Exercises Mountaineers Probably Don't Need To Be Doing

​In this episode, I dive into a few exercises that I often see recommended for mountaineers, which, in all honesty, you probably don't need to be spending your time on. 

​Episode Transcript:

​[0:00] Right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we're going to be talking through a few exercises that I personally believe mountaineers probably don't need to be doing.

[0:11] Now, this episode was inspired by a bit of a bad habit that I have, in the sense that I've got this habit where sometimes when I'm in the middle of a workday and I've got a little bit of time to kill between calls or between tasks or whatever it may be, I like to scroll through Google looking at different training advice for mountaineering. And typically i'll sort of see three different types of content out there number one there's some really really good content out there written by coaches and professionals who clearly know what they're talking about who clearly have a good understanding of things you know the bulk of this has come from you know the guys from uphill athletes or evoke endurance or people who are just kind of like regurgitating their info and they're just sort of putting their own spin on it you know this stuff is good solid training advice there's a lot out there looks really good.

[0:57] Number two there is the average content you know this sort of stuff comes from you know usually coaches as well who have a bit of a background in training some of it's good some of it's a little bit weird and a little bit funny but it's kind of good enough it's not the way that i like to go about things i feel like some things miss the mark but it's pretty good and then there is the bad stuff and there is a lot of this in the world of training for mountaineering and this is stuff that's written by people who, you know, they may be active. They may have a background in just training themselves or playing sports themselves, or they may be like an experienced mountaineer. They've been climbing for years and years and years, or maybe a guide or whatever it may be. But reading their stuff or listening to their stuff or watching their stuff, it's very, very, very clear that they have zero or very, very, very little experience in actually training people, in coaching people, in creating and designing programs or whatever it may be. And it's clearly obvious that they're just talking about what they like to do themselves and how they like to train themselves and saying, look, I do this, so it's going to be good for everyone else. Or they're just recurgitating ideas that they don't really understand.

[2:07] This is my bad habit. It's kind of like a scab you like to pick because you see this stuff, you know it's ugly, you know it's not going to be great, but you just can't stop looking at it.

[2:18] But when it comes down to it, there is some good that comes out of this stuff because it has inspired today's episode. And it actually inspires a lot of my episodes, to be honest. Because when I look through these types of things, there are many, many things that pop out to me that is a clear indicator that people don't really know what they're talking about. The common one is people just misusing basic terminology when it comes down to training. For example, people misuse the word power when it comes down to training so often or how to develop power, whatever it may be. Or we see people confidently making statements which sound really, really good, but don't really make a huge amount of sense. For example, I saw someone the other day just absolutely blasting, lap pulldowns in the gym where you've got a cable machine and you're pulling down to work your lads, and they were going on and on and on saying it was just too stable and it wasn't relevant for sporting movements, which is just a whole different topic in itself. Or you see people using fitness buzzwords should have died like 20 years ago, or people just absolutely misquoting science and they quote an article and you go look at the article and it says it doesn't say what they said or it says the opposite. And you're like, oh my gosh, or whatever. There's a bunch of different things out there. But beyond that and what we're talking about today, one of the easiest ways of telling if people kind of know what they're talking about or whatever it may be is looking at what people recommend for exercises when it comes down to strength training.

[3:41] Because while there are no exercises out there or there's only a tiny proportion of exercise out there which are inherently bad in every situation and you can justify pretty much any exercise in certain contexts when we're talking about mountaineering there are definitely exercises that are not relevant for 99% of situations and when you see people talking about exercises and just recommending to these mountaineers as a whole,

[4:10] well, then it's often a bit of a red flag or at the very least a yellow flag around what's going on. So today, what I want to do is just go through a few of the common exercises that I see that it's like, well, you know what? I'm not sure about that one. Just so you can be aware if you see these things. Now, I'm going to be talking through this type of stuff, you know, talking in the context of the majority of mountaineers out there. As I said before, there aren't always edge cases or certain contexts or situations where these things may be useful. But the 99% of the situation is probably not what I would recommend as a general recommendation.

[4:45] Beyond that, before I even get into it, as much as I'm going to talk about a few exercises that I don't think they're really necessary, one thing that often you want to keep in mind is if you enjoy something and you get pleasure from it and it makes you feel good, that's all good. And if one of the exercises I'm about to talk you to talk through and you're like, ah, Rowan, I do these and they're great. I just love it or whatever it may be. That's cool. That's fine. But outside of that context, let's talk through.

[5:12] First and foremost, one exercise that you see and you're like, why are people recommending this are abdominal crunches? I don't understand why they are still talked about in the mountaineering community, but my gosh, we'll often see programs where they say, this is your core work, do 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 crunches or whatever may be, and each week add 10 crunches. Nah, crunches are such a low benefit exercise for sports performance. They feel really good. They get a really good burn. They feel like your abs are working. In certain sports, they may be beneficial. If you're doing, say, jujitsu or something where you're doing that type of movement, yeah, cool. For a mountaineer, no, not particularly necessary. You could be way better spending your time on other exercises. When it comes down to core training, abdominal training, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of better exercises than crunches. So if you see a crunch in a program and that's what they're asking you to do for a large part of your core work, you know what?

