The Physical and Mental Benefits of Hiking (and How to Experience Them Indoors or Outdoors)

The phrase “take a hike” is meant to express irritation, but is doing one of the most effective and eye-catching cardio workouts really that much of a punishment? Not if you consider the many benefits of hiking, including a chance to clear your mind, improve your heart health, and build balance, coordination, and confidence!

We spoke to experts about what exactly “counts” as a hike and how hiking can boost your mental and physical health. Here’s what to know if you’re curious about getting started with hiking. 

Do You Have to Be In the Nature to Hike?

Ask any hiker and they’ll probably have a different answer to the question: What’s a hike and what’s a walk? In fact, it’s a pretty classic conversation starter during a hike. 

For Boulder-based physical therapist and sports certified specialist Claire Hsing, an avid hiker and trail runner, a hike delivers more variation in terrain and grade than your average day-to-day walk. That means there are ups and downs in incline, and the ground beneath your feet isn’t necessarily uniform. 

But you don’t have to be climbing a mountain or winding through a forest to go for a hike. There are plenty of established urban hikes in cities all over the US—and you can even hike on your treadmill. (The Peloton App makes this easy with an array of hiking classes.)

To hike on your treadmill, all you have to do is crank up the incline, says Peloton instructor Jess King. The main difference between hiking workouts and walking workouts on the Peloton App is “the percentage of time in the class that you spend on incline,” she says. “Our walking classes are inclusive of incline, but they max out around 6 or 10 percent. But in a hike, you can take your tread all the way up, which, for the Peloton Tread is 12.5 and for Tread+ is 15, and you’re going to spend the majority of your time there.”

Physical Benefits of Hiking

Hiking delivers many of the same benefits of any cardio workout, including a lower risk of heart disease, more stable blood sugar, less pain, better sleep, and a longer lifespan.

But it also has some unique perks. For starters, the incline increases your heart rate more than treadmill walking on a lower incline or walking on any flat surface, Jess says. “Adding the incline is similar to adding resistance on the bike. It’s a burn.”

You’ll also challenge your posterior chain more than walking on a flat surface: Your glutes, hamstrings, and calves all kick in to power you up that incline. “You feel it instantly: You know that you put in work,” she says.

Your stride will change on the treadmill to adapt to the incline, which uses your sense of awareness of your body in space, called proprioception, to adjust to your surroundings, Jess says. On the treadmill, that might look like leaning forward into your ankle. On trails, as you navigate hills, tree roots, rocks, and other natural obstacles, your balance and coordination will be challenged, as will different muscles than the ones you use for repetitive movements like walking or jogging on flat, level ground, Hsing says.

Hiking is also a low-impact workout that still gets your heart pumping, Jess says, making it more accessible for people who choose to or need to avoid running or jumping workouts.

And if you’re able to hike outside, simply spending more time in nature has been linked to improvements in blood pressure and immune health, per a 2016 review in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

Mental Benefits of Hiking

The benefits of hiking aren’t all physical: “From a cognitive and brain health perspective, being in nature can improve short-term memory and attention span. It can also reduce stress and symptoms of anxiety,” says Kate Cummins, PsyD, a California-based licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in sports psychology.

It also gets you out of your usual routine, which can be especially helpful if you’re feeling like you’re in a bit of a rut. For example, a heart-pumping hike in a beautiful, natural setting may be as close as you can get to the opposite experience of working at an office job, she says, which “can be beneficial for recalibrating one’s mental clarity” and help you shed some work-related stress.

Hiking also builds confidence; it presents a new challenge and an opportunity to navigate the unknown. “It offers a chance to push oneself to new limits, which typically then increases thoughts of positive self-identity such as ‘I am capable of trying new things,’” Cummins says.

And you can absolutely still access those feel-good moments during urban or indoor hikes: “Emotion regulation through joy and happiness of doing something you love can happen regardless of where you are hiking,” Cummins says. “Thoughts of accomplishment and pride in one’s choices can happen anywhere as well.”

