These Are Not A Replacement For Cardio

Long-duration, steady-state cardio is the foundation of any training plan for mountaineers. But all too often, I see 'novel training methods' pitched as a potential replacement for this type of training. But this could be nothing further from the truth.

In this episode, I explore a few methods of preparation which may potentially be beneficial, but which you should NOT mistake as a replacement for your cardio. 

​Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we're going to be exploring a little bit of a trap that I've seen some mountaineers fall into with their training and essentially a trap that's kind of generated from good marketing out there online,

[0:15] which I really, really, really hope you don't fall into. So today we're going to be exploring this and essentially diving into cardio for mountaineers and a few things which you should definitely not consider a replacement for. Because when it comes down to it, mountaineering is an endurance sport in the truest sense of the word. You know, it requires us to move for multiple hours for a long, long, long time at a relatively low intensity. And most mountaineers who look into their training are aware that their aerobic fitness is the single most important factor when it comes down to your mountaineering fitness. And you should be spending the majority of your training hours, developing your aerobic fitness in one way, shape, form, or another. And the typical way we develop aerobic fitness, when we're honing in on aerobic capacity, which is the ability of our aerobic energy system just to go and go and go and go. And we do this through long duration, low intensity cardio, you know, the basic stuff, going out for hikes, going out for runs, cycling, pack walking, even stair hill climbing if you manage your intensity. And this long, slow, steady stuff.

[1:26] It's the basics, it's the foundations, and realistically, every single mountaineer should be doing this in one way or another.

[1:34] But the tricky thing with this, as I'm sure you're well aware as well, is sometimes this can be a bit dull. It can be a bit mononymous. Sometimes just thinking, oh my gosh, I've just got to keep it easy for another session is a bit disheartening. Sometimes looking at your time commitments, you're like, oh my gosh, I've got to invest all this time into this training can be really, really, really tricky. And there does some end up being a bit of resistance around this type of training for a lot of mountaineers. And I'm not saying you have to spend hours and hours and hours and crazy full-time athlete amount of training to get ready for mountaineering adventures, but we do need to be doing an element of this. But this is where this mistake comes in.

[2:13] And essentially, a lot of people out there, a lot of professionals out there, coaches, people selling products or whatever it may be, they're well aware of this feeling in the mountaineering community, in the endurance sport community, in the sense that they know some people are going to do anything they can to avoid doing this. They know people are out there looking for shortcuts. They're out there looking for ways where they can reduce this type of stuff down. And this is where marketing comes in, where I see coaches and influencers talking about certain products or certain methods of training, which sound exciting, they sound new, they sound novel.

[2:54] But they're kind of pitched as a way to replace this traditional training. They're pitched as a way to replace this long duration cardio. And they're pitched as a way to even sort of, I've seen people say they're better than cardio, or they've completely replaced their cardio or whatever it may be. And I completely understand why they do this, because as I said, standard cardio isn't very exciting. So if you can propose something that's a little bit more enjoyable, then a lot of people are going to fall into it, but it can be really misleading.

[3:22] Nine times out of 10, or probably 99% of the time, this type of stuff that we look at and I'm about to go through, it can be beneficial. And most of the time, the things that coaches talk about will have some particular benefits in some particular areas, but it shouldn't really be a replacement for the fundamentals.

[3:39] It shouldn't be a replacement for your cardio. So today I'm just going to go through a really simple list of four different things that I've seen over the last couple of months from videos or blogs or people talking about online, which absolutely, should not be a replacement for your long steady state cardio. Now, number one, a lot of people may think this is common sense, but I've seen people talk about it. Strength training is not a replacement for your cardio. I love strength training for mountaineers and I think every single mountaineer should be doing it, but it is not cardio. I've seen people out there who's tried to say, okay, because if you're doing heavy strength training, because your heart rate just jacks up and can get almost maximum heart rate if we're doing this really, really heavy stuff, then that counts as a cardiovascular response and that counts as cardio training. And that's a good two-in-one combination or whatever it may be. But in all honesty, strength training, no matter what happens with your heart rate, it's a very, very different stimulus to the body than sustained cardiovascular exercise. I understand a lot of people might be thinking, that's common sense, Rod, why are you talking about this? But I see coaches out there saying this exact thing.

[4:50] And strength training is great.

[4:53] But it's going to create different adaptations in the body. So please, if you're looking at your training week and thinking, where can I fit everything in? Just know, no matter what happens with your heart rate during strength training, it's not classified as cardio.

[5:06] Number two is breathing training. Now, there are hundreds and hundreds of different methods of breathing training out there. Some of them are great, some of them not so great. But one thing we can be really, really, really clear on is no breathing training that you're doing is gonna be a replacement for your cardio.

