Upgrade Your Strength Training (2 Tips)

​In this episode, we cover two quick tips to enhance your strength training for hiking. 

This week, we are looking for hikers to join our signature program, The Online Summit Program.

If you have a big adventure in your sights this year, or you want to get on top of an ache or pain that is holding back your hiking, or you want to be in the best position for your regular hiking for 2025, I would love to chat with you.

To find out more, email [email protected] with the words "let's chat".

From there, we can find a time to hop on a call together, where we can get to know each other; we can chat about your goals and situation and see if and how one of our options may be right for you.

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Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode,

[0:04] we are talking about two quick tips you can use to upgrade your strength training for hiking. Now this week, what we are doing is we're doing five mini episodes talking about some quick tips on how you can improve your training and your hiking to best help your adventures. So today we're talking about strength training, which you know I love for hikers. And there's a million and one tips we could talk about today, but two really, really, really simple things that you can apply right away, which can make a really, really big difference, is number one, add some pauses. Now, what I mean by that is a lot of strength exercises can get some really, really good benefits if you add little pauses during repetitions.

[0:48] Typically, this is where we want to pause in the hardest part of the movement and take a little bit of a break. What this can do is it can remove momentum out of the exercise. It can challenge our muscles in that most difficult position to build strength. And it just can be a really, really nice way of just adding some extra challenge and just upgrading your strength exercises. So a few simple examples of this on where you may apply this. Calf raises. Calf raises are one of the most beneficial exercises for hikers. To add a pause to this on each calf raise as you push up to your toes at the top of each position, add a two second pause, push up, hold that top position for two seconds and then come down and then up, hold it for two seconds and come down and do that every single rep. It may not sound like much, but I promise you it can make a big, big difference. The same thing with squats. A really simple thing is on the way down at the bottom position, add a second pause as opposed to just going straight down to the bottom and then straight back up, go down, have a little pause for a second and then come up or if you're doing glute bridges have a two or three second pause at the top really really feel the glutes squeezing on and contracting and Almost every exercise, it is possible to apply this, and it can just be such a simple way of adding extra challenge, getting extra benefit in a way that is very, very simple, doesn't require any equipment, and you can apply right away. So that's tip number one, add some pauses.

[2:18] Tip number two, with your strength workouts, review your workouts prior to training. So this is just as important for beginner trainers all the way up to advanced trainers and what i mean by this is one thing that a lot of people will do is if they're working off a program they'll come up into the gym or they'll turn up to their workout space and then they'll look at their program they're like okay i've got to do this i've got to do this i've got to do this or whatever it may be you spend a lot of time figuring out what you're doing you're trying to figure out what exercises are like where the equipment is and all of that this in itself is not super efficient. What I'd really, really, really recommend you do, and this can really upgrade your strength training, is the night before you go out and you do your strength training, review your workout. Have a look at what exercises you have coming up. Have a think about where that's going, how that's going to work, and really think through each of the exercises. Get that in your head and just get that ticking over. Then number two, an hour or 30 minutes prior to you actually doing your workout on the day, again, pull it up and have a little look over.

[3:26] Have a think about what you've got coming up, plan it out in your head, and imagine yourself doing these exercises. Now, this has a few particular benefits to it. Number one, it can increase your time efficiency, in the sense you don't have to get to the start of a workout and figure out what you're doing and all of that. This can save you five or even 10 minutes in a workout, if it's for you.

[3:46] Number two is if you're working off a program which updates over time, this will make sure you know what is coming up, you'll be aware of any changes and not get caught flat-footed when you actually turn up to the gym or your workout space. And number three, this actually gives you an opportunity to do some visual mental rehearsal in the sense of when you're actually thinking about the exercises coming up and you think about, okay, I've got a lunge coming up and let me remember how to do a lunge. Okay, I do this, I step forward, I go down, I should feel it in this muscle, yada, yada, yada. Mentally rehearsing these exercises can be a really, really powerful thing. It can improve your performance when you're actually training. It is a really, really simple thing where you can actually improve how you're going to do those exercises without even doing them, purely just rehearsing them in your head. There's a lot of evidence and a lot of stuff behind that to show that purely just thinking about an exercise can actually improve your performance with it. It's a really funny topic, but I promise you it really, really helps. And if you can give yourself those two opportunities the night before to briefly think through things, and then prior to it, briefly think through things again, it can just make such a dramatic difference. Whether you're a complete beginner and this is all new to you, or whether you're an advanced trainer, you've been doing programs for a while and just doing this as well, either way, it can really, really help. It may sound a little bit funny, but I promise you it can make a dramatic difference.

[5:07] So there you go, two quick tips, which I promise you, if you apply, will very much upgrade your strength training. Now, last thing I'll say on this podcast before I wrap up today is, as I said in the last episode, this week, we are doing a big promotion looking for people to come on board the online summit program.

[5:25] Which is our online personal training service specifically for hikers and mountaineers. What we are looking for hikers, we are looking for hikers who ultimately want to get fit, strong, and resilient so they can conquer every adventure. So if you're a hiker who has a big trip this year and you want to be in the best possible position for it, if you've got an ache or pain such as foot pain or ankle pain or knee pain and you want to get on top of that, or if you've just got the change of seasons coming around and you want to be ready to step into some hiking in the next month, I would love to chat with you. If you want to find out more about this program and see if and how it may be right for you, what I'd like you to do is email me at rowan at summitstrength.com.au. That's R-O-W-A-N. Just email me with the words, let's chat. From there, we can find a time to hop on a call. We can get to know each other, to dive into your situation, learn what you're looking for, and get some information from you. And if it does sound like something that I will be pretty confident to help you out with, then we can talk you through one of our packages talk you through one of our programs tell you exactly how it all works and how it may fit into your life and see if and how it may be right for you so if you want to find out more please email me at rowan at summitstrength.com.au with the words let's chat and we can take it from there so with that being said thank you for listening today another short and sweet episode bring on episode number three tomorrow talk to you then bye.