This month we will discuss what are the characteristics of a workout that really works for you to climb the mountains and what are the most important points of this.
For the adequate practice of high mountains, what we mainly require is Endurance; This is defined as the ability to sustain effort effectively as long as possible. How do we get it? Through aerobic exercises. The key is in oxygen. To carry out any activity, our body requires energy, and to produce this energy, the body needs oxygen, therefore, the more oxygen our body can introduce and take advantage of, the greater our energy and resistance. Aerobic exercises precisely increase the amount of oxygen that the body can take advantage of during a certain time. What is the most effective aerobic exercise? Without a doubt it is running. Because running requires more effort from us, simply because we have to carry our own bodies, which is not the case with other aerobic exercises such as swimming or cycling. Therefore running provides us with greater resistance in less time.
Within our training we must cover three objectives: run long enough, fast enough and often enough. How far should we run? First of all, if you are a beginner and you are in adulthood, it is necessary to have a medical check-up, to be sure that you do not have any physical impediment to exercise. Once this is done, the best thing is to start walking quickly (not walking) a distance of 2 to 4 km, for 2 weeks. Now we can start running. To start about 3 km, they are very good, later we can increase the distance at a rate of 500 meters per week. If you run between 5 and 10 kilometers each time, you will be in good physical condition for the high mountains. How fast Whether we run 3 to 30 kilometers, we should always do it at a pace that allows us to have a conversation, that is, if we can talk while running, it is that we are doing well; if we start to gasp it is that we are running too fast. How often About 4-5 days a week is fine; but never daily, it is necessary to give the body a day or two of rest to avoid fatigue.
Ways to run
For high mountains it is convenient to train through three different forms of running:
a) Long slow distances.- They are the basis of the program, they give us great resistance.
b) Fartlek.- It consists of running cross-country in all directions and at different rhythms, be it going up, going down, zig-zag, on flat terrain, at normal speed, accelerating, etc., which gives us resistance, agility and speed.
c) Running on climbs.- It is important to do it since in the high mountains we have to climb for several hours and even days; We can run on a long slope always uphill, or go up and down a short slope several times.
How to combine these three forms of career is a matter of taste, the object is to give variety to the training, otherwise we will fall into monotony and boredom.
Running gear
The most important thing is the trekking shoes; these should be very light and comfortable. We should not skimp on buying good running shoes; Doing it with the wrong ones can lead to injury. A good brand is the Adidas Trx, Salomon is specialized in mountain footwear. We must also use light and loose clothing, preferably quick-drying polyester fabrics, whether they are t-shirts, shorts or pants; but never jeans or something similar since the rubbing of these fabrics can hurt us.
Complementary exercises
In addition to running, it is necessary and convenient to carry out complementary exercises of three types: a) Abdominals - With us doing about 100 daily is more than enough, it is not necessary to do them all in a row, we can do 4 sets of 25 using different exercises for the abdomen. b) Flexibility.- It is enough to carry out this type of exercises about 10 minutes a day; They will help us avoid injuries such as cramps, pulls or even tears. c) Weight training.- If you also train with weights to strengthen your shoulders, lower back, quadriceps of the legs and calves, among other muscles, it is very good. Bars and bottoms are also highly recommended. We never know when we will need a lot of strength, for example to rescue an injured partner.
Important note.- Once we are ready we must rest the day before and after the excursion; or rest up to two days later if the excursion was too heavy.
Over training
This point is extremely important. We must be very careful not to over train, that is, not to over train. The line that separates a very good workout from overtraining is very small, enthusiasm can lead us to try harder. The key is to train not to exhaust yourself. Training too much is as bad as not training. A very effective way of knowing if we are training within our capacity is through the pulse. A normal pulse fluctuates between 60 and 80 beats per minute depending on each person. To get our pulse it is enough to count our pulsations for 10 seconds and multiply it by 6. But one thing is our normal pulse at rest and another our maximum pulse that we must reach when training; To get the latter to 220 we must subtract our age and multiply the result by 0.85.
Maximum Pulse = (220 - age) * 0.85
If we are 20 years old, the maximum pulse we should reach (220-20) * 0.85 = 170. Now, once we finish training it is necessary that: - Within 5 minutes our pulse has dropped from 120 and by 10 minutes must have dropped from 100 -. If this does not happen it means that the conditioning program is too intense and we must reduce it. Another way to determine the above is by taking our pulse upon waking up in the morning; We train that day and the next we take our pulse again when we wake up. If the number of pulsations is higher than the previous day, we should train less or rest that day. To avoid over-training, a very effective way is to alternate days of hard training with days of light training. In addition to the pulse, other symptoms of overtraining are:
Decrease our resistance.
Rest
It is very convenient to sleep about 8 or 9 hours a day, otherwise we will not have a good performance.
Conclusions
From the above and due to the fact that the effort developed in the mountain is continuous, it follows that a training aimed at resistance is the most convenient for those who begin to practice mountaineering, in no way do we mean that strength exercises are neglected and flexibility (you must be very careful to start with this type of exercise). The ideal in any case is a workout with an aerobic exercise as we already indicated above
SOURCE: makalu77.madteam.net
This excursion can take place from to
or older
This is not recommended for pregnant women, people with neck or back problems, people with haemophilia, asthma or epilepsy or for people with heart problems.
