Top 6 Leg Exercises For Hikers
If you’re not prepared, knee high steps and steep inclines can turn a nice scenic stroll into a leg burning, lung bursting trek from hell. Along with cardiovascular training, strengthening your legs should be one of your top priorities when training for a hiking.
Here are some benefits to having stronger legs:
Steep inclines and steps over knee height are easier.
Your pack will feel lighter.
Stronger tendons and ligaments, resulting in a reduced chance of injury while descending.
Reduced strain on your cardiovascular system.
Increased knee and ankle stability.
Simply put, having stronger legs makes hiking a helluva lot easier, which makes it more enjoyable. Finishing a hike is important, but you don’t want to be beat up and injured because you weren’t physically prepared, so we’re gonna go over my top six leg exercises to get you ready.
Single Leg vs. Both Legs
When it comes to lower body training, there are exercises where you’re working one leg at a time (unilateral), and exercises where you’re working both legs at the same time (bilateral), so which is better for hikers?
Hiking training is similar to sports specific training, meaning that exercises should be similar to the movements you’re going to perform. For hikers this means that single leg exercises would be more beneficial because you’re primarily using one leg at time while hiking. This is true, but it has been shown that bilateral exercises are great at improving overall strength and power (1,2).
So the best option would be both; using bilateral exercises to focus on increasing overall strength and power, and using unilateral exercises to improve single leg strength, balance, and stability.
Barbell Back Squats
There are a lot of squat variations, and all of them are great exercises that hikers will benefit from, but they don’t compare to the barbell back squat. The barbell back squat allows you to use more weight than every other variation of squats, so you’ll have greater increases in leg strength, and getting used to a heavy barbell on your shoulders makes your pack feel light as a feather.
If you’re new to resistance training, you should learn proper squatting technique by doing easier exercises, such as body weight squats, and progressing to goblet squats, front squats, and barbell back squats.
Lunges
Lunges are simultaneously the most popular and most dreaded leg exercises, and for good reason. Lunges are hard, but they’re great for building leg strength, and improving knee and ankle stability.
If you’re new to resistance training, then you should start with a stationary lunge (aka split squats), and progressing to bodyweight lunges and weighted lunges.
Step-Ups
Step-ups are great for hikers because they replicate the most strenuous part of hiking, walking up steep hills and steps. Step-ups are also a great exercise for improving balance because you have to balance on one leg while having to step up and down from the step.
The best part about step-ups is that you can do them almost anywhere, so you don’t need a gym membership. You just need a step, and a loaded pack for resistance.
If you want to make the exercises more challenging and improve your balance, then you can do a step-up to balance (shown below), which requires you hold a single leg stance on top of the step.
Touchdowns
Touchdowns are important because they’re primary purpose is increasing knee stability and balance instead of increasing strength.
The primary cause of knee soreness from hiking is the descent. Descending can place up to 6 times the amount of force on the knee joint when compared to walking on a flat surface (3). The only way to reduce the force placed on the knee is to descend in a slow and controlled manner, so touchdowns are the perfect exercise for injury prevention for hikers.
When doing touchdowns, focus on keeping your knee aligned with your toes; no caving in or bowing out. You also want to perform the movement slowly.
Single Leg Deadlift
Hiking is a quad dominant activity, so it’s important to include exercises that strengthen your hamstrings to reduce the chance of knee pain.
The single leg deadlift is a great exercise for hikers because it strengthens the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, and low back), increases knee and ankle stability, and improves proprioception.
The traditional single leg deadlift can be a difficult exercise for beginners, so it’s important to start off by learning proper deadlift form and then slowly progressing to a single leg deadlift over time.
Calf Raises
Calf raises are important to hikers because they increase ankle strength, and they can increase hiking performance. Your calves will be working hard when ascending steep inclines, and will take a pounding when descending, so it’s important to strengthen them as much as possible.
You can do calf raises on a flat surface, but you’ll see the most progress if you do them on the edge of a step or any elevated surface (as shown below). This allows the calf to fully stretch out and work through a greater range of motion.
Final Thoughts
Strength training is often overlooked by hikers because they think hiking training is unnecessary, or they only need to do cardio. Yes cardio is important, but it wont make you stronger, and it won’t prevent injuries.
Lower body strength training can make steep hills easier, can reduce the risk of injury, and can improve knee and ankle stability; making hiking safer and more enjoyable.
Kraemer, W J et al. “Effect of resistance training on women's strength/power and occupational performances.” Medicine and science in sports and exercise vol. 33,6 (2001): 1011-25. doi:10.1097/00005768-200106000-00022
Häkkinen, Keijo et al. “Effects of heavy resistance/power training on maximal strength, muscle morphology, and hormonal response patterns in 60-75-year-old men and women.” Canadian journal of applied physiology = Revue canadienne de physiologie appliquee vol. 27,3 (2002): 213-31. doi:10.1139/h02-013
Schwameder, Hermann & Roithner, Robin & Burgstaller, Rainer & Müller, Erich. (2001). Knee joint forces in uphill, downhill and level walking. 45-46.
About Author
Zach Helzer
Zach Helzer is a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach who founded Trailhead Fitness to help hikers, backpackers, and mountaineers get strong, confident, and pain free so they can crush their next outdoor adventure.