By Carrie Lane, Director of Sport Performance


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 | |
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 | |
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.