A Different Way To Plan Cardio Training For Mountainerring

Inside, we explore a slightly different way a mountaineer can plan their cardio training (over the long term) than the 'traditional' approach, which is often talked about online. 

​Cardio Periodisation for Mountaineering Training

Today, I want to explore a slightly different way a mountaineer can plan out their cardio training over the long term.

There is a very common idea floating around the mountaineering world when it comes to training, and especially cardio training.

That idea is this:

Before you do anything else, you must first spend weeks or months focusing only on long, low-intensity steady state cardio (building your 'aerobic base').

Committing to long, slow hours of hiking, running or cycling, week after week, month after month.

Only once that is done, and you aerobic base it at an 'acceptable' level, are you 'allowed' to move on to anything higher intensity or anything different.

The logic behind this is simple and not wrong.

Aerobic capacity is the single most important aspect of fitness for mountaineering.

There is no debate there.

So the thinking goes like this:

Build the aerobic base first. Lay the foundations. Get it as strong as possible.

Then later you can add in harder, faster, more intense training and get better results from it (compared to if you didn't have a strong base).

And to be clear, this approach absolutely works for a lot of people.

I am not saying it is wrong. I am not saying it is useless. I am not saying it is ineffective.

It can be very beneficial.

But where I get frustrated is when this approach is presented as black and white.

I regularly see people saying things like:

• "You should not do any interval training until you have spent months on aerobic capacity"
• "You will not get benefits from zone four or five work until you build a proper aerobic base"
• "You should not do speed work until you are aerobically fit enough"
  
  

And yes, people really do say this. Those are real comments I have pulled directly from conversations.

The problem is not that the traditional approach works.

The problem is that it is presented as the only approach.

And that is simply not true.

There are many ways to get to the same end result.

And for many mountaineers, a different approach to planning cardio training can actually be more effective.​

So let me break this down.

In a previous podcast, I talked about periodisation for strength training and the difference between block periodisation and concurrent periodisation.

A quick recap on that:

Block periodisation means structuring your training so you mainly focus on one quality of fitness at a time.

For example:

• Eight weeks focused on aerobic capacity
• Then, eight weeks focused on something else
• Then another block focused on another quality
  
  

In the cardio world, this usually looks like months of long, slow, steady training before anything else.

Then you introduce intensity through intervals, or other more challenging workouts.

And again, this can work.​

But it has some drawbacks for certain people.

Problems With The Traditional Approach To Cardio Planning For Mountaineers​

​1) Time Management

The first issue is time management. Traditional aerobic base training requires a big time investment.

Long, steady sessions. Multiple times per week. Lots of accumulated hours.

If you can fit that in, great.

But many mountaineers cannot.

They have busy jobs, young families or a range of other things which make their time limited.

Life just gets in the way of dedicating multiple days a week to long cardio sessions.

For the mountaineers I work with directly, around 90% of them have tried this 'traditional' approach to cardio before, and tried to fit in all these hours, but they could not sustain it.

My problem is when mountaineers are told that doing hours and hours of training each week is the only effective way (and if they cannot do this, the rest of their training will not be effective) it can create a lot of stress and worry.

If you are in a position where you can fit this into your life, happy days! Go for it. And enjoy it.

But if you cannot, there is another way.

2) Boredom

Many mountaineers love endurance training and don't really have an issue with doing a huge number of hours per week of slow, steady-state work.

But many mountaineers do not particularly love this training.

They do not love long runs, or bike sessions, or hitting the trail hiking multiple times a week.

And asking these people to do this for months before touching anything else more 'exciting' in their training can be really hard.

If long, slow, steady state training excites you, great!

But if the thought of doing 2-3 long sessions per week makes you want to cry, just know there is another way.

3) Lose It Or Lose It

The third issue with the traditional approach is the use-it-or-lose-it principle (not a very scientific name, I know)

The body adapts to what you train.

If you apply a stimulus, the body adapts to that challenge.

If you do not apply a particular stimulus, the body doesn't have a need to maintain adaptations to deal with it, so you lose it.

If you spend months only going slow, you get very good at going slow.

This is not a bad thing (and this is very important for mountaineering).

But if you completely remove intensity, speed, and harder efforts for long periods of time, the body loses its ability to do those things well.​

It is not the end of the world if this happens briefly. But over many months, it can make things a bit harder when you reintroduce these challenges (or, if you are exposed to something earlier that needs these things, such as a skills course, or a smaller climb).

A Practical Way To Plan Cardio For Mountaineering Training

​The traditional approach to cardio programming for mountaineering, or block periodisation, works. But it is not for everyone.

Which brings us to our alternative:

Concurrent Periodisation.

This simply means training multiple qualities of fitness at the same time.

Instead of saying:

"For eight weeks, I only train aerobic capacity."

we say

"For eight weeks, I train aerobic capacity and something else."

In my own programming, this looks like this:

We always include long, lower-intensity steady-state cardio.

Always.

From day one to the final phase before an expedition.

That never disappears because it is always relevant for mountaineers.

But alongside that, we also include other types of cardio.

Examples include:
​

• Longer interval training (such as three to eight-minute intervals)
• Occasional short intervals like thirty or forty five seconds
• Hill or stair climbing
• Pack loaded sessions
• Specific elevation workouts

This is not random higher intensity work.

It is structured. It is specific. It is planned.

And yes, it is still beneficial even early in your training.

You do not need a massive aerobic base before touching this stuff.

Here is how this often looks in a week:

Everyone does some long, steady cardio. Typically, one longer hike, run or cycle on the weekend.

If someone can only fit in one more cardio session during the week, we make that session higher intensity.

So the week ends up with one long, steady session (for as many hours as is realistic) and one shorter, harder session (anywhere from 20-60 minutes).

If someone can fit in two weekday cardio sessions, we typically will do one lower-intensity session and one higher-intensity session.

So the week ends up with one long, steady session, one shorter steady session and one shorter higher intensity session.

If someone can fit in three weekday cardio sessions (on top of their strength training), we can go either way (with either an extra steady session or another moderate/higher session) - depending on the specific situation.

Simple!

This approach lets us get a lot done in a limited time.

It works well for people who can only train twenty to sixty minutes during the week.

It works well for people who get bored easily.

And it solves the use it or lose it problem by keeping a thread of multiple qualities of fitness throughout the year.

Longer Term Progression

Over the long term we still progress from easier to harder.

Long sessions slowly get longer. Intervals slowly get harder.
Expedition-specific workouts (such as overloaded hill climbs or heavy sled pulls) appear closer to a trip.

But nothing completely disappears.

This is not theory. This is how I train mountaineers every single week. And it works.

So if you have tried block periodisation and it did not work for you because of time, boredom, or fear of neglecting other fitness qualities, this is an option worth exploring.

As long as you are planning your training well, as long as it progresses and as long as you are covering the relevant bases of fitness that a mountaineer needs, it works.

Traditional training for mountaineering is one road. But it is not the only road.

Keep that in mind when planning your training.

And if you are a mountaineer who has tried the traditional approach to cardio and it just hasn't worked for your life, situation or personality, then you can check out The Online Summit Program here:

Online Personal Training For Mountaineers

Yours in adventure,

Rowan