[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on November 14, 2023 at 9:55 am · in reply to: Lack of AeT improvement following UA approach #82249

Hi Chris,

I don’t know your fitness history or age, which are two relevant factors I think, but I can share my experience.

I am 50 years old, with a deep endurance traning background, and relatively less specific strength traning background.

I’m also a father, work a stressfull job (high school teacher), and rarely train more then 5-6 hours a week during the “regular” semesters, but in the summer and vacation weeks I accumulate considerably more hours, especially when you factor in days in the mountains climbing, skiing, etc.

For me, following 5-6 hours of very light aerobic exercise combined with regular strength training has yielded great results, with much more endurance than I hoped or expected. I think that’s because strength traning has an endurance component, while the oppposite is not true (low intensity aerobic training has leff effect on strength).

I would reccomend sticking with the program. You did 2 months…why not do another 2 months? With a low volume such as this I expect changes to come slowly. I would also strongly advise doing strength traning of the uphill athlete kind, with a base phase, a general phase, slowly working toward a max phase, prioritizing strength without mass, and so on.

I strongly suspect that if you keep up the low intensity base and add strength you will start feeling more like you want to feel in the mountains.

Conversely, if you jump into the high intensity intervals and what not, I think you will see quick improvements and then a plateau or even a decline.

Good luck, and let us know how it develops!

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on October 29, 2023 at 6:03 am · in reply to: Older Athlete Training and Injury #81812

As another over 50 climber/athlete I’d like to second everything Jane said. I definitely take more rest days, but often they are active rest, like yoga, very light exercise, and so forth. To accomodate these workouts, or honor them, I record them in my diary with the special word “recovery.” It’s really important!

I also have found it’s important to vary slow trail running/fast hiking with mountain biking–too much running or hiking begins to break down muy lower body joints. Hiking with a heavy pack is somehow less taxing, and a good compromise. But I still like to mix in plenty of mountian biking 🙂

Tennis elbow is a chronic concern. In my expererience, it’s not the intense hard movements like ice tool hangs, it’s the everyday chronic movements, like too much time on the ski ergometer.

Also, when I have a virus/cold/flu (or when I get a flu short of COVID vaccine) it flares up intensely for a couple of weeks.

Working on all the counter-baslancing opposed pushing exercises (push ups, shoulder press) as well as eccentric bicep curls/lowers also helps.

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on October 22, 2023 at 7:14 am · in reply to: How to transition from mtn running to mountaineering #81690

Hi Roken. Well, the first thing I’d say, if I ran a 50 K I’d need more than a week or recovery! But, if you’re young and fit and feetling good, just go with what you body says. Two thoughts: first, whether you skip the transition period or not might depend on how close those activites are to what you have been doing. So, if you’ve been doing lots of running, and the transition period also includes running, you could skip that, but if it includes slow weighted hiking, strength traning, and so forth, that’s all different enough that you might want to go ahead with the transition. Second, if you want to improve technical climbing, you might use your rest week (or weeks) and part of the transiton period to just…climb, in a unstructured way, exploring your limits and having fun. Then you might have a better idea of where to focus your work on technical climbing.

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on October 22, 2023 at 6:59 am · in reply to: Mixed and Ice plan: tool hang reps confusion #81689

I apply the program as Clara and Jim, first the incline pull ups with reach, then the dead hangs as a separate exercise.

What I have found difficult are the different intensity/difficult levels for the incline pull ups.

Where do people fall in the incline pull-up progression, and how do people actually set up the exercises?

-Two arms or one arm with knees bent and both feet flat on the ground is relatively easy for me.

-One arm with my legs straight and my heels on the floor puts a great deal of tension through my posterior chain and in effective and achievable.

-I would like to move on to one arm with my leg straight and my toes pushing on a hard edge, but I am having trouble envisioning a way to set that up.

Ideas?

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on October 22, 2023 at 6:50 am · in reply to: Recommend a good interval timing app #81688

Thanks JayJay!

