How To Train For High Altitude Hiking (If You Live At Sea Level)

Today I discuss how you can best prepare and train for a high altitude hike if you don't live near any mountains.  

  
High altitude trekking has captured the imagination of so many people around the world. Who hasn't daydreamed at some point of standing at the top of Kilimanjaro? Or of conquering the pilgrimage to Everest Base Camp?

But, while most of us have the opportunity to prepare physically before a hike or adventure, no matter what we do, or what experience we may have, there is always one factor which is unknown.
  
Altitude.

For the lucky few, preparing for a high altitude hike will simply involve doing a few training hikes on smaller mountains, at moderate altitude.  
  
But what about the rest of us? Who don't have any mountains to train on? WHo doesn't have a chance of getting up high before a trip? And whose acclimatisation journey will only start the once you actually hit the trail?

Well, that is what today's podcast is all about. To give you some clear information and direction on how you can best prepare your body for a high altitude hike if you live at sea level.
  
Now to be clear, the strategies I talk about are definitely are not foolproof! And your chances at altitude will ALWAYS be mainly affected by the time you have to acclimatise and your genetics....
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But beyond that, this episode will give you some practical information to use in your training, which might give you that extra nudge towards high altitude success.
  
You will learn:

• The number one most important element of fitness you need to work on when preparing for a high altitude trek
• Why the statement 'there is no correlation between fitness and altitude sickness' is only half true...
• A simple breathing technique which can be quite effective for high altitude hikers (yes, I know I pronounce this wrong!)
• A proven progression plan on how to train your breathing
• Three areas of training which I DON'T recommend high altitude hikers focus on (no matter what some 'experts' say)
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Training For High Altitude Hiking (Podcast Written Article

Today, we are talking about how to train for high altitude hiking if you live at sea level.

High altitude hiking is something many, many people aspire to. So many people dream about big bucket list goals like Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro or the Inca Trail. They dream about big mountains and challenging adventures that have been sitting in the back of their minds for years and years. But the question that always comes up is this one.

How do I prepare for altitude when I do not have any mountains around me?

Nine times out of ten, when someone asks that question, someone else pipes up and says the best way to get ready for altitude is to spend time at altitude, which is one hundred per cent true. And 100% unhelpful if you do not live near any mountains or cannot take mini-trips to moderate altitudes.

So, for the other half of us who live at sea level with no altitude available, what can you actually do to prepare?

Today I am going to talk you through exactly what I recommend. What has worked again and again for my clients. And how you can prepare your body for the demands of a high altitude hike while living at sea level.

I live in Sydney, which has zero altitude to speak of. The highest mountain in the entire country is about two thousand meters. So there is no real altitude here. Yet countless people come to me wanting to train for big, high-altitude adventures.

Over the years, I have trained a large number of these people, and I have seen consistent patterns in what works.

Clients often come back and tell me they felt more comfortable than others on their hike. Their acclimatisation felt a little quicker. They were able to walk toward the front of the group. They felt better day to day.

None of this is deeply scientific. But it is repeated enough that I feel confident in sharing it.

Before getting into specifics, I want to address the statement that always pops up when people talk about altitude. The idea that there is no correlation between physical fitness and altitude sickness.

You see this everywhere. The logic comes from studies comparing very fit people to moderately fit people. And the research shows no significant difference in altitude sickness rates between those two groups. That part is true.

But what people constantly miss is this:

Physical exhaustion is a known risk factor for altitude sickness. If you are exhausted, you are at higher risk. So while being extremely fit does not necessarily give you extra protection, being underprepared and underfit absolutely increases the danger. Which is why everything we talk about today focuses on avoiding that exhaustion so your body has the best chance to acclimatise properly.

So let us get into the specifics of what you can do when you do not have access to any altitude.

#1 ​Aerobic Capacity Development

Aerobic capacity is your body's ability to produce energy using oxygen. It is your aerobic fitness and your ability to go and go and go for long durations without fatigue. This is the most important aspect of fitness you must develop before a high altitude hike.

Aerobic capacity is the foundation of your performance on the mountain and directly affects your comfort day after day at altitude.

You develop aerobic capacity with long-duration, lower to moderate intensity exercise.

Simple examples of things include:

• Hiking
• Cycling
• Running
• Swimming
• Pack walking
• Gym cardio machines (e.g. elliptical, rower, etc.)

Anything you can sustain at a moderate pace for thirty+ minutes without needing to stop.

This needs to be the backbone of your training.

