was I'll call it my quiet r five, and it was it was hard. It was a lot of work. And then I was encouraged to do it again, and most of you that are here probably heard about that thing. That was a couple years ago, and but, you know, The Canyon is a wonderful place.
Arnie:I've learned a lot, and I wanna share a lot. I do a lot of work with, you know, my background is brain and spinal cord, so I do a lot with pain and body mechanics, movement patterns, all that stuff, and I I study that stuff. And it it's really been a blessing to be able to help a lot of the folks here with stuff, you know, using those skill sets. So and if I can help you, that's even greater. So I'm gonna start off with some questions that we've been sent in here.
Arnie:I guess you guys can just type in questions, and hopefully, this thing went out. That's my that's my curiosity with technology. I was talking to somebody yesterday, and he was losing his mind with technology. Because we didn't grow up with this stuff, but we're I'm learning. So hopefully, it's going, I have Pat's out there and other people who are gonna give me some heads up and let me know that it's it's going good.
Arnie:So I'm gonna start off. Somebody asked, what four exercises would you do every day for rim to rim in early October? Great question. First thing I would do every day first thing you have to get healthy. So let's assume that we're healthier.
Arnie:What I would do every day, I would walk backwards. I would walk backwards. Okay? I would do something for my feet. I mean, whether it is working on my big toe, we balance on what's called a mobile board.
Arnie:But there's a lot of things you can do. We have I have an exercise that's called spring foot, and I have a modified spring foot where we work on balancing on our big toe and our our our basically, what we're doing there is working on the fascia, the tendons on the in the foot. Okay? So that would be done every day. I also every day is kind of a crazy question, but I I definitely wouldn't be moving forward every day unless I was healthy.
Arnie:But you could walk every day if you were healthy. And then but what I would do on a regular basis, I would work on my anterior tibialis. We do what's called a tib raise for that. There's a couple different ways you can do that, and that's working the muscle in the front of your leg from your knee down to your ankle, the anterior tibialis. It is so valuable.
Arnie:If you only knew, and those that work with me know how valuable it is, especially on the downhill, because everything I teach is about the downhill. Okay? And then the second thing I would work, the other muscle that would work very consistently, at least twice a week, is the hip flexor. That's the muscle between the hip, you know, the thigh and the abdomen. K?
Arnie:So important. So important because and again, I'll say it once, you may hear me say it 10 more times, is that if you have knee pain, it's not because you have a a bad knee. It's because you probably have weak feet or a or weak hips, glutes, hips. It's either your foot or your hips. It's generally not your knee unless you got hit by a truck.
Arnie:Okay? But weak hips cause knee pain. Weak feet cause hip misalignment, which causes knee pain. Get it? So we gotta strengthen up the feet and the hips and your knee is fine.
Arnie:We protect the knee. So that's what we work on. Alright. So those are four things right there that I would be doing like today and let's go chop chop. But if you're not walking backwards, and then eventually against resistance walking backwards, you're making a mistake.
Arnie:Okay? And if you're just out there gonna pound away to you're gonna pound your way into submission to get in shape, well, good luck. It might work. It works for some people. It doesn't work for others.
Arnie:I want you to my goal for everybody that does the Canyon is to to come out of there with a smile on your face and pain free. That's the goal. Gotta have a smile, and you gotta be pain free, or it's it's a long day. Alright? Alright, guys.
Arnie:So then here's another question. Flatland training for a rim to rim. That's a great question. I get this question all the time. That's what I do.
Arnie:That's what I do. You know, I just mentioned the number one flatland exercise, walking backwards. And if you walk backwards with resistance, pulling a sled, pulling tires, I was showing put up a video yesterday about with pushing a car. That was for the prowler. But with the car, you can also put your butt on the bumper of the car and push it backwards.
Arnie:So you're working those same muscles again because why are we doing that? Because when you go downhill, okay, when we go downhill, you're putting stress on the hip, the glutes, the hamstrings. Okay? The anterior tibialis, the foot. And so that's what we wanna train.
Arnie:Because if you wanna have a good experience in the canyon, is you wanna get down to Phantom Ranch or wherever you're going and not be beat up. The problem is so many people I talk to them every day. They think you're supposed to be beat up from going downhill. That's insanity. Okay?
Arnie:You train for that. You train for everything in the canyon. There is you should not have any surprises. I mean, look. Injuries happen.
Arnie:You get sick. But you but you also learn how to manage that too. Okay? And so you shouldn't be surprised like, oh, jeez. That was hard.
Arnie:No. You weren't ready. You weren't ready. So you train for 5,000 feet of downhill. Okay?