[6:12] I would probably disagree. And that's something I don't think most mountaineers need to be doing.

[6:17] Number two, another exercise we often see recommended, which I don't really think is necessary are shrugs. So if you haven't seen shrugs before, it's literally holding a couple of dumbbells or holding a barbell and literally shrugging your shoulders, working the upper traps, those big muscles like around your neck leading up to your neck. Now you could argue, and I think this is where people sort of come out recommending this, is if people get tired or sore traps when they're carrying like a heavy backpack.

[6:46] Then if I do a bunch of shrugs and I work the upper traps, this will be beneficial. And yeah, logically, that does make sense or whatever it may be. But if you really, really think about it, if you're wanting to do shrugs, to get proper benefits from shrugs, you do need to do quite a bit of weight to do it effectively. If you're just shrugging with five or 10 kilos, probably not going to do a huge amount. People, the traps are strong. And to get a good stimulus from this exercise, you need quite a bit of weight. And if you're in this situation and you're a mountaineer and you had access to these types of weights, so you had a gym membership, and you were confident in using this type of weight, so you have a bit of background in strength training, then you're probably going to get better benefits from just doing other exercises. If you look at a heavier deadlift, a barbell deadlift, trap bar deadlift, or whatever it may be, that in itself is going to do quite a bit of work for your traps. And I would sort of say, if you're confident lifting weights and have access to weights, just do that instead of a shrug. It's not an isolation exercise, but it's still going to do a lot there. Or maybe doing a loaded carry. If you literally just hold those dumbbells or hold a trap bar and you walk up and down with heavy weights, this is going to hit the traps quite a bit as well. Both of those exercises or options are going to have a ton of other benefits for your mountaineering and other situations.

[8:08] As well as work the traps a bit. And yes, you could argue, as I said, neither of these isolate that area, but for 99% of people, this is enough. So if you're looking at shrugs and that is a recommended exercise for your mountaineering.

[8:20] Yeah, I don't know. I could say you could definitely do better.

[8:24] Another one, next up, exercises you probably don't need to be doing are flies, chest flies, where basically you're lying on your back on a bench. You've got two dumbbells in your hands. With your arms straight, you're sort of going straight down, straight up. Or you can do this on a cable tower where you're holding a couple of tables and doing this. This exercise, chest flies, are a great exercise to isolate your chest muscles. They are really, really, really good for people who are wanting to build muscle there specifically. And a lot of people who are doing bodybuilding or intentionally trying to put muscles on will do this. If you're a near, it's really unnecessary. Because in all honesty, if you are wanting to train that area of your body, just do a proper press, do a bum dumbbell press, do a bench press, do a push-up variation, or even do a dip or whatever it may be. All of these are going to be a bit more effective. You're going to push more load. You're going to get a better strength stimulus.

[9:21] A fly, yeah, there's just no reason to be doing that. And if you're recommended flies, more than likely, whatever strength training program you're getting recommended is a bodybuilding program at its heart because mountaineers don't need to isolate their chest like that. Now, some people might argue, look, I already do all those things. I like dumbbell pressing. I like doing push-ups and I really feel nice doing flies after that type of stuff. But at this point, I would put the question to you. Why are you spending so much time on your chest? Why are you isolating these areas? Why not do a small amount of good exercises, improve that strength, as opposed to doing all in all this volume? You know, I often see this and I'm like, why? Why, why, why, why, why?

[10:03] Next up, bicep curls. Bicep curls are a funny one because when it comes down to it, you know, there are definitely a couple of legitimate reasons why people might do these and why mountaineers might do them. And I'll get that in a moment. But for the most part, for 99% of mountaineers, they're just not necessary. And when I see people recommending these as general recommendations, it's just a red flag because mountaineers have got so many other things they could be doing, which are going to be more beneficial than just isolating your arms. Bicep curls work your biceps. They are really, really good at that. But do you know what else works your biceps? Vertical pulling movements, things like chin-ups and pull-ups or pull-downs, or horizontal pulling movements, things like rows or whatever it may be. All of these exercises will still get the biceps working quite a bit. And the difference between curls and these other movements is, well, those other movements are going to work a bunch of other things as well.

