Lindsay:
Great question about how to make the best use of these climbing/mountaineering simulation gym machines like: steep treadmill, stair machine, versa climber, this ladder gizmo, even a treadwall. Many folks are in your situation where they don’t have easy access to big, steep, hills, especially in winter. So, this should help others and that’s what we’re trying to do with this forum. So, THANKS!
I’ll try not to go to far down the rabbit hole of training theory here, which is hard for me:-)
All these machines move under you, as opposed to you having to lift your body vertically against gravity. It is true that you do have to lift yourself with each step on the Stairmaster of pull yourself up on the Versa climber or treadwall. But the vertical distance you need to raise your body mass is much smaller than on real ground because the ground is moving under you with these devices.
This does not mean these machines can’t give a good training effect. You get tired so something is happening.
But their main training effect is global aerobic endurance. The work you are doing is limited by the overall aerobic capacity of the whole package: The central pumping system (mainly heart) that supplies the oxygen, the vascular delivery system (capillary network in the muscles) that distributes the oxygen and finally the peripheral oxygen utilization system down at the metabolic level in the muscle cells. Hopefully you can see why the term GLOBAL is apt in this case.
Whichever is the weakest link in this global system is going to be what limits your performance. What we (sport science) have found is that in our sport(s) of ascending steep terrain, often with the added weight of a pack is that the limiter for climbers of ALL types is down at the peripheral (muscle O2 utilization) level.
To target this limitation we devised what we call Muscular Endurance workouts. The proper name should be LOCAL muscular endurance to reflect that we want these workouts to have a localized effect and not be limited by the global system. I know I’m getting down in the weeds here, but if you understand these concept it will help you understand the bigger picture.
To create that LOCAL limitation effect you artificially overload the muscles by adding extra mass to your body. This recruits higher force (fast twitch -FT- muscle fibers). Those fibers only get recruited when forces are high (hence the heavy back pack). They also have less endurance qualities than the less powerful (ST) fibers that normally get recruited under lower loading. You are forcing these FT fibers fibers to get called into action and stay in use for long periods. This makes them develop more aerobic qualities and hence get more endurance. If the weight is heavy enough you create the local fatigue without causing the central O2 delivery system become the limitation.
Still with me? I hope so.
When using these machines that move under you, it is hard to create that Local muscle overload because you don’t have to do as much work in lifting yourself up against gravity, so these machines revert to a more global limitation.
That’s why I recommend using these machines more for base aerobic training in Z1-2 and even Z3, for their global training effect. But, if you want to really get the best bang for your time spent with ME workouts you need to work against gravity with a weight that overloads the LOCAL muscular endurance. Local muscular fatigue must be the limitation to get the best effect.
We have developed special gym based ME workouts that we use with our coached clients and maybe I need to do an article on gym ME workouts for the vertically deprived. But in the meantime: Box Steps will be more effective ME training than these machines.
Whew: I guess I could have just written that last sentence and given you a prescription. But we suspect that people using our site are not really looking for a recipe.
Scott
