Training & Fitness for hiking

Interesting topic!
In the 'good ol days' I used to do a hard 5km run 5 days a week.
on one of those 5 I would try to match my personal best over the distance.
I lived in Hillcrest,Upper Highway, Durban and hills were part of the route.
I made it a particular point to run those hills HARD.

Every couple of weeks I would devote a session just to hill training:Find a STEEP hill,
sprint up till one is almost crawling then walk down and repeat until you are shaking and it BURNS under the tongue.
Anyone know that feeling?


I found that upper body training made a BIG difference. On one Grand Traverse I had done
quite a lot of upper body and that heavy pack was so much easier to handle.
The following year I got lazy with the upper body and boy did I feel the difference.
I had friends that were keen cyclists but i'm convinced that running is the best cardio a person can do.
Another friend was a brilliant and fit swimmer but it just doesn't seem to provide the type of fitness needed for
hiking.

Hi ASL
If I can add my professional opinion and it may differ from many others and that is to make sure you are strong, being fit ( cardiovascular) is one thing but strength is another. I personally like to train the same whether I am doing a hike or not because I believe that you should be functionally strong for everyday life
My gym sets revolve around heavy strength work ( dead lifts, squats, lunges, pull ups and bench press) as well as metabolic conditioning sets ( similar to cross for style training)
I have the luxury of the beach 5km from my house so i run on the beach a lot which is great training. I am not a fast hiker by no means and would never dare to have a crack at the GT speed record but I'm a consistent pace man.

So bottom line is mix strength work with high intensity ( metabolic conditioning aka Cross fit style training) to keep the system guessing.
Happy to give anyone hints and tips if they want ( not saying a great hiker by no means )

I am fairly new to hiking in the Drakensberg (I have been on 3 overnight trips and a bunch of day hikes), but here is the workout routine I follow (please be careful not to pull/strain anything if you try these out, and stop if anything is painful):

I do this about 3 times a week normally, but increase to 5 times a week in the month before a hike:
20 X Wraparound Ankle Touches
20 X Regular Squats
20 X Sumo Squats (I don't use a dumb bell)
20 X Sit Ups
30 Second Wall Sit
20 X 90 Degree Lunges
20 X Side Plank Leg Lifts
20 X Windshield Wipers
20 X Push Ups (I do the women's version with my knees on the floor as my arms are pretty noodle-y)
20 X Pushup Position Bird Dogs
30 Second Elbow Plank
20 X Moving from Downward Dog to Upward Dog and back.

I chose the above exercises because I can do them at home without any special equipment. I also usually walk for about 1-2 hours up the koppie near my house every 2 weeks, and increase this to once a week (or more if I can find the time) with a pack in the month before a hike. When I started hiking I used to only train by walking up and down the koppie with a pack (5 times a week), but I found that doing the above exercises helped more than just walking with a pack.

Hehe, its a good workout for-sure. Security here seems pretty slack would probably let you in if you said you where here for "a meeting"

Sabine wrote: 22 flights of stairs, wow Firephish,....can I come train at your work? I find running up and down stairs the best training for the berg. And like Stijn says, hiking regularly in the mountains. I don't run at all!

Thanks for all the tips! I could hurt myself doing all this! Especially Stijn's program!

There seems to be distinctly different categories of people here. Those who keep up a basic level of fitness so that they can enjoy their hikes and those who want to hit the mountains like a special forces operation. I think I'm still in no man's land. With more time I might er towards the savages!

It also seems that although cardio fitness makes a difference, a focus on strength training is essential for being able to carry gear and get yourself uphill. I recently read an interview with Ed Viesturs where he said the same thing and has been balancing his running regime with some nasty gym workouts. He says it made all the difference on the really big hills like Broad Peak.

I got a copy of a basic program developed by American Himalayan climber Ed Viesturs if anyone is interested...

@ASL
That's the beauty of training. It's never this is best or that's best. Each to there own and what suits them. Just remember that it's only ever wrong if the exercise is done incorrectly and risk of injury may occur.
Strength work is the bases to life.

I'm a naturally skinny guy that burns energy like a cheating racehorse. I need to train effectively to lug weight on a hike. The key to what I suggested waterwise, is that with those techniques, you train your body to maintain exertion with restricted respiration. Remember, there is less oxygen at altitude, but there is even less underwater... Your body is an amazing piece of adaptive biomachinery capable of becoming bigger stronger etc. Google the "seal response" to see what it can do with oxygen utilisation. Trust me, its a different kind of fitness than regular swimming. Give it once or twice a week for 8 weeks and you'll see.

Or maybe I'm compensating for lack of mountain time by nailing myself in the gym, 'cause I don't get to go as often as I'd like

What I can suggest, if someone wants a crash course (quickfix) before a trip, is to do interval training. Just know that it ain't much fun really, but it pays off handsomely.

My reasoning is this: it is hard work to get up a steep pass with a pack on the back. One can easily spend most of the climb in the red zone, i.e. 90%+ of your max heart rate. Your central nervous system will at some point tell your body to shut down a bit (most of us have experienced that "hit the wall" feeling). That dampens the spirit a bit, or a lot for some.

On the other hand spending a lot of time just below your individual red zone is a very rewarding feeling, you're breathing hard but the legs keep going, it's a good feeling. This is were interval training comes in. It increases your VO2 max ability, put more simply it allows one to spent more time at 90%+ of your max heart rate without necessarily going into your red zone.

Nicest way (this is a relative term...... : ), is to do interval training on a bicycle.

Here is a self explanatory example of it.

@Highlands Fanatic - agreed! Interval training raises your threshold level so that operating at 60%-70% of threshold (which you can maintain for many hours) is faster than what your previous 60%-70% pace used to be. I have found that just one good hill reps session makes a huge difference, even on long slow runs just a few days later.

And... if you taste blood during an interval session, you're doing it right