 When training for hiking, it can often be tricky finding a balance between fitting in all the different types of training which can be beneficial and also ensuring we don't do too much, and end up picking up aches, pains and injuries. So to help, inside this video we talk through some simple ideas on how a hiker can look at their training week, and make sure they are getting a good mix of things without overdoing it. Inside, we cover:
Exercises mentioned:
Video Transcript: [0:00] So in this video, we're going to be talking through a few ideas around how a [0:04] high drug can balance out both strength and cardio in their week. Now, this is coming from a question I got the other day where someone said it through. I'm currently doing high mileage, heavily inclined training. I'm looking at my time in the gym and my inclination would be to bias the stuff in the gym, doing exclusively upper body and core, getting how much I'm working my legs elsewhere. I don't want to create other issues in my efforts to avoid injury in an already cranky lower body. And this is a very typical situation that a lot of hikers find themselves in because it realistically can be quite tricky just balancing out your training to make sure that you're fitting in everything you want without overdoing things. And so many hikers fall into that situation where they just do too much and they get foot pain, they get ankle pain, they get knee pain, and it pulls them back. So getting this balance is really, really, really important. But one thing we need to keep top of mind when we're looking at any type of training program is different types of training will create different adaptations in the body. Not all training is created equal and different types of training will do different things. Now on the strength side, strength training will develop strength, which is very, very valuable for hikers for a number of different reasons. For injury prevention, for movement efficiency, for helping things feel more comfortable, for stability, balance and a bunch of different things. [1:24] And strength training will also develop some endurance, you know, depending on how you do it. Now, in the hiking context, you know, take this for the grain of salt because the difference between building endurance through strength training where you may do 15 repetitions of an exercise or 20 repetitions of exercise is a little bit different to the endurance you may need on a trail where you're doing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of steps up a steep incline, but it does develop a little bit of that. [1:50] Now, alternatively, on the cardio side of things, you know, this will develop different aspects of fitness depending on how you do it because different types of cardio will do different types of things. There are various energy systems in the body, various different types of training which will develop those energy systems, various different responses the body gets from things. Some cardio sessions, such as stairs or heels or whatever it may be, will develop endurance and cardio, even heavy load of pack work, it is very important to understand, is never going to be considered strength training. Some hikers get in their heads thinking, okay, I'm doing lots and lots and lots of pack work, maybe a lot of stuff on the incline, my legs get really burning, that's enough strength for my leg. It is very, very different. [2:32] Ultimately, when we're looking at a training for hiking program to get the best results all your time on the trail, we want to be taking a comprehensive approach. Meaning, on the strength side of things, we want to develop strength and endurance through the entire body, through the lower body, through the upper body through the core on top of that we want to be developing lower intensity conditioning cardio you know doing things like hiking and walking and cycling and stuff like that and then also we do want a little bit of exposure to some slightly higher intensity cardio as well things that are going to get the heart rate up a little bit higher as well and if we can cover all of these bases in a way that will progress over time and be relevant for you it's going to be a really really good training program it's going to cover a lot of bases but then we get the drawback that you know when we're looking at all of this a lot of hikers they're like oh my gosh my legs end up doing so much work through the week and they're just doing lots and lots and lots of stuff on the legs they're hiking their stairs their strength training their cycling whatever it may be and this can if we're just doing too much often lead to soreness and overuse so it is a little bit tricky usually what i tend to see from hikers when i dine into this and they're like oh my gosh my legs are just struggling it does tend to be contributed but i guess the more traditional on the approach to training the fitness industry as a whole kind of [3:49] has that approach of just throwing mud at a wall and seeing what. [3:52] Sticks and just absolutely doing so much and so much intensity whatever may be and a lot of hikers do fall into this and on the strength side of things you know they'll often fall into the situation where they're just doing lots and lots and lots of different leg exercises they'll go to the gym and do five