Upper Body Strength Training For Mountaineers

In this episode, we explore an often-neglected area of training for mountaineers - upper body strength.

You will learn:

• Why is upper-body strength important for mountaineers
• Principles of effective upper body training
• A few great upper-body exercise options for mountaineers
• How to program upper body strength into your week

Episode Chapters:

0:07 
Upper Body Strength for Mountaineers
4:42 
Common Mistakes in Upper Body Training
7:00 
Principles of Upper Body Training
11:49 
Programming Upper Body Strength
15:29 
Best Upper Body Strength Exercises
18:41 
Tips for Success in Strength Training
21:04 
Conclusion and Next Steps​

Episode Transcript:

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

[0:03] we are talking about upper body strength training, the mountaineers. Because when it comes down to it, mountaineers love to focus on lower body training, both when we're talking about cardiovascular training and running and walking and hiking and cycling and all of that, and also strength training in the sense of doing step-ups and squats and deadlifts and all of this. And it is absolutely 100% true, and there's no argument that lower body training is always going to be the most critical area of mountaineers to develop. And when we're looking at strength training, that's always where the majority of your training effort and time is going to go. But to be very clear, it is absolutely a mistake to completely neglect your upper body, which many mountaineers do, or they end up just doing the bare, bare bones when it comes down to upper body strengthening.

[0:57] So today we're going to to be diving into this topic a little bit, just talking about, upper body strength, exploring a little bit more and giving you a bit of information, which hopefully is going to be very practical for you. Now, what we're going to cover is we're going to cover why upper body strength is important. We're going to cover a few common mistakes I see from upper body training for mountaineers, a few principles of upper body training that mountaineers should remember, a few great exercise options, and probably what I would consider the best upper body strength exercises for mountaineers, and also some simple ideas on how to program upper body strength into your week. So to start with, why train upper body as a mountaineer? Well, when it comes down to it, there's a lot of different situations upper body strength is useful. Number one, upper body strength is very, very, very useful to help with climbing. Now, common sense, if you're doing any type of technical climbing or if you just enjoy climbing on the side, you're probably already doing upper body strength training because you're aware it plays a massive role for any type of technical climbing. But even if you're not doing non-technical climbing, if you're purely just using some ropes or whatever may be, upper body strength is going to be important. So any type of climbing, whether it's technical or non-technical, as a mountaineer, upper body strength is going to be pretty useful.

[2:16] Number two, upper body strength can make pack carrying much more comfortable. If you are carrying any type of load on your expedition, upper body strength is gonna be useful. It's gonna help you be a bit more comfortable. It's gonna reduce aches and pains in the neck or the shoulders or whatever it may be and just help you just maneuver your pack as well.

[2:36] Very, very valuable. Number three, and this doesn't often get considered, but it is very important, is upper body strength training can help prevent pain and injury during accidents, trips, falls. As a mountaineer, we are constantly, or you are constantly, on some very treacherous terrain. It's very, very common to have slips, tumbles, falls. Very, very common to kind of just trip over and whatever may be. May not be as dramatic as falling down a mountain or into a crevasse, but literally just tripping over, major.

[3:09] One thing upper body strength training can do is can reduce the risk of that turning into an injury. Of you just falling over and posting out with your arm, upper body strength training can help prevent that turning into a shoulder injury. If you have some type of issue or whatever it is, it can really make a big difference. A lot of people don't consider this very, very important.

[3:27] Number four, upper body strength is very valuable. If you're doing any other type of, I guess, upper body strain while you're climbing. If you're using poles on a certain part of your climbing, very, very useful. If you're doing sled carrying very very useful if you're doing anything that does require the upper body to exert a bit more force or deal with a little bit more pressure very very useful, and then number five and one thing that doesn't often get considered but it is really really really really valuable is upper body strength training very very very useful for bone density now if you're a younger mountaineer if you're a bloke or a guy you may not really consider this but if you are a mountaineer who's maybe 40 50 plus or if you're a mountaineer who is female then you may be at a higher risk of bone density issues and having bone density issues when we're up in extreme environments or very inaccessible environments not particularly amazing so upper body strength training does play a major role in maintaining bone density in the upper body specifically if you're in this type of situation. And then also if we're looking at any type of scrambling or steep climbing or anything like that, it does play a big role as well. So there are a lot of situations where upper body strength is useful.

