Recently I started strength training. I do barbell squats, deadlifts, bench press and overhead press. The object is to get stronger, not body building. I do low reps and strive to always add more weight every single time. I do barbells so that they are full-body compound lifts, not machines that isolate muscles. Full-body strength is what you need for backpacking.

Wow, what a difference it is making! Last weekend I loaded up water for the 3-day weekend and dry-camped and cut brush on an old trail for 2 of the days. Water plus tools plus my lightweight gear (12lbs or so.)

From what I understand of how this works, (and how it works better than just doing lots of hiking, cycling or running) is that lets say your maximum 1 rep squat is 100lbs. Every footstep with your pack is a fraction of your one-rep max, let's pretend it's 0.1%. Double your 1 rep max to 200lbs and now every footstep is half as much effort for you, only 0.05%. You should have both better endurance and have an easier time carrying the load because it's simply less work for you.

I am finding this to be the case for me. Being stronger feels like carrying lighter gear. Being stronger feels like the way you feel when you know you aren't going to get injured because the load is too heavy. Being stronger gives me that nimble feeling you get with a lighter pack even when your pack has 7 liters of water in it.

Probably lots of you already knew all this but I've never lifted barbells before.

No doubt strength training is very important and will allow you to carry the same load with less effort. In addition, being stronger will help prevent injury. Just make sure you include core strength training not just upper body and legs. I think high intensity interval training is also an important part of the equation to boost your overall oxygen (aerobic) processing capacity for those steep ascents.

Squats are a great exercise for backpacking -- leg strength and core strength. I also like walking lunges with a barbell...

Piper, I have enjoyed seeing your progress over at Starting Strength. Rip is a hoot, isn't he?

Oh, you knew that was me? Yeah, Rip is crazy old-school. I like guys like that, actually.

Squats, deadlifts and overhead press ARE core strength. And I try to do sprints once a week or so.

For metcon I have been rowing, which can be a bear but the results are quick. Just finished squats a couple of hours ago, as a matter of fact. Still not digging low bar. Might have something to do with age and flexibility. I have been alternating with a modified high (higher bar) to very good results.

I've been doing CrossFit- style workouts for the last couple of years. We do a lot of heavy Olympic weight lifting as well as short, high intensity cardio (box jumps, burpies, 100m sprints, etc.).

In addition to general improvements in all-around fitness and strength, I feel like I've also seen an improvement in my hiking fitness. I can hike farther, faster and if necessary, carry heavier loads, all with less effort. In addition to being stronger, the cardio work seems to provide noticeable benefits; my heart rate is lower, breathing stays more regular and I just plain old feel better while pushing a 3.5- 4mph hiking pace.

I've recently begun training for a marathon distance trail run as part of a longer triathlon and with very little of a running base to start from, I'm up to 1/2 marathon distance a couple of weeks into my training and feeling good and strong. I credit the gym workouts.

Backyard home improvement is also great strength/cross training.

digging holes, shoveling dirt, mixing concrete and pouring it by hand (90 lb bags).

power walking up the steepest hills you can find is also a great workout.

I'm not a gym routine type of person so these double duty workouts suit me best.

Ha! Good point Art!

I know all about that type of exercise too. Last spring we removed all of the existing landscaping in both our front and rear yards by hand, by ourselves. All told, we dug up and carried off over 20,000 lbs of plant material. Then roto-tilled and re-graded with soil rakes.

We then dug holes for, and planted, roughly 1500 new plants (mostly 4" containers) but some as large as 25 gallon containers.

Talk about a good workout...

I played football as an offensive lineman for about 10 years and I am a bit skinnier and weaker now so I think I could offer some potential perspective. I played at a little over 250lbs body weight and my max squat was 500lbs. Since I have left undergrad I haven't been eating or weightlifting nearly as much and I have switched activities to things like rock climbing and mountain biking so I am down to around 210lbs. I have backpacked during both of those body weights and I can say without hesitation that I can hike much farther and faster now than when I could squat 500lbs. I think the best training for backpacking given that you only have a short amount of time would be carrying around an overly heavy pack.