or six different exercises or they'll train breathing really hard and like go to that point but you just cannot do anymore and you just get to that point of failure every single time or on the cardio side of things you know they'll do the whole go hard go home and if you don't get sweaty if you don't get huffed and puffed and if you don't really give it your all it's not really worth it and this stuff yeah it's fine to general fitness but if we are trying to balance out a nice comprehensive program we're going to probably do a bit better with this so with all that being said if you're still with me here now i can talk you to a bit of a solution around how you can get the. [4:40] Ultimately, if you want to get the best results out of training for hiking, a hiker really wants to get exposure to full body strength and cardio in the same way. Not breaking things off and just saying, I'm going to do a bit here, a bit there, but I do everything through the loop. For me, for my hikers, I will typically get my hikers doing this all the way through their training. From week one to the final week before they finish up training, we're going to be getting exposure to full body strength and also cardio. As you do get closer to a trip, some hikers may shift the ratio of this and they may end up doing more and more cardio and less and less strength, but there'll always be some of it. We always want to be doing side-wise. And realistically, even though a lot of this stuff will be very, very, very leg-dominant, it is very, very possible for you to balance this all out so it doesn't end up being too much. [5:25] Now, on the cardio side of things, a few things you just want to be aware of. For hikers, not all your training has to be hard all the time. You don't have to be pushing things outrageously difficult. You don't have to be getting really exhausted or whatever it may be. And on top of that is hikers don't need to be walking every day. A lot of hikers fall into the trap thinking, okay, if I've got to go on a hiking adventure and I go hike for four or five or six days in a row, I'm just going to hike four or five days in my week and I'm going to walk four or five days in the week. But it isn't necessary. It may seem a little bit backwards for me saying this, but it isn't necessary. [5:58] Ultimately, when it comes down to your train week, when you're looking at your cardio, some of it can be that high difficulty stuff that gets you tired, that gets you really fatigued. But a lot of your training can also be lower and moderate intensity stuff that you walk out of these sessions and you're like that was a good session but instead of feeling tired i'm feeling energized instead of feeling not good i'm kind of feeling like i could do more this can be really beneficial because when we're looking at hiking the number one aspect of fitness that we want to improve is our aerobic energy system and our aerobic energy system is best developed through this lower intensity, long duration training. So if we're looking at a week of training, we're looking at to say, hey, I want to do lots and lots of cardio in my week, we can think, okay, then maybe a little bit of that higher intensity stuff, but also a lot of this more moderate and lower intensity. And a really simple example of finding the balance between all of this, if hypothetically you want to train four days in a week, instead of just hiking every single day, or instead of doing HIIT every single day, you could look at doing something like one longer hike per week one stair session a week where you push the intensity get a bit out of breath that's your tough session one loaded pack walk where you just took 30 60 minutes or something like that with a slightly challenging about pack and then one really really easy session or maybe an elliptical or a bar you know you can sort of see that goes from that folks concept if i'm just walking every day and the legs are really tired or i'm just pushing things every day but we got this nice, difference between intensities and that's a really simple way of managing out the cardio side of Thanks. [7:28] Now, on the strength side of things, if you really said, you're not sure how to find this balance, one thing to be aware of is hikers do not need to be training black bodybuilders. What I mean by that is that typical approach of going to a gym and having an arms day or a chest day or a leg day, it's not particularly necessary. You can get a huge amount of work done by just choosing a few key exercises and just nailing that. And a lot of my hikers, if they're looking at a full strength day, they mainly do leg exercises. and build out the rest of their workouts number round. So to give you an example of what this may look like, this could be a simple 60-minute session where we may start off with a lower body exercise like a split squat. Then we'll do an upper body exercise like a bent over row. And then we'll do maybe a side plank and then we'll do a mobility session. And we'll do maybe three sets of that, lower gliding, upper body, core, mobility and rotate through that. That's very, very simple, but it covers a lot of bases. [8:22] And then we may go and do a bit of glute work and a bit of calf raises. And just to give you visuals of what this looks like, The split squat, maybe something like