Do weights for mountain walking? It is convenient

There is a fatal secret that plagues the life of those who exercise. It is that of non-interchangeability of sports.

It means you can be a dragon on two wheels: do you find yourself walking in the mountains? You suffer.

Are you an oval ball virtuoso? Do you find yourself walking in the mountains? You suffer.

This because every movement must be trained, as it recalls metabolisms, muscle fibers, kinetic chains in a peculiar combination.

According to this principle, therefore, even mountain walking can be trained.

The cast iron before the boot? Of course yes

They will advise you to walk more often.

Quite right.

They will tell you to do excursions with increasing height difference.

That's right too.

They will tell you to lighten the backpack.

Quite right. But that's not always possible.

Do you know what I tell you?

That even to walk better in the mountains you have to train force.

I asked myself the problem after several long treks (more than ten days) made with food supplies and a tent loaded on the shoulders. Because doing them I suffered: a lot, despite not having pathologies or disorders (knees, back, etc). And the pantheon of gods suffered with me, if we want to be honest.

So I asked myself how to suffer less.

The answer? Strength training to walk better. Where "walking better" means more performing, with lower energy consumption and better breath management, and less accumulation of fatigue.

Because when you go on a long and self-sustained mountain trek - so with a backpack whose weight can reach 20 kg - the stresses on your muscular system are different:

• legs (clear)
• arms, chest and back, for the occasional stretch where you have to help yourself with your arms, as well as for the use of trekking poles, especially downhill
• lumbar, shoulders and trapezes for the continuous load of the backpack
• stabilizer muscles spread throughout the body

A cast iron board for strength training and better walking

And here we are. the stakes I gave myself before going into the detail of sets and rep are the following:

• no tops, no hyper-heavy series (from 2 reps, so to speak)
• three days / week
• focus on basic and multi-joint movements
• body split three (upper, legs, back + legs)
• long workouts with long breaks between sets
• cycling workouts from week to week (short sets + high loads / long sets + medium loads, alternating)
• "Rounding" with free body circuits to get breath
• upper Monday, to give the legs a way to rest after weekend excursions
• ego kept in check
• start of training: two months before the scheduled trek

Simple.

Exercises:

• for the legs: squats, long set squats, deadlift with straight leg
• for the back and posterior chain: deadlifts, rowing, long set squats
• for the upper: bench press, push up

For set and rep schemes, the freedom is maximum, and it depends on how comfortable you are with weights, programming and cycling. Are you a beginner? A 5 × 5 on "big" exercises is perfect. Are you already used to strength training? Pyramids and go.

All you need to train to walk in the mountains (long)

Strength is only one of the factors to train for become performing in mountain walking (and enjoy the excursions). In fact you will have to train:

• force
• breath
• walk
• difference
• "Nutrition" (not a real workout)
• motivation

I tried to explain how to prepare a long trek in my blog (it's an article dedicated to the mountains, but you can also find us a complete training schedule).

Have a good walk (I hope).

 

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© photo: luggageoleggero.it