Backpacking Fitness

Use pressure-point stretching, known as myofascial release, to loosen key hiking muscles and boost recovery.

Strengthen your legs for early-season hikes, which often involve postholing in lingering snow up high and crossing run-off swollen rivers down low.

Reality check: Hitting the gym is the quickest way to hike farther, easier, faster, and pain-free. Get into a routine—or take yours to the next level—with these smart workouts for three different levels.

From your muscles to your meal planning, all it takes is a little fitness to make your hikes longer, better, and more fun than ever.

All calories are not created equal. Learn the right way to fuel your big-mile ambitions.

Oxygen feeds your muscles. Manage your heart rate and breathing and you can hike (almost) forever.

Recruit your arms to overcome terrain challenges or just give the legs a break.

The muscles of your torso and back work hard to carry the load comfortably mile after mile.

To reach the best places in the backcountry, you have to rely on your own two feet.

See more—and have more fun—this winter with these gear and technique trips.

Go further, ride better, and have more fun by using science to optimize your cold-weather fueling strategy.

The trails are still covered in snow, but it’s not too late to start getting ready for your first thru-hike.

Strengthen your hips to avoid pesky knee pain on the trail.

Want to achieve your fourth-season dreams? Lay the groundwork with these exercises.

Whether you need to carry a full load of winter gear or just an extra camp chair, train your muscles to take the weight with these three exercises.

Close a wound, remove a tick, prevent poison ivy rash, and more essential tips.

Hike farther, faster, and pain-free with these training tips and exercise.

Get those noodles ready for hoisting heavy packs, hauling your body over boulders, and poling through tough terrain.

Push through big climbs and banish quad burn by increasing your lactate threshold with these three workouts.

When you're putting your body through the strain of 5 months on the trail, you need to take care of it.

Limber up and quiet your mind with these easy poses.

Strengthen joints and banish sprains for good.

Few devour distance like Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy, who holds the overall speed record on the Appalachian Trail. Here are his tips for wringing more miles out of the day.

Build up your abs for better balance and all-day comfort on the trail.