But many hikers only do one aerobic session during the week, plus a hike every 1-2 weekends. This is a great start, but if you truly want to build a solid aerobic engine, you probably want to be doing a bit more.

If you really want to prepare for a high altitude adventure, I would usually recommend a hiker's aim:

• One longer session per week (something 2+ hours, which might be a hike, a long walk or a cycle)
  
  
• Two to three shorter aerobic capacity sessions (anything from 30-60 minutes at a time, depending on how much time you have available).

The key to developing your aerobic capacity over time is progression.

The body gets used to things very quickly. So you need to regularly give it more or new stimulus to force it to adapt and keep moving forward.

The best way to progress aerobic capacity training is to add extra time. If you can add an extra 5-15 minutes each week, this can do wonders.

*It might not always be possible to keep on adding time to your sessions due to time restraints, but do what you can.

**For your hiking, you also need to factor in preparing for any type of pack carrying you might be expecting, which can often be tricky to balance out. If you needed some direction on how to plan this, you can check out this article: How To Plan Your Training Hikes
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#2: Training For Elevation Change ​

Altitude hikes involve uphill (and downhill) walking. And going both up and down hill can exhaust people quickly. So in our training, we want to do everything we can to prepare our bodies and minds for the elevation change, and make sure this does not overly drain you on the mountain.

To best prepare for elevation change, we want to ensure we get a good mix of both muscular strength and muscular endurance development.

Muscular Strength

Muscular strength is the ability of your muscles to produce a large amount of force for a short amount of time.

While many hikers neglect this, developing muscular strength can do wonders for helping your legs stay strong and stable during steep ascents and descents (not to mention, it is one of the best things you can do to prevent common aches, pains and injuries such as knee pain while hiking).

To best develop strength, we want to perform exercises that load up the muscles with challenging weights (and, ideally, use a weight where you will fatigue and need a rest after 5-10 repetitions).

*If you are new to strength training, aiming for 8-10 repetitions is a good place to start. If you are more experienced, you can aim for lower.

Great strength exercises for hikers preparing for elevation include variations of:

• Squats
• Single-leg deadlifts
• Lunges
• Step up variations
• Glute bridges
• Calf raises

Ultimately, the stronger your legs are, the easier every single step up or down hill will be in the mountains. 

I usually recomend two full body strength sessions (between thirty to sixty minutes) per week for high altitude hikers. ​

Need some help getting started with strength training for hiking? Check out our free Strength Training For Hikers Mini-Course. 

Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles to produce a moderate amount of force, again and again and again.

There are many ways you can develop this:

• High repetition strength work
• Hill workouts
• Stair sessions
• Stairmaster, stepper or Jacobs ladder workouts
• Box step workouts
• Cycle grind sessions
  
  

Anything that you can get a good 'burn' on the legs, and sustain for a relatively long period of time.

You may not have mountains to train on, but you can always find a way to challenge your legs for the climbs.

​I usually recommend to aim for one or two of these sessions per week for high altitude hikers (if done at low intensity these can also double up as aerobic capacity sessions). ​

Want a deeper look at training for elevation? Check out this video: How To Train For Elevation Hiking Without Any Mountains. 

#3: Diaphragmatic Breathing

This is something I strongly recommend for high-altitude hikers. The benefits of this are anecdotal. I am not aware of any direct research saying this will help at high altitude... BUT it has worked well for my clients in the past, is easy to do and has zero downside.  

Many of us have a tendency during exercise to 'chest breathe' (e.g. when we are breathing, we use our chest, shoulders and neck quite a lot).

The problem with this is that when we are chest breathing, it can often make it harder for our body to relax, sustain slower breathing and use the oxygen we are breathing in efficiently.

Alternatively, diaphragmatic breathing is a simple way of helping slow our breathing down, using our diaphragm (which is our most important breathing muscle!) more effectively and be slightly more 'efficient' with our breathing and oxygen uptake.

At altitude, if we can apply diaphragmatic breathing, we can:

• Keep our breathing a bit more controlled
• Reduce the feeling of 'dizziness' or 'spaciness' which can often happen when breathing very quickly at altitude
• Calm the body and mind down

And ultimately, just use our breathing a bit more effectively during climbs.

Here is a simple way to get started with diaphragmatic breathing:

• Start lying on your back, with your hands across your belly (with your opposite finger tips touching across your belly button).
  
• Breathe in through your nose and feel the belly expand (while trying to keep the chest relatively still).

