How to Train for High Altitude (Even if You Live at Sea Level)
You’ve signed up for a high-altitude trek — maybe it’s Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, or Mount Toubkal — and now you’re wondering:
“How do I prepare for altitude when I live nowhere near the mountains?”
Good news: you don’t need to live at 3,000m to train effectively. With the right approach, you can get altitude-ready right from sea level. Here’s how to do it.
1. Understand What You Can and Can’t Train For
Let’s clear this up first:
You can’t “train” your body to adapt to altitude at home.
The only way to fully acclimatise is by gaining altitude gradually once you’re there.
But what you can do is:
• Improve your cardiovascular and muscular endurance
• Strengthen your body to handle multi-day trekking
• Increase your resilience to fatigue
• Make your body more efficient at using oxygen
• Arrive fitter and better prepared to acclimatise properly
2. Build a Solid Base of Trekking Fitness
At altitude, even walking uphill feels like a workout. So you want your body to be so used to walking with a pack that it becomes second nature.
Key focus areas:
• Endurance: Long walks and hikes, building to 6–8 hours
• Leg strength: Squats, lunges, step-ups
• Core & stability: Planks, glute bridges, single-leg balance
• Pack training: Carry 5–10kg in your daypack on training hikes
Train 3–5 times per week and mix it up between hiking, strength, and recovery.
3. Add Hills or Stairs — Even in the City
If you don’t have mountains nearby, you can still build climbing fitness:
• Repeated stair circuits in buildings or stadiums
• Treadmill hiking with incline (12%+ if possible)
• Hilly parks or countryside walks
• Weighted step-ups or stair machines
Do these with your backpack and boots. It’s not glamorous, but it works.
4. Improve Your Recovery & Efficiency
At altitude, your body works harder. Training your recovery is a huge win.
Try this:
• Interval training once a week (e.g. hill sprints or bike intervals)
• Active recovery sessions (light walks, yoga, stretching)
• Practice slow breathing techniques (box breathing, nasal breathing) to stay calm when breathless
The fitter you are, the more headroom you’ll have to deal with reduced oxygen levels.
5. Simulate Fatigue With Back-to-Back Hikes
One of the most overlooked ways to train for altitude? Back-to-back hiking days.
This mimics how your body will feel part-way through a multi-day trek:
• Sore legs
• Lower energy
• Carrying fatigue into the next day
If you can handle two 5–8 hour days in a row at home, you’re already ahead of the game.
6. Focus on Mental Strength Too
Altitude messes with your head — it can feel slow, frustrating, and unpredictable.
Train your mindset:
• Trek in all weathers
• Embrace discomfort on long days
• Use positive self-talk and visualisation
• Learn to rest when needed — not push through recklessly
Altitude isn’t something you beat with brute strength. It’s something you adapt to, slowly and intelligently.
The stronger, fitter, and more mentally ready you are at sea level, the better you’ll perform when the oxygen thins out.
And if you want a step-by-step training plan that covers all of this — we’ve built one specifically for high-altitude treks. Drop us a message and we’ll send it over.