Personal Training For Hikers

There are millions of hikers in the world. And there are a million personal trainers. This article explains why you should consider working with a personal trainer who specialises in hikers. 
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Why Personal Training For Hikers

Hiking and trekking are activities beloved by so many people around the world. From the outside, many people would say it looks pretty easy. Because it is just walking, so hard could it be?
 
But anyone who has spent some significant time on the trail will know this is simply not the case.
 
Sure, it’s just walking...
  
But there are also so many other factors to consider...
 

• The lung-busting, leg-burning demand of hiking up long, steep hills or stairs
• The joint destroying force of hiking downhill for hours at a time
• The leg dragging fatigue after being on the trail all-day
• Dealing with heavy packs
• Battling uneven terrain, broken paths, rock hopping, river crossings, mud and even snow

 
So it is safe to say hiking is not always a 'walk in the park'. But quite often, it is a challenge worth taking seriously.
 
So back to the original question. Why should someone consider personal training for hiking?
 
Well, simply put, sometimes people simply struggle to get themselves physically and mentally for these demands.
 
And getting help from an expert can help them overcome this.
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What Can A Personal Trainer Do For Hikers?

There are multitudes of things a personal trainer can do for hikers and trekkers, but as a general overview, it comes down to three main reasons:
 
1) A personal trainer can help your body to avoid the common aches, pains and injuries which are associated with hiking

Injuries plague the hiking community. Things like hiker’s knee, plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains and lower back pain are incredibly common for hikers. And, unless you are a health professional, you probably don’t know how to prevent these things.

While yes, there are hundreds of articles available on the internet around these subjects, most of them are rubbish. The majority of them contain huge inaccuracies and blatant misinformation. Which, in the end, don’t do anything to help a hiker prevent injury.

Alternatively, a personal trainer who specialises in hikers will understand these issues intimately. They will know exactly what is necessary to prevent these common hiking aches, pains and injuries. And will be able to tailor specific exercises to help you overcome these.

They will also have the knowledge and experience to know when an issue is out of their scope and will help direct you to another health professional.

2) A personal trainer can help develop specific fitness to overcome obstacles which might be holding you back on the trail

The common solution for hikers looking to get fit is ‘just go out and hike’. This can work, but only to an extent. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t do much to help you with specific obstacles such as:

• You are fine walking on the flat, but whenever you come to a hill you turn into a red-faced, sweaty mess
• Halfway down a long descent, you get uncontrollable jelly legs
• You are carrying a few extra kilos around the middle and find there is a limit to how much walking you can do each week
• You struggle on uneven or slippery terrain
• You have a history of pain or injury (as explained above)
  
  

Whatever your particular obstacle is, a personal trainer who specialises in hikers can give you the training, guidance and support to best overcome these obstacles. So you can turn these weak spots into your strongest part on the trail!
 
3) A personal trainer can help reduce the time commitments necessary to prepare for a significant hike or trek 
 
Traditionally hikers are recommended to spend ridiculous amounts of hours each week walking, to prepare them for a challenging hike. By applying intelligent training techniques and programming, a personal trainer can significantly reduce this time commitment. So you can get you 100% fit, strong and resilient to tackle anything the trail might throw at you, without having to give up the rest of your life. 

What Can You Expect From A Personal Trainer For Hikers?

A hiking specialist personal trainer should help you with the following things:
 
Hike Training

While they won't necessarily hit the trail with you (though some do!) a personal trainer should be able to help you plan your hike training.
 
This involves putting a little bit of structure behind your choice of distances and trail grades, to ensure:
 

• You are choosing appropriate trails for your fitness level
• You are minimising any risk of pain or injury (inconsistent hiking distances are one of the biggest cause of overuse injuries)
• You are consistently progressing your hiking (so your trail fitness continues to improve)
• You are having strategic weeks not hiking (sometimes the body needs a rest. Having someone tell you when to do this can often be a bit safer than ‘playing it by ear’) 

Strength Training
 
A personal trainer will help you apply structured and specific strength training to help you on the trail.
 
While often misunderstood, strength training for hikers is great for several reasons:
 

1. It is the single best thing you can do to help prevent common hiking injuries
2. It helps improve movement efficiency on the trail (i.e. every step you take, uses less energy)
3. It helps make ascents and descents MUCH easier
4. It is incredibly at improving your confidence in your physical abilities

 
By working with a structured strength training plan, a personal trainer can help you enjoy all of these benefits and much more.
 
Off Trail Conditioning
 
While hikers are often recommended to 'just hike' to develop their trail fitness - this is not strictly necessary.
   
There are a range of other conditioning methods you can use off the trail – which will still help improve your hiking fitness (with the added convenience of being able to do these in the gym, at home or in the local neighborhood).
 
A personal trainer can help direct you in what types of off-trail conditioning will best help you, as well as guide you in applying them to aid your hiking.   
 
Mobility Training
  
A common cause of pain and discomfort in hikers are restricted joints (e.g. tight ankles and hips are incredibly common in the hiking community).  
  
