While the best way to train for a hike is to actually get out and go hiking, developing full body strength can make your hikes easier and more enjoyable. The less time you spend huffing and puffing, worrying about your next step, the more you are able to look up and fully experience your trip.
Being physically prepared for a hike is not just about strong legs; it’s about being ready to tackle any challenge the wilderness throws your way. Powerful legs help hikers take on steeper inclines and descents. A strong back, arms, and shoulders make it easier to carry a heavy pack and scramble over obstacles. A stable core reduces wear on your back and knees and improves balance.
You won’t even have to spend all your free time in the gym to see your workouts carry over to your hikes.
By focusing on a handful of effective exercises, you can build strength, stability, and muscular endurance, ensuring you’re trained for adventure.
Here’s seven of our favorite exercises for making every step on the trail an enjoyable one. You will also find tips on how to modify these exercises to your current ability, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced. At the end of the list, we’ll give an example of how you might work these into a week of training.
1. Goblet Squat
The goblet squat is a fantastic lower body exercise. It’s also a great way to build strong arms, shoulders, stable core and back.
By supporting the weight in front of your body, it acts as a counterbalance, allowing you to squat deeper and with better form. The weight also challenges your back and core to keep your torso upright.
Seriously, what more could you want?
Hold a dumbbell, kettlebell, water jug, or willing pet close to your chest, elbows under the weight. Send your hips back and down, squat as deep as you can without rounding over, then return to the start. Keep the chest upright, back straight, and heels down throughout the movement.
(Need some help with your squat? Check out our step-by-step squat guide here.)
If you’re limited on weight, count 3-5 seconds on the way down to the bottom of each squat, then push hard to stand each time. You can even implement a pause at the bottom if you’re feeling especially froggy.
You can make these more challenging by holding the weight with one hand in the front rack position or by using two weights.
2. Forward Lunge
Lunges are on just about every “best of” hiking list. But, we think it is important to make some distinctions about what type of lunge you’re performing.
Here’s why:
The eccentric phase of an exercise is the part where you’re lowering the weight or your body. It’s the opposite of the concentric phase, when you’re actively lifting or raising the weight.
A forward lunge is especially effective for hiking training because it helps train the legs and knees eccentrically more than other lunge variations. In the forward lunge, the knee on the support leg immediately moves past the toes and is unsupported until the lunging leg contacts the ground.
As you push back up to standing, the knee straightens, again without support from the lunging leg. This knee-over-toe loading helps strengthen the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the knee for the demands of downhill hiking. If you completely ignore this training, you’re more likely to end up with angry, cranky knees during your hikes.
You can work up to forward lunges by doing (in order from most- to least-challenging) walking lunges, reverse lunges, assisted lunges, or step-ups.
If you want more of a challenge, add some load, starting with a single weight then doubling up or by hugging a loaded pack to your chest.
3. Elevated Single-leg Squat
While you don’t have to work up to a full pistol squat, having good reserves of single-leg strength and balance helps ensure you feel confident and capable on trail, even as the terrain gets rocky and more demanding.
This version of a single-leg squat is more accessible than a pistol squat but still builds significant strength and mobility. Work up to doing this squat with toe-off single-leg squats, lateral step-ups, and step-ups. Aim to use as little assistance from the lower leg as possible to get the most out of this exercise.
If you want specific guidance about what you need to do right now, our Trained For Adventure remote coaching program is built with you mind! All you have to do is talk to your coach and they’ll prescribe the exact workouts and progressions you need to reach your goals.
4. Weighted Get-up
Being able to get up and down off the ground is an important skill to train, but that’s not why this movement made this list.
We like the weighted get-up because it is an awesome core and full body exercise that helps train the body as a coordinated unit, rather than just a stack of joints and muscle.
Place some textbooks, water bottles, or duct-taped bricks (keeps ’em from crumbling to dust) in your hiking pack and use it as a load for a super-effective conditioning exercise. This exercise can make your abs, legs, and lungs burn in just a couple of minutes.
As you get stronger, you can add more weight, progressing up to a third of your bodyweight or more.
Start by doing these unloaded, just using your own bodyweight. You can also begin by doing just a partial rep. This is a great way to learn the movement and build up the strength and mobility for added load.
