by Carrie Lane, Director of Sport Performance
Here we are, the final summit push of our strength training blog. Of course, it involves the most grueling and most fun phase of training-- Strength Endurance. This is where it all comes together for an alpinist. Strength Endurance encompasses your ability to ascend and descend under load (the load is your pack) all day long, while executing intermittent powerful movements, and quickly recovering from those movements. Referring back to our riverbed analogy from part 3, once you have taught those riverbed hoppers in your neuromuscular system to travel efficiently (power phase), and then you recruited a lot of them (strength phase), you can finally train them to keep going for miles and miles while utilizing fuel as economically as possible (strength endurance).
Strength endurance activities, unlike the simple exercises from the general strength circuits in part 2, can actually involve complex tasks that you must perform for extended amounts of time. This is why you preclude the Strength Endurance phase with the complex lifting of the Power and Strength Phases. For Strength Endurance activities, think hill intervals with a heavy pack, a submaximal hangboard session, or climbing intervals. You can get creative with these training sessions, and they should be the most specific to your mountaineering objective. If you have to pull a sled on a portion of your trip, do some of your Strength Endurance sessions with a sled. In general, this phase of your training should involve periods of intense, power and strength type activities, integrated with longer periods of less intense, endurance-based activities. Probably the most mountaineering-specific muscular endurance workout is doing hill intervals, where you adjust both the weight you carry and the intensity at which you hike. To be clear, some strength endurance training intervals may work you into short periods of intensity that you may never reach on your alpine project. But, you are training strength reserve and your body’s metabolic ability to recover from these intense bouts. These components together will provide you with the strength endurance for your sustained effort in the mountains.
NEED A WORKOUT IDEA?
Here is a sample mid-week Strength Endurance hill interval session that can be done by anyone who has at least a nearby stadium or very steep hill to walk up:
1. 20 minute warmup walk with weighted pack (pack should weigh anywhere from 40-110% of weight that you will carry on your trip)
2. 6-20 x 30-60 second uphill walks on steep terrain with weighted pack. Heartrate around 170-190 bpm (breathing slightly labored). 1 minute easy walking in between each interval. No stopping.
3. 1 x 1 mile walk on flat or rolling terrain with heartrate around 160 bpm
4. 6-20 x 30-60 second uphill walks. Same protocol as above.
5. 20 minute cooldown walk with or without the pack.
1. 20 minute warmup walk with weighted pack (pack should weigh anywhere from 40-110% of weight that you will carry on your trip)
2. 6-20 x 30-60 second uphill walks on steep terrain with weighted pack. Heartrate around 170-190 bpm (breathing slightly labored). 1 minute easy walking in between each interval. No stopping.
3. 1 x 1 mile walk on flat or rolling terrain with heartrate around 160 bpm
4. 6-20 x 30-60 second uphill walks. Same protocol as above.
5. 20 minute cooldown walk with or without the pack.
The emphasis of this interval workout is on intensity changes without stopping activity completely. You are gaining specific muscular endurance by walking uphill and with a weighted pack. On the weekends, this type of work can be integrated into longer, less intense intervals during a backcountry excursion. It can also involve upper body work like rock climbing intervals (be careful about how adding a weighted pack on upper body-centered work). The effect of this work will build your ability to contract your mountaineering-specific muscles for longer and longer periods of time before fatigue sets in.
In short, the Strength Endurance phase combines the energy system efficiency that I discussed in part 2 with the neuromuscular system efficiency that I discussed in part 3. Long, weighted intervals will train the economical use of fatty acids and glycogen. You will also continue to train the efficiency of those muscular firing patterns to contract at maximal efforts for longer and longer periods of time.
THE ART OF TRAINING
Efficiency and strength in the mountains is all about conserving energy. Methodical movements with efficient recovery from more powerful activities comprises the “art” of mountaineering training. A balanced, thoughtful approach to energy and neuromuscular system fitness will gain you the confidence for your high alpine goals.
Efficiency and strength in the mountains is all about conserving energy. Methodical movements with efficient recovery from more powerful activities comprises the “art” of mountaineering training. A balanced, thoughtful approach to energy and neuromuscular system fitness will gain you the confidence for your high alpine goals.
Photos courtesy of Ron Sanga, Sarah Malone, and Blaine Horner
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