My 6 Week Training Plan for Backpacking Patagonia
- Milsner Fitness
- Mar 27
- 8 min read
While this isn’t my first backpacking trip, this adventure is definitely t-ing up to require strength and cardio endurance, so I’ve spent the last 4-6 weeks prepping my body to handle long miles, heavy pack loads, and unpredictable terrain along this 4-night, 5-day trek. Preparing for the weather part has been a completely different story– packing for multiple weather types is so difficult!!
If you’re planning a hiking or backpacking trip soon, just want to get in better hiking shape for the spring, or simply want to strengthen your knees & ankles, I’ve got you covered! Below is my training framework—what I focused on, why it’s important, and how you can tailor it to fit your own needs based on what your activity goals are this year!
Stay till the end & I’ll be sharing the skinny on my 10.5 mile prep hike to a glacier in Ushuaia, AR (a.k.a. ‘the end of the world) that I did last Saturday! The pics are incredible, I have them throughout this email for you to check out!
Training Focus Areas
To get ready for Patagonia, I focused on:
Knee & ankle stability and strength – To prevent injuries, improve balance on uneven ground, and build resilience for long descents.
Deep core strength & control – To engage my deep abdominal muscles with stability on all types of terrain while carrying a heavy pack!
Quad strength & endurance – To power through the long, steep climbs and prevent knee pain on downhills (the hardest part IMO!)
Steady-state cardio & elevation – To build aerobic endurance for 5+ hour long hiking days!
These are key for any hiking or backpacking trip, especially if you:
Struggle with knee pain
Have ankle instability or past injuries
Want to be able to hike longer distances
Are new to hiking and want to build strength and confidence
A quick note on my personal journey to pain-free knees—this is something I have been working on for YEARS and is part of my weekly exercise routine. Focusing on knee strength & stability (by strengthening the muscles around the knee) has been an absolute game-changer for me just in my daily life, let alone in hiking. This doesn’t mean my knee pain is forever gone, more on that later!
My Training Plan: A 4-6 Week Framework
I started more specific training for Patagonia about 5 weeks out from our trail start date. This works for me because I already train pretty similarly on a regular basis, so not too much was changing. If you’re newer to hiking or strength training, I’d recommend starting at least 8-12 weeks out, based on your level of experience, to build a strong foundation leading up to your hike date.
4 Weeks Before Patagonia
Four workouts per week—each targeting different aspects of hiking performance.
Upper Body Strength Day (Back, Shoulders, Chest)
Mostly because I never skip out on my upper body, but also just because hiking seems like a primarily dominant lower body activity, that doesn’t mean you never use your upper body! When it comes to hiking training, I think you could swap out the muscles worked, though I particularly like a focus on back, shoulders and chest because these muscles:
Support carrying a heavy pack
Increases strength to offload weight when using poles (a game changer)
Help with pulling/pushing yourself up rocks or obstacles
Reaching and gripping onto objects for support
Exercises I focused on: ✔️Dumbbell/Barbell Rows ✔️Pull Downs/Ups ✔️ Chest Presses (Flat surface & w/back on stability ball) ✔️Flys (Chest & Reverse flys) ✔️Overhead Presses
✔️Raises (Front, lateral and Y-position) ✔️Swimmers
**I would swap out for bis/tris on days when I had less time or if I added in a 5th workout day in the week!
Heavy Lower Body Strength Day (Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)
For me, this is a staple in my weekly routine regardless of what I am training for as I am always focusing on maintaining strong legs and growing the glutes if I am being honest! Training heavy is going to add additional resistance to your muscles, ligaments, and bones, supporting them in increasing strength and density to be able to take on more, with relative ease. How this translates to hiking:
Ensuring all muscles are pulling their weight proportionally to avoid overcompensations
Strengthens legs for steep climbs (strength) and long descents (endurance)
Improves joint and ligament strength for longer hikes (long can be interpreted to anything based on your current routine and level of experience)
Exercises I focused on: ✔️Deadlifts ✔️Squats (variations such as Goblet squats, Front squats, Sumo, etc.) ✔️ Step Downs (great practice for steep descents) ✔️Bulgarian Split Squats ✔️Glute Bridges ✔️Hip Thrusts
Functional Lower Body & Stability Day
On these days I focus primarily on mimicking movements I would engage in while hiking and training those specific muscles to support my knees and ankles. This included a lot of single leg work as when you are hiking you are always 1 foot in front of the other and constantly in a staggered stance. Hiking also comes with varied terrain, challenging your core stability and ankle strength. So incorporating equipment such as the BOSU & stability ball to increase proprioception (the body's awareness to the demands being placed on or around it).
Putting yourself in this environment of instability will support you in knowing how to respond and engage the correct muscles to maintain and get back to stability and control, both of which are vital for hikers.