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on October 22, 2023 at 6:46 am · in reply to: Noob Question about Transition Period #81687

I’m going to guess that a reasonable substitute will depend a great deal on you and your own weaknesses. For example, if you have ADS or are just starting out, maybe a very easy light run, hike, or cycle. If you lack strength of flexibility, then maybe some dynamic stretching and core work. If you lack climbing specific strength, then perhaps a gentle hangboard progression and other simulated climbing exercises. And so on. I think they key will be 1) indentifying your weakness or main area to improve, and 2) adding work in that area, making sure that you don’t replicate whate you’re doing elsewhere, and therefore overload that aystem. Or just take a rest day? I think it’s always better to do too little than too much, especially when just starting.

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on September 10, 2023 at 1:46 am · in reply to: Strength traning physiology #80865

I thought I’d jump back in here and add to my own questiom.

I’ve done some research, read some papers, etc. and what I can say is that early in a strength training program (or early in the traning life of an athlete) strength training adaptations seem to be mostly 1) neuromuscular, and 2) involve shifts in muscle fiber type (for example from more “fast twitch” oriented to more “endurance” oriented.” The clear gains in strength early in training can not be attributed to what little hypertrophy or hyperplasia has occcured.

Now that’s interesting from the perspective of climbers. Unless we are talking about finger strength specifically (and that’s not my goal here) the aim is usually to increase strength as much as possible while increasing mass a little as possible. So whatever changes we can promote that do not involve hypertrophy are positive. As far as I can tell, that mainly involves not lifting to failure–maintaining strict form, no shaking, no complete inability to do one more rep, and so on, just as promoted by UA. That might prevent the most absolute gains in strength, but it will also limit hypertrophy. The way forward for Uphill Athletes?

As to targeting more “endurance” or more “strength” by biasing the strength traning protocols one way or the other (higher weight/low reps vs low weight/high reps)…I’m just not sure.

On one hand, it makes sense to tailor a strength program to the specific force, duration, speed, joint angle, requirements of one’s sport.

On the other hand, I wonder if it’s not more effecient to do endurance training (like uphill hiking or running) for endurance, and do stength training (like squats or pulls ups) for strength.

Anyway, it’s an interesting ongoing discussion.

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on August 1, 2023 at 9:17 am · in reply to: Gym-Based Muscular Endurance Criticism #80134

That’s a rational, evidence based response. I appreciate that.

Question: what sport are you approaching this from? Trail running? That’s my guess, but I’m not sure–please correct me if I’m wrong.

I come from the mountaineering side–much lower intensity work (most of the time) sometimes with heavy loads.

You may well be right for a sport like trail running–doing weighted carries uphill may not benefit uphill running speed.

However, for relatively slow, uphill, weight bearing work, like in mountaineering, I finds that the outdoor weighted ME works really helps. Basically, it’s an intense, specific motion.

Hiking relatively slowly uphill with significant weight on your back seems like it would involve a somewhat different pattern of muscle activation compared to running uphill as fast as possible.

Perhaps ME workouts provide specific work for slow, weighted, uphill work?

I can’t immagine that there is any research out there looking at the effectiveness of different training strategies specifically for mountaineering, but perhaps some research from the military world, such as weighted hiking, rucking, and so on might exist?

Anyway, it’s an interesting discussion, and remains an open question for me.

I

[Bruno Schull]

Bruno Schull on August 1, 2023 at 8:32 am · in reply to: Gym-Based Muscular Endurance Criticism #80125

This is above my pay grade, but I’ll offer some ideas.

First, do either of you see a distinction between gym-based ME workouts, and outdoor/specific ME workouts. The original question seems to refer only to gym based ME training, while the answer seems to address all ME training.

Second, as a general rule, I would be skepticaL to discard ideas promoted by UA–as I am sure you know, they are informed by a long history of training at the highest level. If not UA, who should we trust?

Third, if ME workouts are effective, either gym or outdoor, it’s probeven individual, with results varying depending on the athlete and the sport.

How to make sense of it all? Try it for a season or two and see what the results are for you?