

September 24, 2018
Whether you’ve experienced an injury before, or are an aspiring hiker wanting to get in your best shape before heading to the hills, there are some easy and effective exercises you can do at home to prepare.
Before you start these exercises, a word about the quality of movement. To build strength around the joints and condition your muscles correctly and efficiently, it’s essential that you move with precision and in correct alignment. Moving poorly and not completing each rep effectively can lead to injury and hinder your hiking. So, leave your ego at the door and focus on quality, rather than quantity – only build up reps and weights once you’ve mastered the basic exercise and can perform it with excellent form.
We recommend that you practise these exercises for a minimum of two weeks so that your body (your ‘muscle memory’) can learn the correct form before you begin to add in extra weights (more details below). On training days, aim to complete each exercise for 3 sets of 10 repetitions, with at least a minute’s break in between. Once you’re confident that you’ve mastered the movement, it’s time to add in the weights to up the strengthening and conditioning benefits of each exercise.
Hiking can involve a lot of climbing hills and descending, with lots of force and impact being transferred through the lower limbs. Along with the higher risk of slips and trips, ankles are a common area for injuries to occur. Heel raises are a fantastic and easy to perform exercise, which you can do pretty much anywhere. However, for the most effective movement, find a step with a handrail.
Hiking requires good knee and hip strength to help you climb those hills, so step-ups are a great way to condition your legs pre-hiking trip. A good range of motion in your knee and hip joints is also key, so try to vary the height of your step once you’ve mastered the basic move.
The basic squat, once mastered, is a powerful exercise to strengthen your glutes and quadriceps. Start small, then squat deeper as your strength and mobility increases. Remember to engage your core muscles too to support your back as you squat.
Lunges are renowned for strengthening your quadriceps and gluteal muscles. However, you can reap the benefits of this move with a reverse lunge which avoids the potential for knee pain that you might have with a regular lunge.
Bridging has a multitude of benefits, including toning and strengthening your glutes, core activation and challenging and building the strength of your back extensors, adductors and hamstrings.
Once you’ve practised these movements for two to three weeks, it’s time to add in some weights for progressive strengthening and an extra challenge. You could add dumbbells, barbells or a rucksack filled with weights. Although it’s tempting to train hard every day, it’s essential that you also incorporate flexibility sessions, as well as rest and recovery days into your hiking training plan. Active recovery will help to prevent burnout and injury from over-training, so that you can head off on your hiking trip in peak condition.