Practice this for 5 minutes a day until it feels natural.

Once you have gotten the hang of this, we want to progress this (because walking up an ascent at altitude is a bit different from lying still on your back!).


A simple progression plan you can follow is to practice this when:

1. Walking in your day-to-day life (e.g. around the neighbourhood, at work)
2. Walking while wearing a pack (on the flat)
3. Walking up stairs, hills or inclines
4. Walking up stairs, hills or inclines (while wearing a pack)
5. During interval training

Working through these progressions will help your ability to control your breathing under stress, which can be very beneficial for high altitude.

Want more ideas about training your breathing for hiking? Check out this free mini-course: Breathing Drills For Hikers. 

Summary So Far:

Three big focuses when training for high altitude:

1. Aerobic capacity
2. Elevation training
3. Diaphragmatic breathing
   
   

Each of these will help you in different ways. So make sure you are including them in your preparations!
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What Training I Do Not Recommend For High Altitude Hikers

There are a few commonly recommended ideas that I do not recommend to high altitude hikers:

1) High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

HIIT involves doing short periods of very high-intensity exercise, followed by periods of rest.

Common examples of this we often see in the fitness industry include:

• 45 seconds quick/15 seconds rest
• 20 seconds quick/10 seconds rest
  
  

Many people claim that huffing and puffing with HIIT will prepare your lungs for getting huffed and puffed on the mountain. This sounds good in theory, but it isn't quite as simple...

To understand this best, we need a quick lesson about energy systems.

The body has different systems that it uses to produce energy for movement.

These systems have two big divisions:

The Aerobic Energy System:

• This uses oxygen as part of its process to produce energy
• It is slow to produce energy but very fuel efficient (e.g. for every unit of fuel it uses, it produces lots of energy)
• Designed for long-duration, lower-intensity activity (e.g. walking, cycling, easy running, etc.)

The Anaerobic Energy Systems

• This does not use oxygen as part of the process
• Very fast to produce energy, but not as fuel-efficient
• Generates more 'waste products' (which can contribute to fatigue)
• Designed for shorter, sharper bursts of energy (e.g. jumping, sprinting, etc.)

The typical HIIT, which is promoted by the fitness industry, is designed mainly to target our anaerobic energy systems.

Hiking, even at high altitude, is an aerobic activity. So if you want to see the best results for high altitude, we want to develop our aerobic energy system as much as we can.

HIIT is not harmful. And you will likely feel more fit from doing it. But it is not the best use of your time and energy.

If you really do enjoy high-intensity training, this article describes an approach to interval training which is MUCH more relevant for high altitude hikers: A Great Interval Workout For Hikers.

Simulated Altitude Training

Many high-altitude hikers ask about using simulated altitude chambers or tents. They are not something I recommend to hikers.

Simulated altitude (which is commercially available) has some similarities to real altitude. But it is NOT the same thing.

Many of the claims about this type of training will do wonders for a hiker preparing for high altitude. They say it will do things like prevent altitude sickness and pre-acclimatise you. But a lot of the claims people make do not seem to align with the current evidence.

On top of that, the majority of the evidence that does show some benefits involves sleeping in an altitude tent for hundreds of hours prior to a trip (250 hours is the suggested minimum dose for consistent results).

So spending a couple of hours a week training in an altitude gym, probably isn't going to make much of a difference...

If you want to learn more about altitude training, this article explores it: Everything You Need To Know About Altitude Training For Hikers.

Elevation Masks

These are the big black masks people wear over their faces in the gym or while training.

They do absolutely nothing to mimic altitude. They only make it harder to breathe. In some sports and contexts, they can be useful. But for high altitude hikers, they are a waste of money, time and effort.​

If you want to learn more about elevation masks, you can check out this article: Altitude Masks For Hikers.

Summary

If you are preparing for a high-altitude hike while living at sea level, remember the essentials.

• Build a strong aerobic base.
• Train your legs for strength and endurance so elevation does not crush you.
• Practice diaphragmatic breathing until it becomes second nature.

Then, when you are actually on the mountain, do all the things you know you should.

Take your time ascending. Sleep well. Stay hydrated. Eat plenty of food. Listen to your guide. Respect the altitude. Protect your energy.

Do these things, and you will put yourself in the best possible position to have a safe and successful high altitude adventure. And you can do all of it without a single mountain near you.

Yours in trekking,

Rowan 

Want  to get fit, strong and resilient for a high altitude hike?

Check out
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