Mountaineering Insanity

In this episode, I explore a common mistake I see from mountaineers when it comes to their training and managing pain, discomfort and injuries. 

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] Right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we are talking about a really common mistake I see in the world of mountaineering for training, specifically as it relates to pain, injury, and discomfort.

[0:14] Now, I'm sure you've heard the saying or the quote before that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And this quote just rings in my mind when I see this mistake for mountaineers. And in the world of training for mountaineering, I see this exact thing all the time, and specifically when it relates to pain. So picture this, and I'll lay out the story, and this may sound a bit familiar too. A mountaineer books on a big expedition. They're like, yep, I'm going to put everything I can into this. I'm spending all this time, all this money, all this effort, and I want to make sure this as a success and give myself every chance possible to make this happen. So they start their training. They start building out their cardio, building out their strength, building out their fitness in every way they can, slowly building things up.

[1:08] And there comes a point where two or three or four weeks, everything's all good. Five or six weeks, everything's building up. We're feeling good. Then week seven, week eight, or whatever may be, they start realizing, look, there's a little bit of pain. After certain sessions I do, I get a little bit achy or sore, but they ignore it. They keep on doing the same thing. The pain keeps on coming back. They ignore it and they keep on doing the same thing and the pain keeps on coming. And every single time they do these particular sessions, they get into pain. But in their head, they're like, well, I'm training for this big expedition. No pain, no gain, right? I've just got to push through it, deal with it or whatever may be. And week after week after week, this pain keeps on coming back. It keeps on getting worse and it just never disappears. And it ends up being in this position where they're like, oh my gosh, I can barely perform. I can barely get out and do these things. I'm getting really worried about my expedition. They'll go see a physio, podiatrist, a physical therapist, a masseuse, a chiro. They'll see all of these professionals do everything they can just manage this pain, but it just never disappears and keeps on getting worse and getting worse and getting worse. Now, I'll tell you what, I have heard this story. I could not tell you how many times for mountaineers over the years. And it's something that, yeah, I just wanted to talk about today.

[2:31] Realistically, if you are going through training and if something is consistently causing you pain and consistently causing you discomfort. I want to say right now, just repeating the same thing over and over and over and hoping that it's just going to get better, hoping it's going to improve.

[2:49] It's probably not the best approach. You probably want to take a step back and reconsider things and see how we're going. Now, to give you a few concrete examples of what I will typically see this in when it comes to mountaineering, there's three concrete examples that I've seen a dozen times for each. Number one is running. Now, so many mountaineers love running as part of their training to build up their aerobic fitness, to build up their aerobic capacity. They're like, look, I'm just going to do lots and lots of running, whether it's road running, trail running, whatever it may be. And running can absolutely be a great method for this. It can be sometimes a bit more enjoyable than just walking around. It can just be a really, really good option. And a lot of mountaineers will lean into this. And a lot of people, this works perfectly fine. But for a lot of mountaineers, they'll build up their distance, they'll build up their time, and it'll all be good at first, but they'll get to the point where they're like, oh, I'm doing all this running and my knees are getting sore or my feet are getting sore. And every single time I go out and run, the next night or the next day, I'm kind of limping around. And then they'll give themselves a couple of days recovery. It'll kind of settle. They'll do their other training and then they'll go do a long run on the weekend and it'll happen again. And week after week after week, it's just this constant pain that just never goes away. I see it all the time.

[4:05] Or another situation like this is often see with mountaineers who like doing HIIT training. So high intensity interval training. So maybe they love CrossFit and they've been doing this and they want to keep that up while they're doing their mountaineering training. Maybe they're going down to a local gym that just does HIIT classes or does whatever it may be.

[4:25] And again, it's the same thing. They'll be doing HIIT and they'll be all well and good. And there'll come a point where they're like, ah, you know what? Every time I do these sessions, my hips are sore or my shins are sore or my back gets sore. We do all these box jumps, all these lunge jumps, all these whatevers. And it's always getting sore and aggravated, but they're like, nah, this is really good training. I really enjoy this. I'm just going to deal with it and keep on working with it. And week after week, after week, the same thing. Or it might be classic just in the weights room. And maybe you have a background in strength training and you love some barbell squats or barbell deadlifts. And you're like, yeah, these are great for getting me strong. These are fantastic. But every time you do use your squat or your deadlift, your back's sore for days and it limits other things in your training or whatever it may be. These are three concrete examples that I've seen so many times.

[5:15] And I'll tell you right now, if this is sounding familiar to you, if you're going through a training journey and you're aware that something every single time you do it is causing you pain, I'll tell you right now, you want to find another way because training should not be causing you pain. Yes, in a training journey, you need to exert effort. Yes, in a training journey, you need to push through discomfort. And yes, in a training journey, there may be times where you do a little bit too much and pain does appear.