[10:53] And considering a mountaineer typically doesn't have a huge amount of time they want to spend on their strength because you're an endurance athlete, you want to be making the best use of your time in the gym or with your strength training. And there's very, very, very little reason to be isolating your arms. Now, there are two reasons I could see being valid here. One, if you are doing lots and lots and lots of climbing, and when you're climbing, you are aware that for one reason or another, your biceps are cooking out, your biceps are pumping out, your biceps are a limiting factor for whatever you're doing. And in that situation, yeah, maybe throwing in a couple of sets of high repetition bicep curls at the end of the workout could be decent. The other argument, and this is probably something that, yeah, it's absolutely fair enough, is vanity. And not vanity in saying it's a bad thing. Vanity is often a bad word. But if you personally just want bigger or better looking arms, yeah, all power to you. Go with it. That's fine. As long as you're aware of that's why you're doing it and not thinking, hey, this is going to improve my mountaineering. Or if you just love the feeling of just walking out of the gym with a pump in your arms, yeah, cool, absolutely, that's fair enough. It's not hurting anyone, but as long as you're aware why you're doing it.

[12:03] Now, similar, similar stuff to tricep isolation stuff. So if someone recommends tricep extensions or pushdowns, exact same reasoning for curls. It's unnecessary for 99% of mountaineers. And again, not saying this stuff is bad and it's like terrible, but if this has been recommended to you as a Mountaineer, well, probably can do better.

[12:24] Next up, and this is a really funny one, when people recommend mountain climbers for mountaineers, and if you don't know what a mountain climber is, it's when you're on hands and toes on the ground. So, you're in like a full plank position. And what you do is you start doing running on the ground. So, you bring one knee to your chest, then the other knee, run, run, run, run.

[12:45] Because it's a really funny one because mountain climbers can be a great exercise in the right context. But I don't know, I see people recommending this and they kind of pretend it's like a strength exercise and it's going to work your arms or your legs or whatever may be. I see people recommending them maybe just because they're called mountain climbers and people are climbing mountains. I don't know. But mountain climbers are good for two situations. One, they can be a decent cardio movement. If you're trying to do, say, something high intensity, so you're doing some type of high intensity interval training, or you're trying to get your heart rate up for some reason, and you don't have a huge amount of space or equipment. Say you're in a hotel room or you're at home, you don't have amount of space or whatever. Fair. These can work really well. And the other situation is these can be a good core exercise. I personally like using banded mountain climbers as a progression for my hip flexors. So if I have a mountaineer who we want to improve the strength and endurance of their hip flexors, we'll do some movements, isolating the hip flexors with some bands, and we'll do a couple of movements. And then we can do mountain climbers with a band. We put a band around our feet, do this type of thing and turn into a bit more of a trickier movement. That can work out pretty well. But if someone is just like saying, hey, just do mountain climbers and this is just as important as doing a squat or a lunge or whatever it may be in your strength training, yeah, I don't know.

[14:03] And then finally, the last one, and this is always a red flag, is burpees. I hate burpees. I don't know why they're recommended so often, and I don't think they're relevant for mountaineers. Now, I promised myself when I started recording this that I wasn't going to go into my usual burpee rant, so I'm going to keep this short, keep this sweet. I will say this. Burpees for mountaineers are ridiculous. They are the most overused exercise in the fitness industry. A mountaineer can do so much better.

[14:34] And when people are saying hey this is what you should do to prepare for mountaineering and say hey go do 50 burpees or go do 20 burpees whatever it may be no no way so there are a few examples of things that if you see is just a general recommendation if you're reading an article seeing a video or whatever it may be and someone says mountaineers should be doing this or this is a training program for mountaineers and this is in here yeah i really think you know maybe you should look in other areas. Because as I said, there can always be justifications for these,

[15:06] but if you are just looking at general advice, not super relevant. As a mountaineer, when you are looking at strength training advice, you want to keep two things in mind. Number one, is this exercise relevant for my mountaineering? And not saying every single exercise has to be 100% entirely specific to mountaineering, but does it have some relevance? Going back to the crunches example how can you justify that for mountaineering i don't know and number two the big one if i took the same time and effort that i would invest in that exercise and i invested it somewhere else could i get better results.

[15:47] If you look at the curls, if you look at the tricep pushdowns, if you look at the mountain climbers and whatever it may be, I could all say if you took the same amount of time and energy and effort you invested into those things, put them into other exercises, you're probably going to get much better results. So there we go, guys. I think I'm going to wrap things up there, but hopefully that just gives you a few little things to look out for if you're looking at strength training. As I said, in those 1% of situations, you can justify anything. There are edge cases. and if you're doing this stuff and you personally enjoy it, all power to you.

[16:19] But I would sort of say for the majority of the most part, most mountaineers do not need to be doing these and there's much better places you can spend your time, energy and effort. So last thing I will say, as I always do say on these podcasts, if you are a mountaineer who is leading up to a big expedition or who was just generally wanting to improve your strength, your conditioning and your abilities in the mountains, and you want to learn a little bit more about personalized online personal training for you, I would love to chat with you. If you want to learn a little bit about our online summit program, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. On that page, there's a big video talks through our program in a bit of detail. And if it does sound like something you want to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page. You can book a free call with our team. We can have a bit of a chat and see if and how we may be able to help you out. So if you want to learn a little bit more, go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer, and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thanks so much for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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