Eat hills for breakfast with these 5 workouts

The first time I ever went backpacking abroad, I was so unprepared for the climbs that I couldn’t complete my planned itinerary. The route in question should have been a dream loop through the Italian Dolomites. But instead of frolicking through alpine passes, I found myself two days in, on the verge of tears, staring down yet another 6,000-foot climb. The sun was about to set, and my quads were Jell-O. I couldn’t do it. I booked a room in an inn I couldn’t afford, climbed the pass the next morning, and then took a bus to my endpoint. While there’s no shame in calling a trip early, it’s a bummer to miss out on miles of beauty just because your fitness isn’t where you thought it was. And while it’s relatively easy to train for a route if you have similar terrain close to home, it can be tough to prep for truly enormous climbs—like the kind you’ll find in the Colorado Rockies, the Italian Dolomites, or the French Alps.

“It’s especially hard to train in America for stuff like the Alps or the Dolomites because those mountains are so steep,” explains Alexa Hasman, a mountain athlete, personal trainer, and founder of Rise Ultra Coaching. The trick, she says, is to combine endurance training with hill repeats and gym time to build serious muscular power. Here are a few of her favorite hill workouts.

The Endurance Climb

Your first order of business is to build a strong endurance base. For this, Hasman recommends finding the longest hill you can (or setting your treadmill to its maximum incline) and climbing at a consistent pace for one to two hours. Ideally, you’ll carry a little weight: Hasman suggests starting with 10 percent of your bodyweight and hiking for 60 minutes. Add 15 minutes each week.

You can also play with weight, adding about 5 pounds per week until you’re at 20 percent of your bodyweight. Hasman cautions against carrying any more than that; upwards of 20 percent, the likelihood of injury outweighs the diminishing strength gains. (Also avoid increasing weight and distance in the same week—up one or the other, but not both.)

Throughout, stick to a pace that’s engaged but sustainable. “You should be conversational,” Hasman says. “If you can say three sentences at a time without gasping for breath, that’s where I want you.”

The Double-Dipper

A single long hike is great, but it doesn’t quite simulate the back-to-back days of serious vert that you’ll encounter on a backpacking trip. To prepare, Hasman recommends doing two endurance workouts per week on consecutive days.

“Cumulative fatigue is really important there,” Hasman says. “It teaches your body to work on tired legs. You might feel stiff, sore, or heavy the next day, but that’s normal. This is just as much about mental training as it is physical.”

Uphill Repeats

Once you have a strong endurance base—i.e., you can reliably hike uphill for 90 to 120 minutes while carrying 15 to 20 percent of your bodyweight—it’s time to start building speed and power.

Find a steep hill and charge up it at close to your max effort for 10 seconds. Walk slowly down to the base of the hill, then do it again. Your goal is four total reps. Over time, build up to reps of 30 seconds, then 60 seconds, then two minutes, then three minutes.

If you live near a hill that’s long enough for a three-minute interval, great. If not, do this on a treadmill at its maximum incline setting.

Downhill Repeats

“If you’re an uphill athlete, then you’re also by nature a downhill athlete,” Hasman says. And if you’ve ever done a long descent with weight on your back, you’re probably aware that downhills are the real quad-killers. To avoid jellified quads during your trip, Hasman recommends training downhills specifically.

One way to do this is to reverse the above workout. Walk slowly up a hill, then charge down it as fast as you can go without being reckless. Do this for four reps. You can also combine these two workouts: Book it up the hill, then book it down, and take your rest at the bottom.

Wall Sits

Welcome to the least-fun workout on this list—but perhaps the most effective.

“Wall sits are my secret sauce for downhill,” Hasman says. They’re great because they hold you in an exaggerated, active downhill-hiking position for an extended period.

“I start my athletes with one-minute wall sits a couple of times a week. After a few weeks, we go until failure. Then we add weight.” Once you can sit with a 10-pound plate on your lap for a minute or two, you’re ready for boss level: single-leg wall sits. “Most people can only hold them for a second or two—it’s almost like marching while sitting against a wall,” Hasman says. “If you can hold it for 30 seconds, you’re an absolute beast.”

Step-Ups

Nothing beats single-leg exercises for building uphill strength and stability. To this end, Hasman recommends getting into the gym at least twice a week during the meat of your training. Focus on your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core. While there are tons of relevant exercises, Hasman says step-ups are a particular must-do.

“Do 15 to 30 reps on one leg, then switch,” she recommends. Start with 3 sets. Every week, either add a set or add 5 pounds of additional weight to make it harder.

Other Recommendations

• Start training early. Building leg muscle takes time. You’ll need to train consistently for at least three to six months ahead of your objective to see significant gains.
• Rely on perceived effort—not heart rate. Some folks love training within heart-rate zones, but Hasman says these aren’t perfect measurements, especially when it comes to hill training. Instead, she prefers “rate of perceived effort”—in other words, how hard are you working on a scale of 1 to 10? Endurance training should be a 4 to 6 on that scale, and hill repeats should be closer to an 8 or 9.
• Take rest days. Even if you’re prepping for a seven-day sufferfest, try not to train for more than three days in a row, Hasman says. Rest is critical to building muscle.
• Avoid dumping your water weight. Some hikers hill-train with water so they can pour it out at the top and breeze downhill. Hasman isn’t a fan: “If you have knee pain, this can be useful, but if you don’t, you’re just robbing yourself of downhill training.”
• Remember to taper. Three to four weeks out from your objective, start to back off on the training. This will give your legs time to recover so you’re fresh for your trip.