That’s at least partly because hiking tends to get you out of your head. “When your body is leading and you’re not so cognitive about what’s happening, you kind of let go a little bit, you find that flow,” Jess adds. “You’re still going to get that really deep breath that moves you into what feels like a meditation.”

One way to cultivate more of those meditative effects is to practice mindfulness during your hikes. “Notice the colors of the leaves, the number of leaves on a branch, the sounds of the birds chirping,” Cummins says. “This type of active, mindful hiking will help you connect to your environment, slow down your thoughts, and get recalibrated with your mental health.” You can try a similar approach during an indoor hike by noticing elements like how your feet feel beneath you, the colors of the workout clothing your treadmill neighbors are wearing, and the rhythm of the music.

Tips for Getting Started with Hiking

With all these benefits of hiking, you might be excited to get moving—and understandably so! Consider these pro tips for getting the most out of your hikes:

1. Recognize Your Limits

Wherever you’re hiking, “it’s important to understand what you’re able to do today, and then be able to map a path from what you can do to what you want to do,” Hsing says. That might mean starting with some beginner-friendly hikes without too much change in terrain or grade, as well as finding trails where you can easily turn around or take a shortcut if you need or want to stop sooner, she says. (This is another advantage of hiking on a treadmill: It’s easy to pause and rest if or when it’s needed.)

2. Get the Right Gear

Hiking outdoors also takes a bit more preparation than indoor hiking or even other workouts you might be more familiar with. In addition to researching your route, you also need to bring the right supplies with you. 

“Hiking may involve some increased degree of remote access to amenities,” Hsing says. In other words, many hiking trails won’t have bathrooms, water fountains, or even reliable cell service. To stay prepared and safe, you’re going to want to pack food, water, layers, and have a navigation and communication plan figured out ahead of time. 

When you’re hiking outside, you need at least a few pieces of essential equipment. In fact, the National Park Service (NPS) recommends always carrying these 10 items:

You’ll also want to wear sturdy, supportive hiking boots or trail sneakers and comfortable clothing depending on the weather and environment. And depending on the season and where you’re hiking, you might also want to use or bring bug spray, per the NPS.

Indoors, you’ll need supportive sneakers (leave the flat shoes at home for this one), Jess says. Otherwise, you can wear whatever workout clothes feel comfortable and allow you to breathe deeply, she adds.

On a treadmill, knowing your limits might look like keeping the speed lower as you’re getting comfortable on the incline, and lowering the incline if anything starts to hurt, Jess says. “Keep the speed slow and the steps intentional. Don’t have ego in it.” 

3. Build Up Gradually

Indoors or out, give yourself some time to build up to longer distances and steeper climbs. “Find a short trail near your home,” Cummins suggests. “Check it out, remind yourself that you don’t have to get to the end, you can turn around at any time, and that hiking is not a race to be won but instead an activity to be enjoyed.”

In those early days as a new hiker, outside or on a treadmill, you might want to start by tackling a time goal rather than a mileage goal, Hsing suggests. Hiking for 30 minutes to start, for example, allows you to access that feeling of accomplishment without holding yourself to a goal of summiting a peak or completing a 5-mile loop trail that turns out to take much longer than you bargained for.

4. Warm Up and Cool Down

Outdoors, most hikes don’t immediately start off super challenging, giving you some time to ease into the activity, warming up your muscles as you go, Hsing says.

But it’s never a bad idea to prep your muscles ahead of a hike, indoors or out. Jess recommends a few minutes of glute activation, particularly warming up your gluteus medius.

And you might avoid next-day soreness after a hike with a little cooldown stretching, particularly for your hamstrings, she adds. There are plenty of options for follow-along stretching routines on the Peloton App.

Much like anyone who runs is a runner, anyone who hikes is a hiker: You don’t have to reach the top of every one of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. You can hike in nature, in cities, or on a treadmill, for minutes, hours, or days, and still get a wide range of physical and mental benefits of hiking, no matter your fitness or experience level. So, go take a hike!