• Duration: 25 minutes with added 2.5 minute cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex: 161 bpm heart rate maximum and 123 calories burned
  • Ryan: 169 bpm heart rate maximum and 355 calories burned
• BONUS workout (after your scheduled workout): Wall sits until failure. Make sure your knees are bent to 90 degrees and you are putting your weight into your heels. Breathe, visualize sunny skies on the trail, and enjoy the burn!

Pep Talk:

Alright, Day one is the foundation for becoming a strong backpacker – lower body strength moves, intense cardio, and a constant focus on engaging the core. The workout today is all about fast-paced compound movements. Make sure you maintain good form and DO NOT fight through knee or back pain. Instead, reduce the impact of the workout by follow the modifier on the screen. Below are pointers to get the most out of this workout.

Always engage the core. Core strength is critical for backpacking. Have you ever felt lower back soreness after Day one on the trail? That is because your abs weren’t strong enough.

Focus on form with lunges. Make sure you keep your knees behind your toes. Quadricep strength is incredibly important for backpacking. Strong quads protect your knees and allow you to give the trail a beating… instead of the other way around.

Move really, really fast! This is a cardio workout. To maximize your 25-minutes and your heart rate, make sure you are pumping your arms wildly. Drive your hands from cheek (butt) to cheek (face) rapidly. Backpacking requires cardiovascular endurance and we need to get ready for the trail quickly. 

Get airborne! These plyometric moves are an important component in our 2-Week Backpacking Booster Training Program. This trains your lower body muscles to be explosive – exactly what you need to stay safe cruising down the trail carrying one-third of your body weight. Make sure you are bending your knees on landing and jumping as high/far as you can with proper form.

Look out for strength imbalances. There are a lot of unilateral moves in this routine. Notice if you have any strength or balance differences between your right and left legs. Poor flexibility is the number one cause of injury but these imbalances are a close second, especially when you are doing an extreme sport like a multi-day backpacking trek. The unilateral jump moves will expose any imbalances and they will improve in the coming weeks. Do your best, trust the process, and enjoy your progress!

• Duration: 30 minutes (including warm up) with added 4 minute cool down
• Equipment: Tape. You’ll need floor markers. In the video it’s two parallel 4’ long strips of tape that are 4’ apart
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 157 bpm heart rate maximum and 128 calories burned
  • Ryan – 182 bpm heart rate maximum and 439 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workout): Side lunges. A great move for strengthening stability muscles used for backpacking. Go to failure on both sides and only go as deep as you can. Proper form will be demonstrated in the P90X3 Agility X workout.

Pep Talk:

Welcome to Day 2!! We are sore too. That’s good. Today we push through it with a speed and agility workout by Tony Horton. Tony is our favorite trainer because his workouts are filled with variety. Push past your comfort zone in this workout and have fun! 

Always engage the core. This is so important for this workout and for backpacking. You will especially need to engage the core during the scissor kick jumps and the jump knee jumps.

Move really, really fast. We’ll repeat this one as well. In this workout you will be running in circles, jumping side to side, running with high knees, and doing the grapevine followed by fast feet. Focus on speed with good form. Remember, go hard now because how you practice is how you play! Your lungs will thank you when you’re on the final ascent to a mountain pass!

Do your best and forget the rest. Tony Horton is all about variety. This prevents boredom, plateau, and injury. In this routine, he is constantly commanding you to change direction, increase speed, or upgrade from standard to plyometric lunges. Do your best to keep up but don’t let it slow you down if you can’t follow the routine perfectly. Just do your best and forget the rest.

Do the cool down. You don’t want to miss this. If you do these workouts and skip out on the cooldown or stretch days, your hamstrings will tighten up and your back will suffer – not to mention your performance on the mountain.

Day 3: 3-Week Yoga Retreat Flow-On-The-Go & 21 Day Fix 10 Minute Fix for Abs

• Duration: 30 minutes total
• Equipment: A yoga mat, carpeted floor, rug, or padded bath mat will suffice
• BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Superman until failure. This will balance out your core exercise for the day and strengthen the lower back. Get your legs and arms as far off the ground as possible!

