How to Train for High Altitude Hiking

Hiking at higher altitudes requires some preperation.

Whether you are training to climb Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trial, or simply going hiking in the mountains, there are ways to prepare your body. Moving from a lower altitude hiking to higher altitude hiking increases stress on the body and muscles because they are expected to perform with less oxygen.

Instructions

1. Increase your cardiovascular fitness. If you spend a half-hour in the gym three times a week on a treadmill, stair climber, elliptical machine, or bike, increase this to a full hour. Cardiovascular fitness increases your body's endurance for physical challenges. Cardiovascular training will help your body perform longer at higher altitudes.

2. Walk everywhere you can. Walking is an important part of training for higher altitude hiking because walking builds the muscle groups that will have the most strain from hiking. Try to walk up and down hills or over varied terrain for an hour 3 to 4 times a week.

3. Incorporate multi-hour walking events into your training. You should even include a backpack that holds a similar weight to what you are expecting to carry and use at a higher altitude.

4. Add swimming to your exercise routine. Swimming helps you train to use less oxygen while working out. Hypoxic swimming, or low oxygen swimming, is a tough workout that can be done in a pool by swimming 1000-1500 meters and decreasing your breath every 100 meters. For the first 100 meters you breathe once for every two strokes; for the next 100, you breathe once every four strokes, and so on.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not try hypoxic training unsupervised, and stop if you begin to feel light headed or dizzy.

References

• Military: Stew Smith: High Altitude Training
• Body Results: Wilderness Sports Conditioning
• The American Sports Medicine Institute

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish