Hiking is a fantastic workout for burning calories and building muscles and often times you can even forget completely that you are technically exercising. In this article you will find calories burned by weight, learn what muscles are used most during mountaineering, and even pick up a few exercises that will help you push through your next outing.

Hiking builds multiple components of fitness simultaneously, predominantly cardiovascular health and strength – especially of the lower body.


What Muscles are Used Hiking?
Trekking up hills or mountainsides is hard work, and it engages multiple muscle groups in tandem, all while burning a serious number of calories and increasing your aerobic threshold. Here are the muscles used most strenuously:
• Glutes
• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Abdominals
• Lower Back
• Obliques
• Ankle and Knee Complex
• Inside and Outside Thigh

To burn even more calories and to engage the upper body further, consider walking with hiking poles.



Calories Burned Hiking
How many calories does it burn? The exact number depends on a extensive set of bodily variables, including but definitely not limited to your weight, muscle content, and current fitness level.

Environmental factors will also affect how many calories are burned, such as the incline of your hike, whether or not you are packing weight (and how much your pack weighs), the speed you maintain during your trek, weather conditions, and more.

Weight (lbs)..…………….....Calories Burned Hiking
90 ………………………………………….324
100…………………………………………356
110…………………………………………393
120…………………………………………426
130…………………………………………466
140…………………………………………503
150…………………………………………537
160…………………………………………577
170…………………………………………610
180…………………………………………644
190…………………………………………675
200…………………………………………717
210…………………………………………748
220…………………………………………790
230…………………………………………826
240…………………………………………862
250…………………………………………896
260…………………………………………934
270…………………………………………965
280…………………………………………1002

These calorie calculations are based off of a trip that involves covering mountains and/or hills.


Exercises & Training
Cardiovascular endurance is a huge necessity for this outdoor sport, especially if the distance you are covering involves a steep or steady incline. Putting yourself through hiking preparation workouts on the stair climber, or walking on incline on the treadmill at the gym are both good ways to prep your body for the challenge.

You can also use a workout in a safe, controlled environment on the treadmill to get an idea of how long of a distance you can comfortably cover before you start to feel too exhausted; useful information that can help you pick the distance and elevation of your trip before you’re actually on the trail.

Strength training is also imperative to well rounded fitness. This Fitness Blender 1000 Rep Workout is a great example of a routine that boosts both your muscle content and your endurance. Other good things to look out for in hiking workouts are ones built with exercises to build lower body and core strength, especially.


Other Benefits of this hobby
Aside from burning a great deal of calories and providing allover toning, hiking never gets boring. The last place you want to spend the day when it’s nice outside is inside the gym on a treadmill (especially here in Washington State -we don’t get a lot of warm sunny days). The next time the weather is good and you want to get in a good workout, skip the gym and go out and explore some of your local trails.