Advice from the Crown of Africa experience:
"Conditioning -- The benchmark for checking your physical well-being for this climb is simple: Can you run 5 miles in 45 minutes? If you can do that, you are considered fit enough. If you can't run 5 miles, you better go see David Breashears' IMAX Everest and stay an armchair mountaineer. I didn't run great distances - never more than 20 miles a week. I did workouts on hills to strengthen my up-and-down muscles. I also hiked and, since it was winter in the Northeast, I snowshoed. I did not lift weights since we were 'Gentlemen Climbers' spoiled by a group of porters who were the best atheletes I have ever seen. I do ab crunches so that (I'm embarrassed to say this) my 25-pound day-pack didn't give me any back problems. If you'd like expert advise on how to condition for Mt. Kilimanjaro, check out the exercises shown here and the exercise plan developed by Dr. David Musnick, Sports and Internal Medicine physician and author of Conditioning for Outdoor Fitness. "