How do you actually train for a Great Walk?
Quote from Rafick on May 7, 2026, 9:46 pmThis is one of the most common questions I get, especially from people doing their first multi-day. "How do I train for a Great Walk?"
The honest answer: most people overthink this.
You don't need a gym programme. You don't need to lift weights. You don't need to be running marathons. Great Walks are graded for ordinary fit people — not athletes. If you can walk for 6–8 hours with a pack on your back, you can finish any of them.
The problem isn't fitness. It's specificity. Cycling for an hour at the gym doesn't prepare your body for what a tramp actually demands. Long days on uneven ground, with weight, going uphill and downhill for hours.
Here's what I tell people:
1. Walk. With a pack. On hills.
That's the whole training programme. Not a gym session, not an hour on a treadmill. Walking. Outside. With something on your back. On terrain that isn't flat.
In Auckland, that means the Waitākere Ranges. Cascade Kauri, Mercer Bay, the Hillary Trail sections. In Wellington, Mount Kaukau or the Skyline Track. Wherever you are — find hills, walk them with a pack.
2. Build the pack weight gradually.
Start with 5 kg, work up to whatever you'll carry on the actual walk (usually 10–14 kg for a Great Walk). Don't go straight to a full pack on day one — your shoulders and hips need time to adapt.
3. Practice on the descent, not just the climb.
Going up tests your fitness. Going down tests your knees, your quads, your boots. Most injuries on Great Walks happen on descents. If your training walks only go up gentle slopes, you're not preparing for the hard part.
4. Do at least one back-to-back weekend.
A Great Walk is 3–5 days in a row. If your training is one big day every Sunday, you've never tested how your body recovers overnight and goes again the next morning. Two solid days in a row, two weekends before the trip, will tell you more than a month of single-day walks.
5. Break in your boots properly.
This isn't fitness, but it ruins more Great Walks than any other single thing. New boots on day one of a 5-day walk is a recipe for misery. Wear them for at least 30–40 km of training walks before the trip — see the boot break-in guide for the right way to do it.
What I don't worry about:
Heart rate zones. VO2 max. "Functional training." Strength sessions specifically targeting tramping muscles. None of it matters compared to the basics — walk a lot, with a pack, on hills, on real terrain.
The harder truth: if you can't comfortably do a 6-hour day walk with 10 kg in your local hills, you're not ready for a Great Walk. Doesn't matter what your gym numbers say.
Over to you:
- What does your training look like before a multi-day?
- Has anyone been caught out by underestimating the training needed?
- And the opposite — anyone over-trained and turned up exhausted?
This is one of the most common questions I get, especially from people doing their first multi-day. "How do I train for a Great Walk?"
The honest answer: most people overthink this.
You don't need a gym programme. You don't need to lift weights. You don't need to be running marathons. Great Walks are graded for ordinary fit people — not athletes. If you can walk for 6–8 hours with a pack on your back, you can finish any of them.
The problem isn't fitness. It's specificity. Cycling for an hour at the gym doesn't prepare your body for what a tramp actually demands. Long days on uneven ground, with weight, going uphill and downhill for hours.
Here's what I tell people:
1. Walk. With a pack. On hills.
That's the whole training programme. Not a gym session, not an hour on a treadmill. Walking. Outside. With something on your back. On terrain that isn't flat.
In Auckland, that means the Waitākere Ranges. Cascade Kauri, Mercer Bay, the Hillary Trail sections. In Wellington, Mount Kaukau or the Skyline Track. Wherever you are — find hills, walk them with a pack.
2. Build the pack weight gradually.
Start with 5 kg, work up to whatever you'll carry on the actual walk (usually 10–14 kg for a Great Walk). Don't go straight to a full pack on day one — your shoulders and hips need time to adapt.
3. Practice on the descent, not just the climb.
Going up tests your fitness. Going down tests your knees, your quads, your boots. Most injuries on Great Walks happen on descents. If your training walks only go up gentle slopes, you're not preparing for the hard part.
4. Do at least one back-to-back weekend.
A Great Walk is 3–5 days in a row. If your training is one big day every Sunday, you've never tested how your body recovers overnight and goes again the next morning. Two solid days in a row, two weekends before the trip, will tell you more than a month of single-day walks.
5. Break in your boots properly.
This isn't fitness, but it ruins more Great Walks than any other single thing. New boots on day one of a 5-day walk is a recipe for misery. Wear them for at least 30–40 km of training walks before the trip — see the boot break-in guide for the right way to do it.
What I don't worry about:
Heart rate zones. VO2 max. "Functional training." Strength sessions specifically targeting tramping muscles. None of it matters compared to the basics — walk a lot, with a pack, on hills, on real terrain.
The harder truth: if you can't comfortably do a 6-hour day walk with 10 kg in your local hills, you're not ready for a Great Walk. Doesn't matter what your gym numbers say.
Over to you:
- What does your training look like before a multi-day?
- Has anyone been caught out by underestimating the training needed?
- And the opposite — anyone over-trained and turned up exhausted?