How fit do you need to be to reach the top of a high mountain? 

What is the most effective way to improve your fitness for mountaineering and rock climbing?

 Mountaineering and rock climbing are very different in the stresses they place on the body. Rock climbing with its deliberate stop-start motion is not particularly stressful on the aerobic system (where oxygen is used to create energy) whereas the opposite is true of long mountain routes. This article will therefore concentrate on training for general mountaineering but I will touch on the more specialist training required for rock climbing.

First of all, there is no correlation between fitness and the ability to cope with increasing altitude. Young fit mountaineers often gain altitude too quickly and fall by the way side as their body fails to adapt to the rarefied atmosphere. This does not mean however, that fitness is not important, the higher you go the closer you will get to your maximum workload and the better you can cope with working hard the more chance you have of reaching the top. Also the stronger you are the less taxing it will be to lift heavy loads or plough through deep snow.

The one thing this article cannot do is to produce a magic formula that will transform your fitness overnight. Becoming fitter depends on finding your weaknesses and working on them. However, the information in this article will enable you to design your own fitness programme. A fact that may depress you is that contrary to popular mythology there is no easy way to improve your fitness it takes dedication, sacrifice and hard work.

Age is no barrier to Fitness
There is no reason why anyone who maintains a good level of fitness cannot perform at a high standard until they are old. Strength declines as we get older, especially above fifty years of age, because fast twitch muscle (important for fast explosive movements) turn to slow twitch muscle (important for endurance), plus there is evidence that older climbers lose strength quicker than younger ones when they stop exercising. Older climbers should therefore train on a regular basis to limit the regression of their muscles.

Do men have an advantage?
Men are on average seven per cent taller, have longer arms, broader shoulders, narrower hips and much less body fat. Women are more flexible and possess better balance because of their slightly lower centre of gravity. Despite these physiological differences, there is no evidence to suggest that women should use different training methods from men for rock climbing or mountaineering.

Before I discuss how to train effectively it is important to understand the principles and terminology around training.

1. The Basics of Training

Overload: Exercise and training are not the same thing. Many people exercise under the illusion that they are improving, their fitness but to improve your fitness you must overload your system e.g. visiting a swimming pool for a leisurely swim will not improve your fitness levels. If you overload a muscle by pulling harder or for longer than previously the body will adapt to allow you to cope with the level of work more easily.

The rate of any improvement will depend on the following factors: frequency, resting, intensity and time (duration).

Frequency and Resting: During rest the body is recovering and the muscles adapting to the stresses imposed during training (overload), allowing them to cope better with the stress next time. For maximum gains, allow the body to recover for 24-72 hours after a session.

There is a fine line between a training routine that improves performance and one that ruins it. Muscles learn by growing and improving their links with the nerves as well as improving the efficiency of their energy systems. If you train before the muscle has gone through this process of rest and growth the recovery of the muscle is cut short. If you train at the exact point that the muscle has recovered but at the same level as last time we will neither improve nor regress. If you avoid rest days altogether it can lead to regression. However if training becomes infrequent or not intensive enough its effects will be diminished, fitness is lost twice as fast as it is gained. For an average person two or three days each week is enough but as you improve it can be increased to four.

Duration and Intensity: This describes how hard you push yourself. The volume (amount you do) of training is related to the duration (distance or time taken for each repetition of an exercise or session) and the intensity of that exercise. Climbing involves periods of both low and high intensity activity so ensure you build this into a training programme. The actual time spent training depends on the severity of the work out and individual genetics.

Don't spend more than six weeks on the same programme. Vary it before reaching a point where no progress is made (plateauing). Beginners can vary the type of training on a daily basis e.g. train strength on Monday, anaerobic endurance Wednesday, stamina on Saturday. If you are at a medium level you can mix and match the different methods but as you become fitter concentrate periods on one whilst maintaining the others. It is also better to vary the intensity of training e.g. one an easy session (fat burn) and four a hard session (fartlek training or a long run). Start at one and work up to a four, then take a rest day.

