# How do I get fit for a hike or trek? Source: https://nume.co.in/hiking/ · Checked on 12 November 2026 Start 8 to 12 weeks before if you can. Each week, do two strength sessions for the legs and hips, one or two brisk walks or stair sessions, and one longer walk that grows toward the trek's longest day, carrying the pack you'll take. On the trail, eat and drink a little and often. Above 3,000 m, raise the height where you sleep by no more than 500 m a night. Nume plans that kind of week: the training walks on your days, strength work around them, and food at your own eating times, then the trek itself as a trip. ## How far ahead should I start? Eight to twelve weeks gives time to build the longest walk slowly and to add the pack and the hills one at a time. With four weeks, the same plan works in a shorter form: hold the strength work, and make the weekend walk as long as you comfortably can. **In Nume:** put your weekend walk on Week, with its time and length, or tell Talk "a hike on 14 Dec, 6 hours". It sits on your week as your own session, and Nume plans the day around it. ## How long will the hike take? Naismith's rule, which the UK's Ordnance Survey has used in its OS Maps app, allows one hour for every 5 km walked, plus one hour for every 600 m of ascent. A 12 km route with 900 m of climbing comes to about 2.4 + 1.5 = 3.9 hours of walking, before stops. Use the figure for the trek's longest day to set the length of your longest training walk. ## Legs for the climb and the descent Going up asks for strong thighs, hips and calves. Coming down asks the thighs to control your weight on every step, which is often what leaves legs sore the next day. Train both: - **Step-ups** onto a box or bench, slow on the way down. - **Split squats** and reverse lunges. - **Romanian deadlifts** for the hips and hamstrings. - **Calf raises**, straight-legged and bent-kneed. - **Carries:** walk with a weight in each hand, or a loaded pack. - **Slow lowering:** step down from a low step over three seconds. **In Nume:** Nume writes strength sessions with sets, reps and rest, at home or at a gym, and after a full session the next one steps up. Tell Talk "legs and carries for a trek in March" and Nume keeps it ("Noted · Training") and builds it into the workouts it writes next. ## The training walk Once a week, take one longer walk that grows toward the trek's longest day. Add hills or stairs first, then the pack, then the length. The NHS counts hiking as moderate activity: you can still talk, but not sing. Stay at that pace on the climbs. Between long walks, a brisk walk or a stair session or two keeps the climbing fitness going. **In Nume:** Nume's workouts keep hard work for your legs off the day of a long walk, and off the day before when the week allows. Log each walk with a tap, with minutes and how hard it felt, and Progress shows your movement minutes against the WHO's 150 a week and the energy your movement used above resting. Today shows each logged walk with the energy it used above resting, as a range. ## What to eat on the trail Hiking uses a lot of energy. The Compendium of Physical Activities rates hiking with a daypack at 7.8 METs, about eight times resting. As a worked example, for a 70 kg person five hours at that rate uses roughly (7.8 − 1) × 70 × 5 ≈ 2,400 kcal above resting; an easier pace uses less. Eat a normal meal before you set off and then eat on the move. The sports guidance for one to 2.5 hours of effort is 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate an hour; the US National Park Service, for hikers in Grand Canyon heat, says to eat twice as much as you normally would, with salty snacks, and to stop and eat often. Food that travels well: trail mix, dates and dried fruit, a cheese or peanut butter sandwich, rice balls, parathas, bananas, crackers, chocolate. For long-effort fuel in grams, see [half or full marathon](/marathon/). **In Nume:** the meal before a hike of real effort is planned a little lighter, and the one after is planned larger with more protein, and each meal says why. If your last meal was four hours or more before you set off, Today offers a light snack about 45 minutes before. After a long hike, it offers a snack in the hour after when your next meal is 2.5 hours or more away. ## How much should I drink? The National Park Service says hikers can lose one to two litres of water an hour in its summer heat. The sports guidance is to keep fluid losses under about 2% of body weight, past which endurance drops, and to drink 1.25 to 1.5 L for each kg lost once you're done. Carry more than you think in heat, and drink a little often. The [water intake calculator](/tools/water-intake-calculator/) gives a daily starting figure. **In Nume:** ask Talk the temperature, feels-like, humidity, UV and chance of rain at the trailhead or any named place, for any day up to 10 days ahead. With "Before you train" on, a note in Talk about two hours before a timed hike says what helps, with the weather at that hour when it changes what you do. ## Treks at altitude The US CDC's travel guidance gives a simple rule for planning the days. Once above 3,000 m, raise the height where you sleep by no more than 500 m a night, and add an extra night for every 1,000 m gained. Altitude affects people well below that: acute mountain sickness affects about 25% of visitors sleeping above 2,450 m in Colorado. The rule is about where you sleep, so a day that climbs higher and comes back down to sleep fits within it. ## The trek itself **In Nume:** set the trek as a trip on Week, with its dates and destination, and choose Keep training, Keep it light (walks and short stretches) or Take a break. Meals follow where you are: local dishes, or the breakfast where you stay with what to take. Ask Talk for a gym, a pool or a class near where you're staying, for the days between hikes. A single big hiking day can go on Week as an all-day event and, if a Nume workout is planned that day, Nume asks "Training on Sat?" with Keep, Make it light or Rest. More on eating on the road in [eating out](/eating-out/). ## Plan your trek with Nume Put your training walks on Week, tell Talk what the trek needs from your legs, and set the trek as a trip. Nume plans strength around the walks, meals at your eating times around each one, and food that follows you on the trip itself. Going surfing instead? See [get fit for surfing](/surfing/). ## Common questions ### Can I get trek-fit in four weeks? For a day hike or an easy trek, yes: two strength sessions and one long walk a week, building each weekend. For a long trek at altitude, eight to twelve weeks is better. ### Is stair climbing enough? It is good training for the climb. Add downhill or step-down work for the descent, and longer walks with the pack for the hours on your feet. ### What should I eat the night before? A normal meal with plenty of carbohydrate, such as rice, pasta, potatoes or bread, and food you know agrees with you. ## Sources - [Ordnance Survey: Why we're adjusting Naismith's Rule](https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/why-were-adjusting-naismiths-rule) - [CDC Yellow Book: High-altitude travel and altitude illness](https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/environmental-hazards-risks/high-altitude-travel-and-altitude-illness.html) - [US National Park Service, Grand Canyon: Hike smart](https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/hike-smart.htm) - [2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: Walking](https://pacompendium.com/walking/) - [Thomas, Erdman and Burke, Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine: Nutrition and Athletic Performance (2016)](https://europepmc.org/article/MED/26920240) - [NHS: Physical activity guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults-aged-19-to-64/) - [WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour (2020), full text](https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/faa83413-d89e-4be9-bb01-b24671aef7ca/content)