By doing some specific mobility training in your week, you can help these joints move as they naturally should, allowing your body to move safely and 
 
But this goes well beyond doing some random stretches or yoga. A personal trainer can identify which specific joints which need work and give you effective exercise recommendations to help them.
 
Recovery Strategies
 
A good training program is not all about training hard. Around this, there should be a decent emphasis on aiding your recovery between sessions and after your hiking.
 
But the problem most people face here is what should you be doing? Stretching? Yoga? Walking? Massage? And does any of that make a difference?  
  
A personal trainer can give you some solid guidance around your recovery. Letting you know exactly what you should be doing to help aid your recovery when to do it and explain why it is effective. 
 
Nutrition
 
Whether it is in your daily life or while you are on the trail, good nutrition goes hand in hand with hiking performance.
 
But, just like training, the world of nutrition can be incredibly complicated and can often be overwhelming. And it can be hard to know where to put your focus.
 
While most personal trainers are not qualified to give specific nutrition advice (i.e. meal plans) they can give you nutrition coaching (i.e. educate you around good nutrition practices).
 
This can make all the difference to your time on the trail.
 
Education
 
On top of all this, one of the greatest benefits of working with a personal trainer who specialises in hikers is they can educate you on the dozens of other topics which may help you on the trail.
 
 Things like:

• Hiking techniques
• Gear choices
• Mental Strength strategies
• Dealing with high altitude environments
• Techniques to aid sleep while on the trail
• Preventing sore muscles
• Breathing techniques

 
Sure, much of this information is available online. But a personal trainer for hikers will save you hours of research in these areas. 

Personal Training For Specific Types Of Hiking

In the hiking community, there is an endless number of ‘sub-sets’ (i.e. different groups of hikers, who have a slightly different challenge).

Here are a few examples of different types of hikers who can benefit from personal training:

Backpackers
 
Backpacking faces the same demand as hiking (yes it is more or less the same thing!)
  
Dealing with elevation. Long days on the trail. Uneven terrain.

The main defining feature of backpacking is simply carrying a heavy pack. This can make a MASSIVE difference to the physical (and mental) demands to place son your body on the trail.

A personal trainer can help prepare a backpacker for the demands of a heavy pack.
 
Generally, the training will be similar to most hikers, but there will be particular emphasis on:

• Strength training: while heavier strength training is beneficial for all, for backpackers it is essential. Teaching the body to handle load through resistance training makes a big difference to carrying a heavy pack.
  
  
• Overloaded pack training: common recommendations to train for a heavy pack involve "put a pack on and go hiking." And while this will help, spending time working on things like overloaded pack walking, hill intervals and stair sessions is incredible for important backpacking fitness. Working with a personal trainer who specialises in backpackers, will allow you to use these methods of training effectively and safely. 

Ultralight Backpackers

On the other end of the scale are the ultralight hikers. While for most hikers, reducing pack weight here and there is part of the game, the ultralight crowd bring it to extremes (some might say cutting off the tags on your clothes to save a few grams could be a bit excessive...)

And while they spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours getting the lightest gear possible and figuring out ways to reduce their load weight, they often miss one crucial factor.  

You can decrease your relative load by increasing your strength. Meaning, everything will feel much lighter. Which is significant. 
  
Personal training for ultralight backpacking can ensure that this gain in strength is done in the quickest and most efficient way possible.

And a true expert, can make this strength gain happen without increasing body weight by a single gram...

Thru-Hikers
 
Thru-hikers are an interesting breed. On the trail for weeks (or months) on end, it is pretty obvious that having a solid level of physical fitness is essential for their chances of success. 
 
But do you want to know one of the most common reasons for a thru-hiker to drop out of their adventure before the end? No, it is not because they didn’t have the right gear (even though that is where most thru-hikers spend 90% of their preparation time focusing on…)
 
It is injury.

Plantar fasciitis. Shin splints. Hikers knee. Lower back pain. These things plague the thru-hiking community (and it is not surprising!)
 
So beyond getting a thru-hiker physically fit for their adventure, a personal trainer who specialises in thru-hikers can help bulletproof your body from pain, discomfort and injury before you hit the trail. So you can dramatically increase your odds of success. And allow yourself to properly enjoy your time on the trail!
 
High-Altitude Trekking
 
High altitude trekking comes with its own set of demands.
  
The air is thin. Everything you do feels significantly harder. Your appetite changes. Your sleep is disturbed. You need to do everything you can to help your acclimatisation. And you need to do everything you can do avoid the dreaded altitude sickness.
 
But while these demands for high altitude trekking are commonly known, the solutions to these things are often hit and miss. There is a huge amount of misinformation out there on the internet around this topic. And it can leave an aspiring high altitude hiker feeling quite overwhelmed...
 
Working with a personal trainer who specialises in high altitude hiking can ensure you get quality, science-backed strategies to deal with this. So you can know what type of training you need to be doing to prepare for high altitude (yes, physical fitness is important while trekking at high altitude). You can understand what nutrition strategies are necessary. And so you can get some evidence-based insight on how to prevent altitude sickness.
 
