Improving Strength For Mountaineers

Inside, we I explore an important consideration a mountaineer needs to understand if they want to best develop strength to help them in the mountains. 

How To Build Maximum Strength For Mountaineering 

​Today, we are talking all about getting a strength stimulus for a mountaineer.

We are diving into strength development and what you need to keep in mind to actually get the best benefits out of strength training.

This was inspired by a question I received the other day about whether it is possible to train strength and aerobic capacity at the same time.

The question was:

"If I load up a heavy pack, climb a steep incline, and keep my heart rate in zone two, can I get both an aerobic stimulus and a strength stimulus at the same time?"

This question comes up all the time with mountaineers and hikers.
And it makes sense.

Strength is incredibly valuable for mountaineers.

It helps:

• Improve performance (in various ways)
• Aid with injury and pain prevention
• Confidence (the value of which cannot be understated)
• Various other things
  
  

So developing strength can be incredibly beneficial for any mountaineer!

At the same time, many mountaineers are tight for time.

The idea of combining sessions and hitting multiple qualities of fitness at once is very appealing.

On top of that, many mountaineers simply do not enjoy traditional strength training.

Most would much rather be out on the trail, in the hills, or in the mountains.​

So the idea of doing your strength work outside with a pack on your back feels like a great solution.
​

Does Pack Training Improve Strength For Mountaineers?

​On a surface level, this makes sense.

If you load a pack with a lot of weight and walk up a very steep incline, it is hard. Your muscles burn. It feels challenging. And over time, you can overload it with a very, very heavy pack.

So yes, on the surface, it seems logical.

But when we look at what actually creates strength, this thought process starts to fall apart.

To understand this, we need to look at how traditional strength training works.

When you lift weights, use machines, or do bodyweight training, there is a large body of evidence showing that this can be extremely effective for improving muscular strength.

Typically, when training for strength, you choose a resistance that causes muscular fatigue after a small number of repetitions.

Usually, somewhere between three and ten repetitions.

If you are being very specific about maximal strength, it is often closer to one to six repetitions.

After that set, your muscles are tired, and you need to rest. And then after a long rest (typically 2+ minutes), you do it again.

That is a classic strength prescription.

And if we dive into how long this process actually takes, the picture of strength development (and crossover in other activities) becomes clearer.

Let us assume each repetition takes about five seconds total (one second for the 'hard' part and four seconds for the 'easier' part)

Three repetitions would take about fifteen seconds. Ten repetitions would take about fifty seconds.

After that, you are done. You cannot keep producing high force, and you need rest.

Now compare that to pack work.

Even with an outrageously heavy pack and a brutally steep hill, you are probably not fatiguing in under a minute.

You are going for five minutes. Ten minutes. Thirty minutes. Maybe an hour.
That puts it in a completely different category of training adaptations.

Pack work almost always falls into muscular endurance, not muscular strength.

Muscular endurance is extremely valuable for mountaineers. Heavy pack work is absolutely beneficial. But it is not the same thing as strength development.

Yes, if you want to be technical, endurance work may give you some strength improvements for some people and situations (particuarly those who have a very low level of strength or training history). ​

But it is not a very effective way to develop that quality.

Hill Sprints As Strength Development For Mountaineers ​

There is another approach that often comes up, and that is hill sprints.

This has been popular in the mountaineering world and was recommended by Uphill Athlete (I am not sure if it is still a current recommendation for strength development).

The idea is simple:
​

• Find a very steep hill.
• Sprint all out for eight to ten seconds.
• Rest for about two minutes.
• Repeat.
  
  

From a timing perspective, this makes more sense.

Short bursts of very high force followed by long rest periods does resemble strength training more closely.

Personally, I think hill sprints can be a great session for certain people. They can be very useful in the right context.

But I do not see them as a replacement for strength training.

Hill sprints line up better technically compared to pack work - but they would still never be considered the same thing as strength training (and I would consider hill sprints as speed and power training for mountaineers - not strength training).

So, coming back to the original question.

If you are a mountaineer who wants to develop maximal strength and unlock all the benefits that come with it, traditional strength training is probably necessary.

Now, traditional does not mean boring or limited. You have plenty of options.

You could do this with:
​

• Free weights (e.g. dumbbells, barbells or kettlebells)
• Gym machines
• Bodyweight and callisthenics
• Bands
  
  

There are many ways to do this, but the stimulus matters (and we still want to be making sure we hit the intensity, repetition and rest targets).

This is not to say pack work is bad.

Mountaineers absolutely need aerobic capacity and muscular endurance. And pack training (in its various forms) can be great for this.

But it is important to match the stimulus to the goal.

Just because something feels hard does not mean it is developing the quality you think it is.

Do not trick yourself into thinking you are training strength when you are really training endurance.

Summary:

If you want to develop strength as a mountaineer, make sure you train your strength properly.

Pack work is great. But it will never be a replacement for strength training.

If you are a mountaineer who knows pack work well but is unsure how to approach strength training, balance your fitness qualities, or plan your workouts properly, I would love to help.

To find out more about our online personal training for mountaineering, you can check out this page:

https://summitstrength.com.au/mountaineer

Yours in adventure.

Rowan 

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fit, strong and resilient
for your mountaineering adventures?

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