Hill walks for conditioning

[James Western]

Hi all,

Stats out if the way first:
5'9, 205lbs, 25 years old
Squat 130kgx5x1 (~285lbs)
Deadlift 150kgx5x1 (~330lbs)
Bench 81kgx5x3 (~175lbs)
Press 71kgx3x3 (~155lbs)
I have been training for 25 weeks, last 3 weeks are on 4 day split. New PR for deadlift and bench twice a week and doing and intensity and volume day for squat and press, PR weekly.

Long preamble:
I went for a walk up a hill this morning and was sucking air the whole way up. I haven't done anything other than novice lp for the last 25 weeks and I work in an office, so fair to say I'm pretty reconditioned when it comes to cardi/endurance stuff.

I've also gained about 25 lbs in that time so I imagine that's a bug factor.

I am not concerned about losing weight, I have a little bit of belly but the bigger I get the better I look. I would like to chuck in a bit of conditioning now I'm on 4 day split however, so that stairs and hills might not be so crippling!

Has anyone had any success using hiking under load to train conditioning? I'm a single dad so can only train at home when little one is asleep and vant leave to go for a run. I can make er come up the hill with me however or even better carry her up the hill (she weights 50lbs).

TL;DR
Has anyone had success using hikes with a rucksack on for conditioning?

TIA for the advice/abuse

James

[Bill Anders]

Know that it will impact your recovery, which will negatively impact your lift progress.

Having said that, I do this program so I can spend the summer (other than 2020) hiking into the backcountry to maintain trails; the lifting helps significantly with the heavy packs, tools, miles, and long work days. Those trips always require a reset under the bar. I also do this program so I can spend all winter snowboarding in the backcountry; the lifting helps significantly with almost all aspects of that, yet even a moderately difficult day trip will impact recovery and performance under the bar. But that's me at 52, without kids in the house anymore.

So it's a matter of determining what your goals are. Throw the little one on your back and give it some thought.

[MFCPete]

Hills are great for conditioning. I’ve been jogging hills on/off all year whilst the gyms have been closed.

Never felt the need to add any weight (I’m 250lbs) so heavy enough already, I like to do ‘hill repeats’ which is a slow jog to the top walk back down and repeat. Takes me around 60 second or so to reach the top of the hill.

The only negative I can say really is that it beats hell out of your calves and usually requires some recovery but the pros outweigh the cons for sure.

If you are 205 and 25 years old, I can’t see any reason why you couldn’t jog these hills? (Assuming you don’t have a child to carry of course)

I would say hill running, alongside prowler work is what I would class as gold star for conditioning.

I’m not really too interested in hypertrophy either, but my calves are noticeably thicker and wider since I started running hills.

[Johnsonville]

Jim Wendler writes about hill sprints and seems to be a big fan of them.

[Ankit Sharma]

I live in a hilly station and walk more than a kilometre(to and fro) daily on steep paths to buy milk, you will get used to it pretty quickly and it will also stop affecting your recovery ability after a while.

[rwrjr]

My wife and I ruck once per week. Our circuit is about 5 miles, with some decent hills throughout. About half of the circuit is paved the other half is rocky paths through woods. I ruck with 30 or 35 pounds (~13.5 kg to 16 kg) in a simple backpack. I've been rucking since February and my wife joined me in May. We both noticed when rucking hills you will feel your hip flexers the next day. Unloaded hill walking and hill rucking have different effects.

We also have noticed that when taking our dog on his nightly walk that we can maintain a fast pace while unloaded without getting winded and can maintain a conversation at pace. Hills are a breeze unloaded if you ruck them once per week.

15 years ago, when my son was 1 years old and about 30 pounds, I had a child backpack that let him sit pretty high, he could see over my head. I did a lot of dog walking with him like that. I'm not sure if that backpack would support a 50 pound child but if so, you could get in some good "rucks" if you can find the right child carrier pack.

[sand]

My answer would be HIIT (high intensity interval training). 15 minutes once a week will work wonders after a few weeks. Yes, 15 minutes per week! (Are you ready to buy my program? LOL)

Warm up with a 5 minute jog, then do 3-4 high intensity sprints. Rest between by walking until you don't feel your heart beat in your temples (or go hitech and use an HR monitor). Light jog at the end and you're done. No need for long muscle-eating runs.

The sprints have to be tough. Uphill is ideal. If you are so spent after one sprint that you'll question your sanity, if you throw f*bombs (in your mind, because you shouldn't be able to talk) at your stupid idea to sprint... then you are at the right intensity.

Of course, your heart health has to be good. This will probably impact your lifts the least from all aerobic exercises you could do.