Put on a 35 pound pack and your body starts compensating before you take a step. You lean forward to counter the weight, your abs fire harder to hold you there, and they stay on duty for every hour the pack is on your back. Research on load carriage shows exactly this: carrying a pack increases muscle recruitment through the trunk and changes your posture, and the heavier the load, the bigger the shift.
That is the case for training your trunk before a trek, and it is also the case against crunches. The core work a pack demands is not bending forward for 3 sets of 20. It is holding a position for hours while your arms and legs move and the load tries to pull you somewhere else. These five core exercises for hiking cover that job properly: one movement for each thing your trunk actually has to do on trail.
Your legs still matter, and we’ve covered why hiking alone doesn’t build them. This piece is the layer above them.
What Core Exercises for Hiking Have to Cover
On a trail carrying a load, your trunk has five jobs. It resists side bend when the weight is uneven. It resists arching when the pack pulls you out of position. It holds a flexed brace for long stretches without quitting. It rotates under control when you step over deadfall or turn to check the trail behind you. And it resists rotation on every single stride, because walking is a series of one-arm, one-leg moments where the load tries to twist you.
Miss one of those jobs in training and you find out about it on day two, usually as a lower back that aches by lunch. The five movements below take one job each.
1. Farmer’s Carries: The Ladder
Three variations, one progression. Own each level before moving up: the standard is walking 40 steps with level shoulders and no lean.
Level 1: Double dumbbell farmer’s carry. A weight in each hand, chest tall, walk.
Level 2: Single arm side hold carry. One weight, one side. This is the level that earns its spot.
Level 3: Mixed rack carry. One weight racked at your shoulder, one hanging at your side. Two heights, two different pulls on your trunk at once.
Why it works: A pack never loads you perfectly evenly. Water shifts, one strap rides tighter, a camera bag hangs off one shoulder. The single arm carry trains the exact response: the side opposite the weight works overtime to stop you from tipping toward it, which is anti side bend under a moving load. The mixed rack version adds a second problem at a second height. And all three levels build the unglamorous thing every long carry runs on, which is postural endurance with grip.
Do: 3 rounds of 30 to 40 steps per side, resting about a minute between rounds. Make it harder: Add weight before you add steps.
2. Dead Bugs: The Ladder
Lie on your back, arms straight up, knees bent to 90 degrees over your hips. Press your lower back into the floor and keep it there. Lower one arm and the opposite leg toward the floor, return, switch. The rep only counts if your lower back never leaves the floor.
Level 1: Dead bug.
Level 2: Straight leg dead bug. Longer levers, same rule about the floor.
Level 3: Dead bug pullover. Add a weight in your hands and lower it overhead as the leg extends.
Why it works: This is anti arching, and arching is precisely what a pack encourages. As the hours stack up and your brace fades, the load settles into your lower back’s arch instead of your muscles, and that is the ache that shows up at camp. The dead bug rehearses the fix: spine stays still while the limbs move, which is a one sentence description of walking with a pack. The pullover version adds an overhead load pulling you into the exact arch you’re resisting.
Do: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 slow reps per side. Make it harder: Move up the ladder, then slow the reps down further.
3. Hollow Hold
Lie on your back, press your lower back into the floor, then lift your shoulder blades and legs off the ground so your body forms a shallow dish. Arms reach past your hips or overhead. Hold.
Too hard to keep your lower back down? Scale to a tuck hold: same position, knees pulled in over your hips. Master 30 seconds there first, then start extending your legs out a little at a time.
Why it works: Trail core strength is measured in minutes, not max reps. Your brace has to last from the trailhead to camp, and isometric holds are how you train a muscle to keep working rather than to work harder once. The hollow hold covers the flexion job without a single crunch, and the low back rule keeps it honest: the moment your back arches off the floor, the abs handed the job to your spine, which is the exact failure you’re training to prevent.
Do: 3 holds, building toward 30 seconds each. Quality of position beats length of hold. Make it harder: Reach your arms overhead, or hold a light weight in your hands.
4. Elbow Side Plank Reach Through
Set up in a side plank on your elbow, body in a straight line. Reach your top arm toward the ceiling, then thread it under your body as your torso rotates, then unwind back to the start without letting your hips drop.
Why it works: Rotation happens on trail whether you train it or not. Stepping over deadfall, twisting to check the route behind you, planting a pole on a tight switchback, all of it is your trunk rotating with a load along for the ride. This movement trains the full loop, rotating out and coming back under control, while the side plank underneath it doubles down on the anti side bend work the carries started. Two trail jobs, one movement.
Do: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reaches per side. Make it harder: Slow the reach to a 3 count each direction.
5. Tall Plank Shoulder Tap
Set up in a push up position, hands under shoulders, feet about hip width. Lift one hand and tap the opposite shoulder, place it back down, switch. The goal is zero movement in your hips: someone watching from behind shouldn’t be able to tell you’re moving your arms.
Why it works: Every stride you take is a moment on one leg with the opposite arm swinging, and a pack turns each of those moments into a small rotation your trunk has to cancel. That canceling is anti rotation, and the shoulder tap isolates it: three points of contact while one side of your body pulls you toward a twist your trunk has to cancel. Do these slow. Rushing lets momentum do the stabilizing for you. Take a full 2 seconds per tap.
Do: 2 to 3 sets of 10 slow taps per side. Make it harder: Bring your feet closer together, then slow the taps further.
Where This Fits in a Training Week
The full set runs about 15 minutes. Twice a week is enough, tacked onto the end of strength sessions or done on their own. Order them however you like, with one exception: do the carries first or last, not between floor movements, so you’re not getting up and down between everything else.
Progress the ladders one level at a time and resist rushing. The carries and the hollow hold in particular reward patience, because the adaptation you’re after is endurance, and endurance only comes from time under load.
These five cover the trunk. The load they’re preparing you for is its own subject, and we’ve broken down how to train with a heavy pack as well as the ankle work that handles what’s happening at the other end of every stride. All of it comes together in our 8-Week Trekking Fitness Plan, which pairs strength work with a ruck progression that builds from 45 minutes to 3 to 4 hours by week 8, with a video demo for every exercise and bodyweight alternatives throughout.