To do these, lie flat on your back. Bend the knee on your loaded side, placing the foot on the floor. From there, roll to the opposite elbow, sitting up as you straighten that arm. Bridge the hips up high, driving hard the heel on the support leg. This gives your legs room to move. You have two options at this point:
1. Sweep the opposite leg across the ground, bringing it under your body. Place the knee on the floor, then push up into a lunge position. Stand, then reverse order back to the floor. The first two reps in the video were done this way.
2. Place the opposite foot approximately shoulder-width away from your support foot, then push off your hand into a deep squat position. Stand, then reverse order back to the floor. The last two reps in the video were done like this.
The lunge variation requires less mobility than the squat variation. The squat variation is faster. Depending on your goals and how you’re built, one may work better for you than the other. Give them both a try on your next training day.
5. Side Plank
Another highly recommended movement, the side plank is not just a great core exercise.
The great thing about the side plank is that is actually a potent full body stability exercise. Your shoulders, torso, core, hips, and knees all benefit from this hold.
Otherwise known as isometrics, exercises like this help improve stability and tone. It also helps strengthen muscles upstream and downstream from problem areas, which can reduce stress on these areas during movement.
When doing a side plank, aim to keep your body as straight as possible. Avoid letting your hips rise or sag. Brace your gut like you’re about to get punched in the stomach. Think about actively pushing the support arm through the floor throughout the hold. Keep your top half stacked directly over the bottom half. Flex your butt and quads to maximize the benefit to your lower body and to make the hold more stable.
Begin by doing these against an elevated surface or wall, then progressing to knee side planks, then to a full side plank. Modify to front planks, if necessary. Experiment with a straight or bent arm to find what works best for you.
Take these up a notch by bringing the top leg up, even for only a few seconds.
6. Pull-up
Even if it’s unlikely you would ever find yourself hanging off the side of a cliff, relying only on the strength of your grip to keep you from slipping off into the void, pull-ups are an incredibly useful exercise.
Having a strong upper body helps maintain balance, stability, and makes it easier to overcome obstacles along the trail. It also helps you wield trekking poles more efficiently and keeps you from looking like Quasimodo any time you get under a heavy pack.
Plus, strengthening your pulling muscles help undo the wear caused by our seated, sedentary lifestyles.
As far as upper body training goes, there are very few exercises that are as effective or functional as the pull-up.
While most people may be unable to do a pull-up, there are still lots of ways to train this movement or work your way up to one. Start with inverted rows, then assisted pull-ups, then negatives, and finally to full pull-ups.
(You can learn the full progression to work up to doing your first pull-up here.)
7. Farmer's Carry
The farmer’s carry (or walk) is one of those incredible but often-overlooked exercises that hits so many aspects of fitness:
- Builds functional strength and endurance
- Improves grip strength
- Dynamically challenges the core
- Develops strong, stable shoulders
- Promotes an upright posture while under load
On top of all that goodness, it’s just about the easiest exercise to do. You literally grab some heavy weights and take a walk. Just walk tall and remember to keep those shoulders pulled back and down.
For best results, use weights that challenge your grip and keep a deliberate pace.
If you don’t have the space to carry, simply march in place or use a treadmill (make sure your gym is cool with it). You can also modify to a single-arm carry (don’t lean) or bring the weight up to the rack position for an extra core challenge.
Putting It Together
Now that you know the 7 best exercises for hiking, it’s time to put them into action! We’ve created an example week of workouts that incorporates these exercises to help you build the strength, stability, and muscular endurance you need for your next hike. Remember, these workouts can be modified to suit your current ability level, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced. Simply refer back to the progressions and regressions outlined above.
Download a PDF version here.
This may be enough for some people. For most of us, we need a little more guidance. You want to know what to do, when to do it, and how to progress from where you are now to where you want to be.
That’s exactly how we can help.
For those who want step-by-step guidance and a coach to keep you accountable, check out our awesome Trained For Adventure remote coaching program:
Thanks for reading! We hope this resource is helpful. Feel free to bookmark it to keep it handy.
And, if you are looking for something to make the difference in your fitness, keep this in mind while shopping around:
Fitness should empower you to do the things that excite you.
You deserve a program that helps you become confident, strong, and capable in the outdoors (and in life). That’s exactly what we do.
All the best,
Trey