[5:25] Doing Wim Hof breathing, doing breath holds, doing slow, steady box breathing, doing respiratory muscle training or anything like that, some of those things have their place. Maybe some of those things, you know, I'm not a massive fan of or whatever it may be, but it's never gonna be a replacement for cardio. If you're doing breathing training, you are trying to improve certain aspects of your breathing. You are trying to improve certain things with your breathing, which is fine, but it is not a replacement for cardio. And I see a lot of people out there when they talk about breathing, they like to sort of talk about these benefits you get from breathing. And they say, this is good, this is good, this is good, which is great. But then they start talking about, hey, this breathing training will improve your certain adaptations in the body, which are the same as endurance training. They say it will give you more red blood cells, give you more hemoglobin, yada, yada, yada, yada. And big question mark around whether that's going to happen for a lot of people or not. But either way, even if this breathing technique gives you crazy results for your red blood cells, it is not a replacement for cardio. So again, if you were looking at your training week and you're thinking, okay, cool, I could do longer cardio or I could do breathing training. What should I fit in? Just know you still need to get your cardio in. Breathing training is always going to be an accessory method of training. Use it to complement your regular training, but do not replace it.

[6:48] The next one is sauna work. I have seen people online who talk about the use of saunas and the use of heat exposure. And they sort of talk about it as part of an endurance training program. And sauna work may have some particular benefits. There may be some potential good things you get out of the sauna or out of heat exposure to help you with endurance. But again, it's not a replacement for cardio. You cannot sit in a sauna for 30 minutes and think it's going to give you the same results as going for a hike for 30 minutes or riding a bike for 30 minutes or whatever may be. It may be something you can complement with on your off days, sit in a sauna at the end of a session, sit in a sauna if you have access and if you are so inclined. But don't think it's a replacement. Even if people on podcasts start telling you about all these benefits, and it sounds really very similar to your cardio benefits, it's not a replacement.

[7:42] And the last thing I want to cover is simulated attitude tents. Now, simulated attitude tents are getting more and more and more accessible every single year. And many mountaineers out there who have a high-attitude venture coming up, they use these tents in the final weeks or months before a big trip to kind of help give them a little bit of an advantage. You know, there's still massive question marks around exactly what's going on. It can give you an advantage, but it's not a replacement of actual and acclimatization program or whatever may be, but that's an entire different episode. But there's no denying if you can get enough exposure to simulated attitude training, it will create certain adaptations in the body, which can potentially be beneficial for your endurance performance and also up at altitude however again bringing it back to us this is not a replacement for your cardio even though one of the theoretical benefits of this type of stuff is to create more hemoglobin more red blood cells which again sounds very similar to non-traditional cardio training it's not a replacement if you are introducing these tents and you're using these and you're like awesome but then all of a sudden you do not have energy or do not have time to go out and do your normal sessions, well, that's one of the big sort of juggling acts in regards to using these tents and incorporating into your sessions, because it shouldn't be a replacement, it should be a compliment.

[9:03] So again, if you look at the marketing of this and you're like, cool, I can actually just sleep at night, get all these benefits, and then just focus my training on other areas which are shorter, you know, more higher intensity, whatever it may be, please don't fall into this trap.

[9:15] Now, all of these things that I've mentioned, you know, they can have potential benefits for mountaineers, depending on the application. If you're applying attitude tents in the right way, if you're applying sauna work in the right way, if you're applying breathing training in the right way, they can have potential benefits in certain situations.

[9:32] But, again, I'll say, if you see online people marketing these things as a replacement for cardio, or if in your head you're thinking, okay, cool, they've said this is going to give X, Y, and Z benefits, that sounds really similar to what I get out of long, steady-state cardio, that sounds really beneficial for cardio, that's great, but it's not going to be the same thing. No matter what there is no escape mountaineers need to be doing some dedicated cardio in their week typically some type of low sustained cardio hiking psyching running whatever may be now i'm not saying you have to do your entire training week like that i'm not saying you have to do every single cardio session like that you can mix things up you can do different types of sessions or whatever it may be, but there needs to be some element of it.

[10:21] So, I hope this makes sense. As I said at the start, you know, for some people, this may be common sense.

[10:27] You might be like, yeah, well, you know, I knew this already, whatever. But I tell you what, I have seen this being marketed and pushed more and more and more, and I really just don't want anyone falling into the trap of kind of getting this confusion and, you know, seeing potential negatives on the mountain. So, if you're a mountaineer, make sure you're aware of this, make sure you keep it top of mind do what you want as accessory training or do what you want as other elements of training but don't get confused so with that being said last thing i will say is if you are mountaineer you're listening to this and like okay wrong this makes sense in all honesty i do feel like i need a bit of help with my training i need help planning this all out i need help finding the balance between cardio and strength i need help thinking how can i include these accessory things in a way which won't compromise my other training or whatever may be you know i would love to chat with you if you want to learn a little bit more about what we do, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. Now on that page, there's a big video which goes through a little bit about how we go about our training. And if it sounds like something you want to explore a little bit more, there's a link on that page. You can book a call with our team. We can have a bit of a chat and just see if and how we may be able to help you out. So if you want to check that out, go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it. Hope you got a little bit out of it and we'll talk to you very, very soon.

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