Pep Talk:

Today, yoga is just what the doctor ordered, followed by a 10-minute abs and obliques workout. This yoga routine is a slow-paced, introductory routine that is going to loosen up your hamstrings, calves, and hip flexors. Yoga is a critical part of the plan so don’t skip it. Again, just do your best here and make sure you are not pushing through any pain. The abs and obliques routine is going to be very challenging. You’re not expected to do every single rep. Do everything you can while maintaining proper form. Mainly, keep your lower back pressed into the floor at all times. 

Keep your spine long during yoga. As you go through the downward dog pose and reach for your toes, focus on lengthening the spine rather than bending.

Bend your knees during yoga. It’s okay to bend your knees to do the pose properly and you will still experience a great hamstring stretch.

Do your best. This yoga routine is perfect for the first time yogi or the 2,000-hour yogi. Just do your best and these fundamental moves will improve your flexibility, balance, and range of motion.

Breathe and press your spine to the floor during abs. Make sure you are not holding your breath as you do today’s core routine. Exhale as you contract. Also, make sure your lower back is pressed into the floor to prevent injury.

Support your head during abs. If your neck starts to get sore, make sure you are pressing your head into your hands to relieve pressure on your neck.

• Duration: 25 minutes with a 3 minute cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 166 bpm heart rate maximum and 114 calories burned
  • Ryan – 175 bpm heart rate maximum and 353 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Okay, if you’re like us, your legs are fried right now. So let’s hold plank for as long as we can, shoot for 1-2 minutes. Good luck, and keep the butt flexed and pelvis tucked!

Pep Talk:

Today you are in for a treat. This workout is perfect for backpacking which is why it will show up more than once in this 2-Week Backpacking Booster Training Program. This program is by Shaun T, one of the most famous fitness trainers of all time. There is a reason for that. He creates incredibly effective workouts and is an expert at explaining proper form. Listen to him and do your best through today’s leg day. He will provide great tips on what muscle group to flex during each move. These are huge muscle groups we are working, so get ready to sweat! 

Keep the form of a warrior. To get the most out of this routine you need to focus on form. Keep the knees high in the first part of the workout, remember to keep your chest up, shoulder blades pinched, and core flexed (make sure you’re not arching your back) throughout the workout. 

Turn up the heat! We are working with big muscle groups. Fight through the burn and go as low into the squats, lunges, and single-leg deadlifts as you can while maintaining proper form. If the form goes, take a short break and jump back into it. 

Love the eccentric moves. We get into a couple of eccentric squat variations in this workout. Eccentric training is also known as negative training. We explode on the way up and go slow, three counts, on the way down. You might hate these at first but this is an incredible form of exercise to prepare for backpacking. Learn to love them!

Breathe through the adductor squats. Always remember to breathe through this routine. This is a slower pace compared to Agility X but since you are working such large muscle groups, your heart is going to be pounding. The adductor squats are toward the end of the routine. Use this time to breathe and enjoy the burn. Adductors are not a very popular muscle in the lower body. Adductors, along with abductors (which we will work later on) are the stability muscles in your legs and are critical for high performance and injury prevention on the trail.

• Duration: 30 minutes (including a 5 minute warm up) with an added 2.5 minute cool down
• Equipment: A yoga mat, carpeted floor, rug, or padded bath mat will suffice.
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 152 bpm heart rate maximum and 121 calories burned
  • Ryan – 178 bpm heart rate maximum and 419 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Hamstring stretch. Lay on your back and stretch your hamstrings individually, each side for 2 minutes. Use a towel if you can’t touch your toes.

Pep Talk:

This is one of our favorite total body workouts. Are you now seeing why you don’t need a gym membership or 60-minutes to get in great shape? If not, you will after this routine. As you can see in our workout data, this was an incredibly effective 30-minutes. So far this week we have focused heavily on the lower body but today we are adding in upper and core work. Get ready for push-ups and core burning moves. If you want, feel free to do tricep push-ups during the “elevator push-ups” move. That will get your triceps strengthened to help you up the steep inclines with your trekking poles.

Start to sink lower. We are almost through the first week and while you may be sore, we hope you’re also feeling stronger. Aren’t you glad you’re sore now rather than on Day 2 of your backpacking trip? The 5-minute warm-up should get you loose so take the opportunity to sink lower in the “speed skaters,” side lunges, one leg squat jumps, and “depth charges” at the end (another one of those eccentric moves). Keep your core engaged and don’t arch your back!

