Exercise for Walking and Hiking

Many of our members complete yearly walks or hikes across all the countries of the world. Proper training for hiking or long walks means you will have less fatigue and soreness, making the trip much more enjoyable and memorable.

Here is how you can train for a hike for the best experience. Consistent adherence to these tips for at least 3-6 months prior to your trip will make you say during your hikes, “Is that it!” If you are a year-round “walker” and/or “runner,” many of these tips will also apply to you.

Increase your aerobic fitness in any way possible. Be more fit then you need to be for your hike. 

It's a no-brainer, but many try to prepare to be only “competent” at their hike. Aim to be more than competent, so it's easier than just “doable,” which allows attention for the enjoyment of your walk and allows space for an extra hike or unexpected hiking change (change of trail, sand, mud, unexpected weather, hills, or sudden need to run from a drop bear). To avoid doing “too much too soon,” general advice is to add 1 to 20 minutes per week of extra walking or running until your time constraints overtake your fitness before your hiking trip.

Yes, even if you plan on just walking, you should still aim to do some weekly running. Apart from being recommended and beneficial for all ages for optimal health with as little as 20 minutes running per week is associated with a substantially reduced risk of early death (Is running associated with a lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and is the more the better?) or in this study (Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity and Cancer Incidence Among Nonexercising Adults). 3 to 10 min per day was associated with significantly lower incident cancer risk long term. So, apart from being a must for your health, running will improve your walking tolerance and endurance faster than walking when you are training for a long hike. 

Progressively completing more walking or running each month will best and most specifically prepare you for your hiking trip compared to other exercise tips. If you cannot walk often during the week, cycling, swimming, rowing, or sports will improve your walking tolerance and prepare you for a long hike. Just try to make progress by a tolerable amount each week or month. 

Train for all the walking surfaces you're expecting.

Before your trip, increase your tolerance of the terrain and walking inclination changes by walking or running on flat ground, up and down hills, and doing bush hikes or similar terrain, sand, grass, and dirt, with and without day-packs or rucking. It is popular to take a long weekend hike on terrain similar to what you are expecting, rather than only walking on pavement, grass, or the same terrain as during the week.

Complete 2-3 sessions of full body strength training per week. 

Regular, progressive, high-intensity strength training improves walking and running “economy,” meaning you will use less energy during exercise. This means you can complete the same amount of hiking but expend less energy (less need to pack lots of food, which will keep your bag lighter) or complete more hiking before being very fatigued (Effect of Strength Training Programs in Middle- and Long-Distance Runners' Economy at Different Running Speeds). Completing 2-3 weekly sessions where within each session you complete 2-3 sets of 4-8 very difficult but tolerable repetitions of 1-3 exercises for each of the major muscle groups used during walking and hiking (as listed in the next section) is a good starting point, and if split across 2-3 sessions, each session should take less than 20-45 min. If you are just starting strength training or if time constraints are a barrier to training for more than 30 minutes, instead only completing 1 set of 4-8 repetitions of a very difficult but tolerable exercise for 2-3 of the major muscle groups 1-2 times a week is adequate, but we can't promise optimal results and comprehensively improving the hiking trip experience unless you invest more time into training. A note, though: you do not need to spend hours in the gym per week to achieve this objective. Here is a list of the common muscle groups used during hiking, walking, and running, along with our favourite exercises to target and strengthen them. All exercises can be completed with a single limb or both limbs.

Calf muscles (muscles at the back of your lower legs): The calves are the primary muscle group used during walking and running, but they are also used when walking up hills, steps, or rocks.

• The calf raises with the front of your feet on a raised platform- in the leg press machine or on a weight plate within the Smith machine. (photo included)

• Heavy sled pushes (making it really hard to reach each end of our outdoor track at Method) (photo not included).

• Hopping forwards, backward, to the side- dance - or do some hopscotch in our lovely square flooring. (photo not included).

Quadriceps (thigh muscles). The quads are used when walking up stairs or rocks, or when slowing your body down on a steep hill/track. 

• Squat or leg press (photo included)

• Leg extension (photo included)

• Step ups, lunges, or rear foot elevated split squats (photo included)

Hamstring (back of the thigh muscles) You use your hamstrings when walking up hills and running fast, but they also need to be strong to protect you from injury if or when running or you slip on our wet, red Australian dirt, or escaping a drop bear or barking spider.

• Stiff leg floor touches (photo included)

• Machine Leg curls (photo not included)

• Bridge or hip thrust  (single leg hip thrust photo included)

• Nordic Hamstring Curl (photo not included- ask our staff about our new attachment)

Lower back muscles are used when lifting and walking with a heavy pack all day. Stronger back = less soreness at the end of the day.

• Floor touches/deadlifts (photo included)

• Squat (photo included)

Shoulders- Reduce the severity of soreness in your shoulders from carrying a pack all-day by strengthening all the muscles around your shoulders

• Holding any heavyweight in your hands during deadlifts, lunges or step-ups

• Shrugs  (photo not included)

• A’s, T’s, and Y’s poses (Y pose photo included)

Enjoy your training, enjoy your hike, and tag us at Method Health in any social media photo you post during or at the end of it, saying, “Is that it?”😀