Arnie:That's just the way it is. You train for that. And so the way you do that with heavy reverse pulls, what I call backwards walking with resistance. And if you can't do that because you're not healthy enough yet, then you start walking backwards without anything. You know, I've had people start off for a month just walking backward.
Arnie:And then we start adding weight to them. And then we start adding more weight, before you know it, they're doing a lot of weight. But you can figure that out too. All you gotta do is message me on that. But I mean, I put a lot of videos up, but at the same time, you can get a tire, you get a chain, and a waist belt that you can put around your waist, and for a few dollars down at Home Depot, and an old tire you find somewhere, I've even had people go to tire shops and ask them if they can have an old tire, and guess what they do?
Arnie:Sure. So I mean, there's a lot of things, a lot of ways around this, and then you can put weight in that tire too. You can also walk backwards up a hill. That's a good one. But you gotta be careful on the downhill that you're not overdoing it if unless you're ready.
Arnie:If you're ready, that's fine. But backwards and then we do we just do so many exercise strength because people people are are surprised as well when I tell them that I only hiked one day a week when I did my r five. That's for almost 90 miles guys. And I hiked one day a week. Why was I able to do that?
Arnie:Well, that's my whole system. The whole system is if you strength train, if you do the appropriate muscles, And, you know, there's nothing there's nothing bad about squats and deadlifts and all that stuff. Look. I'm a former power lifter. I did all that stuff.
Arnie:But when you're doing Canyon specific exercises, I mean Canyon specific exercise, because people come back from the Canyon that work with me and say, wow. That really made a difference. And that's what I wanna hear because I know it made a difference for me, and I and I know that it'll make a difference for you. The canyon specific exercise for you flatlanders will get you into the canyon and out of the canyon with a smile on your face and pain free. It just will if you train hard and you earn it.
Arnie:There's no you're not gonna go to the canyon and just kinda lollygag your way into it. You gotta earn it. You gotta work hard. And it doesn't mean you're out there running marathons. It means you're training those canyon muscles appropriately, and and then you're working on those, you know, down specific downhill movements you could, like with the oh, I'm getting notes here from Facebook.
Arnie:So the point is is yes, that is possible. And for any of you that are interested, you know, because we got other questions here, you can always message me. You can we'll we'll figure out a time to talk, and I can help you with that too. Flatland training is not a big deal. It's not.
Arnie:Okay? Alright. Third question here. What type brand of shoes or brand of shoes would I recommend? That's a tricky one, and I'm a explain my theory behind that.
Arnie:I came up with a concept years ago with somebody, a good friend, and we called it shoe proof. So if you if you appropriately train and I am feet obsessed, just so you know. If you appropriately train your feet, if you strengthen your feet the right way, ask anybody that comes to see me. We're doing foot stuff. We we actually kinda got into it this morning.
Arnie:One of the the ladies there that was dealing with a little hip problem. She finally said, oh, man. I finally realized, you know, coach Arnie was right with all this foot stuff. And but that's fine. But I don't wanna be right.
Arnie:I want you to be better. So if there's foot things you need to be doing, then you need to be doing them. And it's all over the place, but you've gotta make a commitment that that's what you're gonna do. So if you're gonna work your feet, work your feet. We do hard foot training at least twice a week, but you can do mobile board training.
Arnie:You can do toe exercises. I do that stuff every single day. So, you know, back to the previous question, that's an everyday thing. I think I said that, but working your feet. You gotta work your feet.
Arnie:Okay? And we we continually work our feet. And so once you have strong feet, okay, now now you're in the driver's seat when it comes to shoes. Now when we were when when we were coming up with this theory, now you just gotta find a shoe that fits. Okay?
Arnie:Because before I did all this stuff, if I had a low drop four millimeter, eight millimeter, flat foot, this foot, that foot, this supinator, whatever Nader shoe, it it would hurt me. Get it? People would be surprised. The year I did my r five, I was buying used shoes, hiking shoes online and have them shipped to my house because I knew what I and some of them didn't fit great, but I knew I was tearing them up on the mountain. So I just bought used shoes, You know?
Arnie:Because my feet were strong. And as long as the shoe fit I mean, if it didn't fit, the couple came and this stuff. But but as long as they fit, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Then you're now you're not under the the you're not a prisoner of a podiatrist or some other nonsense stuff with because people that see me do not get plantar fasciitis.
Arnie:And most of the time, we can get rid of it. If we get if we get those arches stronger and those toes stronger, plantar fasciitis goes away, and you're not gonna get it. And strengthening those arches, all that stuff is so important. And if you're doing all that stuff, it doesn't matter what shoe brand you wear. Just find one that works.