Celebrate improvements. When we did this workout, our side lunges significantly improved compared to Day 1. We feel great about that! Take notice of improvements and get excited.

Love the eccentric moves. The grand finale of this routine is a move called “depth charges.” We won’t blow the surprise but make sure you go low, slow, and then blast up! 

You’re a ninja warrior! You get to experience martial arts moves in this workout. It’s critical that you rotate your upper body to punch and also rotate your hips and feet. Lift up those heels and rotate your whole body to prevent the risk of injury to the knees. We really need to keep those healthy for your upcoming backpacking trip so take 10-seconds to study the form on the video if you need to. 

Be smart.  You can always press pause if you need to. These are intense workouts. Do you best but when your form goes, take a short break.

• Duration: 30 minutes with an added 2 minute cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 173 bpm heart rate maximum and 167 calories burned
  • Ryan – 180 bpm heart rate maximum and 467 calories burned
• Max Out Time:
  • Alex – 18 minutes and 17 seconds
  • Ryan – 17 minutes and 55 seconds
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Go hydrate! You need water. Seriously, drink at least 20-30 ounces of water. Get in the habit of always having a full water bottle nearby. Your body performs better when it’s hydrated.

Pep Talk:

This one is tough. As you can see, our heart rate max and calories burned are through the roof! Get pumped up because your cardiovascular endurance will be stronger 30-minutes from now. Insanity Max:30 is one of the most challenging (meaning most effective) HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts we’ve ever seen. We both enjoyed the 60-day program because it was easy to track progress. During each workout, you record your “max out time,” which is when your form goes or you need to take a break during the workout video. Then the next week, you have the goal to surpass your previous max out time. We maxed out around 18 minutes for this workout. Can you beat us? You got this! Nobody said getting your body in shape for backpacking in just a couple weeks was going to be easy.

First time doing pike-ups. This is a great move and works your lungs and core. Lift your hips up with your core and do not arch your back. While you are doing the pike-ups, squeeze your knees together to work your adductors.

Have water ready for the breaks. Shaun T is nice enough to give short breaks after each 5-minute round. Make sure you have water close to quench your thirst. Just don’t drink too much or it will be bouncing around with you for the rest of the workout!

Take breaks when you need them. We pushed as hard as we possibly could until our max out time of 18 minutes. We took a very short break and then got back into it and gave it everything we had for the remainder of the routine. We needed breaks in addition to the scheduled breaks. We want you to push as hard as you can but please don’t faint or hurt yourself.

Breathe through your nose during cool down. Here’s a trick! It works great for training your lungs for elevation (your lungs get used to operating with less oxygen) as well. After the workout, there is a 2-minute cooldown. Breathe only through your nose during the cool down. When the cooldown is finished, walk around, still breathing through your nose only, with your hands on your head (this will open up your chest cavity). Do that until your breathing is settled and under control. 

• Duration: 30 minutes 
• Equipment: None
• BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Congrats on finishing week one! Now go rest.

Pep Talk:

You’re almost there! It’s the end of your first week and today is an active recovery day. This is a routine that we have done hundreds of times to keep flexible, improve range of motion, and keep injury-free! Ryan had a hamstring injury while training for a Spartan Beast once and when he visited the physical therapist, he was instructed to do a number of moves – all of which are included in this routine. We know…. Tony Horton can ramble sometimes. We find him pretty funny but if you find him obnoxious, you can turn on some music next time you do this workout. Everything about this routine is going to make you a better backpacker. Enjoy!

Make sure you have the right form. Tony Horton introduces some new moves in this routine. Variety is the spice of life, right? If you need to break and study the form on the screen before you start, do that. 

Keep great posture. Chest up and squeeze those shoulder blades together.

Push through the sore. If you are really sore, fight through it and push yourself past the soreness. By the end of this workout, you are going to feel so much better. 

• Duration: 25 minutes with a 3-minute cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 168 bpm heart rate maximum and 98 calories burned
  • Ryan – 171 bpm heart rate maximum and 323 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): We know, cruel, more legs. Do wall sits until failure. Make sure your knees are bent to 90 degrees and you are putting your weight into your heels.

Pep Talk:

Yes, this lower body workout is familiar to you! We hope you notice the progress you have made since the first week. Our goal was to surpass our max heart rate and calorie burn from last week. We were close, but didn’t quite make it. However, the burn was real, our form was great, and balance and range of motion were noticeably improved. That is a WIN! 

