Health, Wellbeing and Physical Activity Outdoors
Fitness and preparation
Physical activity outdoors demands cardiovascular endurance, strength for load carrying, mobility and balance. Understand the components of fitness, the principle of progressive overload, and the value of training specificity: walking uphill with a pack prepares you for walking uphill with a pack. Know the difference between aerobic and anaerobic effort and how altitude, heat and cold change demand.
Nutrition and hydration
Know the roles of carbohydrate, protein and fat, why carbohydrate availability matters for endurance, and how to plan food by energy density and weight. Understand hydration: sweat losses vary with heat, humidity, clothing and effort, and thirst is an imperfect guide under stress. Recognise the signs of dehydration and of overhydration, and know that electrolyte replacement matters in prolonged sweating.
Hygiene
Understand why hand hygiene, safe water treatment, waste disposal and separate cooking and cleaning areas reduce gastrointestinal illness in groups. Know common water treatment options: boiling, filtration and chemical disinfection, and their limits.
Weather and exposure
Know the signs and first aid for hypothermia, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and sun exposure, and the difference between them. Heat stroke is a medical emergency requiring rapid cooling and urgent evacuation. Understand wind chill, the risk of wet clothing, and ultraviolet exposure at altitude or on reflective surfaces such as water and snow.
Traps
Questions often reward stopping exercise and warming a hypothermic person slowly, or cooling a heat stroke casualty aggressively while calling for help, and punish the tempting but wrong answer of giving alcohol or massage. Another trap is treating thirst as a reliable hydration guide.
Rule of thumb
For exposure illness, ask which way the body's temperature is wrong and correct it while getting help: warm the hypothermic patient, actively cool the heat stroke patient, and never leave either alone.