Arnie:It fits good. You know, when I go to the Canyon, my Canyon shoes are I I I I finally got a pair of the nice padded ones, because that's like rocket fuel to me, because most the time I'm barefoot. And so when I put on a padded shoe, bam, here we go. You know? And so you can do the same thing, but you gotta have strong feet.
Arnie:If you don't have strong feet, then you're gonna do what your podiatrist tells you to do. You're gonna buy the expensive orthotics. You're gonna get the special shoes, and the shoe guy or shoe lady's gonna see you come and go, all right, here we go. Get out the good stuff. And and instead of, here's old coach Arnie buying used shoes online.
Arnie:Okay? So that's my best answer to that. I don't have a I wear, just so you I wear topos, but I'm leaning back into Ultras. They just don't make a high top shoe that I like, but Ultras changed their shoe design. Their uppers are now a little bit more because I have a narrow foot, so their uppers, before when I was wearing Ultras, they were my foot would slide around in there, but now they've changed that, and I've seen Pat and my sister wearing Ultras, and I like the the design, so I may go back and check those out.
Arnie:But but why why Ultra or Topo? They have a wider toe box. So for me, I like the wide toes, especially when I'm doing a lot of downhill work, or big stuff like the Canyon. I want room in my shoe for my foot to move around and do what it's supposed to do. Okay?
Arnie:So again, that's preference. Some people like a narrower shoe like Solomon, and some of those shoes were narrow. I think HOKA's are wide too, but you got but if all you do is wear padded shoes and you don't do your foot stuff, you're gonna end up at the podiatrist's office. I can almost guarantee that. Okay?
Arnie:Alright. So let's look at some other questions we have here. What's what's it's a nutrition question. What's the best thing to eat the night before, and what food would I bring for a rim to river? Now if you're asking me, I love I love nutrition questions for coach Arnie because I don't eat a lot.
Arnie:Now I've I've got it, and that if I'm in shape, if I'm healthy, I don't eat a lot. So if I'm by myself and I'm doing a rim to river, I probably wouldn't have anything besides maybe my because I use ketones, amino acids, and water with salt in it. So I'll get down there, refill my water bottles, and come back up, and and I'll use ketones. And but, again, all this has been practiced. All this has been practiced prior to me setting foot on the trail.
Arnie:So I'm talking about the trail right now. So if I'm doing ketones, amino acids, and water, I'm ready to go. Now the night before, I normally have a little bit of carbo I I love white rice, and but you have to find out what works for you. So if you like a certain meal, like potatoes, rice, or something like a lot of people feel they need a lot of carbohydrates. I I I like carbohydrates the night before, but I also get a lot of protein the night before as well.
Arnie:I have a I generally have a big steak. I generally eat a big steak the night before any big training run or for sure any canyon run. So when I go to the canyon, I'm bringing I bring my steak, and unless I go get it. But but when I did my r five, I brought a microwave in my room, so I was able to heat up what I wanted. But that's mean.
Arnie:That's because I eat that all the time. So I do not experiment with anything prior to a big hike, especially at Remde River. Okay? So and and then I have my coffee. I always have my coffee.
Arnie:I call it my Bulletproof Plus coffee because I'll put in and I think Pat got to watch me make this the other day, and she kinda her eyebrows kinda raised up because I so I use instant coffee now. I used to make the coffee, but instant became a little easier. I put in my hot water, my instant coffee, my protein powder, my scoop of protein powder. I put in MCT oil. I put some mushroom stuff in there.
Arnie:I put some gelatin in there. I know. That's for my tendons. My gelatin and I think oh, I put in some creatine. I think creatine.
Arnie:And then this is the fun part. Everybody gets to have fun with this. I put in heavy cream. I put in some you know, a dose of heavy cream in there, mix it up, and that's what I had for my r five. Bam.
Arnie:And you can ask super Dave Newman because he was with me, and that's that's what I had. You know, in the morning before I took off, that's all I made. That that that meal right there, and I was off and running, and the the next day, that was what I had again, same exact thing. And then, but it but it rimmed a river, which is 5,000 feet up and 5,000 feet down, that's something that needs to be practiced, especially at your pace. So if you're doing it in, you know, three or four hours down and four and five hours up, that's a nine, ten, maybe eleven, twelve hour day.
Arnie:So you're gonna have to really think about what you're eating. You know, a lot of people like to fall back on the salty stuff, the whatever stuff. That's fine. I don't care about any of that as long as you practice it prior to you doing it. You know?
Arnie:And if it works for you, then that's what you put in your pack. I was working with somebody today from Ohio who's doing a Rim de River next month and with one night in Phantom. But we are going over what is going in, and I helped her order some stuff, and we're going over what's going in that pack. What she gonna eat? We're going over the whole schedule.