this, where we're just starting off with body weight, we're coming up and down, developing the quads, developing the glutes, maybe a little bit of hamstrings as well. Then you move into your bentoidal rows, and get the legs to rest, do a bit of upper body work, working the upper back and maybe a bit of the biceps. Very simple. Then moving into that side plank hip dip, this is just a core exercise, working the obliques a little bit, working a little bit of core stability. Very, very simple. And then just doing any other stretch, you're doing like a hamstring stretch, where you're just tripping out and stretching. You can see in this first section, we're trying a lot of places, but we're really, you know, it's not going to absolutely be able to load it. And then the other section, glute breaches, maybe doing something like this for working the hamstrings and the glutes a little bit more. [9:08] And then maybe just a bit of calf work. So we're getting a nice spread all the way through the bottom. And I'll share all of these links in the video description below, so you can kind of check it out. [9:18] And typically, you know, that could be a full strength session. It's very different to that typical bodybuilder approach. But if you're consistent with it and you work with it, you're going to absolutely get a really good workout. And on top of that, you know, we may do a second strength session in a week where we just complement those things. We may do some a little bit more glute work, a little bit more hamstring work, a little bit more chest or shoulder work, whatever it may be. But again, it's not a huge amount of volume that's just go and go and go and go. But we're just doing a small amount of good work. [9:45] And on top of this, like as I sort of said, a lot of people fall into that trap of just kind of pushing things to the limit, just absolutely training to failure. They're just training to a point where they're just like, I cannot do any more. And again, you know, it's not particularly necessary for hikers. I kind of like doing, you know, following the rule of thumb of two reps in reserve. And what that means, if we were sort of doing these bent over rows and we were doing this exercise and we said, maybe I wanted to do you 10 repetitions. Instead of choosing weight where you can literally only do 10 repetitions and that hits your failure point, like, oh my gosh, I'm burning, I'm struggling, or whatever it may be, what you do is you choose a weight, which if you really, really, really, really pushed it, you could probably do 12 repetitions. But instead, you just stick to the 10. So you always keep two reps in your back pocket and two reps in reserve. Now, the idea behind this is that this is still a really, really simple way of getting enough of a stimulus to move your strength forward, but it just reduces that fatigue that creeps up with that failure training. And it helps you balance out a lot of things through your whip. so coming down um. [10:45] Yeah, it can go really, really well. And then finally, you know, last little thing, you know, if you do feel like you're going to a week and you're like, oh my gosh, my legs are sore all the time. I'm really, really struggling and I just can't perform in my sessions. [10:58] Then you can either reduce what you're doing in the week or you can just do a little bit more in regards to your recovery. You can just look at what you're doing to help the body bounce back into 20 sessions. You could look at doing, you know, making sure you're eating enough food or eating your life food. Look at your hydration, look at your sleep, look at your stress or whatever it may be. A lot of things we can do to help the body balance back in between but ultimately when you come down a train for hiking i would never say it's a good idea just to sort of say i'm just going to do you know cardio on my legs i'm just going to strengthen my body or whatever it may be to get the best results we want to be following a nice comprehensive program um and if this is program right it's very very doable it's very very safe and it's very very effective um and i think it will do some much better approach um and of course if you are unsure about how to put this into action you're like okay rod yeah different types of cardio comprehensive strength how did that all look in a week you know if you do need help reach out i'm always happy to chat i'm always happy to do i answer questions but hopefully that gives a little bit direction if you had to do fine yourself in a situation you're just struggling to balance everything out you're doing loads of walking your legs are always tight you don't really know how to fit it all in how to think about structuring things out breaking up the intensities um maybe just take a bit more hiking specific approach as opposed to like the traditional fitness [12:12] approach and it can really go a long way. So with that being said, I really do hope this helps. I hope it gives you a bit of direction where you train it. Want to get
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AuthorRowan is an online personal trainer who specialises in training for hiking and mountaineering. He helps get them fit, strong and resilient so they can conquer every adventure. Archives
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