Goal Setting: There is no doubt that a structured training schedule is more effective than a haphazard approach. Even for those of you who do not have a definite goal, a planned programme of training is still useful as it can focus attention on improvement and may help you to feel you are not wasting your time. An important thing is to identify your weaknesses and train them. A slight change in a weak area can have a greater effect on performance than any improvement in an already strong area e.g. if you are an overweight male then pushing weights will do little to improve your chances of climbing a high peak. Therefore, allocate more time to improving weaknesses and less to tweaking strengths. Goal setting takes into consideration your life style and should be designed to develop flexibility, endurance, strength and power in that order, but above all it should be designed so you want to do it. It should also be designed to reduce the chances of injury, prevent strained tendons and ligaments and allow a faster recovery between training sessions. Variety is important because keeping to one training regime will make you good at that particular exercise but not others.

Targets can be set for your training in the long term (the expedition), medium term (1-month) or short-term (1-day) goals. The majority of you will probably wish to peak for a specific trip but have short, medium and long term goals, regardless of whether the programme is two months long or over four years like Olympic standard athletes.

Principles of Fitness Training

Training can be divided into a number of elements. It does not matter what you are using to train the same principles apply:

· Warming up, warming down. Sore muscles are inevitable when you start training because the muscle fibres are not used to being stretched. Warming up, warming down and stretching will reduce the trauma of training. This can be counterproductive to climbing so stretch hamstrings after running. Warming up is doing exactly what the phrase says, the body should feel warm prior to training. Start gently then go for it.

· Flexibility. Stretching the muscles around a joint on a regular basis will improve flexibility or at least maintain the current level of flexibility depending on how long each stretch is held. This is not examined in detail here and there are many good books on the subject.

· Isometric and Isotonic strength. Strength can be subdivided into isotonic e.g. pulling up and isometric strength which is the ability to hold a static position e.g. locking off.

· Endurance (Stamina) is the ability to perform a move over and over again. Endurance is divided into two forms depending on how the system uses oxygen.

The muscle relies on Adenosine Tri Phosphate (ATP) for its energy. However, there is only enough of this in the muscle for 3-5 seconds of activity and so the body relies on the production of ATP through the breakdown of glycogen. The breakdown of glycogen is done aerobically (with oxygen) or anaerobically (without oxygen). Whether you use oxygen or not depends on the pace (intensity) of the training/activity you are doing.

Aerobic endurance is defined in climbing terms by a long climb of a relatively low standard where oxygen is in plentiful supply and the waste product of muscle contraction (lactic acid) clears away naturally and other factors such as glycogen reserves limit how long you can go on for. This is the important endurance to work on for mountaineering.

Anaerobic endurance is defined by the dreaded pump, it typically occurs on steep strenuous sections of rock climbs that have few rests. The anaerobic pathway also produces lactic acid which cant be cleared away and limits the anaerobic system, because only a certain amount of lactate can be stored in the muscles, it will eventually stop muscle contraction (the pump).

The aerobic pathway uses energy efficiently while the anaerobic pathway is almost ninety five per cent less efficient.

Now that you understand the principles and terminology of training I want to look at how we can maximise training time.

A good start

Mountaineering uses the aerobic system more than any other, therefore Improving your aerobic endurance is a good start before any expedition. When it is done consistently aerobic training will lower both resting and exercise heart rates, increase the muscle's ability to use oxygen, increase blood volume and cardiac output, lower the chances of injury and illness and reduce body fat. Aerobic fitness however is not developed overnight and can only be improved over months not weeks. So start now.

Walking, running, biking, skipping, step machines, climbing, ski machines, rowing machines, etc are useful for improving aerobic fitness. Running is especially effective because it is weight bearing and strengthens bones, but if you have problems with your hips, knees or ankles, you may want to avoid running. Biking, especially mountain biking, can be as effective as running but you will have to go for longer to burn the same number of calories. It also transfers the stresses from knees to the lower back. Swimming is the least stressful on joints but it does not train body weight and unless you have good technique it is difficult to keep your heart rate sufficiently high (70-85% of maximum) to be really effective for aerobic training.

