1-RMs For Mountaineers (Are They Important?)

In this episode, we explore the idea of 1 repetition maximum for mountaineers, and answer the question, 'Should mountaineers aim for certain 1RM targets in their training? 

Episode Transcript:

[0:00]All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So today we are talking a little

[0:10]
Introduction to 1RMs for Mountaineers

[0:04]bit about 1RMs for mountaineers, also known as one repetition maximums. And we're exploring the concept of having certain standards of strength when it comes to lifting weights and how it relates to mountaineers. Now, if you haven't heard the phrase before, a one repetition maximum or 1RM is essentially the maximal amount of weight that you can lift one time on a certain exercise. So a 1RM of a squat would be you going into a gym, you getting a bar, you putting a weight on your back, and you do one squat. If you could do one squat, you put a little bit more weight on your back. Then you do another squat. If you can do that, you put more weight on and try again, and you keep on increasing until you find the absolute maximum amount of weight that you can do before you can't do anymore. That's typically what a one-armed RM is. Now, this whole topic, a lot of mountaineers would never consider doing this type of thing in their training.

[1:05]And I don't particularly think it's necessary for most mountaineers out there, or any mountaineers out there, in all honesty. However, it is a topic that I've seen pop up a few times recently. And I've seen it pop up in the situation where people have sort of said, asking the questions, hey, what is a good level of strength I should be aiming for as a mountaineer? What's like the maximum amount I should be squatting and I should be deadlifting, I should be bench pressing, I should be rowing as a mountaineer? I also see in the context of people sort of saying, hey, what type of strength should I hit as general strength before I start turning into more mountaineering specific strength? So this sort of is like, hey, what should I be able to squat or what should be able to bench or whatever may be before I start transitioning into the more endurance work, which mountaineers love.

[1:57]And this is an interesting subject because a lot of coaches out there will have strong, firm opinions in regards to strength standards. I've seen people sort of out there say, hey, a mountaineer should be able to do one and a half times their body weight as a deadlift, or should be able to squat this much or whatever it may be. And then either that's a good standard for a mountaineer, or once you hit this, or if you can do more than this, you should just be spending all your time on endurance work. But in all honesty, I think this whole conversation is just a little bit backwards in the sense that I don't really think as a mountaineer, there is any type of minimum strength you need before you can go and do more mountaineering specific training, or there's no minimum strength you need to have before you can say, hey, I'm gonna go perform in the mountains.

[2:47]
Rethinking Strength Standards

[2:47]And on the flip side, there's no real maximal strength that we could sort of say before you say, well, I'm not really getting any more benefits from strength training, or I shouldn't really be doing general strength anymore.

[3:01]Now, what I mean by that is when it comes down to strength training, as it relates to mountaineering, as opposed to worrying about certain targets or certain benchmarks or certain measures before you do one thing or another, I would sort of say, just think about improving.

[3:18]As long as other areas of your training are not being neglected, meaning your cardio, meaning your conditioning, meaning all the other bits and pieces, as long as those areas are not being neglected and you are improving in those other areas as well, then great. Happy days. Just think about improvement. Don't worry about an end point. Don't worry about a minimum point. Just think about improving what you're doing. Because if a mountaineer came to me and they said, hey, I want to get ready for this big mountain. And if this mountaineer was, let's say, in the grand scheme of things, relatively weak, they didn't have a huge amount of strength or whatever it may be, what I would do when I'm putting together their program, I would just aim on the strength side of things. for progression. I would look at improving their general strength, and I would look at improving their more specific strength, and improving all of that stuff would be beneficial. On the other side of things, if a mountaineer came to me and they were already super, super, super strong, and they were like, hey, I've been strength training for years and years and years and years, I wouldn't really do anything different. I would still look to improve their general strength, and I would still look to improve their specific strength. It's pretty simple. I don't really understand why people get hung up on these endpoints and saying, you have to reach this before you start doing specific stuff, or it's not really worth doing general stuff if you're already this strong or whatever it may be.

