A Great Muscular Endurance Workout For Hikers

This article and video shares a fantastic home workout a hiker can use to improve their leg endurance. Ultimately, this will help strengthen your elevation hiking, make heavier pack carries easier, and improve your speed on the trail. 

WHY HIKERS SHOULD TRAIN MUSCULAR ENDURANCE

Muscular endurance is a crucial aspect of fitness for a hiker to develop. It is defined as the ability of a muscle (or group of muscles) to perform repetitive contractions against a force for an extended period of time.

Which is incredibly relevant on a few places on the trail:

• During steep ascents
• During long descents
• When carrying a heavier pack
• When hiking at a quick pace

There are many ways to develop muscular endurance for hikers. Things like loaded hill intervals, loaded stair intervals, heavy gear loaded cycling and sled pushing. All of these can be effective.

But today, we are sharing a simple strength workout that can do the same thing. This workout is convenient, weather-friendly, time-efficient and can be performed at home or in the gym.

PRINCIPLES Of AN EFFECTIVE MUSCULAR ENDURANCE WORKOUT

To get the most out of a muscular endurance workout, a hiker should consider the following principles:

Train The Body In Balance

Traditionally hikers like to train three exercises: squats, step-ups and lunges.   

Each of these exercises can be incredibly beneficial for any hiker, but you are selling yourself short if that is all you are focusing on.

This is because each of these exercises works on the same muscles; predominantly the quadriceps. 

Undoubtedly the quads do the most amount of work on the trail, but it is rare they ever act independently.

For this reason, hikers must ensure they are training the other muscles in the legs (such as the hamstrings, glutes, calves and even the adductors). This is important for performance, comfort and injury and pain prevention.

Repetitions Are High 

To train muscular endurance, you want to keep the number of repetitions you are performing high. And chase the 'muscle burn'. This is what is going to cause the body to adapt to improve endurance on the trail. 

Traditionally in the fitness industry, 'muscular endurance training' is anything over 15 repetitions.

But when you look at the demands of hiking and the hundreds of steps, you will often take up even a small amount of elevation; using 15 repetitions as a marker doesn't really add up.

(And this is why loaded hill intervals can be so fantastic here).

So for a hiker, while doing a strength workout, 'high repetitions' generally means MUCH more than 15 at a time.

On the other hand, we need to ensure we are not spending all day in the gym (or getting bored out of our minds by doing a hundred repetitions of the same exercise!) 

A good approach is to use a 'super set' approach to find a happy balance here. You choose several relevant exercises targeting similar muscles and do them back to back, with no rest. 

This allows you to overload the muscles, build up a lot of working time, and not get completely bored. 

Exercises Are Simple

When doing any high repetition or muscle endurance training, it is best to keep exercises simple.  

This is because as you get tired, most people's mind begins to wander. And form begins to drop. If you are doing complicated or intricate exercises, this can lead to some issues. Either you lose the effectiveness of an exercise (and just going through the motions) or potentially pain or injury.

To combat this, when doing higher repetition exercises, exercises are best kept relatively simple. 

This way, you can concentrate on pushing the muscles, working through the burn, without having to worry about things going wrong. 

Exercises Are Hiking Specific

Muscle endurance training is typically what you perform in the final weeks/months before a big hike. This is the time you hone in all the foundational training you have been doing previously (i.e. lower repetition training) to develop hike specific fitness.

For this reason, this is the perfect time to include some very specific exercises for hiking.

Things like step ups, lunges or high repetition step downs. 

This doesn't have to be the whole workout. But there should be some focus on them. 

UNDERSTANDING THE WORKOUT  

The workout works in a simple circuit format. Each exercise is completed back to back with no rest (with the core exercise being your 'rest').


 A1: Lower body push (double leg)
 A2: Lower body pull (double leg)
 A3: Lower body push (single leg)
 A4: Lower body pull (single leg)
 A5: Core

As you can see, there is a lot of work being done with the legs in a short amount of time. On top of this, you are getting a nice balance between muscle groups and a mix between double and single-legged exercises.

*'Push' exercises are precisely what they sound like, exercises where you push against the ground; these typically target the quadriceps, with some glute contribution. Pull exercises are the opposite; they typically target the hamstrings and the glutes. 

THE WORKOUT  

 A1: DB Goblet squat x 15  
 A2: Bodyweight Glute Bridge x15
 A3: DB Step Up x 15 (each leg)
 A4: DB Rear Foot Elevated, Single Leg Deadlift x15 (each leg)
 A5: Plank x 45 seconds


*Repeat 3-5 times, no rest in between exercises or sets.

**DB = dumbbell

***You can swap out any of these exercises for a similar exercise that fits into the same category (i.e. lower body push, double legged etc.)

TIPS FOR SUCCESS  

During The Workout


Keep Repetitions Relatively Slow

Your repetitions during a muscular endurance workout don't have to be excruciatingly slow. But try not to rush through them either!  

The reason behind this is the main 'feeling' you are chasing in this workout is muscular burn. And you want to find that burn and steadily work through it.

This is much easier if the reps are controlled and relatively slow.

Alternatively, if you are too quick, you may find your cardiovascular fitness is the limiting factor (i.e. you are getting huffed and puffed). But that is not the target of this workout.

Keep at a pace where you can breathe comfortably.

Following on from above, you should keep the workout at a pace where you can breathe relatively comfortably throughout.

So if you find yourself getting overly out of breath throughout, slow the repetitions down, have a few seconds rest and then continue on.

Remember, you are trying to develop muscular endurance. This is not a cardio workout. 

*If you cannot do a workout like this without huffing and puffing constantly, this is likely an indicator you need to work on your aerobic fitness.

Adjust weights as necessary

It does take a bit of trial and error to find the correct weights for each exercise. On top of this, once you find the suitable weights, you may need to adjust between sets.

And this is perfectly fine.

Just do what you need to do to feel a moderate challenge and to get a good muscle burn without absolutely killing yourself. 

Progressing Over Time

Doing the exact same workout, over and over, is going to give minimal benefits for an aspiring hiker.

To get the most out of this workout, you want to ensure you are progressing the workout (i.e. making it slightly more challenging) over time.

A few ways you can do this:

• Add a small amount of extra weight each week (to one or all of your exercises)
• Add a couple of repetitions each week
• Add a small amount of range of motion each week (i.e. use a higher step for step-ups)
• Add an extra set each week (if time isn't an issue)

Any of these (or a combination of these) will work fine. Just make sure you are doing it!

*To get the best results, this workout should be preceded by a number of weeks working on strength development (i.e. lower repetitions).

**Working off a solid foundation of strength will explode the effectiveness of this routine. 

Using this workout a hiker can make a fantastic difference to their hiking performance on their adventures. Incorporate this workout into your training week, stay consistent with it and progress it as the weeks go by, and you will notice a significant difference in your legs during elevation hiking, heavy pack carrying and even your movement speed.

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