Off-Feet Conditioning For Mountaineers

In this episode, I explore the idea of off-foot conditioning and share how I like to leverage this for my mountaineers in their training. ​

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. And in today's episode, we are talking about off-feet conditioning for mountaineers, which can be a really, really useful method of training to incorporate in a mountaineer's journey.

[0:14] Now, in the world of training for mountaineering, mountaineers always need to do quite a bit of cardio. You know, for the bulk of your training hours, if you're looking at the total number of hours you spend per week and per month, You know, this is typically going to be your basic aerobic capacity work, you know, getting periods of low intensity, long duration cardio, and progressing that over time. You know, it's the bread and butter for mountaineers, and you should be doing that.

[0:41] On top of this, you know, there are many other cardio options that a mountaineer probably wants to explore in their training at various times. There's elevation work, so doing stair or hill sessions or step sessions. There's interval work, sprint training in small doses, and a ton of other things. And when it comes to mountaineers we want to be spending a lot of time developing our cardio obviously on top of that we want to do our strength and our recovery and all of that jazz but cardio is always going to be a priority and for most mountaineers out there typically when we're looking at our cardio work whether it's a longer staff or a shorter staff or whatever it may be typically mountaineers will lean into sort of two methods of this either walking based cardio so you're walking or you're hiking or whatever may be, or running. A lot of mountaineers will do long runs or interval runs or whatever may be. You don't have to be running as a mountaineer, which I always say, but a lot of people do.

[1:37] And it does make sense because mountaineering obviously involves you moving under your own two feet for long periods of time. So walking, whether we're loading that up with a pack or going up incline or just doing long flat hikes or whatever it may be, is about as specific as you can get. And then running is a pretty close second. Running is still going to work through the same muscle groups, still putting pressure through the same areas, works pretty well. It's not exactly the same, but it's pretty close. And for most mountaineers out there, either walking or running or doing a combination of the two, you know, work pretty well for your cardio.

[2:11] There is one big consideration here, which you do want to keep top of mind. In that overuse injuries are an absolute plague in the mountaineering community. And things like plantar fasciitis or shin splints or knee and hip tendonitis and a ton of other variations of these things we see all the time in the world of mountaineering. Now, overuse injuries are typically caused by, you guessed it, overuse and just applying too much force of the same force to certain areas over and over and over and just not giving it enough variation, not giving enough time and rest to recover and just absolutely overloading that area. And the thing I see from mountaineers over and over and over again is they're just kind of stuck in this cycle where they're trying to build up to something and they keep on hitting runs, hitting long hikes, hitting pack training, and they just got these issues that keep on creeping up and it sucks.

[3:08] And this admittedly does make things very, very tricky in a lot of mountaineering journeys because it will often become a balancing act because a mountaineer may be super keen to improve their fitness and like I want to do everything I can to push things forward and move things forward and give myself the best chance possible in the mountains but then they might find themselves like oh you know what I'm juggling aches and pains you know every time I really push things or do a super long run or a super long hike my feet are sore or my knee are sore or whatever may be and this can be to the level of it just being like a bit of a nuisance and you just have to be really careful about what you do in the week and not jumping up too much and looking after yourself and all of that, or all the way up to the extent where it may completely restrict you from doing certain sessions. And you may just be at the point where you're like, I cannot do long runs anymore, or I cannot do long pack walks anymore, or I cannot do hill runs if I was doing that before, or elevation sessions with a pack or whatever it may be. And those situations where we are completely limited from these. And you're like, every time I do it, I'm in massive pain and it sets me back for a week or whatever. Well, that's a major issue. And definitely something we want to minimize and avoid because that can be really tricky to manage.

[4:22] So ultimately, in any of these situations, this is kind of where the topic of today comes in, and this is where off-feet conditioning comes in. And this can be a really useful method of training to kind of help manage this.

[4:35] So off-feet conditioning is essentially cardio-based activity, which doesn't put stress through the feet. So something you can still do for long durations, well, in this context, long durations, still get a cardiovascular response, but it doesn't have that pounding or that force that's going through the feet. So examples of this might be cycling, either hopping on a bike and cruising around outdoors or on a stationary bike. The elliptical is another good example. The rower is another good example, or even swimming. Any of those options, we can still get a really nice cardiovascular response, but the feet aren't really taking a huge amount of pressure. There isn't a huge amount of impact. So like the knees are quite nice, the hips are sometimes a little bit happier with these things or whatever may be. And the idea behind this is we can use these options to develop relevant, I should say, qualities of our fitness in ways which give our body a break from walking and running.