Arnie:What she gonna eat, Her pace, all that stuff. So it's very important that you know and practice with what you're gonna put in your mouth and goes in your belly because belly stuff will ruin everything. Yeah. Belly stuff will ruin everything. So so that's a that's a good one.
Arnie:And, again, any of these questions that you want more information on, just just call me or or okay. So now I've got my dashboard ready to go. So Brian, Cindy, hi. Canyon Clowns are represented. Oh, that's Jeff.
Arnie:Jeff's yours was the first question, I believe. And then Cindy's watch is best. And Trish, I walk backwards, uphill repeats. Good job, Trish. The only reason sometimes, I still buy used shoes.
Arnie:Good job, Ryan. And Karen's here. Hey, Karen. Alright. Cool.
Arnie:Okay. So the only problem with I have with walking backwards uphill, if you have knee problems, because a lot of people that are walking backwards have knee problem, is you gotta come downhill. But if it works for you as a training, getting bulletproof, getting stronger for the downhill, then go backwards uphill. But again, I'm the downhill guy, so I love going downhill hard. And I always tell people when they see me training at Black Mountain, our favorite training place here, if they see me coming down hard at the end, it means I'm finishing up.
Arnie:But my my other theory is is that I train the downhill harder at Black Mountain than I do at the Canyon because, one, Black Mountain's steeper than the Canyon, and two, it makes the canyon a lot easier to me when I'm going hard at Black Mountain on the downhill. Because I want my quads. I want my hips. I want my feet, and I want my anterior tibia. I want all those muscles to be really worked because I'm training.
Arnie:I'm training when I'm training. So that's why I gotta get back to training because so that's important. Alright. So here's one. Karen Karen Hiking strategy with less shade on the North Side.
Arnie:How to time the sun beating down your hike start time beat. And that's where Brian's shade tracker is really good. But my theory is this if I'm on the North because I I'm not a big fan of North South unless it's a cool day. I called the North South because we used to get this question all the time. And North South is traditional what?
Arnie:You know, best way most people did it because they're walking towards their hotel. They're walking towards their car. They're walking towards everything. But I call it the cow route because that's what cows do. Cows just fall along the other cows.
Arnie:So South North is the buffalo route because buffaloes go opposite of what the cows do. Okay? And let me explain. So when you go north south, you're gonna run into heat unless unless you go on a cool day. It didn't really matter what direction you go.
Arnie:But on a hot day or potentially hot day, if you go north south, unless you're Jim Wamsley or something, you're gonna run into a disaster at Pham Ranch and up the North and up to South Rim, hopefully up Right Angel, but it's gonna be hot. You're gonna come up out of there in the middle of the afternoon, and it's not gonna feel good. You're gonna roast. So and then you're gonna hear the other theories of waiting at FAM and all that stuff, which you can do that. I'm just not a fan of that.
Arnie:You know? I wanna get out of there. Okay? I got things to do, but at the same time because it's so hard to start and stop. It is hard to start and stop.
Arnie:But if that's what you plan to do, then do it. But if you don't plan to do it, then it becomes a disaster. So which we're trying to help you avoid is disaster. So so what do I do? And and I know this is crazy, but I go South North because now I can time my start on the by the temperature.
Arnie:And and so if I need to get through Phantom Ranch when it's cool, then I will start whatever time I need to on the top of the South Rim. Now let's go back to the North Rim, and I've had many people do this. I had a couple guys do it last June, and I said, look, if you're gonna come off the North Rim, you gotta it was June 5. They might even be on this call. I don't know.
Arnie:But you gotta start at midnight. Midnight. And they did. They got a ride from the from the lodge. It was the night the lodge had lost power, so they they got a shower though.
Arnie:But they they start they got a ride to the to Trailhead at midnight, and they started right on time. And they got down to Phantom Ranch around Sunrise, and they are and I said, and you have to be at tip-off by 8AM to make this work. Right on schedule. They hit tip-off at 08:00, and they and they shot right up, and they were out of there before it got brutally hot. But they trained for that, and we went over it over it and over it and over it.
Arnie:But you you know? And and we I knew their speed, so I said, with that, with your pace, you gotta get you gotta start at midnight. And so that's how you do the North Rim when it's hot. Now when when it's cool, it doesn't matter. You know, when the canyon's open.
Arnie:It doesn't matter. You can go anytime, but, you know, most people are going, you know, when it's still hot at the bottom. So when you when you start on the North Rim, you know, most of the people, whether it's October or September, it's still kinda hot. It's just the way it is. And certainly, it's like that in May.
Arnie:You know, I've been down there in May last couple years. I missed this one, but the year before. And it was a disaster down there, plus hit Phantom Ranch because it was hot. It was hot. This year was a little cooler.