[4:42] Next up, let's talk about some common mistakes for upper body strength training for mountaineers. Because while a lot of people may be aware that, look, I'm going to do a bit of upper body strengthening because I have climbing coming up or whatever it is, the application of this sometimes not so great. So mistake number one I often see, and this goes for all strength training, but also common with upper body, is training like a bodybuilder. In the sense that while many mountaineers neglect their upper body strength, those who do train this area often fall into the trap of just training like a bodybuilder. They end up having the chest days and the back days and the arm days. They just do lots and lots and lots of exercises. They end up isolating every muscle group. This isn't really necessary. As a mountaineer, we want to make sure our training is focused and time efficient. We want to make sure our training is not detracting from our training time in other areas, which are more important. We want to make sure our upper body strength is very, very targeted and we are seeing the best results from the smallest amount of time and effort invested. And realistically, if you do the right things, you can see a lot of improvement with a very small amount of work in this area.

[5:51] Mistake number two is neglecting certain muscle groups. Now, many mountaineers, especially mountaineers who are training at home, When they're looking at upper body, they will focus on exercises which hit the chest and the shoulders, purely for the fact that it's very, very easy to train. At home, you can do a bunch of push-ups. Maybe you have a couple of dumbbells, you do some chest presses or some shoulder presses or whatever it is. And all of this stuff is very, very valuable.

[6:18] However, as a mountaineer, we need to be aware that like with any type of strength training, we want to balance things out. If we are training the front of the upper body, we want to train the back of the upper body. We want to be on top of that. And mistake number three is just never loading things up i often talk about the value of strength training for mountaineers and the value of getting slightly heavier in your strength training same thing for your upper body many mountaineers even if you can convince them to do heavier lower body stuff they'll end up with their upper body stuff just doing higher rep endurance work which is definitely valuable and definitely valid but we want to get a spread of both like lower body strength mountaineers can get some great benefits from both heavier strength work as well as endurance.

[7:00] So on the flip side of common mistakes, when it comes down to upper body strength for mountaineers, let's talk about some just general principles of upper body training for mountaineers and general things you should be following just to make sure you are seeing the best results. Number one, when it comes down to upper body training for mountaineers, pretty much all your upper body work or the majority, 99% of your upper body work should be focused on compound exercises. Essentially, what compound exercises are, if we're talking about an isolation exercise, this is an exercise that works on one muscle at a time, doing bicep curls or tricep pushdowns or whatever may be, or chest flies. Compound exercises work multiple muscle groups at the same time, push-ups, bench press, whatever may be.

[7:48] Probably already know that, but it is important to define. 90%, 5, 98, 99% of mountaineers are probably going to get the best benefits from just focusing on compound exercises. Don't even worry about isolation. The only time I would ever think about isolating upper body strength and doing those smaller, intricate exercises is if you just have lots and lots and lots and lots of time and time is not an issue and you really enjoy this type of training, yeah, go ahead. Isolate your exercises. No big deal. Number two is if you've been prescribed specific exercises from a physio or physical therapist. And it's like a prehab or rehab thing. And they're like, hey, I need to do that. Or number three, if you're very, very aware that you have a particular limiting factor, which is holding back other things, whether with your mountaineering or climbing performance or with your other exercises. So for example, if you're aware that like, look, I've been really, really, really trying to improve my climbing and I've been doing lots of pull-ups and chin-ups and I've been doing that compound stuff, but what I'm finding is when I'm doing those exercises that it's always my biceps that cook out before my lats do, that is a limiting factor, then yeah, you could argue maybe doing a little bit of curl work may be beneficial. But majority of the situation, as a mountaineer, just focus on your compound stuff.

[9:07] General principle number two is find a balance between push and pull. Very similar to lower body work, a really simple strategy to make sure you're getting a good balance of your upper body training is to find a balance between pushing and pulling exercises over the week. Pushing exercises are exactly what they sound like. Exercises where you are pushing. You're doing push-ups and pushing your body. You're doing chest presses. You're doing shoulder presses or whatever it may be. You are literally pushing. Pulling exercises are the opposite. Anything rowing, anything pulling down, anything pulling apart, they're all pulling. Typically, in a week, for each pushing exercise you do, try to balance out with a pulling exercise. Very, very simple. You don't need a huge amount of training knowledge. That's a simple way of just balancing out your week. Now, if you do want to take this a step further, then you can sort of look and you can split each of those categories into horizontal and vertical. So you can split your push into a horizontal push and a vertical push. So a horizontal push is what it sounds like. doing a push-up, doing a chest press, doing a bench press. A vertical push is doing a vertical movement, doing some type of shoulder press or overhead press. On the pulling motions, a horizontal pull would be some type of row when you're pulling into you. To do a vertical pull, you'd be doing some type of chin-up, pull-up, or pull-down.

[10:30] If you want to take a bit step further, balancing out all that hot push and pull, but also horizontal and vertical, really good way to go about it.

