5 Hill Workouts to Beat Steep Hiking

When I first went backpacking abroad, I was so unprepared for the climbing that I couldn’t complete my planned itinerary. The route in question was to be a dreamy loop through the Italian Dolomites. But instead of strolling alpine passes, I found myself on the verge of tears, staring at another 6,000-foot climb for two days. The sun was about to set, and my eyes were Jell-O. I couldn’t do it. I booked a room at an inn, which I couldn’t afford, climbed the pass the next morning, and then took a bus to my end point. Although there’s no shame in going on a trip early, it’s a sad thing to miss out on miles of beauty because your fitness isn’t what you thought. And it’s relatively easy to train for a route if you have similar terrain close to home, but it can be harder to prepare for a really huge climb – like you’ll find in the Colorado Rockies, the Italian Dolomites or the French Alps.

“It’s particularly difficult to train for something like the Alps or the Dolomites in the US because those mountains are so steep,” explains mountain athlete, personal trainer and founder Alexa Haseman. Rise Ultra Coaching. The trick, she says, is to combine endurance training with hill repeats and gym time to build serious muscle strength. Here are some of his favorite hill workouts.

endurance climbing

Your first order of business is to build a strong endurance base. For this, Hussman recommends finding the tallest hill you can find (or setting your treadmill to its maximum slope) and climbing it at a steady pace for one to two hours. Ideally, you’ll lift a little weight: Hassman suggests starting with 10 percent of your body weight and walking for 60 minutes. Add 15 minutes each week.

You can also play with weight, increasing the weight by about 5 pounds per week until you reach 20 percent of your body weight. Hussman cautions against carrying anything more than that; More than 20 percent, the potential for injury outweighs the benefits of decreased strength. (Also avoid increasing weight and distance in the same week – one or the other, but not both.)

Overall, stick to a pace that is hectic but sustainable. “You have to be conversational,” says Hassman. “If you can say three sentences at a time without gasping, I want you right there.”

double-dipper

A hiking trip is great, but it doesn’t exactly simulate the back-to-back days of severe weather you’ll encounter on a backpacking trip. To prepare, Hassman recommends doing endurance workouts two consecutive days per week.

“Cumulative fatigue is really significant there,” Hussman says. “This teaches your body to work on tired legs. You may feel stiff, sore or heavy the next day, but that’s normal. It’s as much about mental training as it is physical.”

upward repetition

Once you have a strong endurance base—that is, you can reliably climb uphill for 90 to 120 minutes while lifting 15 to 20 percent of your body weight—it’s time to start building speed and power.

Find a steep hill and charge up it for 10 seconds at close to your maximum effort. Walk slowly to the bottom of the hill, then do it again. Your goal is four total reps. Over time, increase to repetitions of 30 seconds, then 60 seconds, then two minutes, then three minutes.

If you live near a hill close enough to a three-minute interval, great. If not, do it on the treadmill at its maximum incline setting.

downhill repeats

“If you’re a climbing athlete, you’re also a downhill athlete by nature,” Huseman says. And if you’ve ever done a long climb with weight on your back, you probably know that slopes are real quad-killers. To avoid jellified quads during your trip, Hussman recommends downhill training specifically.

One way to do this is to reverse the above workout. Walk slowly up a hill, then down it as fast as you can without carelessly going. Do this for four reps. You can even combine these two workouts: book it up the hill, then book it down, and take your rest at the bottom.

wall sits

Welcome to the least fun workout on this list—but probably the most effective.

“Wall sitting is my secret sauce for downhill,” says Hussman. They’re great because they keep you in an overextended, active downhill-hiking state for long periods of time.

“I start my athletes with one-minute wall sits twice a week. After a few weeks, we go up to failure. Then we increase the weight.” Once you can sit for a minute or two with a 10-pound plate in your lap, you’re ready for the boss level: the single-leg wall sit. “Most people can only hold them for a second or two — it’s almost like doing a sit-up march against a wall,” says Hassman. “If you can hold it for 30 seconds, you’re an absolute beast.”

stairs

Nothing beats single-leg exercises for building overhead strength and stability. To this end, Hassman recommends hitting the gym at least twice a week during your training. Focus on your glutes, quads, hamstrings and core. While there are plenty of relevant exercises, Hussman says the step-up is a particular must-do.

“Do 15 to 30 reps on one leg, then switch,” she advises. Start with 3 sets. To make it tougher, either add one set each week or add 5 pounds of extra weight.

Other Recommendations

• Start training early. Building leg muscles takes time. You will need to train consistently for at least three to six months before reaching your goal to make significant gains.
• Rely on perceived effort—not heart rate. Some people prefer training in heart-rate zones, but Huseman says these aren’t the right measurements, especially when it comes to hill training. Instead, she prefers “perceived rate of effort” – in other words, how hard are you trying on a scale of 1 to 10? Endurance training should be a 4 to 6 on that scale, and hill repeats should be closer to an 8 or 9.
• Take rest days. Even if you’re preparing for a seven-day grind-fest, try not to train more than three days in a row, says Hussman. Rest is important for building muscles.
• Avoid losing your water weight. Some hikers hill-train with water so they can flush it out at the top and walk downwind. Hassmann isn’t a fan: “If you have knee pain, it can be useful, but if you don’t, you’re only depriving yourself of downhill training.”
• Remember to taper. Three to four weeks before your goal, start withdrawing from training. This will give your feet time to recover so you are fresh for your trip.