No Mountains? No Problem: How to Train for Hiking and Backpacking Anywhere

Training for the Mountains When You Don't Live Near One

For millions of outdoor enthusiasts, the dream of a major backpacking trip or mountain trek lives in a frustrating tension with a very flat reality. Whether you're based in the Midwest, a coastal city, or anywhere far from technical terrain, the challenge of building trail-ready fitness without access to trails is one of the most common hurdles aspiring hikers and backpackers face. But according to Mikey Bell, a professional mountain and backpacking guide and founder of Outdoor Adventure Training, the obstacle is far more surmountable than most people think ?" it just requires creativity, planning, and a solid understanding of what your body actually needs to perform.

"We see a lot of people on social media saying you don't need to train for hiking or backpacking," Bell explains. "And while that might be true for the select few lucky enough to live in mountainous environments where hiking daily is a reality, for most people ?" especially those living in flatlands or cities ?" it simply isn't true." His approach cuts through the noise with a practical, three-pronged framework built around cardiovascular efficiency, uphill performance, and downhill endurance. Master these three pillars, and you can show up to almost any adventure prepared ?" regardless of your zip code.

Understanding Your Cardiovascular Engine

Before a single step is taken on an incline treadmill or a stadium staircase, Bell argues that hikers need to understand the cardiovascular system they're training. At the heart of his approach is the concept of heart rate training zones ?" five distinct levels of exertion, each defined as a percentage of your maximum heart rate. For a quick ballpark, Bell recommends the classic formula: 220 minus your age. From there, more advanced athletes can pursue a heart rate drift test for a more precise picture of their aerobic and anaerobic thresholds.

The five zones break down into two fundamental categories: aerobic (Zones 1 and 2) and anaerobic (Zones 3, 4, and 5). For endurance hikers and backpackers, the aerobic base is everything. Zone 2, in particular, is where long-term trail fitness is built ?" it's the intensity at which you could hold a conversation, but might feel slightly winded by the end of a sentence. It feels almost deceptively easy, which is precisely why so many people skip it in favor of harder efforts.

"It can feel really tedious. It might not feel like you're doing much," Bell acknowledges. "But it's really going to stimulate your cells to build more mitochondria, improve efficiency, so you can create more ATP ?" more energy to do what you love." The science backs him up: consistent Zone 2 training is one of the most effective ways to improve metabolic efficiency, which translates directly to sustained energy output over long hiking days.

The Role of Anaerobic Fitness

That said, Bell is quick to caution against swinging to the opposite extreme and relying solely on high-intensity sessions. Anaerobic training ?" those harder, higher-heart-rate efforts in Zones 3 through 5 ?" absolutely has its place, especially when preparing for steep climbs or extended time at altitude. But it works in concert with aerobic training, not as a replacement for it.

"Don't think that you can just hop on the treadmill and crush yourself for 30 minutes and it equals the same as a three-hour Zone 2 effort," Bell cautions. "It does not." The takeaway is clear: a well-rounded cardiovascular training plan must include both long, steady aerobic sessions and shorter, more intense anaerobic intervals, each targeting different systems and building different capacities that together produce a resilient, trail-ready body.

The Incline Treadmill: Your Mountain Surrogate

When it comes to replicating the specific demands of uphill hiking in a gym environment, the incline treadmill is Bell's first and most enthusiastic recommendation. Most commercial treadmills can reach inclines of 15 percent or more ?" a grade that closely mimics the steep terrain found on many popular hiking and backpacking routes. But the real insight Bell offers is in how to think about progress on that machine.

"When we're talking about hiking in the mountains, miles go out the window," he says. "A 10-mile hike on flat ground is vastly different from a 10-mile hike with 4,000 feet of elevation gain." The metric that matters, he argues, is vertical feet per hour ?" a figure that combines your pace with your incline percentage to reflect the actual climbing load your body is managing. Before your next training cycle, Bell recommends researching your target objective and calculating how many vertical feet per mile you'll be gaining, then using that number to structure your treadmill sessions accordingly.

He also offers a few simple but often-overlooked tweaks that make incline treadmill training dramatically more effective. First, ditch the handrails. "I promise you there will not be a handrail up the mountain you're attempting to climb," he says with a laugh. Holding on offloads effort from your legs and core, undermining the whole point of the exercise. Second ?" and this one earns a few stares at the gym ?" wear your loaded backpack. Replicating the actual weight you'll carry on the trail is one of the most direct ways to build trail-specific strength and stamina, and no amount of unweighted cardio fully substitutes for it.

The StairMaster: Elevation Gain in a Controlled Environment

For pure elevation simulation, Bell has a soft spot for the StairMaster ?" and for good reason. Like the incline treadmill, the StairMaster operates in vertical feet per hour rather than miles, making it an intuitive tool for hikers thinking in terms of elevation gain. At 50 steps per minute, you're accumulating roughly 2,000 vertical feet per hour. Push to 75 steps per minute and that number climbs considerably higher.

Bell is transparent about one important caveat, though: the StairMaster is deceptively manageable compared to real terrain. "Gaining 3,000 feet in an hour on a StairMaster is far easier than 3,000 feet on any trail or mountain I've ever climbed," he admits. The machine's uniform, predictable steps eliminate the variability ?" uneven footing, changing grades, lateral movement ?" that makes real hiking so demanding on the body. This is why Bell recommends actively complicating your StairMaster sessions.

Crossover steps, lateral side steps, and interval protocols that vary steps-per-minute all help break the rhythmic monotony and introduce movement patterns closer to what you'll experience on actual terrain. And yes ?" the backpack applies here too. The more you can simulate the real conditions of your adventure, the less your body will be surprised when you actually get out there.

