Hill walk with a pack
45-90 min of uphill walking with a 5-10 kg pack, talking pace, heart rate 120-150. Approach fitness.
- Slot
- Strength
- Focus
- Endurance
- Time
- 60 min
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Injury risk
- Low
- Intervals
- 1 × 60:00 on
- Equipment
- Added weight, Timer
How to do it
Approach fitness means arriving at the boulders or the base of the route with legs and lungs to spare. Load a pack with 5-10 kg (a rope, water, a pad strapped on) and walk uphill for 45-90 minutes at a pace where you can talk comfortably, heart rate roughly 120-150. Take the descent steadily; walking downhill loaded is what makes legs sore, so build the duration over a few weeks. Keep it off the day before a hard climbing day. If the only hill you have is a staircase or an inclined treadmill, that works too. Nasal breathing is a simple check that you're keeping it easy.
Who it’s for
Anyone heading to crags with long walk-ins, especially climbers who arrive at the bottom already tired. It builds easy aerobic fitness and leg endurance without asking anything of your fingers, so it fits into a base period or a deload week.
Common mistakes
- Walking too fast. If you can’t talk, an easy session has become a hard one. Slow down until you can breathe through your nose.
- Starting with the full pack and the longest walk. Build up over a few weeks. The loaded descent is what leaves legs sore.
- Rushing downhill. Take it steadily with short, controlled steps. That’s where your knees and calves take the load.
- Putting it the day before a hard climbing day. Tired legs change how you climb. Do it earlier in the week.
How to progress
Add time before weight. Work toward the longer end of the range at an easy pace, then carry more within the 5-10 kg range. Steeper hills are fine as long as you can still talk.
When it fits
The training periods this exercise fits into in Blok Sessions.
- Base Lots of easy climbing, good movement and aerobic fitness.
- Endurance Climb longer before you pump out, by moving efficiently.
- Deload Train less, let your fingers recover, keep moving.
Related blocks
Start with a ready-made block
A six-week strength plan with a deload, as a file for the app, and seven short emails on how to run it.