How to Train For your Hike

Now is always the best time to start training for your hike, whether you're heading off to do some Grand Canyon hiking tours, Yellowstone backpacking, Canadian Rockies hiking, or Utah camping and hiking! If you live in hilly our mountainous country, it's best to get out on a long hike with plenty of up and down at least once per week, and make your hike 5-7 hours in duration. The rest of the week make sure you're hitting the gym or trails at least 3 times.

If you don't live in hilly or mountainous country it can be a bit more difficult, but not impossible, to train sufficiently. As with the above regimen, it's best to hit the gym 3-4 times per week, but while at the gym make sure you're doing a couple days per week on the Stairmaster. By the way, I'm not talking about the elliptical trainer, I'm talking about the Stairmaster with the rotating stairs like an escalator. Start out doing 45 minutes at a slow pace and work up to doing 1 hour at a faster pace with a 20lb backpack on your back. Kitty litter makes a excellent dead weight to put in your backpack for training.

Make sure you're stretching and eating plenty of nutritious foods. To increase your metabolism, eat several smaller meals per day vs. a few larger ones. This will help you shed extra pounds of fat and build more lean muscle. Also avoid processed flour and corn products like bread, snack mixes, pancakes...etc.

Good luck training and let us know if we can help in any way! One of our goals at The Wildland Trekking Company is that your trip be a vehicle for better health as well as enjoyment.

Best,

All of us at Wildland Trekking