Welcome To The Training For Mountaineering Podcast

Welcome to the Pilot Episode of the Training For Mountaineering Podcast! Inside this introductory episode, you will learn who this podcast is for, who I am and what it is all about!

The Training For Mountaineering Podcast is created to help mountaineers train and prepare for their bucket list adventures. Learn how this podcast will help your fitness, strength and resilience to help you conquer the mountains of your dreams.

Once a week, I am going to be sharing with you detailed and science-backed information around:

• Improving your fitness and physical performance for mountaineering
• Reducing your risk of pain and injury
• Nutrition for your training and the mountain
• Mental strength development and strategies

The intention behind this podcast is to empower you to make intelligent and effective decisions around your physical preparation for your adventures.

So you can get fit, strong and injury free for anything the mountain might throw at you.  

And, ultimately, give yourself the very best chance of a safe, enjoyable and successful adventure.

Episode Transcript:

Hello, hello guys, my name is Rowan Smith and I want to welcome you to The training for Mountaineering Podcast. Now this podcast is entirely dedicated to helping you train, prepare, and conquer your upcoming mountaineering adventure. Once a week, I'm going to be sharing with you in depth and evidence backed information around improving your physical performance on the mountain, reducing your likelihood for pain and injury, nutrition for mountaineers and even a bit of mental strength development. So you can be empowered in your training to give yourself the very best chance for the safe, enjoyable, and successful in mountaineering adventure. So now that you know what you're in for, let's get into today's episode.

Hello, hello, my name is Rowan Smith and I'm a strength and conditioning coach who specializes in training mountaineers and other adventure athletes for their bucket list adventures. I want to welcome you to the very first episode of The Training for Mountaineering Podcast and really say a massive thank you for getting involved. So today is just a bit of an intro episode to explain to you who I am, what I do and what the vision for this podcast is moving forward. Throughout these upcoming episodes, I genuinely want to share as much value as possible for any mountaineer listening. So I want to get things off on the right foot. So you know exactly where I'm coming from and why she can sit up listening to me as a source of information. To start things off I've a little bit about myself. So I've been a coach and a personal trainer for many, many, many years now.

A few years ago, I just returned to Australia after living abroad. And I got a job in one of these simulated altitude gyms. And this is where I first got exposed to mountaineers, to trekkers and other adventure athletes in a professional sense. People were coming into the gym with these massive goals. Things like Denali, Everest, Mont Blanc, Elbrus just to list a few. And they were coming into this particular gym to help get us some exposure to the simulated hypoxic environment. And over the months as I trained these guys, something became very apparent very quickly. The simple fact that none of them really knew how to physically prepare for their trips. Many of them were coming from an endurance background of some sort. So they'll pretty happy going out, running, cycling, hiking, and all these other things for their aerobic fitness. But that was really about it. They didn't have any structure around their training program. If they were doing any strength training which was rare, it was the most basic, generic and really almost useless type of training.

Many of them were putting a huge emphasis into high intensity work, but they were doing these programs which were designed for general fitness and weight loss. And lots of them were carrying these longterm injuries and pain. Things like knee pain, plantar fasciitis, lower back issues just to name a few. And no one was doing anything to get on top of these aside from just throwing in a few random physio exercises which they might do in their warmups. Now this approach really, really confused me. Because these people were preparing for some of the genuinely toughest adventures in the world, which they are putting a huge amount of time, effort, and money into, which the risk of injury and even death was genuinely real. But their training just didn't reflect this. And genuinely really putting in less thought than someone who was trying to run their first half marathon. It really, really, really was crazy and it blew my mind away.

So I thought this was a really great opportunity for me as a coach and as a trainer to make a significant impact in this space. I had over a decade of experience learning the art of coaching. I'd studied sports science for years at university learning the intricacies of exercise performance, human anatomy and physiology and learning how to apply it into the everyday athlete. I had mentored under some of the top strength and conditioning coaches in Australia. And I knew I could take all this information, all this knowledge and all this experience and apply it into the very specific demands of mountaineering. So I changed my coaching approach. I stopped doing what with the norm at that particular gym. What all the other mountaineers and venture athletes were getting trained on. I began to treat my adventure clients like the athletes that they really were. I applied longterm structure into their training.

I educated them around the benefits of strength training, modern core development and the importance of nutrition, mobility and recovery. I took the time to deal with the underlying issues causing their aches and pains. And I coached them through any issues, speed bumps or problems which came up along the way. And I began to see some really amazing results. Not only when my mountaineers feeling more confident and more capable leading into their adventures, but time and time again I'd hear them report back that they were leading the pack when they're on the mountain. So it didn't take really too long to realize that this was a genuine passion of mine. I could see myself making a huge impact on the mountaineering community. And this is where the idea for Summit Strength, which is my online personal training business for adventure athletes was first found it.
I decided I wanted to work with mountaineers, trekkers and other ventures full time. And since then I haven't looked back. Now over the years of doing that I've had some great success with my mountaineers. I prep people for their first mountaineering trips to places like Mera Peak and Mount Elbrus. I've helped busy executives get fit for the mountains in an incredibly limited timeframe. I've helped longtime mountaineers overcome years old issues like knee pain and back pain. So they can actually enjoy themselves on their trips once again. And I've helped mountaineers get fit, strong and resilient leading into some of the biggest mountains in the world. Things like Makalu and Manaslu over in Nepal. And as the business grows, each month I'm helping more and more people. So before you ask, I am not a mountaineer myself. But I'm one of the few strength and conditioning coaches in the world who can claim to be a specialist.

So that is what this podcast really is all about. I'm going to be sharing with you the insights, the strategies, and the methods which I use for my clients to get them fit, strong and resilient for their trips. So you can be empowered to make intelligent and effective decisions in your own training leading up into your own adventures. So each week I'm going to be releasing episodes on improving physical performance on the mountain, reducing your likelihood of pain and injury, nutrition for mountaineers and even touching on a little bit of mental strength development. Now I'm not going to be talking about things like gear, technical skills or trip reports because there's plenty of information out there on those subjects already. But I'm going to be sticking to the subjects which I consider myself an expert in and absolutely nail them for you. So ultimately you can apply this information to give yourself the best chance of a safe, enjoyable, and successful adventure.

So that's enough for me today. Thank you so much for listening and getting involved. I really am looking forward to this journey ahead with you. And I think it's going to be great times ahead. Now, if you have enjoyed this episode and you are looking forward to more, I have one thing which I really, really, really would mean the world to me. If you could take two minutes to do, and that's simply to leave a rating and review of this podcast on whatever platform you're listening to. Now being a brand new podcast and trying to break into this mountaineering space, I really need your support to help grow this and reach more mountaineers because I know this information is going to be so valuable for the mountaineering community. And I genuinely want to help so many more people or as many people as I can with their adventures.

And I'll really, really appreciate if you could take two seconds to leave a review, leave a writing on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. It would really mean the world to me. So that's enough for me today. Thank you so much for listening and let's get into the next episode.
 

Want To Get
Fit, Strong And Injury-Free
For mountaineering?

Check Out
The Online Summit Program