Stairmasters for Mountain Training? Do this Instead....

Watch this video to learn how to train for hiking safely and effectively. Are you concerned you won't be in shape for your upcoming trek or climb? Or maybe you just want to be the fittest you can be?

If you're training for the mountains, I recommend you avoid machines all together. The one exception is if you are rehabilitating an injury, in which case machines are great.

You'll find the stairs session in my program Uphill Endurance.

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[npstallion]

I agree that its vital to practice descending down hills but stairmasters absolutely provide a strong cardio and quad workout. Just dont make it your primary training method.

[jackluke]

I use the stairmaster about 3 hours a week, and I’ll continue using it. I don’t disagree with anything you said, but on a stairmaster I get phenomenal cardio while being able to watch educational videos on mountaineering and climbing, like the ones on your Channel.

[daveamo]

Best piece of kit in the gym that will definitely benefit your trekking is the…drum roll….stairmaster!
If you can master this with good form you will improve your balance, core strength, and leg strength. Not too mention your cardio fitness. Also massive calorie burner too. What’s not too love ❤️

[deadastronaut]

Resistance training (using weights/machines in the gym) has helped my hiking immensely. It builds muscle and strengthens bone and joints and should be included in training for hikes, especially for the inexperienced who needs to build strength to take their hiking further.

[cooperjm]

I just did the EBC trek. I agree completely with your video, the decents were harder than going up in most cases. But I did train almost exclusively on a stairclimber and treadmill on hill setting with success. Its extremely flat where I live. I also made it a point to get in some hikes with trekking poles and some weight in my pack as well. Gotta make do with what you have I guess... safe trekking ; )

[davidjd]

Deadlifts give you that Horsepower and Torque you need to climb those mountains like a jeep. I couldn't believe how much endurance I got just from doing deadlifts, i didnt even build my cardio that much, and I was not as tired the next time I went hiking,

[Jermeister]

Tall building fire escape stairwells are my go-to! I strap on my loaded backpack (16~19kgs) and just crunch those steps up and down repeatedly up to 100 floors. Great cardio and strength, and gives me the chance to work on the technique of keeping my knees ever so slightly bent when descending - something I've also learnt from another one of your videos, Chase!

[Wayne-fxoc]

definitely going to continue to use an AMT machine, (similar to an elliptical machine). It is a great cardio workout. Way more intense than riding a bike. Bikes are good cardio, but unless you are a serious rider it is difficult to get your heart rate up. Most of your weight is supported and you are using a lot of quads and some glutes, but that doesn't get my heart rate up very much, unless I am riding up hill standing on the pedals.

[truepeacenik]

Yes, I will have the treadmill as part of my conditioning. Part.
My training is mainly aimed at canyoneering, not mountaineering. But all my local hikes are... mountains and foothills. My stairs? Red Rocks Park in Morrison, CO. Up and down, often sandy/ gritty/ odd traction.
So, to build up stamina, especially lung stamina, treadmill. Then local trails, stairs.
It’s more about mixing it up, being able to be training and conditioning at once.

[foiledagainjim]

I'm going to do the Mile High Stair Climb. 1098 steps. Then you take the elevator down and do it a total of eight times to get the mile. So I'm not worried about the downhill in this event. But there is a lot more to this. If you are lighter you can ascend faster. If you train at altitude or live at altitude and then drop down to the event you will have a huge advantage. Also, are you going to run one or two steps at a time. Also, will you be using the handrail to aid (pull) yourself up. Also, lightweight shoes will definitely help. Also, when it is 20 degrees F. and the wind blowing 30 mph. you just might want to do a Stairmaster workout unless of course you hate your fingers and toes. I've lived places where three steps out of the building the snot in my nose froze. I love trail running and I will do it when it is feasible, not freezable.

[ianlewis]

The stairmaster is a great preparation for high mountains....
I also do decline lunges for decents...
Every body has there own system that works for

[jamesspacer]

I use a stair master because there are no good actual stairs near me and the nearest hills are a bit of a drive away so i go to the local gym and do the stair master. Yes, the steps do drop down but it's not like you don't accelerate your mass upwards - you do accelerate your body up. Also, for me personally, it is much easier to get to a higher heartrate, say, the top of threshold, using a stair master than to do the same on a spinning bike which tells me that the effort is certainly there. I mix up running and the stair master to stay in somewhat hillwalking shape and i perform well when i actually get to the hills. But yes, ideally i would use regular stairs if i had a good set near my house...

[rodc]

Totally agree that Stairmasters are not ideal for all the reasons given. But Stairmasters can be very useful, especially for base cardio and leg strength if you use a heavy pack. Largely due to convenience, and in the build stage it is easy to build by a known measurable amount over time (i.e. easy to build a proper structure to your training). I have one at work so I can go in early, crank out 60-180 minutes while I watch the news or a movie or a climbing video. I can do this on days it rains, or when the ground is covered in ice. Hills are better, sure, but hard to get to the hills every day. And even on days where I have an early meeting, I might be able to sneak in a workout at lunch or the afternoon where getting out to the hills would not be possible.

That said, the days I can drive the 30 minutes to a local university to march up and down the stairs that is better. Or on the occasion I am staying in a high rise hotel on a business trip and can use the stairs, 100 ft (30m) at a pop is better.

Short set of stairs can use used, as can box steps, but man that is boring!

And of course, the real thing, but that is a rather longer drive if I want significant vertical so is not very practical for every day training.

I have thought about going early to the Mall while it is nearly empty and marching down the up elevator, but not sure the security people would accept my reasoning for doing so. 🤣

[HungUpOnADream]

The treadmills at my gym have a decline as well! I have fallen out of shape after being sedentary for a while through online school. I’ve found that the machines have helped a lot just in the past month with endurance training! I’ve also been utilizing boxes to jump/step up and down to get my stabilizer muscles working.

[QwertyAsdfgZxcvb]

Living in Miami the closest thing to a hill I can find is a bridge. With an average elevation of 2m, you can practically see the whole city with a foot stool haha

[deannilvalli]

Excellent points. Exactly as the author here says, repeating the exact same motion is especially bad for joints and cartiledge. All the wear is in the exact same spot. On varied terrain, the wear and stress is always on a slightly different spot, allowing for better regeneration. And as he says, going down is as difficult as going up, putting more strain on the joints and stabilizing muscles of the leg. Slipping on the way down a mountain is one of the most common causes of accidents.

[terrykepner]

This is all well and good if you don’t live in Florida😢. I have been using treadmills and stairclimbers for 30 years and it has been effective.

[eric]

Not a mountaineer or thru hiker but I'm training for some week-long trips. I'm doing day-hiking to get my legs and endurance ready (some hills are good to include but I don't live near mountains), leg strength and stability exercises (mostly body weight), and swimming 2x per week for more intense cardio. As my upcoming trips get closer, I might do less swim and more hiking but I find that, in the long-term, low impact exercise like swimming or biking cross-training helps my overall health and avoid over-use injury on my imperfect feet. It seems like good advice here to include real stairs and hills in rough terrain; I will be doing some of that too.

[LinusWilson]

You are definitely right. Practicing the downhill will make you much faster on objectives. Descent is more mentally taxing than ascent.

[lizdee]

Although I live in the relatively flat prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada, I am fortunate to live about a mile from a man-made hill. It's used by countless runners, bikers, and hikers in my community to train on. You can't beat it for training. I'm looking into doing the EBC trek in the future, and will definitely be doing "the hill" to prepare myself! Enjoy your videos, Chase!