Training To Summit Your First Mountain

In the world of hiking, nothing is better and more challenging than summiting a mountain. Mountain trails are strenuous because they’re long, rocky, and are mostly uphill. On top of that you’ll have to deal with changes in altitude, which can be a huge obstacle if you’re not acclimated. Mountain hikes are the ultimate challenge of your fitness level and mental toughness, so you’ll have to prepare yourself if you want to increase your chances of succeeding.

In this article I will give you a few specific strength exercises I use with my clients, and a general overview of how you should train to summit your first mountain.

When preparing to summit your first mountain you should follow these three steps:

Assess your current fitness level- If you’re not assessing, then your guessing. You should always assess your current fitness level when beginning a new workout program. A thorough fitness assessment will give you an idea of what you need to prioritize in your training, where your starting point should be, and it’s the only way to track progress. There are a lot of ways to assess your current level of fitness, but you should prioritize cardiovascular endurance, balance, muscular endurance, and flexibility.
How difficult is your climb/hike- Summiting a mountain is difficult, but every mountain will differ in difficulty. A 4,000 footer on the East coast may require less preparation when compared to a 14’er on the West coast (and sometimes vice versa), so it’s good to know how much you need to prepare for. Here are several factors you should look for when gauging difficulty:
- How long is the hike?
- How much elevation gain?
- How technical is the hike?
- What’s the altitude?
- What’s the weather?
Create your program- Everyone will have different needs based on their current fitness level, but every hiker and mountaineer should focus on improving these four areas:
1. Cardiovascular endurance
2. Muscular strength
3. Mobility and flexibility
4. Experience

Cardiovascular Endurance

Mountain climbing involves a significant amount of physical exertion, often at high altitudes where the air is thin, making it more difficult to breathe. This can lead to fatigue, shortness of breath, and even altitude sickness. Cardiovascular training can improve your body's ability to transport oxygen to your muscles, which can help prevent these symptoms and improve your overall performance.

You’re cardiovascular training should consist of two different types of exercises:

Exercises that have high transferability- These are exercises that closely resemble mountaineering, such as stair climbing, incline walking, Jakobs ladder, and training hikes.
Exercises that increase your cardiovascular base- These are exercises that are great at improving cardiovascular endurance, such as cycling and running.

Do You HAVE To Run?

Running is sometimes viewed as a controversial exercise because of the amount of strain it places on your ankles, knees, and hips but it is one of the best ways to increase your cardiovascular endurance. If you have ankle, knee, or hip problems then I would avoid running and focus on cardiovascular exercises that are low-impact, such as stair climbing, incline walking, or cycling.

Dealing With Altitude

One of the biggest obstacles while mountaineering is altitude. There’s less oxygen in the air at higher altitudes, so your body has to work harder than normal to keep your muscles functioning properly. The only surefire way to reduce your chance of getting altitude sickness is to arrive several days early and give your body time to adjust to the altitude change.

Person lifting a barbell off of the ground

Strength Training

For strength training you’re going to focus on strengthening muscles that will be bearing the brunt of carrying a heavy load up a steep mountainside. You’ll need to increase muscular strength and endurance of the muscles in your lower body and your core.

Lower Body Exercises

Your lower body will be doing the majority of the work while hiking, and climbing; you’ll be taking a lot of big awkward steps while wearing a heavy pack, so it’s best to get as strong as possible beforehand.

Lower body muscle groups you’ll want to strengthen include:

Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Glutes
Calves
Tibialis Anterior

Hiking is a unilateral activity where one leg is working at a time, so you should include single leg exercises in your routine. It’s still important to include exercises where you’re using both legs simultaneously because you’ll be able to use heavier weight, but single leg exercises are better for improving single leg balance and joint stability.

Below are some of my go-to lower body exercises when training clients for hiking and mountaineering. If an exercise is too simple or advanced for you, then feel free to make modifications to suit your fitness level.

Tempo Box Squats

Sprinter Step-Ups

Step-Downs

Calf Raises

Hip Thrust

Core Exercises

Most approaches to core training involve doing hundreds of crunches and Russian twists for the main purpose of having shredded washboard abs, but it’s an inefficient method of training your core. The primary job of your core is to maintain neutral alignment of the spine, so this means you should be doing exercises that require little to no movement of the spine (isometric exercises).

There are three types of core isometric exercises:

Anti-Extension- Exercises that resist extension of the spine (ex. planks)
Anti-Rotation- Exercises that resist rotational forces (ex. lateral cable press)
Anti-Lateral Extension- Exercises that resist lateral flexion of the spine (ex. side planks)

Core exercises I give my clients are based on these three exercise types because they have a realistic application for hiking and lifting. Nothing against crunches and Russian twists, but they’re not gonna prevent low back injuries, and they’re definitely not going to benefit you when you’re carrying a heavy pack up a steep rocky slope.

Deadbugs

Suitcase Carry

Side Plank Hip Raises

Lateral Cable Press

Mobility Training

Mobility training is underrated and overlooked in fitness training. Mobility training is important because it improves range of motion and flexibility, which is beneficial for hikers and mountaineers because they often encounter uneven terrain, steep inclines, and obstacles that require them to move a lot different than normal. Having improved range of motion can make these obstacles a lot easier to navigate and place less stress on the body; reducing the risk of injury.

Mobility exercises should be done at least two to three days per week and should be included at the beginning of your workouts or can be done on your rest days as an active recovery.

Important areas to focus on increasing mobility and flexibility include:

Knees
Hips
Ankles
Spine

Experience

Getting in shape is extremely important, but it’s hard to beat real world experience. If you want to summit a mountain then you should spend more time hiking. Going hiking more often offers multiple benefits:

More experience dealing with rocky, steep, uneven terrain.
More experience using your gear.
You can use a day hike as a cardio workout. Especially if you use a heavier pack, or time your hike.
You can use hiking as a way to measure progress during your training program.

Final Thoughts

Summiting a mountain is an amazing accomplishment that everyone should experience at least once in their life, but climbing a mountain isn’t easy. You need to be a great physical shape if you want to make it to the top in one piece. Ares you need to focus on when preparing to summit your first mountain include:

Cardiovascular Endurance
Strength Training
Mobility and Flexibility
Experience

If you focus on improving these four areas then you will drastically improve your chances of summiting your first mountain.