How Mountaineers Can Build Strength Without Equipment

​In this episode, I explore how a mountaineer can build some serious strength, even if they don't have access to dumbbells, barbells or machines to train on. 

I explore some simple loading strategies, a few of my favourite exercises for mountaineers and some simple tweaks to add challenge when needed. 

​Strength Training
For Mountaineering
​Without Weights

​
​Building strength when you have access to a gym or a good selection of training equipment is not complicated...

Get the right program. Do the right exercises. Build up over time. Be consistent. Be diligent.

Easy enough.

But when you do not have equipment, things get a little bit more complicated.

This could happen in a number of situations:

• Maybe you are travelling all the time and living out of hotels.
• Maybe you are moving houses and everything is packed up.
• Maybe you simply have zero interest in buying equipment.
• Maybe you live in an apartment with minimal space and you do not want to join a gym.

This type of thing happens all the time.

When you are in this situation, it is still easy enough to keep up your cardio. Go hike. Go run. Go walk.

And a lot of people in this situation will still attempt some type of strength training at home or outdoors.

But here is the problem that 95% of people fall into here,

If they do not have any equipment, they default to doing lots and lots and lots of bodyweight work.

There is nothing wrong with bodyweight work. But what tends to happen is someone will just do squats and lunges and step-ups, and they will do endless repetitions to make up for the lack of load and resistance.

This can be great for muscular endurance (which is fantastic for mountaineers for a number of reasons),

But developing genuine 'maximal' strength that comes from heavier resistance and lower repetitions is just as beneficial (in different ways).

And if you are a mountaineer who is serious about improving performance, you want both endurance and strength.

Even if you train at home with minimal or zero equipment, you still want exposure to strength training.

So let's explore how you can do that:

At Home Strength Training For Mountaineers ​

Two things matter when building strength over the long term:

1. Adequate stimulus (meaning you need the right challenge for the muscles)
2. Progression (you cannot do the same thing over and over again and expect improvement)
   
   

In a gym, this is easy. Pick up a heavy weight. Increase it over time.
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At home it is trickier...

Stimulus:

As a general rule of thumb, a good strength stimulus is a resistance where you can do around 4 to 8 repetitions before needing a rest.

Newer people can still see strength gains at ten or twelve repetitions, but the heavier side is where real improvement happens.

If you do not have equipment, getting that stimulus can be tricky.

So here are a few simple solutions:

#1 Adding Load

For a mountaineer, the obvious choice for adding load without gym equipment is a backpack.

Any pack you have lying around will do. A day pack or a big expedition pack.

You can load these with quite a bit of weight. Yes, it is awkward. Yes, it may be fiddly. But it works.

#2: Leverage Unilateral Exercises

Train exercises focusing on one leg or one arm at a time.

If someone loads a pack with 20-25kg and tries to squat with it, it may feel awkward, but for most people, it is not going to be a true strength stimulus. Not compared to what they could do in a gym.

But unilateral exercises make things significantly harder and help us get close to that strength zone.

For the quads, this might be pistol squat or split squat variations.

Such as:
​

• Box pistol squats.
• Assisted pistol squats holding a doorframe.
• Full pistol squats.
• Weighted pistol squats.
• Split squats.
• Bulgarian split squats.
  
  

For the hamstrings and glutes, you can use single-leg glute bridge or single-leg deadlift variations.

E.g

• Foot elevated glute bridges.
• Single leg hip thrusts.
• Single leg deadlifts.
  
  

With a loaded pack these get you close to a strength stimulus.

Upper body work is a bit trickier.

Single-arm overhead presses with a pack and single-arm rows can do the job. They may not be perfect (when loading with a pack), but they get you close.


3) Add eccentrics and pauses.

Two incredibly simple ways to increase difficulty.

1. Slow the lowering phase. (e.g. use a four-second lowering for each rep)
2. Add short pauses at the bottom of the movement (e.g. a 1-2 second pause at the bottom of a split squat)
   
   

These remove momentum and increase time under tension.

Just do not go overboard with these (and avoid making each rep so slow that it turns into an endurance workout).


4) Add range of motion.

Progress a split squat to a deficit split squat.

Use a lower chair for box pistol squats.

Slowly go deeper over time for the exercises you are doing and increase the range of motion (and the challenge).


Appling These Tips

All of these are tools to help you find that four to eight repetition challenge even without equipment.

So if your split squat is too easy add a pack.

If it is still too easy, slow the eccentric.

Still too easy, add pauses.

Still too easy, increase the range of motion.

Play with these variables until you hit the right level.

Progression

This is where people get stuck. In the gym, progression is simple. Add more weight. At home with minimal equipment, it is easy to stall out.

A simple workaround here is to follow this process:

1. Choose one exercise.
2. Do it for four to eight weeks.
3. Each week, make it a bit harder in some way (e.g. add weight, range of motion, etc)

When you can no longer progress it (or you are bored), simply change to a harder variation or a different exercise that trains the same muscle group.

For example, start with split squats. Progress them weekly. After four weeks move to Bulgarian split squats. After that, perhaps move to a pistol squat variation.

Balancing With Muscular Endurance

Even though we are talking about strength here, I am not saying all your training has to be at this difficulty level.

A simple way to design a session is to do half your exercises as strength-focused and half as endurance.

So if you are travelling or have no equipment or no gym access, bring a pack and use it wisely. Put some thought into making things harder, and you will get a genuine strength stimulus.

And you will see your results explode for your mountain adventures! 

Yours in adventure,

​Rowan

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