Arnie:I missed my trip with my my folks that I trained. Two rookies, they started they went south north, two complete rookies, and they nailed it. They started right on time, and it was a cool it was it was a cooler May, thank God. But they came out of there with smiles in their face, and life is good. But we had the plan was to park their car on the South on the North Rim, which they did.
Arnie:They shuttle over, shuttle back, and it worked out great. So everything I do though, Karen, is based on weather. Brian's shade tracker will give you some ideas on that too. But, you know, shade tracker or not, when it's a 120 at Phantom Ranch, it's a 120 at Phantom Ranch. Okay?
Arnie:So okay. So let's go back to our other questions we had here. And if you got more, just let me know. I think somebody else had a question. Oh, here's one.
Arnie:Do you use bladder or collapsible flask? I do not use a bladder anymore. I do not use a bladder anymore, and here's why, and I was playing this to somebody last week. When you have a bladder, and people I work with with bladders too, it's harder to keep track of how much you're drinking. And with bottles, I know exactly how much I'm drinking.
Arnie:So I'm gonna use one bottle to get to this point. I'm gonna use one bottle to get to that point, or so many miles, depending on the temperature. I know exactly what's going in those bottles, and I know exactly how much I'm drinking. Also, with bladders, because some people like to put stuff in the bladder with the water, you know, whether it's some kind of electrolyte mix, some flavored drink. It's all good.
Arnie:I don't really care. But if you're not doing well or after so many hours, you might get sick of that taste. Guess what? Now you gotta do. You gotta empty the bladder out, and that's a hassle.
Arnie:So I don't like I don't do bladders anymore, but I do bottles, and for some people, that's a hassle, but it's okay. Now the collapsible things are okay. Couple reasons I'm not a huge fan. I've used them. Because you drink them.
Arnie:I have a tendency to drink too much because you're kinda squeezing them out. But the convenience is once they're empty, you just scrunch them up and throw them in your pack, and then you fill them back up with the next one. But either way, there's good and bad with all that. I like the bottles because I know exactly how much I'm drinking, okay? I know exactly how much I'm drinking, and it keeps me on pace to not over drink because that's very important.
Arnie:I think Brian's had Doctor. Myers on many times, and I think that's the number one cause of issues is hypernutrinium, which is you're over drinking because people panic, especially if it's hot. They over drink. So don't do that. Alright.
Arnie:Let's look at here. So that's that's my reasoning behind that. Here another shoe question. How do you know if your shoes fit correctly? They don't hurt?
Arnie:No. You know because you're on the you're you're training them. You no. Do not go to the canyon with new shoes. That's a no no.
Arnie:But I paid that price one time by wearing shoes that I got a blister two r threes in a row, and my first r five, I brought them along with me, but I also brought my old ones with me that never gave me blisters. And, of course, did the first r r three. No blisters. I thought, oh, I'm I'm past all that. So what did I get on the second one?
Arnie:A blister while the other shoes were sitting in the trunk of my car. So you you practice what the shoes you're gonna wear, and you just gotta make sure they fit correctly. And so that's and if you're doing a lot of downhill work, you're gonna get your toes crunched, but you gotta strengthen up those toes so you don't let them just fly around in your shoes either. You gotta learn how to press down with the big toe a little bit so you can kinda manage how they sit in your shoes. You want them spread out a little bit, hopefully, at least I do.
Arnie:And and you gotta check, see how they fit on your heels and all that stuff with the socks you wanna wear. Shoes are a big deal. That's why I spend so much time on the feet, the feet and the shoes. So but practice. You're gonna hear me say that probably more than anything, is practice.
Arnie:Practice. Practice. Practice. Okay? So that's a shoe question.
Arnie:Here's another I live in the Midwest. I've never been to AZ. What's the best way to train for my planned trip in March 2027? I'd like to go somewhere below the rim. I kind of touched on that already depending on how far down you wanna walk back down, but walking backwards.
Arnie:You gotta prepare, because going downhill, even if you go to Uhaul, Cedar Ridge, or mile and a half, or three mile, that downhill, if you're a rookie and you're untrained, will just annihilate your legs. So at least be prepared for that. If you're prepared for that, then the top of the rim will draw you out. It'll pull you up. Okay?
Arnie:And if your legs are a little bit fresh, you'll you'll finish. But if you're wiped out, that makes it really hard. So at least get walking backwards. If you can pull a sled, push a car, do some things like that. Work on your anterior tips, work on your hip flexors.
Arnie:That's the best way just like I I shared it earlier, but you gotta be intentional about all that. You gotta be intentional, and that will help you to wanna come back. The goal is come back. I don't wanna create a bunch of one offs. I want you guys to come back because the canyon is a magical place.