[4:43]Because, I don't know, I don't think it needs to be that complicated. If you want to look at this another way, if you kind of zoom out, looking at your training as a whole, you will have a certain amount of hours per week to train. For 99% of the time, I would always recommend keeping some type of strength in there. No matter how weak or no matter how strong you are, strength is going to be beneficial. If you are relatively weak, start where you are and aim to get stronger. If you're relatively strong, start where you are and keep on aiming to get stronger. If there are periods during your training where your energy is low or your time is short or something comes up, then maybe you're not aiming for progression and you're just aiming for maintenance, but that's absolutely fine. And if we looked at a six-month training program, that kind of works well enough on the strength side of things. It's very, very simple. Now, a few examples here of how this may get a little bit more nuanced, I suppose, is when we're looking at this idea behind general strength and just building up maximal strength in the muscles and not really worrying about the movements and the more specific strength where we may be looking at either saying exercises that look a bit more similar to mountaineering such as step ups or pole going split squats or whatever it may be or doing the more endurance based stuff, you know let's use the example if we had a power lifter if i had a power lifter came to me and they said i want to train for mountaineering and they're already crazy crazy strong.

[6:07]Probably in their training, typically for someone who has a big background in this type of stuff, they would have spent a long time doing squats, doing deadlifts, doing a lot of stuff on two legs at a time. So typically in this type of person, I'll be like, well, in all honesty, we can probably see some really, really, really good benefits for you if we introduce some single-legged stuff. We introduce some of that more specific stuff, which you're not used to. We start doing some split squats. We start doing some step downs. We start doing some pistol squats, some single-leg deadlifts or whatever it may be. We can probably get some really good benefits from that. But even though they are super, super, super, super, super strong, I'm not going to say stop doing that more general strength. Because we don't want that to go backwards. It's still beneficial to have general strength. And we'd still keep up the general strength alongside that. We can do both things at the same time. It's pretty simple. On the flip side, if we had a complete newbie to strength training, and they've never really done any strength, and they're very, very relatively weak.

[7:06]For this type of person, I will get them doing that general strength stuff. I'd maybe get them squatting or deadlifting or whatever, and learning basic moves where they can push their general strength forward and improve that. And I will also get them doing the specific stuff, the single-legged stuff. In either situations, no matter how strong, how weak, how experienced, how inexperienced, do both. Improve both. And it's going to work well for you. In either of these situations, it doesn't matter what your 1RM is. There isn't an end goal for your strength. There isn't a minimum target you have to hit. It's just all about improving yourself and using this training to complement your other training.

[7:45]
General vs. Specific Strength Training

[7:45]Because as a general overview, your strength training, no matter how specific it may be, no matter how endurance-based it is, no matter how much single-leg based it is, it's still all general in nature. Your specific training is what you're doing out on the trail. Your specific training is what you're doing in the mountains. Your specific training is when you're lugging around a pack. The gym stuff, even if it is in quotation marks specific, it's all general in nature. So move it forward.

[8:13]So I hope I get my point across here. But when it comes down to one RM or strength targets or whatever it may be in the mountaineering community, I don't think it's particularly necessary.

[8:22]
Embracing Progress Over Targets

[8:22]There's no minimum strength you need. There's no maximum strength you need. There's no limits.

[8:27]There's no stage where you're going to be wasting your time or whatever it may be. As long as you are following a well-rounded program and you are aiming for progression over time, that's the main thing. So if you love strength and you're worried about fitting in your lifts, keep on fitting your lifts. Just make sure you don't neglect the other things. If you are worried about being strong enough for the mountain and you haven't started yet, well, get started now. Start moving forward. Don't worry about arbitrary numbers just to improve yourself. And that is kind of what we want to do. So I hope that gets my point across. us. If that wasn't super clear, please do let me know. I went off on a bit of a tangent there and changed my mind halfway through the

[9:04]
Conclusion and Call to Action

[9:01]episode and how I was going to approach it, but hopefully it all made sense. So with that being said, last thing I'll say is if you're a mountaineer who's interested in strength training, whether you're super, super experienced or whether you are relatively new and you're looking at implying this to improve in the mountains, and on top of that, you want some help making sure you are following a well-rounded program, which is not going to to collect key areas, I would love to chat with you. If you want to learn a little bit more about my online personal training for mountaineers, go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. On that page, you can learn a little bit more about our programs. And if it sounds like something you want to potentially explore, you can book a call with our team. We can have a bit of a chat and learn a bit more about you, your situation, and how we may be able to help you. So if you want to check it out, go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer, and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope it helps. And we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.
​

Want to get
fit, strong and resilient
for your
​mountaineering adventures?

Check out
The Online Summit Program