[5:29] For example, if we want to develop aerobic fitness and aerobic capacity, which we know is so important for mountaineers, we can walk, we can hike, we can run. That all works very, very well. But we can also get similar benefits if we hop on a bike and go out and do a similar session. As long as we're doing long duration, low intensity, it's going to give us similar benefits. Not exactly the same, but similar. Or if we want to develop aerobic power, we could do running intervals where we're running intervals for two or three minutes at a time, really pushing the intensity. Or we could hop on a stationary cycle or hop on a rower and do the same interval structure and get similar results. That will still develop our aerobic capacity, our aerobic power. That will still develop the relevant adaptations in the body to help with us in those intensities and give us the results we want, but in a way that's a little bit nicer on the joints. Or if we wanted to do super high intensity work, maybe we're dosing in a bit of sprint work where we're just ramping up the intensity, absolutely redlining it in small periods in our training. We could do this when we're doing running heel intervals and you may get a steep hill and just red line it for 20, 30 seconds or something like that. Or you could hop on a stationary bike and do the same thing.

[6:43] Or even, you know, if you want to develop muscular endurance in the quadriceps, we could do loaded hill climbs, obviously very specific, or we could do the cycle grind where we hop on a stationary cycle, ramp up the resistance super heavy and just ride through mud. And I went through that in the previous episode. You know, each of these options. They're very, very close in the benefits you will get from doing a similar thing, either walking or hiking or running, but it's going to have much less force going through the joints. And I won't say it's exactly the same thing, but it's very similar, very close, and it's close enough that I strongly recommend you leverage this. And the strategic use of this offbeat conditioning can be one of the best things a mountaineer can do in their training to manage load, to avoid overuse injuries, and also to push certain aspects of fitness. So typically, I like to use offbeat conditioning in kind of two different situations in my mountaineers training.

[7:41] So number one, I will often use off-feet conditioning when it comes to our longer cardio sessions. Now, most mountaineers and pretty much all mountaineers want to be doing a decent amount of longer cardio. So what I mean by longer is something that's an hour plus of steady state, long duration, low intensity, just go and go and go. And for most mountaineers that I work with, this is going to be done through walking, hiking, or running based if they like running.

[8:08] And most mountaineers, I'll try to get one longer session per week, so maybe two plus hours per week. If this isn't completely feasible, we work around their schedules, whatever it may be. But as a generalization, we try to get one longer session. And then on top of that, the rest of the week is built out with shorter staff, with strength training, with other conditioning stuff, but it's not quite as long.

[8:29] Some mountaineers that I work with will do that longer session. They'll be like, hey, actually, I've got quite a bit of time. I kind of want to do two. I want to do two long sessions in a week, plus we do everything else. So we may end up doing one long session. So something that's like three or four or five or six hours or whatever it may be. And then one moderate session, which may be like one to two hours or whatever it may be. So this may be like a long run on a weekend where we really try to do a lot of distance and then a one to two hour pack walk in the week. Or it might be a really long hike on the weekend and then one moderate run in the week or something like that. Like not everyone is doing this much volume, but this is an example. And there will come a situation where a mountaineer is like, I'm doing this, but I want to do more.

[9:11] I've got lots and lots and lots of time. I've got lots and lots and lots of motivation and kind of I'm doing these longer sessions. I'm doing these moderate sessions. I'm doing our shorter sessions. I'm doing our strength training. I'm covering all of these bases and I still have time. I still want to layer on more. What can I do? And this is typically where I'll lean into our feet conditioning in this situation. And I'll often say, look, what I want you to do, yep, we can do more longer sessions. That's totally fine, but let's do some outdoor cycling or let's hop on a stationary bike or an elliptical and just incorporate it there. And that way we can still get, make the use of your time, make the use of your motivation, but we're not just going to stack on more pressure on the feet where they're already doing a fair bit of work. Or another situation with the longer cardio might be if someone does have a history of like foot or knee issues and they're aware that either I'm managing it currently or I've had it in the past and I really just need to make sure I'm looking after that. And one of the main things we want to do if we're managing this type of stuff is just manage how much load is going through those areas in these longer sessions. So in some of these situations, we may look at the longer cardio on the weekends, and we may say, you know what?

[10:22] You can get out and do something long each weekend, but what we may do is we'll do three weeks of building up either your hiking or your running, get a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And then every fourth week, what we're going to do is replace that with a nice long bike ride. And in this situation, we can still be working on that longer cardio every week, but every fourth week, we just give the body a little bit of time to kind of chill out, change that force, and it can work out pretty well. Now, there are countless different variations of how you can approach this. You know, it's pretty much infinite around how you may incorporate this into different situations, but off-feed conditioning can definitely be a good complement for your longer sessions.

[10:59] Now, the other situation where I'll use off-feed conditioning, and I use this a lot and probably for most of my mountaineers is when we're looking at higher intensity cardio. So doing some targeted specific high intensity cardio can be very beneficial for mountaineers. If you know what you're doing here, if you're applying it in the right ways, it can be really, really useful. It's never going to be the majority of your training, but in small doses, higher intensity stuff can be very, very, very useful. Typically when we're looking at higher intensity stuff, when we're trying to jack up that intensity, walking doesn't really work. We can get moderate intensity when we're walking up hills with a pack or whatever it may be, but it's not really high intensity.

