20 Minute Workouts For Trekkers

When you are Training For A Trek, you might have the absolute best program in the world, but sometimes life just gets busy.

It happens to all of us. But when you find yourself in this situation, don't make the mistake of skipping your session all together!

Long term training success is all about momentum.

The simple fact is, every time you miss a session, it gets easier and easier to skip them in the future. It is a slippery slope and before you know it, your program is completely off the rails.

You end up feeling guilty, beating yourself up and have to start back at square one.

But this doesn't have to happen!

In this situation, fitting in a short, sharp and time efficient workout is the answer.

You can keep your momentum. Keep moving forwards towards your training goals. And keep yourself feeling good!

How These Workouts Work

• The following workouts are broken down into: cardio, muscular strength and muscular endurance. Simply choose which training goal you are aiming for and get into it.
  
  
• All of these workouts need to be preceded by a thorough warm up.
  
  
• These workouts are designed to be quite intense... To get the most out of a short workout, you need to be working HARD. This means sprints are quick and weights are a challenge! However, if you are injured or out of condition, please use common sense to judge your own intensities.
  
  
• And finally, please don't be tempted to use these workouts as a long term solution while training for a trek. While very beneficial in these situations, these workouts can never replace the long duration training which are so essential for preparing for a successful trek.

Cardio

Can't fit in your trek training or longer aerobic work? Not a problem! While not usually recommended for trekkers, this is a situation where HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) shines.

By working at a super high intensity (broken up by regular rest periods) you can get quite a bit of work done in a short amount of time.

Indoor Workout

• Choose stationary cycle, rower, curved treadmill or sled
  
• Sprint all out for 30 seconds
  
• Rest for 30 seconds
• Repeat 10 times

Outdoor Workout

• Find a clear open space or a hill
• Sprint all out for 20 seconds
• Rest for 40 seconds
• Repeat 10 times

Rest periods in between intervals are a great time to practice abdominal breathing

Muscular Strength

Muscular strength refers to the amount of force a muscle can produce with a single maximal effort. This is incredibly beneficial for injury prevention, movement economy and trekking confidence!

Indoor Workout

• Choose one variation of either: squat, deadlift or lunge
• Choose one core exercise
• Perform strength exercise for 5 repetitions
• Perform core exercise for 1 minute
• Rest for 1 minute
• Repeat 5 times

Outdoor Workout

• Find a very steep hill
• Sprint up hill for 8 seconds
• Rest for 2 minutes (perform upper body mobility during this period)
• Repeat 6 times

Read here for other great options to develop muscular strength while outside

Muscular Endurance

Muscular Endurance is the ability of a muscle to produce a relatively high percentage of its maximum force for many repetitions without fatiguing. This is obviously very necessary while on the trail.

Indoor Workout

• Lower Body Push Exercise x 20 repetitions
• Lower Body Pull Exercise x 20 repetitions
• Core exercise x 1min
• Repeat 4 times

Weight and tempo should be chosen in which legs will be burning, but you can still breathe through nose throughout.

Need help choosing 'push' and 'pull' exercises? Click here for a full list for trekkers.

Outdoor Workout

• Find a hill that will take 4-5 minutes to climb
• Load up a back 10-20% of body weight
• Climb up at a pace where you can still breathe through nose
• Walk to bottom

• Repeat twice

You now have a range of time efficient workouts for training for a trek.  So next time life gets busy and you feel like skipping a session, you will know exactly what to do!