Arnie:Okay? I don't want you to get beat up and say, I'm done with that. Okay? That's no good. Alright.
Arnie:So here's one. Are gels good to use? Sure. I mean, I've used gels. I used to carry these nut butter things down in the canyon until I got sick of using those.
Arnie:But whether it's nut butters, gels, hammer gels, whatever you wanna call them, some have caffeine in them, different flavors. It's it's usually about a 100 calories of usually sugar, and that's okay. But just remember, practice. So if it's hot and you're slamming down a bunch of gels and and throwing water on top of that, I got news for you. Your gut may have a talk with you.
Arnie:So if you're gonna use gels, pick a hot day and go out and go for a walk and start eating them. See if it works for you. But and if it does, fine. I mean, hey. The top guys in the world use gels.
Arnie:So I just choose not to. I choose to use more of a whole food approach unless I'm, know, on top of my my ketones. K? I do carry extra, like, fruit and stuff like that just in case I need it. But if your stomach goes, it's hard.
Arnie:It's hard to to recover from that. So just be aware of that. Practice with that. But a lot of people use gels, and there's a ton of gels out there. You know?
Arnie:Go for it. Oh, here's a little question on undergarments. Cotton, bamboo, something else. I guess I can share this story. When I did my r five, and if Dave I don't know if Dave's on on he might be on.
Arnie:But I was unpacking all my gear, and I left out one thing off my list, which which was on my list, my underwear. So and I had I had tights, so I wore I was fine. But Dave and I drove around for an hour. Every we went to every store in the the village, every store in Toussaint. I I I don't use cotton.
Arnie:I use my all my stuff is and, again, some people like the feel of cotton. The the the nylon stuff works for me, so that's what I use. And all the way around, even in my shirt. My socks, I've I've switched over to alpaca, which is wool, and they're great. They're super comfortable.
Arnie:And especially if you're a heavy sweater, it makes a big difference. But But yeah, so as far as undergarments, a lot of people like cotton because it's cooler and all that good stuff or whatever they want, or they like shirts that are cotton so they can soak them and all that. I don't really I don't do a lot of that stuff, and and if if you are doing that, then practice. Find find a T shirt that works for you for that. I mean, and if it works, heck, do it.
Arnie:You know? Do it. But for a lot of people, cotton is very comfortable. And bamboo, I'm not I don't really know a lot about bamboo. I hear it's great.
Arnie:Okay? So there you go. If you have more questions about undergarments, let me know. JD, high top versus low cut running. I have always worn merle.
Arnie:I guess what, JD? I switched over a few years ago to high top. I just I like the topo to topo high top. They feel good. You know?
Arnie:I like them. They give me a little ankle. I don't have them on tight, but they give me a little ankle stability. I wear high tops when I'm hiking hiking boots. I wear Merle hiking boots.
Arnie:They're kinda they look like Frankenstein shoes, but they're solid. They have a nice vibrant sole, and so I can hammer down the mountain on those things, but I don't have those. But for whatever reason, I just get a little bit better ankle stability, although I train my ankles really hard. But I I don't know. I like I wore a low cut low cut for a long time, but I don't know.
Arnie:I like the the high top, but I don't have them on super tight. Okay? I just don't have them on super tight. But if you have ankle issues, if you're wearing them for ankle issues, then I would train my ankles. I would do, because we do these specialty ISO movements for our ankles, and I'm telling you what, it works.
Arnie:Because everybody that talks to me about ankle stuff, they say, wow, this my ankles feel a lot better doing this stuff, and they do. So you combine that with a high top, you're good to go, man. I tell you what. Alright? So I don't know.
Arnie:I would I would try them out. Here, Jeff's got a good another good question. Okay. Do you take salt tablets, electrolytes, or something else? Something else.
Arnie:So what I came up with years ago, and this is my system now, because I do I do carry electrolytes with me just in case. I was just looking. I thought I had a bottle up here. But what I came up with was I use Redmond salt, which is a really high quality salt. I get it.
Arnie:It sprouts. And I put I have a a measure of for a 24 ounce bottle, I put in a heaping one eighth teaspoon. Heaping. And that works perfect for me. Now you gotta know your sweat rate.
Arnie:You gotta know what you can tolerate as far as taste, but it just works perfect. And I rarely have cramping issues because cramping is normally because the size behind cramping is terrible. Okay? It usually means you're going too hard for your level of fitness, which means if it's on a hot day and you're still trying to go at your normal pace, you might cramp. Get it?
Arnie:So you have to adjust. So whatever if you overdo your level of fitness, there's a good chance you might come up with a cramp. Alright? And those are I've had horrible cramps, man, in the canyon. One time I was coming down the North Rim, I felt like somebody shot me in the leg.