Edited by AZajac on 02/25/2013 13:55:28 MST.

"I can say without hesitation that I can hike much farther and faster now than when I could squat 500lbs"

I imagine this has much more to do with 40lbs less weight vs the fact that your exercise activities have changed (though the new activities are likely better suited).

I remember when I quit playing football - I lost 20-25lbs with almost no effort. I think it had more to do with a change in diet vs a change in strength training.

I notice some are worried about strength training bc they don't want to "bulk up" - bulking up is obscenely hard (for most anyway). (Proper) Stength training is good for bone density/joint health in addition muscle gain/maintenance.

Edited by jnklein21 on 02/25/2013 15:03:06 MST.

Piper, good for you.

If a muscle is stronger, it has greater capacity for endurance. Meaning if you increase the strength of the muscle, its endurance also increases at any rate of effort. The muscle simply doesn't work as hard if it is stronger at a given exertion.

James is right. It is because you are 40lbs lighter.

I have gained only 10lbs in the past 4 years but my squat for 5 is at 1.8 times my bodyweight. I am much faster and can hike a lot farther than I could prior to the strength increase. And I am also older too, deep into middle age. So go figure.

I am no expert in physiology, but I believe walking and weightlifting use different muscle types for the most part. Hiking tends to use the slow-twitch muscles while lifting tends to work the fast-twitch. If strength training increased endurance then we should see elite marathon runners dominating in weight-lifting competitions as well. I agree that strength training can reduce injury and help increase anaerobic capacity, and I think that this is definitely beneficial to hiking. It just has its limitations. For an extreme example, I don't think guys who can squat 1000lbs would make very good distance runners despite the fact that each step is such a small portion of their maximum outputs. My personal experience has been that running, biking, rowing, or those stair-stepper machines better replicate the stresses of hiking and are therfore better for preparing for a hike if I only have an hour or so for exercise each day. Otherwise, I just throw a bunch of water in a pack to make it heavy and then hike all day.

"If strength training increased endurance then we should see elite marathon runners dominating in weight-lifting competitions as well."

Well, no. Marathon runners do not strength train. They should, but they don't.

As far as the individual that squats 1000 lbs, you must realize that he is also well over 300 pounds. His cardiovascular system would not be suitably trained and he would not make a good long distance runner (not to mention 300 plus pounds banging the knees and hip joints with each step). However, the weight lifter's leg muscles would have a higher level of endurance before fatigue than if the same individual could only squat 500 lbs.

You are mistaking endurance with metabolic conditioning. Strength takes years to develop because you are increasing the capacity of the muscles to perform work. When that capacity goes up, the endurance goes up. However, the cardiovascular system will not change. For that you have to train specifically for it. Interestingly, it only takes approximately 3 weeks of daily cardio training or approximately 20 minutes a day at your target heart rate to improve substantially.

However, increasing cardio has a less positive effect on endurance than specific strength training and it is not as long lasting. Meaning that if one stops metabolic conditioning, the positive effects drop off dramatically and quickly, whereas with strength training, the drop off is much more subtle and takes longer.

Nutshell: strength training takes longer to see positive results but the effects are longer lasting for both strength and endurance. Cardio training takes very little time to see positive results but the effects are comparably shorter lasting.

Just a quick comment about muscle fibres. Muscle fibres contract in an all or nothing spasm. You can't just tell your body to contract the slow twitch fibres or the fast twitch fibres. We are all genetically different and some are more predisposed to become a weightlifter and others are predisposed to become a marathon runner. What is key here is that strength training with repetitions between 3 and 12 (or so) have shown to increase the size of BOTH the slow and fast twitch fibres. However, specific endurance training with hundreds of repetitions have shown to increase only the slow twitch fibres. Now which type of training would be more efficient and more effective?

