Train The Body In Balance [Strength Training For Mountaineers]

In this article and podcast, we explore a fundamental principle a mountaineer should follow if they want to achieve the best long-term results from strength training for their strength, endurance, and injury prevention. 

Strength Workout Strategy For Mountaineering

Today, I want to walk you through a strength training principle for mountainers which is very, very simple - but incredibly important for your long-term results.

This particular principle is taught at the most basic levels of strength training education. Even the newest, freshest trainers usually understand this pretty well.

But for one reason or another, the mountaineering community seems to miss it. A lot.

I see it all the time, so I want to explore it a little bit today.

Before we dive in, let me be clear about something.

If your current program doesn't explicitly follow what I'm about to talk about, it's not the end of the world.

• You're not going to hurt yourself
• Your program isn't trash
• You will probably still see results

But if you're missing this, you are absolutely leaving a lot of benefits on the table when it comes to your strength training and how it actually helps you on the mountain.

The principle is simple.

Train the body in balance.

Let me explain what I mean.

When it comes to strength training for mountaineering, there are a few exercises that almost always get prioritised.

Take a second and think about it.

If you think about strength training for mountaineering, what are the three exercises that immediately spring to mind?

More than likely, you thought of:

• Lunges
• Step ups
• Squats

You see these in almost every mountaineering program. They're recommended on forums, podcasts, and everywhere else.

And honestly, they're great exercises.

They feel relevant. They're easy to learn. They're easy to apply.

I personally use many variations of these exercises in my mountaineering programs.

There is nothing wrong with them. I fully encourage their use.

But there's one important point that gets overlooked.

All three of these exercises are doing pretty much the same thing.

Lunges, step-ups, and squats predominantly work the quadriceps (the front of the thighs) with some contribution from the glutes.

And yes, for mountaineering, these muscles are incredibly important.

When you're going uphill, the quads do feel like they're doing most of the work. And the quads play an important role in descents, and pretty much every other movement on the mountain, as well.

That's true.

But here's the mistake I see all the time.

Mountaineers focus heavily on these exercises, week after week, month after month.

Meanwhile, the other areas of the legs get neglected.

Specifically:

• Hamstrings
• Glutes

And even though you may not feel these muscles burning as much on the mountain, they are still doing a huge amount of work.

Specifically, the hamstrings and glutes play an important role in:

• Supporting the knees, hips, and back
• Handling steep descents
• Moving with more speed
• Improving stability when going uphill

These areas are just as important as the quadriceps.

But in mountaineering strength training programs, I will often see people doing four (or more) quad-dominant exercises, and maybe one hamstring or glute exercise (or none at all).

And this brings us back to the core principle.

Train the body in balance.

A very simple rule of thumb is this:

For every exercise that works the front of the legs, we should balance it with something that works the back of the legs.

This is a basic tenet of strength training.

Yet it gets overlooked constantly in mountaineering.

Now, you might be thinking:

"Rowan, I'm not a bodybuilder. I don't want complicated gym programs. Idon't want to mess around with machines and fancy exercises".

Good news.

It doesn't need to be complicated.

The easiest way to think about this is by splitting exercises into two categories:

• Pushing exercises
• Pulling exercises

A pushing exercise is exactly what it sounds like. You're pushing into the ground.

Examples include:

• Lunges
• Step ups
• Squats
• Leg press
• Step downs
• Hack squats
• Split squat
• Pistol squat
  ​
  

These 'pushing' lower-body exercises are typically quad-dominant.

Pulling exercises are the opposite. They emphasise the hamstrings and glutes.

Examples include:

• Deadlifts
• Romanian deadlifts
• Good mornings
• Single-leg deadlifts
• Hamstring curls
• Chinese planks
• Glute bridges
• Hip thrusts

All of these fall into the lower body 'pulling' category.

The simplest way to apply this is to look at your training week as a whole.

For each lower-body pushing exercise, try to include a lower-body pulling exercise.

It doesn't have to be perfectly one-to-one.

You don't need to obsess over it.

But you don't want three or four pushing exercises for every one pulling exercise.

So here's your simple action step.

Sit down and look at what you've done over the last week.

For your lower body:

• How many pushing exercises did you do?
• How many pulling exercises did you do?
  
  

If it's heavily skewed one way, make some tweaks to your workout plan to balance it out a little.

That alone can dramatically improve your results.

Not only will it help develop neglected areas, but it can also help protect your joints and massively improve how your strength training carries over to the mountain.

This exact same principle applies to the upper body.

Upper body pushing exercises include:

• Push ups
• Bench press
• Chest press
• Overhead press
• Shoulder press variations
  
  

Upper body pulling exercises include:

• Pull ups
• Chin-ups
• Pull downs
• Rows
• Inverted rows

Again, we want a balance between push and pull over the week.

(If you want to take it a step further, you can also categorise upper body exercises into 'horizontal' and 'vertical'. So you can aim to balance every 'horizontal pushing exercise' with a 'horizontal pulling exercise' - and the same with vertical movements.

This is simple stuff.

But it works.

And over the long term, it can significantly improve both your training and your performance in the mountains.

If you were a mountaineer who struggled with your strength training, and wanted to be fully confident that you are following well-rounded, specific and effective strength workouts for your mountaineering, you can check out the Online Summit Program here:

Online Personal Training For Mountaineers

Yours in adventure.

Rowan