This will save you HOURS of fruitless research, frustration and anxiety.
 
*Important note: A common solution for high altitude trekking is to prepare in a simulated altitude chamber. While this can have some benefits, please don't make the mistake of assuming a personal trainer who works in an altitude gym, is an expert in high altitude trekking. The barrier for entry to become qualified as an 'altitude trainer' is incredibly low. And, more often than you would like to think, trainers in these gyms are more interested in selling their product, then giving genuinely helpful advice. Simulated altitude training can be a tool in a personal trainer's toolbox but it should never be the entire box.
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How To Find A Personal Trainer Who Specialises In Hikers

There are millions of hikers in the world. Of those millions, a large percentage would likely benefit from working with a specialist personal trainer.  
  
Unfortunately, in the entire world, there are only dozens of personal trainers and coaches who specialise in working with hikers, trekkers, backpackers and thru-hikers.
 
So the likelihood of finding one in your local area is slim.

But in this modern day of age, there is a solution here...
  
Online Personal Training For Hikers
 
With the advent of global communication, Training Apps and other online platforms, online personal training can be a legitimate option for a hiker who is looking for a specialist (and does not have one in their local area). 
 
While every remote coach works differently, online personal training generally follows these characteristics:
 

• You are provided with an individualised training plan to complete in your own time (usually provided through a Training App, via email or even Skype)
• You are given detailed instructional videos on how to complete certain the exercises prescribed
• You keep in regular contact with your coach (via email/phone/messaging) to troubleshoot any problems you might have and keep you accountable to the process

 
Through this, a hiker can get some individual program to help towards their hiking goals, but do it anywhere in the world!
 
The standard benefits of this type of remote coaching are:
 

• Price: as a trainer does not have to pay gym overheads, the price tag on online personal training is generally lower
• Flexible: instead of being locked in for set times to train each week, this allows the hiker to fit in their workouts to their schedule

The Problem With Workout Plans
 
Saying this, there is a big difference between online personal training and the generic, pre-made workout plans that are often sold to hikers.
 
There is a plague of cookie-cutter workout plans for hikers sold on the internet. These plans follow the 'one size fits all approach' in which hikers and expected to fit their lives around these plans. And if they don't work (which they often don't) hikers are left feeling guilty that they 'weren't disciplined enough' or 'didn't put in enough effort'.
 
 While there is no denying pre-made workout plans can work for some hikers, they do not account for :

• If you have a previous injury or pain which you need to protect
• If you get sick or go away on holiday
• If you are incredibly time-poor 
• If you have less training experience or fitness then the plan expects
• If you have MORE training experience or fitness than the plan expects
• If any other circumstances in your life changes during the program

 
And looking at this list, it is more than likely you will come across one of these things in your training journey.
 
Alternatively, online personal training is all about flexibility. It will cater the training and recommendations around a hiker’s life (instead of the other way around). All the exercise selections and programming are completely individualised around your injury history, training experience and current fitness. 
 
It is a much more personalised service. And much more successful.
 
Who Are Some Good Personal Trainers Who Specialise In Hikers
 
Here are a few recommendations:

Summit Strength
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"Personal training specialising in preparing hikers, trekkers and mountaineers for their adventures"  

Located in Sydney and offers Online Personal Training. 

https://www.summitstrength.com.au/
 
* Authors note: Yes, this is my business!

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Trailside Fitness
 
"Helping hikers complete hikes and reduce injuries through fitness training & education" ​

Located in Seattle and offers online personal training. 

https://trailsidefitness.com/

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Joe's Base Camp

"Helping ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things; providing the inspiration, the training and the opportunity for you to live a fitter, fuller and more adventurous life. " ​

​Gym in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia.

https://joesbasecamp.com.au/

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Adventure Fitness Aus

"A strength and conditioning gym that trains people for adventures outdoors."

Gym in Brisbane, Australia. ​

http://www.adventurefitnessaus.com/

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The Healthy Hiker

"Teaches you how to train for your next big hike, what to eat both on and off the trail, and how to choose the right equipment for your grand adventure. " ​

Online coaching.

https://www.thehealthyhiker.com/

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Know any other great personal trainers who specialise in training hikers or trekkers? Post a comment at the bottom of the page to let us know!

There are many benefits in working with a personal trainer who specialises in hikers. You can get help to prevent common hiking injuries. You can get the support and guidance you need to overcome specific obstacles you face in your hiking. But best of all, you can be working with someone who intimately understands your needs, wants and frustrations. This is worth its weight in gold. 
 

Author

Rowan Smith specialises in preparing hikers, trekkers and mountaineers for their bucket list adventures.

Having realised that the current information on training and preparation for this population was absolutely woeful, he set out to change it.

These days he has one mission in life. To raise the standards of preparation in the adventure community. So you can have the very best chance of a safe, enjoyable and successful adventure, whatever that may be.