Arnie:It's like, wow. I mean, I went down. Boom. You know? I was less than a mile from the top.
Arnie:So the point is I do carry I have I have the salt tab. They're in my bag. So I do carry the the salt tabs with me, Jeff, for an emergency. So the the only electrolytes I use is red mist salt. I mean, besides my ketones, but ketones aren't really an electrolyte.
Arnie:Okay? And my amino acids. Amino acids technically aren't a electrolyte either. Okay? So that's a good question, though, because that's that's something we have to figure out.
Arnie:That's something we have to figure out. And when I tell people, water and salt, salt and water, they go, But you know what? Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ideas. So something to think about, guys. Alright.
Arnie:Let's see what else we have here. I'm overwhelmed and don't know where to start with my training in nutrition. Oh, do you offer an online training? Well, I do. I do offer an online training.
Arnie:So I just started working with a lady in Washington, DC. She's trying to put together a group, but anybody that's listened to Cotani and his rants about group, I I did talk to her about it. So there's a potential of a group, and then there's a potential of me working with her to get her ready to do the canyon and then helping her maybe to manage the group. But groups are interesting only because of the dynamics of the weakest link, but but as far as training, yes. So I have quite a number of clients around the country, and if you're lucky, as Pat Garner would say, if you're lucky enough to live here, you can have coach Arnie put his hands on you and come over here and let me see what's going on and help you out.
Arnie:Because we have fun. We have fun when you train at the dungeon, and I teach you all the moves. And then once you have once you learn everything, you know, even the subtle nuances now to get the really deep stuff, you gotta really spend some time, but to to get the the the subtle nuances that are gonna keep you healthy, strong, and allow you to do all the things you wanna do. So if you wanna run 100 mile races, if you wanna hike the canyon, you wanna do r three, you wanna do rim to rims, you wanna do rim to river, you wanna go to Uha Point, I don't really care. You can learn how to train for all of that.
Arnie:Okay? Because it's basically the same thing. I'm training two guys now that wanna do Mount Everest, and guess what they're doing? They're doing the same stuff that we're all doing, and I kinda get to chuckle because I get to go chuckle with some of the ladies, I'm saying, hey. Those guys are struggling with what you guys are making look easy.
Arnie:Got it? So because it just works. So we teach you a system. It works. And whether you're in Ohio, we got a team of people coming out from Ohio next month, and just they're around.
Arnie:So so the answer to that question is yes. And you can always message me. You got my phone number now in the comments. You can call me, and we'll set something up. At least find out if I can help you in any way.
Arnie:Alright. Let's see here. And we got maybe here's another question here. I struggle with plantar fasciitis, and my doctor says I need a special orthotic for shoes. They're not comfortable in my hiking shoes and not sure what to do.
Arnie:What's your recommendation? I bet everybody knows that answer. Strengthen your feet. You know, one of my best clients, and he was not a hiking client, but he was a a young man that I coached in football. At the time, it would've been forty from today, it would be forty three years ago.
Arnie:Forty four years ago. Forty four years ago. And he came to me. He had just left the podiatrist's office, and he had his fancy orthotics in his grasp. Okay?
Arnie:In the back. So he came over and goes, coach, what what should I do? So I said, well, let me take a look, see what's going on. So I showed him a few things, and he goes, okay. Let's start working.
Arnie:He I went over to his house. I was helping set up a gym in his house because he's a he's a big shot pilot with FedEx. And he goes, oh, yeah, over there. Because I I noticed there was a bag of something in the the corner. He goes, those are those orthotics I brought over to you.
Arnie:I never used them. That's the best compliment I coulda got. Okay? And he he wasn't a hiker. He wasn't any of stuff.
Arnie:He just didn't want foot problems. And so he did the exercises and he did them religiously for quite a while. I mean, we worked for close to a year. And he solved his foot problem. Okay?
Arnie:So to answer that question on plantar fasciitis or any other foot issue, because what drove me into it was something called metatarsalgia, which is an irritation of the second metatarsal on my foot. And I got scared because back then, that was ten years ago. And everything I looked up online said surgery, and I didn't want no part of that. I wanted no part of surgery. So just looking here if there's any other questions.
Arnie:So so as far as my my thinking is you're almost gonna have to do what I did back then. If you're dealing with this stuff, maybe not hike. You know? Let's let's get those feet stronger. Let's do some barefoot work, gentle barefoot work, not hardcore barefoot work where you wreck your feet.
Arnie:Let's gentle maybe on some grass. Okay? And let's get our feet stronger. Let's strengthen up the big toe. Let's stretch those calves because chances are you're overworking your calves, which is what most people have that have plantar fasciitis.