[11:41] Running, a lot of people will sort of say, hey, this is doable. I can get a really high intensity, but it does put a lot of force. If you're doing, say, quick intervals running for three minutes at a time, that's a lot more force than just a casual pace. And it's doable. A lot of people can do it, but it can be a bit tricky sometimes. And if you're just ramping up the intensity and maybe we're doing sprint training where we are absolutely trying to redline things while sprinting while running is going to put a lot more force through things. So that does get a little bit tricky. So this is where our feet conditioning can be really, really, really useful.

[12:13] In a sense, we look at these higher intensity sessions, intervals, sprints, whatever may be. We do it in an off-feed option. And in this situation, we can concentrate on just jacking up the intensity, working at the exact rate that we want, following the interval structure. So making sure we are actually following the work to rest ratio that we want. So we're targeting the right things and getting in a really good workout. So you don't have to worry about falling over, tripping over, whatever may be. You can just focus on working hard. So I will typically get my mountaineers to do. For the most part, probably 95% of their off-feed conditioning, of their higher intensity work, off-feed. I'll get them on the stationary bike. I'll get them on the elliptical. I'll get them on the rower or whatever it may be. Now, admittedly, if you don't have access to any of these things, it might not be an option for you. In that situation, we've got to make the decision. Do we lean into, say, running for higher intensity stuff or is that really maybe be a bit too much of a risk for your specific situation. And maybe we just don't even touch this type of intensities, you know, whatever it may be. But for the most part, this can be a really, really, really good option. So if you are a mountaineer who's looking at higher intensity stuff, this can be something I'd strongly recommend.

[13:24] Now, these are two situations where I would leverage this quite a bit. Longer cardio if we need it or a higher intensity.

[13:30] It can be really, really useful and very, very beneficial. But there are a few important points you want to keep in mind when we're thinking about this. Number one.

[13:40] Our feet conditioning should complement your walking, your hiking, or your running, whatever you're doing, but it really shouldn't be the sole source of your cardio. Because realistically, we still do need to condition those joints. We need to condition the feet. We need to condition the calves. We need to condition the knees. Expose them to those specific forces they will be facing on the mountains so it doesn't go from, okay, they've been happy, happy, happy, happy, just because I'm cycling, and then I get on the mountains, all of a sudden, they're just not ready for it. It should complement what you're doing and it should be used strategically, but it is not going to be your sole source. I have worked with mountaineers in the past who've done kind of 90% of their cardio off feet who have a real history of stuff. But even in those situations, we still made sure we got strategic pack carriers, we got strategic elevation work and work through it.

[14:30] Now, second important point is not all off feet conditioning is created equal. Ideally when we're looking at this type of stuff we want to be making sure we're working similar muscle groups because yes we will still get results for our energy system development but we want to be making sure we're working similar muscle groups so for this reason i quite like cycling stationary cycles specifically or outdoor cycles for longer rides i like the elliptical i like the rower all of them can pretty be pretty good i occasionally use swimming it's not really my first choice. I'll kind of use that sometimes if people have a history of swimming, they enjoy swimming, and we're really trying to manage their load. But things like, and then occasionally like the ski erg, I'm not a massive fan of that for mountaineers, but if it's accessible, we can use that. But things like battle ropes or those arm grinds, whatever it may be, they're not really what we want. That stuff's predominantly upper body based. It's not really going to give us what we want.

[15:30] And then number three, if you are looking at this, don't feel guilty if you're using this. I've seen some weird comments online from mountaineers really disparaging off-feed options, you know, saying that cycling isn't specific or whatever it may be. And in all honesty, that's fine. Like not all training needs to be a hundred percent specific. It's totally fine. If you see someone saying, ah, you shouldn't be doing this, just ignore it. As long as you're not only using this as a sole source of your cardio,

[15:58] and as long as you're using these strategically, you know why you're using that, it's totally fine. But realistically, if you are a mountaineer who is either doing big, big volumes of training, if you have a history and some type of lower limb issues, or you're trying to really, really get the most out of your higher intensity work, I would strongly encourage you to lean into off-feed conditioning. It can be so useful. It can take a lot of the risk out of things going wrong.

[16:23] And it's something I use with a lot of my a mountaineers. So with that being said, hopefully that sparks a few ideas from you, maybe sort of opens up a few potential options and maybe can help a few mountaineers just get out of that cycle of discomfort and pain. So with that being said, last thing I will sort of say on this topic is, as I always say, if you were a mountaineer and was interested in getting a bit of help with your training, if you're interested in incorporating off-feed conditioning, getting the right balance between your cardio, your strength, everything else you're doing in your week, and you want a bit of help with that, I would love to chat with you. If you want to find out a little bit more about what we do at Summit Strength, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. Now on that page, there's a video that talks through our online personal training for mountaineers, gives 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 where you can book a free call with our team. We can have a bit of chat and see if and how we may be able to help you out. So with that being said, I'm going to wrap up here. Thank you so much for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it today and we'll talk to you very soon.

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