[5:44] But you don't want to ignore it. You don't want to just keep on repeating the same thing. Be smart, adjust, and work around. So in the situation of running, I was talking about that before, a really, really, really common thing. If running, as you're ramping it up, is causing you pain, then you may want to look at another option for your longer sessions. If you're trying to build up your longer cardio sessions with running, maybe you can say, you know what, this isn't quite working for me. Maybe I'm going to replace this running with some longer pack hikes. Much less low impact on the joints, much more controllable, will still give you a very similar effect. Or maybe you might replace your running with cycling. It's not quite exactly the same, but it can be still beneficial.

[6:27] And then you don't have to completely give up your running, but if you're just reducing those long runs, which are typically the hardest ones to incorporate, You can just use your running a shorter session. So you can take the pressure off, reduce the incidence of that pain creeping up. You can still get all the necessary training you need for your mountaineering, but you're minimizing that pain. There are a dozen different ways you could approach that specific situation, but I hope you get the idea. If your running is causing you pain and you're identifying something, well, there are other options. Now, talking about the HIIT or the CrossFit or whatever it may be. Well, first of all, if you are aware that certain exercises are causing you pain during these sessions, maybe don't do them. I've had people in the past who, their particular sessions they go down to, and every single session, they would ask them to do burpees or squat jumps or lunge jumps. And this particular client had issues, I think it was in their hips or whatever it may be. And every single time they did these things, the hips would flare up. So we always said, look, okay, do your sessions. That's fine. Go through. But when these things come up, do a lower impact option. And that was fine. And that was all good. And that reduced the pain incidence. But the tricky thing was every time the pain went away, they were like, oh yeah, maybe I'll try this again. See if the hips have sorted themselves out. And they got themselves into pain. When in this whole thing, that's a whole different story. But if you are aware that certain exercises are causing you pain, find an alternative.

[7:54] Alternatively, if you're just doing CrossFit or HIIT because you like some higher intensity training and you think that's going to be beneficial for you, that's absolutely fine. But maybe then if you're always getting pain from those sessions, maybe swap it to something that's a bit more structured. Maybe hop on a bike or an elliptical or on a rower and do some structured high intensity interval training as opposed to circuit training or as opposed to sessions that you don't have a huge amount of control of. That's another option for you. Or with the barbell squats or the deadlifts. In all honesty, there are a million and one ways you can adjust this. You know, if you're looking at the squat example, barbell squats, maybe that's causing you pain. Maybe try a heel elevated version where you pop some raises underneath your heels. That in itself is a simple variation that can take a lot of pressure out of the knees for a lot of people.

[8:41] Or maybe you're like, you know what? Maybe I'll just do leg press. I can still load up the quadriceps, load up the glutes, but I maybe not get that back pain or whatever it is. Or maybe you're like, you know what? I love barbell squats, but going heavy on this is a bit uncomfortable. Well, maybe do your heavy stuff as a single-legged exercise. Do split squats or do step-ups. Load those up for heavy and then keep your barbell squats for lighter stuff where you do higher repetition. That might be enough to get you out of pain. You know these are just hypothetical examples well not hypothetical their situations have been in before but you know i'm just throwing out different situations that you know may resonate with you there are a million one different things that can apply here the main thing is if you are aware that a session is consistently causing you pain it is not something you should be pushing through it's not something you should ignore look at your training take a step take a step back and think, what am I trying to achieve with this particular session?

[9:41] What do I think is causing the pain? And is there a way where I can still get the same result, which will have a less chance of pain? I promise you, if you take that step back, there are always options available for you. So please, if you are a mountaineer and you are falling into this trap of insanity, please don't do it. Don't fall into it because it won't just hinder your training now, that, you know, if you keep on pushing through, it can end up being a longer term thing, which just takes forever to get rid of. And we don't want that.

[10:14] So with that being said, I think I've said enough on this subject today. I hope it's maybe a wake up call for a couple of people listening, or at least you can kind of maybe reference back to this, you know, sometime in the future, if you do fall into this trap. Now, last thing I will say, as always, if you are interested in getting some personalized help with your training, if you were like, you know what, I've been building up things, but yeah, maybe I'm just hitting my head against the wall. I'm doing the same things and continually getting in pain and I just don't know another way or whatever it is. I would love to chat with you.

[10:45] If you want to learn a little bit about our online personal training for Mountaineers, go to summitstrength.com.au slash Mountaineer. Now on that page, there's a big video which talks to our program, what it's all about and what we include. And if it does sound like something you want to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page where you can book a call with our team. We can have a chat and see if and how we may be able to help you out. So if you want to check that out, go to summerstrength.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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