The time spent aerobic training depends on an individual's goals and their starting fitness level. Students with low fitness may benefit from twenty minutes twice a week whereas very fit students may do sixty minutes up to four times a week, but try not to exceed five times per week. The effectiveness of aerobic training can be gauged by measuring resting heart rate as soon as you get out of bed (the carotid artery is the easiest and is in the neck just to the left of the adams apple). Within four to six weeks it should have dropped a few beats per minute. It is also a good measure to tell if you are feeling a bit 'under the weather' and need to adjust your training.

If you get bored working at the same level vary the pace ('fartlek' or interval training) by raising the heart rate to 80-90% maximum for short bursts. Fartlek training is particularly useful for mountaineering as it mimics the type of exercise in the mountains.

Burning fat through aerobic training

Extra body fat is important on long mountain routes but too much is a hindrance. When exercising at a moderate rate (60-70% of the maximum heart rate) the body copes by burning a mixture of carbohydrate and fat but when exercising strenuously (85% of maximum heart rate) only carbohydrates can produce energy fast enough.

The best way to burn fat is therefore to exercise at 60-75% of your maximum heart rate. A heart rate monitor is very useful to make sure that you stay in the correct range but generally speaking if your heart is racing and your breathing is strained just keep going for twenty minutes or more. More calories are used by 60 minutes of moderate exercise than 20 minutes of exercise that leaves you exhausted.

2. Physical training not involving climbing/mountaineering

The best training for any sport is to recreate the movement made by that sport therefore the best preparation for mountaineering is to go mountaineering. However for many of us with busy jobs and a family other forms of exercise are necessary.

Aerobic training will give you an essential base and improve leg endurance, but it will do little to promote the back, forearm and finger strength needed to lift and pull heavy weights or to cope with carrying a large rucsack. Developing upper body strength is also important for moderate rock climbing with a sac on your back.

Weight training for climbing and mountaineering

Mountaineering and particular rock climbing uses muscles in specific ways rarely found in a standard weight-training programme therefore select exercises that imitate climbing movements.

It is better to train strength first followed by endurance. In order to make gains safely, it is important to keep the muscles balanced so always train the muscles that work in opposition to avoid injuries.

Strength training

In simple terms moving large loads for a small number of repetitions improves strength. First of all find how much can be just moved for 10 repetitions (reps). Then work at 80% and repeat three times increasing the weights until three sets of the one set max can be done. Then find your new max and start again. This is called 'Cyclical progression' and can be applied to all strength training to prevent reaching a plateau. Do not be tempted to push huge weights like body builders.

A 'pyramid' approach can be effective for strength and endurance training. Start with minimum reps on maximum weight, and then gradually reduce the weight and increase the reps. This means that you work strength when you are fresh and endurance when you are more tired.

Remember to vary the intensity, the same workout over several months will not have the desired effect. It helps to keep a record so that you can monitor any improvement.

Endurance training

Endurance training improves the ability to keep making the same movement over and over, which for many of us is the most limiting factor in our climbing/mountaineering.

It is difficult to create the situations where you train long term aerobic endurance through weight training. Weight training is more likely to train anaerobic endurance. To do this decrease the weights or reduce the intensity of the exercise to seventy per cent but do three sets of fifteen to twenty repetitions or until just short of failure. This can be recognised as the point where breathing becomes difficult and further effort is doubtful. Repeat four to six times. The length of rest is crucial and should be no longer than twice the exercise time.

3. Fitness training that mimics climbing /mountaineering.

When you cannot go climbing the best exercises are those that mimic real climbing. Carrying a moderately heavy rucsac for walks in the hills or running on sand dunes with a heavy sac will improve your endurance and or strength depending how you do the training and the weight of the sac.