Strength training is most definitely useful. Back in the day when I was young(er)and strong(er) I did lot of weight training. When I went backpacking in those days the weight really didn't matter to me. 20 lbs or 40 lbs made effectively no difference if I was doing 10-15 miles. I'm sure it would have been noticeable if I had been walking 30 miles a day, but for what I was doing it didn't. If you can squat double your bodyweight and do partial squats with triple your bodyweight, 40 lbs feels like nothing.

Ah, those were the days....

Piper, bully for you! I am doing a very similar strength training routine (are you all doing Rippetoe's stuff?). I did it for a few years and put on about 20 lbs in a few months of serious dedication. I've been on and off ever since, but it's amazing the differences that a strong core through squats, deadlifts, and other compound lifts will provide.

I do find that I still need to train for cardiovascular fitness (weightlifting comes easy to me) for hiking, but I can do just about everything better than I could before. I also need to lose a good deal of fat from the inconsistencies of the last couple of years. But once I re-started lifting regularly a few months ago, I sleep better, hike stronger, and generally get along much better than before.

The one downside to strength training? Most pack manufacturers build for the skinny guy with no back, shoulder, and trapezius muscles.

Edited by GlacierRambler on 02/25/2013 19:15:31 MST.

I have yet to squat my bodyweight, but I'm deadlifting more than my bodyweight and about half my bodyweight for bench press. No need wait for improvements only after you can squat some ungodly 500lbs.

I'm convinced that squats and deadlifting, even though they may not use the exact same muscles as walking, provide enough general strength to make walking easier. I can feel the difference with even the little bit I can lift.

I don't believe anymore that endurance exercise can make me stronger. I've only ever relied upon aerobic exercise in the past and it got me pretty far. I could hike the PCT. I was pretty strong. But the barbells are changing things dramatically for me.

I just thought I would share this because you can buy your way to easier backpacking up to a point. Maybe it's after you run out of money or maybe it's after you've done tons of hiking and don't really care about new shiny new things as much, at some point you don't want to buy any more lighter gear. Getting stronger is just one more way to lighten the load.

I'm sort of doing Rippetoe's stuff. I couldn't figure out how to do power cleans. I try to follow the form and the basic program. I got overtrained pretty badly on a 3x a week program so I do 2x a week and that leaves enough left in the tank to enjoy some hiking or backpacking on the weekend and one session of sprints. I also do not drink a gallon of milk a day (I don't drink any milk) and I really don't want to gain any weight, but I have. And I only add about 5lbs a week to my squats and deadlifts and about 1.25lbs a week to my upper body lifts. I also do 5 sets of 3 for upper body lifts. I guess some women have trouble with 3 sets of 5 on upper body and I'm one of them. Progress is progress. My latest is squat: 122.5, bench: 72.5, press: 57.5, deadlift: 160. I'm 5'3", 48 years old, about 135lbs.

I am planning on doing the PCT this year so I have been trying to get into good hiking shape. I have been mostly been doing cardio or plyometric stuff in a fitness class. Maybe I'll try throwing the ol' squat back into the mix. I was curious to get some more opinions so I posted a question on Skurka's website and got a surprisingly quick response. I have included his thoughts below. I will still try to incorporate some strength training. Balance almost always seems beneficial

This was copy pasted from Skurka's website:

Andrew Z. February 25, 2013 at 3:54 pm #
Andrew,

What do you think of weight training in preparation for a thru-hike? I am specifically thinking of exercising to increase your one-rep maximum on exercises like squats or dead-lifts. Does this increase in maximum output translate to increased hiking endurance in your opinion?

Thanks,
Andrew Z.

REPLY

Andrew Skurka February 25, 2013 at 4:18 pm #
I think your time would be better much spent hiking with a pack, or running over hilly terrain, or balance drills, or at least low weight and very high reps. Good long-distance hikers tend to be like ultra runners, but stronger and less lean; and good ultra runners tend to be like road runners, but stronger and less lean. You don’t want to be super muscular.