By Carrie Lane, Director of Sport Performance
As an alpinist, you train to conserve as much energy as possible. A culmination of wasted movement can mean failure as you gain altitude or descend ahead of looming weather. Of course, you need the lung power to get through those long days at altitude. But you also need strength to keep you moving efficiently and with little wasted effort. Strength training should therefore be an integral part of your alpine training plan, but your routine should also be efficient enough to get you in and out of a weight room fairly quickly. Designing a plan that offers the most benefit to your mountaineering objectives can be overwhelming. Lets start with strengthening your torso and hips, since those areas are the foundation for stability, strength, and efficiency in most of your body's movement patterns.
THE X FACTOR
Think of a baby crawling—the right arm moves forward, then the left leg moves, then the left arm and finally the right leg. This movement sequence is actually mirrored in your own climbing actions, except that you are "crawling" vertically, instead of on the floor. Your body’s four limbs are attached through lines of soft tissue (muscle, fascia, tendons, and ligaments) that run in an "X" pattern through the front and back side of your torso. That is to say, your left shoulder is connected to your right hip by a diagonal line of soft tissue. So the action of your left shoulder will be counterbalanced by action in your right hip. And the same relationship applies to your right shoulder/left hip. Efficient and strong movement centers around strength and stability of that "X" structure throughout your torso.
THINK "PILLAR", NOT "CORE"
Movement originates in the core but is rarely isolated to just the abdominal muscles. The term “pillar” better identifies your target work area. Glutes, hamstrings, shoulder girdle, abdominals, and back muscles, all comprise the “pillar”. As an alpinist, your strength program should hone in on training the muscles throughout the "pillar" to work in unison.
So how do you put together a strength program that targets the pillar? First, you should have a periodized training plan, with various sets and reps schemes that match the targeted goal of the training cycle (absolute strength, strength endurance, power, aerobic capacity, etc). You can always plug the exercises discussed below into any phase of training, but alter the rep schemes to match the energy system that you are targeting during that specific training session.
UN-SEXY COMES FIRST
Before you go crazy adding in all the fun, rotational, twisty exercises, you need to build a sound foundation of posture and stability throughout your pillar. In ALL the work you do, both in the gym and outside, your lower abdominals should be “engaged” and set in the proper alignment so that your pillar can work in the most efficient manner. I call these posture and stability movements the "un-sexy" exercises because they are fairly basic, but they should be employed early and often in your training.
The most basic training skill you can develop is learning to engage the muscles in your lower pelvic floor. In most adults, these muscles are under-trained because as we develop, we tend to over-utilize muscles in our upper body and neglect those crucial muscles that help hold our pelvis in alignment. But learning how to fire these muscles is as simple as changing your breathing pattern. Learn to engage your diaphragm more than your chest with each breath. Once you can figure out how to fire the muscles that support your pelvis, you will gain muscular endurance that will improve your posture for the duration of your activity.
Start every workout (and even your day) by doing a few low impact activities that engage the lower pelvic floor muscles. There are lots of these activities on the internet, but I chose the exercises below because they are simple, slightly challenging, and self correcting (you can usually feel your back contacting either the floor or the wall as a good gauge that you are doing the activity properly). You really should do them every day when you wake up and incorporate them into every warmup.
Think of a baby crawling—the right arm moves forward, then the left leg moves, then the left arm and finally the right leg. This movement sequence is actually mirrored in your own climbing actions, except that you are "crawling" vertically, instead of on the floor. Your body’s four limbs are attached through lines of soft tissue (muscle, fascia, tendons, and ligaments) that run in an "X" pattern through the front and back side of your torso. That is to say, your left shoulder is connected to your right hip by a diagonal line of soft tissue. So the action of your left shoulder will be counterbalanced by action in your right hip. And the same relationship applies to your right shoulder/left hip. Efficient and strong movement centers around strength and stability of that "X" structure throughout your torso.
THINK "PILLAR", NOT "CORE"
Movement originates in the core but is rarely isolated to just the abdominal muscles. The term “pillar” better identifies your target work area. Glutes, hamstrings, shoulder girdle, abdominals, and back muscles, all comprise the “pillar”. As an alpinist, your strength program should hone in on training the muscles throughout the "pillar" to work in unison.
So how do you put together a strength program that targets the pillar? First, you should have a periodized training plan, with various sets and reps schemes that match the targeted goal of the training cycle (absolute strength, strength endurance, power, aerobic capacity, etc). You can always plug the exercises discussed below into any phase of training, but alter the rep schemes to match the energy system that you are targeting during that specific training session.