Mimics hiking movements (single-leg work, creating instability to challenge the body to stabilize and control movement)
Strengthen muscles that support the knees & ankles
Engage deep abdominal muscles
Exercises I focused on: ✔️Weighted Step-Ups (BOSU & Bench/box) ✔️Single-Leg Deadlifts ✔️Suspension Single-Leg Squats ✔️Glute Bridges on Stability Ball ✔️Leg Press Machine✔️ Leg Extension Machine ✔️Hack Squat Machine
🔥 It’s exercises like these (specifically those centered around knee strength) that have supported me in my journey to stronger knees! Weak knees have run in my family and I already started to feel it coming on in my early to mid 20s! When I was in college, just about 10 years ago now, I decided the weak knees was going to end here. I’ve been adding in exercises like these, progressing over time and even more seriously in the last 5 years and have seen the ultimate difference in just my everyday life going on long walks or coming down stairs as well as in my hiking ability and strength endurance!
Cardio Strength Circuit Day
I will start by saying that if I had more of an environment conducive to elevated steady state cardio (running, swimming, biking, shorter hiking etc.) I would have opted for this instead of, or in addition to, circuit training due to the greater ability to maintain an elevated heart rate for a longer duration (30-60 mins). The busy city of Buenos Aires was simply out of the question from both a time and terrain perspective. As mentioned earlier, I have had knee challenges/pain in my adult life and running on concrete never makes those any better!
I also, for the life of me, cannot run on a treadmill for more than 10-15 mins (at best) and would rather just incline walk if I have to do it on a stationary surface. Years ago when I lived in San Diego, I would run on the beach a few times a week and that was the best my knees ever felt when on a run! I always encourage beach or trail running if you have access to these environments as they are so much kinder on your feet, knees and joints!
If you do have access to steady state cardio, I recommend that in your hiking/backpacking training program! If you're short on time and it's too cumbersome to make happen, doing a strength circuit can have some of the same great benefits, especially if this isn't your first hike. Here’s what you can expect to gain from circuit training/steady state cardio:
Building stamina to maintain progress during more challenging bouts of your hike
Increase aerobic capacity needed for elevation gain
Example circuit I did each week:
Weighted BOSU Step Ups
Weighted Deficit Lunges
Landmine Squats + Deadlifts
Toe Taps on Riser
Quadruped Plank Pull Through
Click HERE to see my circuits!
1 & 2 Weeks Before Patagonia: Taper & Prep Hike
At this point, you have trained so well for the past 4+ weeks and can opt for a prep hike to get those legs in the zone of what is coming ahead and/or lighter bodyweight movements focused on mobility, stretching and maintaining strength!
2 Weeks Out
I started scaling back training frequency and incorporating more walking to allow my body to recover & prepare for the prep hike.
Example:
Monday-Wednesday – Upper, Lower, Circuit
Thursday-Friday – Rest/Walking and stretching
1 Week Out
Since we were traveling down to the Patagonia region early, I opted to do a 10.5 mile hike (to a glacier, which was so insanely awesome, yes these are all the pics included here) as most of our hikes along the Patagonia ‘W trek’ average to about 10 per day. By doing one of these 1 week prior to the hike (or earlier) gives you a good feel for how you'll feel and what you may experience going into your big hiking effort.
Saturday – The 10.5-mile, 6 hour, hike to a glacier was the perfect test for Patagonia—more on this experience below!
Sun-Friday - Light bodyweight exercises (glutes, back & core focused), walking and stretching
Saturday (2/22) – Patagonia Backpacking Day 1 (of 5)!
Day Hike to A Glacier At the End of The World
All in all this was a 12/10 experience! Here are a few highlights of where I feel like my training helped tremendously and what I feel like I would do differently had I had access to more hiking:
Where the training paid off:
Going up was an absolute breeze. My legs felt so strong, granted I did not have a pack on, though I still had some steep climbs and felt great about going up and down – those weighted step ups and step downs really paid off!
My endurance surprised me! As someone who doesn’t cardio train all that regularly (Jiu Jitsu is usually my cardio, but I’ve been out for over a month!), I was shocked at how well I was able to get up the mountain without too much challenge from a cardio standpoint. Even with an over 2k ft in elevation gain, I wasn't ever really huffing and puffing – that circuit training really helped!
What I would have done differently:
Doing more hikes throughout my training. This may not always be accessible based on your hiking/backpacking location in relation to your home, and it certainly wasn’t for me living in a massive city without a car! I think doing more, similar hikes, throughout my training, would have made a huge difference in the knee pain that came from coming down the mountain at such steep decline and elevation.
Renting poles!! Going up the mountain is usually deemed as the hardest part of your hike because of the incline and potential climbing involved. Though, I feel the complete opposite as a hiker that going DOWN is arguably the most challenging due to the intense pressure placed on your knee and ankle joints as well as your quads on the way down. This is where poles come in & help offload that weight and pressure coming down on your joints, to your upper body, particularly in the shoulders and back. Poles are a must for any backpacking trip (which I will have), though I wish I had them for this hike too, had I known how steep the declines were!
I am super grateful that I did the prep hike and was able to focus on this last week prior to departing on specific exercises to support that before going into the 5 day trek. I would definitely incorporate more of this next time, though I am still feeling incredibly confident going into Patagonia!
A structured training plan makes ALL the difference when preparing for a backpacking trip or even just improving your hiking performance.
Whether you’re gearing up for your own adventure or just want to feel stronger in your knees and ankles, following a similar framework for your exercises could be a great place to start!
If you have knee pain, ankle instability, or struggle with long hikes, let me know—I’d love to help you build a plan that works for your body and goals.
Comment below with any questions!
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