Moderate scrambling is also good way of building overall strength and fitness for the sort of rock climbing you will meet on big mountains. Moving quickly over rock will save you energy when you need it high on a mountain. This article does not look at improving movement skills but here are some exercises to improve the upper body strength necessary for rock climbing.

Pull ups

Surprisingly standard pull-ups are not as useful as one would expect to train for rock climbing. However, variations of them can enhance the more important ability to lock off (the ability to keep one arm bent while you reach for a hold with the other) and the ability to pull on small holds. Strength or endurance can be trained, depending on whether the weight attached to you, is increased by attaching weights or decreased by clipping a bungee cord under your feet. Resting your feet on something higher e.g. a chair can also achieve the same thing and mimics the angles of overhanging rock. If you cannot do one pull up practice using a chair to take some of your weight or train in reverse, jump up onto a bar and lower yourself down as slowly as possible.

A good way to do a standard pull-up is slowly, palms facing away. Take thirty seconds to one minute to do a pull up and the same to lower down. A variation of this is to do four pull-ups in a minute then rest for a minute four more in a minute and continue until you can no longer achieve four. When twenty minutes has been achieved increase the sets to five.

*To avoid injury, the next series of exercises should not be attempted without assistance from a bungee cord until at least fifteen pull-ups have been achieved*

Finger training

Finger training is important because if you cannot hold on, it is irrelevant how strong your shoulders and arms are. The best exercise for finger training is to rest your arm on a bench and dangle your wrist over the edge. Grip a book then raise and lower the forearm thirty times. Reverse the wrist and repeat three times on each side.

Dead hanging on a bar or finger-board is also a good way to improve finger strength. Start on large holds and reduce their size as you improve. If you can hang for longer than twenty seconds simply move to a smaller hold. Rest for on minute between sets and do twenty to thirty sets. To minimise the chance of injury, train fingers gradually and tape the base of them, but remove the tape after exercise to allow the blood to flow again. Keep your palm open and do not bend the fingers ('crimp grip') which can strains the joints. Grip exercisers are good for warming up the fingers but they are not effective for training because we do not use our fingers dynamically when climbing.

It is important to give fingers a minimum of three days rest each week and to train the antagonistic muscles on the back of the hand by reverse wrist curls.

Using Climbing Walls

Remember the same training principles apply to using a climbing wall as all other forms of training. However, you are more likely to improve your efficiency on rock by practising efficient movement but there is not the room in this article to look at this plus talking about movement is like dancing about architecture.

Climbing walls are a great social place but competition and a desire to get pumped as quickly as possible can be detrimental to your climbing. You should do your utmost to resist the onset of fatigue. Learning to rest and recover is a most desirable skill. Becoming pumped on climbing walls usually means the end is in sight but on rock, cunning will provide rests with knee locks shoulder jams and even chin rests.

Therefore train your body to rest quickly in between pumps and to avoid the pump in the first place. Do a route or a circuit on a small wall but instead of resting off the climb find a rest place that can allow you to repeat the route again. When it can be done three to five times find something harder and do the same. This mimics real climbing where routes can take much longer to climb than indoors.

To train anaerobic endurance, work the muscles at eighty cent of their capacity until close to failure. Create circuits on climbs, familiar to you, of a set grade. The climb should feel easy to start with and then become harder until you can no longer climb. This is called interval training. Start on a route that you can do eight to sixteen times with short rests building up over time by reducing the number of routes but making them last longer and have longer rests. The rest between circuits should be just enough to allow you to complete another.

Aerobic endurance is best done by constant rhythmic climbing for ten minutes on easy routes, without getting pumped, this may seem like a long time but outside a route may take an hour or more. Endurance training can be done on routes with big holds to limit finger damage and where they can also concentrate on climbing with technique. If you are fit enough that you cannot become pumped on a vertical wall do not just move to smaller holds, consider using a steeper wall where gravity has a greater effect. Vary the routes attempted because training stamina on a gently overhanging wall does not help the students gain power on big roofs.