[10:39] And then principle number three is just make sure you are training both strength and endurance at some stage in your training. It doesn't have to be in the week. It doesn't have to be in the workout, but some stage in your training to get the best benefits of any type of strength training, upper body work included, get a good spread. Many different ways you can go about this. You can follow the traditional approach to this where, you know, you do six weeks of 10 repetitions and then you do eight weeks of like max strength. We're doing like five repetitions and then you do like eight weeks of endurance work you're in like 15 to 20 repetitions and follow that a lot of people do it that works fine i personally prefer as i mentioned on the podcast before is just keeping strength and endurance in all year round um so maybe i'll do half my workout with heavier strength and half my workout with endurance so if i'm doing two strength exercises in a workout one of them will be strength one will have my endurance or maybe I'll do strength on one day, endurance another day, or whatever. That works well enough, but just making sure you're getting a nice spread of both.

[11:41] So with that being said, general principles, pretty basic, and most of that

[11:46] covers the lower body as well. So you probably already heard this. Next up, let's talk about programming upper body strength for mountaineers, because sometimes it can be a little bit complicated or seem a little bit complicated to how to apply this into your week. Now, I have an incredibly simple system for you as a mountaineer on how to apply upper body strength for your training. Incredibly, incredibly, incredibly simple. It doesn't take a huge amount of knowledge to do this. Realistically, most mountaineers... Probably you can get away with two full body strength sessions a week. Most of my mountaineers are doing two body full strength sessions a week. If you have time to do a 60-minute strength session, and that is the training commitment you have, typically I would recommend doing two upper body strength exercises per workout. In each of those workouts, one push, one pull. Over the week, I make sure I would have one horizontal push, one horizontal pull, one vertical push, one vertical pull. Super, super simple.

[12:53] Alternatively, if you're doing two sessions a week, but they're a bit shorter, maybe they're 45 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever it may be, I would typically just do one upper body exercise in each session. And then one workout, I do a push, one workout, I do a pull. And then phase by phase by phase, I'd get different exposures to vertical and horizontal and this and that. Realistically, this may not seem a huge amount. If you're coming from a bodybuilding background or like that type of training where you've done like five exercises on your chest just to get a pump. This may not seem like much, but I guarantee you it can be effective if you hit the right intensity. And we always need to be aware that as a mountaineer, upper body strength, while valuable, it isn't going to be the priority. Lower body, lower limbs, core, maybe a bit of mobility as well. All of that stuff you want to be fitting in your strength training as well. So we need to be intentional around this. Then essentially over time with our training, some things will get heavier, some things will get higher reps, vary the repetition. So we get some good solid maximal strength training. Over time, we get some good solid endurance training. And then every once in a while, probably every phase, every three to four to five weeks, depending on what you're doing, I would just change the exercises you're doing while still hitting push and pull, but just change what you're doing. So for example, if we're looking at a vertical call.

[14:18] Over time, phase by phase by phase, I would just change doing different variations of a chin-up.

[14:25] And then over time, I'll do different variations of a pull-down. So for example, if we were following a program and say each phase we're doing for four weeks, it might look like, okay, for four weeks, I'm going to do eccentric chin-ups, where I'm not doing the pulling part, but I'm just jumping to the top and lowering with a weight. Then I might do four weeks where I'm doing a band-assisted chin-up, where I've got a band, I'm standing on a band, it's helping me up and down with chin-ups. Then I might do four weeks where I'm doing bodyweight chin-ups or loaded chin-ups, depending on how strong I'm feeling. Then I might do four weeks where I just go down to a pull-down machine. And I'm like, I'm going to have a break from chin-ups for a while. And I'm going to do like a wide grip pull-down with my hands facing away from me. And then for four weeks, I might change the grip. I might do a neutral grip pull-down where hands are a little bit closer together and my palms are facing each other. Then four weeks, I might do an underhand grip pull-down where I'm doing a pull-down and it's kind of got my palms facing me. Each of those phases, we're still doing a vertical pull, we're doing a slight different variation, and we can kind of push and challenge ourselves, go, go, go. There's a million and one ways you can go about this, but a really, really simple approach.

[15:30] Next up, let's talk about the best upper body strength exercises for mountaineers. Now, I fully, fully, fully understand when it comes down to choosing strength exercises, there aren't, you know, any best. There are so many different options that are perfectly valid, but people always ask me for specific recommendations. So I'm going to list off a few things that I use all the time that I really like. And if you want to get technical, what I consider the best for a number of reasons. To be clear, there are countless other things that fit into these categories. Is. If something's not in here, it doesn't mean it's bad, but these are the ones I use. And if you're unfamiliar, because I know in the podcast format, what are these exercises, maybe a bit unfamiliar, go to YouTube, type them in, there'll be a million videos.