Fight gravity. This is your second time doing this workout so you should have a better handle on proper form. Now you can really focus on control. Resist gravity and go slow.

Notice your improved balance. A great way to stay motivated through a fitness routine is not by looking at the scale, but by noticing the little improvements week after week. You should be feeling more sturdy already!

Breathe to prep for elevation. For as much of the routine as possible, breathe through your nose. This is a great technique to quickly train your lungs. You’ll be giving them more of a workout and even preparing them for higher elevation!

• Duration: 38 minutes including warm up and cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 166 bpm heart rate maximum and 153 calories burned
  • Ryan – 179 bpm heart rate maximum and 488 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Bicycles for as long as you can. Work those abs and obliques!

Pep Talk:

This is a total body workout with a focus on plyometric leg moves that will get your heart pounding! In this workout, you will do each exercise twice and for 60-seconds.  The trainer, Autumn Calabrese, will give you plenty of breaks so make sure you push hard through each minute (even though they are going to feel long). We love this workout for preparing our lower body for backpacking. The explosive plyometric moves will challenge your balance and are even more effective than lifting weights. We hope you are enjoying using only your body as resistance!

Use your whole body. Use your arms to get airborne during the plyometric moves. Jump as high as possible while remembering to land softly. 

Go lower into those squats. Now that it’s our second week together, sink your butt lower than you did last week. Just make sure you keep your knees behind your toes. 

Move your feet fast! This is an agility workout so when you’re instructed to do fast feet, grapevine, and side jumps, do them as fast as you can for the full minute!

Day 10: P90X3 Yoga & 21 Day Fix 10 Minute Fix For Abs

• Duration: 40 minutes total
• Equipment: A yoga mat, carpeted floor, rug, or padded bath mat will suffice
• BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Side lunges. Go to failure on both sides and only go as deep as you can. Did you feel an improvement compared to last week?

Pep Talk:

Yoga day round 2!! Today we are doing a more advanced yoga routine compared to last week, followed by the same 10-minute core workout. P90X3 yoga is fast-paced and includes moves to loosen up your entire body, especially your legs and back. Don’t even think about skipping this. Do you best because, even if it’s ugly, these motions will help you recover, improve flexibility, boost your explosive power, and make your body injury-proof on the trail. As always, make sure you’re not pushing through any back or knee pain. If you do have pain, reach out and we can help. With the crunches today, keep your lower back pressed into the floor at all times. 

Keep your spine long during yoga. As you go through the downward dog pose and reach for your toes, focus on lengthening the spine rather than bending. When reaching for your toes lead with your chest and head. 

Bend your knees during yoga. Bend your knees when you need to. It’s okay to bend your knees to do the pose properly and you are still going to experience a great hamstring stretch.

Appreciate the difficulty. We have done this routine well over 100-times. It’s still difficult. As you are doing your best to complete each move with proper form without crashing to the floor, enjoy how much yoga takes you out of your comfort zone. Yoga will help take your fitness to the next level along with your backpacking!

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Big inhales and big exhales as you go through the yoga motions. This helps oxygenate your body (very good for altitude sickness as well). During abs, exhale as you contract. Never hold your breathe.

Support your head during abs. If your neck starts to get sore, make sure you are pressing your head into your hands to relieve pressure on your neck.

• Duration: 30 minutes with an added 4.5 minute cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 160 bpm heart rate maximum and 124 calories burned
  • Ryan – 173 bpm heart rate maximum and 400 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Superman until failure. We’ll give your legs a rest. Lower back strength is critical for backpacking. Get your legs and arm as far off the ground as possible!

Pep Talk:

Here is one of the greatest workouts for backpacking of all time. In this plyometric workout, continue to build strength and power in your lower body while also improving balance and range of motion. Enjoy the variety. A lot of these moves might feel new to you and that’s okay. Just do your best. If you continue on with the bonus third week, you will do this again and notice a major improvement.

Go low and be safe. When you drop down low into your squats make sure you don’t arch your back. If you can’t reach the ground, that is totally fine. Remember you can always follow the modifier. 

Focus on form and breathe through your nose. Keep a close eye on the screen and listen as you are instructed on the form. Take the opportunity to breathe through your nose during this workout as well!