Strength Training for Uphill Performance

Cardiovascular fitness gets you moving; strength training keeps you moving efficiently. For uphill performance specifically, Bell zeroes in on the posterior chain ?" glutes and hamstrings ?" as the primary muscle groups responsible for powering each step on an ascent. Every stride uphill requires the back leg to reach full extension, and if those muscles aren't trained to engage properly, hikers quickly find themselves relying on inefficient compensatory patterns that lead to fatigue and injury.

His exercise of choice? The step-up ?" but done with intention. "Really think about engaging those glutes and hamstrings and clearing the hips to get that full extension," he advises. It sounds simple, and mechanically it is, but the emphasis on posterior chain activation at the top of each rep is what transforms a basic gym movement into genuine trail preparation.

Bell also draws a meaningful distinction between exercises that train the posterior chain in a trail-relevant way versus those that simply target the same muscles. Squats and deadlifts have their place, but walking lunges and single-leg Romanian deadlifts more closely replicate the unilateral, step-by-step nature of uphill hiking. "You could argue that the walking lunge or a single-leg Romanian deadlift far more closely mimics trail-specific movement," he says. He also emphasizes training in multiple planes of motion ?" incorporating lateral and rotational elements into step-ups and lunges ?" to prepare the body for the non-linear demands of real trails.

Downhill Endurance: The Overlooked Half of Every Hike

There's a saying in mountaineering circles that Bell is fond of quoting, attributed to American mountaineer Ed Viesturs:

"Going up is optional, but coming down is mandatory."

It's a pithy line with serious implications for how you structure your training. As a professional guide, Bell says he rarely worries about his clients making it to the top ?" determination and adrenaline carry most people through the ascent. What concerns him is what happens on the way back down. "I'm always thinking about the hazards on the descent," he explains. "Usually it's the subjective hazard of the guest blowing all of their energy on the climb and not having the juice to get back down safely."

Downhill hiking is physiologically distinct from the uphill grind. Where ascent loads the glutes and hamstrings, descent hammers the quadriceps ?" specifically through eccentric contractions that require muscles to generate force while lengthening. This is the mechanism behind the notorious "day after" quad soreness that plagues unprepared hikers. More critically, the mechanical stress on the knees increases dramatically: while uphill hiking places roughly three times the stress on the knee joint compared to flat walking, descending can impose up to ten times the load. That's not a number to take lightly.

Training the Anterior Chain for the Descent

To build the quad strength and joint resilience needed for safe, sustained descents, Bell points to two key training strategies. The first is the reverse step-up ?" his self-described "favorite exercise of all time" for downhill preparation. By stepping backward down off a platform rather than forward, the movement isolates the vastus medialis oblique, the teardrop-shaped muscle just above the inner knee that serves as the primary stabilizer of the kneecap. Strengthening this often-neglected muscle goes a long way toward preventing the knee pain that cuts so many hiking adventures short.

The second strategy is plyometric and eccentric training ?" exercises that emphasize impact absorption and force control. Box jumps, squat jumps, lateral hops, and similar movements teach the body to land softly and efficiently, activating the neuromuscular system's natural shock absorption mechanisms. "We need to make sure that not just our knee joint, but all the muscles around it are ready to handle that demand," Bell says. Building this capacity means you'll not only descend more safely on day one, but you'll have the physical reserves to hike again the next day ?" and the day after that.

The Secret Weapon: Finding Stairs Anywhere

For Bell, the single best training tool available to flatlanders might already be hiding in plain sight ?" and it doesn't require a gym membership. Stairs, he argues, are everywhere: in parking garages, office buildings, high school bleachers, university stadiums, and even your own home. And unlike treadmills or StairMasters, outdoor stairs introduce real-world variables ?" weather, uneven surfaces, changing light ?" that add genuine training value.

"Do some research. I promise you, wherever you are in the world, you will be able to find a set of stairs," Bell says. Once you've identified a solid stair-training location, you can calculate your vertical feet per hour and structure sessions with the same precision you'd apply to any other workout. Better yet, stairs offer something treadmills and StairMasters can't: mandatory downhill training. You have to come back down, which means every stair session naturally builds both uphill and downhill fitness simultaneously.

The variety of movements you can perform on stairs also rivals the gym options. Single steps, skipped steps, lateral shuffles, lateral descents, plyometric hops ?" all of these can be layered into a stair workout to build the multi-planar, impact-ready fitness that trail hiking actually demands. Add a loaded backpack, and you have a workout that's genuinely competitive with anything you'd find inside four walls.

Putting It All Together

Training for the mountains without mountains is not about finding one perfect substitute ?" it's about assembling a thoughtful mix of cardiovascular training, strength work, and creative use of available terrain. Zone 2 cardio builds the aerobic engine for long days on the trail. Anaerobic intervals prepare you for the punishing final push to a summit. Incline treadmills and StairMasters replicate elevation gain with measurable precision. Posterior chain strength exercises power the ascent, while quad-focused and plyometric movements protect the descent. And a good set of public stairs ties it all together with real-world variability and the simplicity of stepping outside.

None of it, Bell is careful to note, fully replaces time on actual trails. "Nothing will ever replace the sport-specific movement of getting out on the trails ?" not to mention the mental and emotional benefits of getting outside," he says. If you can travel to hilly terrain even once before your major objective, he recommends it highly ?" not just for the fitness benefit, but as an honest assessment of where your training stands and what still needs work.

But for the many weeks and months when the mountains are out of reach, the tools are there. The creativity just has to match the commitment. Show up to your adventure prepared, and the mountains ?" whatever mountains you've chosen ?" will take care of the rest.