Strength training tips for hiking, trekking & backpacking
Submitted by The Wellness Center
Hiking, Backpacking & Trekking require cardiovascular endurance, strength endurance, and hiking-specific training. Being in strong physical shape is one of the most important prerequisites for success on a trip. Your general training should focus on these five major fitness qualities:
- Aerobic Endurance
- Anaerobic Endurance
- Upper Body Strength
- Lower Body Strength
- Flexibility
Traveling in the wilderness requires good cardiovascular endurance, whether you intend to do short day hikes or multi-day high-altitude trekking, scrambling, climbing, or overnight backpacking trips. Walking over varied terrain while carrying a pack is an efficient and effective way to train for such adventures. If you do not have access to hills or mountains, use whatever varied terrain is available to you, such as stairs, short hills, stadium steps, deserted parking ramps, and sandy dunes. Use of machines such as inclined treadmills, stair climbers, or elliptical cross trainers can also be beneficial.
Train the quadriceps for descents; the hips for supporting pack weight over variable terrain; the shoulders, upper back, and trapezius for pack carrying, gear hoisting, and using trekking poles; and the lower back, obliques, and abdominals for transferring power from the legs into forward propulsion. While hikers, trekkers, and backpackers encounter less extreme terrain than scramblers, mountaineers, or climbers do, you will still need to be able to navigate short stretches across boulder, talus, or scree fields, cross streams, traverse heather slopes, or negotiate around tree roots, all of which challenge footing and balance and may require awkward or high steps.
The exercises suggested below point you in the proper direction for sport-specific training for pack-loaded travel. Unilateral (single-limb) lower body exercises such as those listed below are ideal for early season training in order to increase balance and joint integrity throughout the lower body musculature. Bilateral multi-joint core exercises are ideal for middle months where your focus is on building as much strength as possible.
Unilateral Lower Body Exercises: Hip hikes for the Gluteus Medius; 1-leg Hover Step Ups for quadriceps; Step Downs for Quadriceps; 1-leg Calf Raise for Gastrocnemius; Forward Straight Leg Raise for Gluteus Medius; 1-Leg Squat for Balance, Gluteus Maximus and Quadriceps; Lunge Variations for advanced exercises to challenge Balance, Gluteus Maximus and Quadriceps
Bilateral Lower Body & Core Exercises: Stiff-Leg Deadlifts for Hamstrings; Snow Shoveler for Rotational Movements; Plank Variations and Oblique Twists for Rotational Movements; Reverse Corner Pushouts for Rhomboids; Back Extensions for Core Development to Help Support a Pack; Seated Cable Rows to Face for Upper Back Strength Endurance; Backwards Walking: Rehabilitation for the Quadriceps; Outside Fitness Pack Routine includes a number of strength exercises you can do with a weighted pack, no gym required.
Check on the web at www.bodyresults.com for instructions regarding these exercises, additional flexibility training suggestions, and more.