UN-SEXY COMES FIRST
Before you go crazy adding in all the fun, rotational, twisty exercises, you need to build a sound foundation of posture and stability throughout your pillar. In ALL the work you do, both in the gym and outside, your lower abdominals should be “engaged” and set in the proper alignment so that your pillar can work in the most efficient manner. I call these posture and stability movements the "un-sexy" exercises because they are fairly basic, but they should be employed early and often in your training.
The most basic training skill you can develop is learning to engage the muscles in your lower pelvic floor. In most adults, these muscles are under-trained because as we develop, we tend to over-utilize muscles in our upper body and neglect those crucial muscles that help hold our pelvis in alignment. But learning how to fire these muscles is as simple as changing your breathing pattern. Learn to engage your diaphragm more than your chest with each breath. Once you can figure out how to fire the muscles that support your pelvis, you will gain muscular endurance that will improve your posture for the duration of your activity.
Start every workout (and even your day) by doing a few low impact activities that engage the lower pelvic floor muscles. There are lots of these activities on the internet, but I chose the exercises below because they are simple, slightly challenging, and self correcting (you can usually feel your back contacting either the floor or the wall as a good gauge that you are doing the activity properly). You really should do them every day when you wake up and incorporate them into every warmup.
| Mountaineer Posture Circuit: Supine stretch loop breathing 90-90 chair breathing Wall sit Wall sit with arm slides | |
Next, work on stabilizing activities. These are exercises where you hold one joint stable, while another joint moves. You can also stabilize one side of your body while the other side moves. Muscles close to the spine and pelvis (proximal) are typically the target stabilizers, while the limbs (distal) are the ones that go through the larger ranges of motion. The more ability the proximal muscles have to stabilize, the stronger the distal muscles can get. There are multitudes of stabilizing exercises. I like to start with a few that focus on stabilizing skills, but also serve to dynamically stretch your muscles and slightly elevate your heart rate. With all of these activities, use your skills of engaging your lower abdominal muscles to set your pelvis up correctly before it does some stabilizing work. That way you will get the most out of these exercises.
| Mountaineer Stabilizer Ten’s Eagles Scorpions Leg swing forward and backward Leg swing lateral Prone plank with leg raise Supine plank Supine plank marches Bungee abductor kickouts Glute kickbacks Hurdle trail leg forward and backward | |
TIME TO GET SEXY
Postural and stabilizer activities serve as an excellent warmup for your training regimen, both in the weight room and outdoors. Once you’ve got a good ten minute warmup in, you can move to the more “sexy” and specific training for the day. The focus of your strength building sessions for mountaineering should be on rotational and diagonal movements that strengthen the "X" network of soft tissue in your pillar and help create efficient movement patterns. You should also include a large amount of activities that strengthen muscles on your back side, or your posterior chain. While front side (anterior) strengthening is important, more posterior work is needed to balance out all of the anterior work that you get during your regular mountaineering and climbing activities outside of the weight room. Here are a couple of circuits that target these concepts:
| Mountaineer Rotational and Diagonal Ten’s Seated MB taps Landmines MB scoop pass Can-can walks Walking lunges with twist MB rotational slamdowns Crossover and lateral lunges Kneeling cable cross pulldowns Rotational step ups Low-to-high weighted swings | |
| Mountaineer Posterior Chain Ten’s Supermans RDL Backward lunge Straight arm scap pinches Crab position hip lift Prone glute ham holds Stretch loop bow-and-arrow Straight leg tricep dip Nordic hamstring curl Prone crunch | |
BUILD A BETTER TRAINING PLAN
Including exercises from each of the lists above will give you a balanced, purposeful strength training regimen for your summit push. Movements that enhance stability, rotation, and the posterior chain should guide the exercises that you employ into your alpine training plan. In part 2 of this blog on mountaineering strength training, we will talk about how to pair your weight workouts with other aspects of your training to get the greatest benefit out of each session.
Including exercises from each of the lists above will give you a balanced, purposeful strength training regimen for your summit push. Movements that enhance stability, rotation, and the posterior chain should guide the exercises that you employ into your alpine training plan. In part 2 of this blog on mountaineering strength training, we will talk about how to pair your weight workouts with other aspects of your training to get the greatest benefit out of each session.
Do you need a quality training plan for your next alpine goal?
Coach Carrie Lane will bring her experience coaching elite-level athletes to your alpine training program. Click here to find out more about her customized and standard mountainteering plans for sale. These training plans make great gifts for that special alpinist in your life.
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