Arnie:I go up to them, I just touch and push on the outside or the inside of their calf, they jump. And it there's coach Jarni going at it again, grabbing their calves. And because I know. Get it? And it's or their arches are weak, So we gotta strengthen the arch.
Arnie:We gotta strengthen their anterior tibialis to take pressure off the calves. We gotta strengthen their soleus. That's the muscle between the gastrocnemius and the the calf muscle and the Achilles tendon. We gotta strengthen that muscle because that'll take pressure off the Achilles tendon, which will take pressure off the foot. See, there's a method to my madness.
Arnie:It's all interrelated. And you do all these things and over time, the pain goes down. And then as the pain drops, drops, drops, you keep getting stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger, and pretty soon, you're bulletproof. And that's what we wanna be. Who wants foot problems?
Arnie:Are you kidding me? That's the worst. You gotta stand on those two things all the time. That's terrible. Okay?
Arnie:So we don't want that. So that's kinda my my advice on plantar fasciitis. Hang on a second. Get to my questions. So my recommendation is stop hiking with plantar fasciitis.
Arnie:Get your feet stronger. Get it get a get a system that you can work on your feet so you can get your feet healthy again. Remember? Health, fit, and then bulletproof. But you gotta get healthy first.
Arnie:And if you're if you're neglecting your health, guys, I don't care if it's your feet or the top of your head, your shoulders, your back. If you're neglecting something like that, you gotta pay a price. There's a price for that. Okay? So let's get healthy.
Arnie:Alright, guys. We're gonna wind down here. Hey. This is pretty cool. So we had some good questions, and there's some cool people on here.
Arnie:Gloria Martinez. It was me. Okay. I'm not sure. Was that one of your questions?
Arnie:Probably. I'm not sure. But I appreciate all you guys being here. I I appreciate Brian giving us this opportunity by putting this group together. And in the meantime, you've got my phone number.
Arnie:You can call me with with Pat pushing me. I'll be doing this again. Let's let's let's think about next month. I'll find summer months are a little tricky, but I'd like to do it as we're closing in on that fall rim to rim schedule because this is when I notice a lot of foot problems and other issues like tendonitis because we ramp up our training and we have problems. Get it?
Arnie:That's how tendonitis happens. Doing too much too fast, bam. You know, I'm dealing with a guy right now. I thought he was gonna cry the other night, you know, because I'm basically telling him to do nothing, but he wanted to really do nothing. And I said, no.
Arnie:I said, we're gonna do things that don't hurt. But of course, that means he can't walk or run. So that's no good. But he but he started off too fast. He started off too fast, and that's gonna happen here in the next month.
Arnie:People are gonna start off too fast. They're gonna get tendonitis in their hips, their knees, their feet, and here we go. So let's let's see if we can avoid that. So we'll do another q and a next month. We'll figure out a date to do that, and we'll have some fun with it.
Arnie:We had some good questions today. We've got I don't know. Looks like close to 10 questions. That's really good for an hour. So I appreciate everybody here.
Arnie:And like I said, if anybody has further questions, you can message me or you can call me or you can message me on on my 602 number, and we'll figure it out for you so we could we wanna solve these problems. I don't want these things to be weighing you guys down. We wanna move forward. Okay? So, again, thank you guys very much.
Arnie:I appreciate all of you. And just gonna double check here, seeing any other questions. Oh, Brian just put in a few minutes ago. North North North Kaibab currently shades by 5PM. See, Brian's the expert here.
Arnie:By 5PM from Manzanita, which is where the real climbing starts, shade starting at Manzee. Yeah. If you get to Manzanita by again, if you time, but, again, if you're gonna get to Manzanita, it depends on which way you're going. So if you're going up, you know, you're kinda waiting at Man's knee until five. That's when the shade hits.
Arnie:But if you're coming down, you know, this is where it's tricky. So we need to talk about this. So that's a that's a the sun is the the thing in the canyon, but you gotta know how to deal with it. It gets into coach Arnie's brain about practice. Okay?
Arnie:And if that's what you're choosing to do, then you practice. But if if Karen is the Karen I know, when I took her husband and her daughter, we went up the North Rim, and it was a beautiful day. But we finished we finished at noon. So run the numbers, guys. So it was it was a glorious day.
Arnie:Alright. So if there's no other questions, I appreciate everybody here, Brian and all you guys that were here, Pat, for pushing me and Jeff and JD, Karen, and the rest of Cindy and everybody else, Monica and Luciana and oh, here's one. We will have more. Okay. Good.
Arnie:So we'll keep this going, guys, and I appreciate everybody being here, and I'm out of here. Love you, guys. Talk to you later.