Here’s a nice intro to getting your legs ready for hiking.

Last spring I did a bunch of training hikes with 40 pounds of dead weight in a monster backpack. One thing I figured out was that the more you carry, the more your hike becomes a weighlifting workout rather than an elevate-the-heartrate aerobic workout. Which means you feel like you’ve been in the gym for three days afterward, waiting for your muscles to heal up from the strain.

Lately I’ve been taking my hiking poles on every workout hike and leaving the heavy weight at home. Thing about poles is, to get any exercise value out of them, you have to go stride-for-stride with your poles just as you would while cross-country skiing. It takes some getting used to but once you get the rhythm down it seems more unnatural not to follow your natural stride. But it turns into major work as the miles mount; my shoulders start showing repetitive-strain symptoms after about 10 miles.

Poles add weight and effort, and they redistribute weight away from your legs — which is good for joint and foot health but less good for building strength in those big leg muscles. So at some point if you’re training with poles you’re going to have to break out the backpack and haul some weight to work those lower extremities. My plan is to test this theory next summer; I’d rather have fun during this one.