Use your whole body. Make sure you are using your arms to help you get airborne during the plyometric moves. Jump as high as possible while remembering to land softly. 

• Duration: 30 minutes with an added 2 minute cool down
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 177 bpm heart rate maximum and 171 calories burned
  • Ryan – 181 bpm heart rate maximum and 493 calories burned
• Max Out Time:
  • Alex – No Max Out
  • Ryan – 23 minutes and 32 seconds
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Let’s catch our breath in plank position. Hold plank for as long as you can, shoot for 1-2 minutes. Good luck, and keep the butt flexed and pelvis tucked!

Pep Talk:

This one was hard the first time and it’s still going to be hard. We are excited because we beat our max out time from last week – a great indicator of progress. For us, this is one of those workouts that we dread, but, it’s the workouts that we do not look forward to that we usually need most. If we did the works that we enjoyed all the time, we would plateau and never reach our goals. So, if you’re dreading doing this workout again, we feel you. Just start and don’t you dare skip this. These workouts are critical for getting your body in the best possible shape for backpacking!

Have water ready for the breaks. Keep hydrated. During the breaks put your hands on your head and try to get control of your breathing.

Take breaks when you need them. Toward the end, we needed breaks in addition to the scheduled breaks. We want you to push as hard as you can, but please don’t faint or hurt yourself.

Breathe through your nose during cool down. After the workout, there is a 2-minute cooldown. Breathe only through your nose during the cool down. When the cooldown is finished, walk around, still breathing through your nose only, with your hands on your head (this will open up your chest cavity). Do that until your breathing is settled and under control. 

• Duration: 30 minutes (including warm up) with added 4 minute cool down
• Equipment: Tape. You’ll need floor markers. In the video it’s two parallel 4’ long strips of tape that are 4’ apart
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 184 bpm heart rate maximum (must be an error) and 132 calories burned
  • Ryan – 182 bpm heart rate maximum and 445 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workout): Hamstring stretch. Lay on your back and stretch your hamstrings individually, each side for 2 minutes. Use a towel if you can’t touch your toes.

Pep Talk:

Today is the last intense workout of the program! You already know this routine, so push harder. Congratulations on making it this far and let us know how you are feeling in the comments section of this page.

Always engage the core. We probably said this three times already but it deserves that much attention. Your core is so important for this workout and for backpacking. Engage the core during the scissor kick jumps and the jump knee jumps.

Move really, really fast. Also a very important reminder. These workouts are short because they’re effective – only if you move fast! Go hard while running in circles, jumping side to side, running with high knees, and doing the grapevine followed by fast feet. Focus on speed with good form. Go hard now because how you practice is how you play! 

Do your best and forget the rest. You may have noticed that these workouts have a lot of variety, challenge multiple muscle groups at once, and are well-rounded (strength, flexibility, speed, range of motion, balance etc.). This is what prevents boredom, plateau, and injury. In this routine, Tony Horton is constantly commanding you to change direction, increase speed, or upgrade from standard to plyometric lunges. Do your best to keep up with the commands but don’t let it slow you down if you can’t follow along perfectly. Just do your best and forget the rest.

Do the cool down. You don’t want to miss this. If you do these workouts and skip out on the cool down or the stretch days, your hamstrings will tighten up and your back will suffer, not to mention your performance on the trails.

• Duration: 30 minutes 
• Equipment: None
• Workout data:
  • Alex – 133 bpm heart rate maximum and 73 calories burned
  • Ryan – 133 bpm heart rate maximum and 189 calories burned
•  BONUS workout (after your scheduled workouts): Congratulations, you’re done! Go hydrate! You need water. Seriously, drink at least 20-30 ounces of water. Get in the habit of always having a full water bottle nearby. Your body performs better when it’s hydrated.

Pep Talk:

You’re almost there! Since it’s the second time doing this routine, you can listen to music if you want. As you’ll notice, one of the guys on the screen is an Olympian. These workouts are literally how athletes and Olympians train to help stretch out sore muscles, strengthen stability muscles to decrease risk of injury, and increase flexibility. You are going to have an amazing backpacking trip! Congratulationss on making it this far!

Keep great posture. Chest up and squeeze those shoulder blades together. 

Push through the sore. You may be really sore. If that’s the case, fight through it and it will go away.