When hiking, there are several techniques you can use to make your experience more comfortable and enjoyable.

General Techniques-To help prevent knee and ankle stress, keep your feet wide apart. This increases and lowers your center of balance, keeping alot of strain from the knees and ankles. Using hiking sticks takes hundreds of pounds of pressure off your knees during a hiking day. They transfer that weight to your arms, which otherwise would be dangling there lazily doing nothing at all. Shock-absorber hiking sticks take yet more stress off the knees - the springs absorb some of the shock of a big step down. Using a pair of hiking sticks is especially helpful on long and steep downhills, or when taking a big step down. Being light on your feet will enable you to travel farther by not tiring your feet as quickly. It will also enable you to quickly react to unexpected situations.

See the links below for more specific hiking techniques.