[16:12] So when we're looking at the best upper body strength exercises for mountaineers, we're going to break them up into those categories. Horizontal, vertical, push and pull. Now to start with, let's talk about horizontal push. A few different options. Number one, which everyone's familiar with, push-up variations. When I'm in variations, a million and one different ways to do your push-ups. You could do normal push-ups. You could do close grip push-ups. You could do weighted push-ups. You could do incline push-ups. You could do decline push-ups. A bunch of different options there, but push-up variations, great. Number two, doing dumbbell press, dumbbell bench press variations, where you're lying on a bench with dumbbells. Now, variations, you may do this with a normal grip, which you're used to, where your palms are kind of like, facing away you might do this in neutral grip where your palms are facing towards each other you might do this on a flat bench or an incline bench or even a decline bench all of that is perfectly legitimate same thing for barbell bench press variations if you're in the gym you like barbell work using a barbell perfectly valid again variations normal grip neutral grip incline decline all of that and if you're at home and you're like oh what i'm sick of push-ups but i need another option um floor press can be great if you have some weights lying around doing a pressing motion, which is lying on the floor, can be a great option.

[17:29] Vertical push. Great options include like dumbbell overhead press variations. So pushing dumbbell straight above your head. You can do the standing, kneeling, half kneeling, seated, neutral grip, normal grip, all of this. You could do barbell overhead press. And if you're at home and you're limited on options, you could load up a backpack, do an overhead press with that. Horizontal pull options. You could do a three-point or bench-supported row using dumbbells. Really, really useful. You could do cable row variations, doing a seated row, doing a half kneeling row, doing a standing row. You could do TRX row variations or inverted row variations where you're pulling yourself up to a barbell. All of those are fantastic. If you're at home and you're limited on equipment, you may do pack rows or band rows. Very, very useful. And then vertical pull, you know, chin-up variations are great. As I mentioned before, eccentric options where you jump up and slowly lower. You could do band-assisted, machine-assisted, bodyweight, loaded, pull-up variations just using different grips or wide grips, whatever it may be. You could do pull-down variations where you're on a lat pull-down machine using different grips and different handles. Or if you're at home, another option is like a banded pull-down where you get like a thick band attached to something on the roof and pulling it down. All of those are great.

[18:42] Now next up or finally let's just run through some few quick tips for success when you're looking at upper body strength for mountaineering um two really really really simple things when we are doing a small amount of this type of training we want to make sure we're getting the intensity right because if you're just bathing around you're doing like oh i could do this all day it's not very challenging whatever may be you're probably not going to see the results you want but also on top of that as a mountaineer we probably don't need to be lifting to the absolute limit you don't need to be maxing out all the time. We want to be making sure you're getting enough intensity to push you forward, but at a level which is sustainable, which isn't going to make you uncomfortable or whatever it may be. So realistically, a really, really, really, really good target that I like to hit when we're looking at upper body strength training, but also strength training for mountaineering in general, is using two reps in reserve. What that means is for whatever rep target you're doing, you're choosing an appropriate weight or resistance or difficulty, where if you absolutely pushed yourself to the limit, you could probably do two more reps than the specific target, but you just finish up at that target. So to put that into context, if I ask you to do a dumbbell bench press for 10 repetitions, you want to find a weight, which if you absolutely pushed your limit, you couldn't do any more. You could do 12 repetitions at that weight, but instead you just do 10, two reps in reserve. Really, really, really, really simple, but very, very effective level for intensity.

[20:11] And then the second tip of this, as like any other type of strength training, progression over time. The body gets used to things pretty quickly, so we want to make sure we're giving it new challenge to keep it moving forward. So each time you do an exercise, try to push yourself a little bit more. Add a little bit extra weight. Add some slight pauses at certain points. Maybe add another rep or two or whatever it may be. And then each week or so, change the exercise variation. Admittedly, there are a million and one ways where you can progress things over time, but I find that's a really simple system. Do the same exercise for four weeks. Over those four weeks, try to increase the weight or add some extra challenge somewhere else. And then after those four weeks, do a slightly different variation. Go from barbell bench press to dumbbell bench press to some push-up variation or whatever. It works well enough.

[21:01] So I think that's probably enough for me. When it comes down to strength training for mountaineering, all strength is important. Lower body strength, lower limb strength, upper body strength, core strength. Make sure you're covering all your bases. Upper body strength doesn't have to be complicated for mountaineers, but it is important. Make sure you're doing it. Make sure you're doing it right. Make sure it doesn't let you down on the mountain. Last thing I will sort of say, wrapping this up, is if you're a mountaineer and you're like, you know what, I need some help with my strength training, whether it's upper body strength training or strengthening in general, or just change training in general or whatever it may be, I would love to chat with you. If you want to find out a little bit more about our online personal training for mountaineers, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. Now, on that page, there's a big video, talks a lot about our program. And if you want to learn 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 a chat about you, your mountaineering, your training, and your goals and see if and how we may be able to help you out. So if you want to learn more, go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer, and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thank you for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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