Home » Outdoor Articles » Mountain Walking Basic Fitness

Mountain Walking Basic Fitness

By Tryfan Williams   

on January 2, 2013    No ratings yet.

Mountain Walking Basic Fitness

Continuing our guest articles series we introduce our resident fitness and nutrition expert @CarneddWilliams, Enjoy . . . 

Mountain climbing, walking, hiking, rambling……call it what you may, but thousands of us dust off our mouldy, muddy boots and dig deep in our cupboards to find our walking gear  every weekend, and head up the hills for a “relaxing” walk. But what initially in all good intention, began as a calm scenic walk, suddenly and ironically (excuse the pun) goes downhill. We are half an hour into our walk, and we suddenly find ourselves on all fours gasping for air, and start thinking “why, oh why am I not in front of the coal fire with a lovely ‘cuppa?”. But in the true spirit of all ramblers you quietly soldier on until the job is done, only to wake up the following morning struggling to walk down the stairs.

This routine and weekly struggle can continue, and you can “soldier” on every week, not getting the most from your walk, not enjoying your walk, and ultimately giving up on your walks. Or you can simply improve your fitness to get you ready for those weekly walks! It is as easy as three 30 minutes sessions per week to get you fit and ready for those mountains.

We should look at this retrospectively, if you play in any other recreational sport; Football, rugby, hockey, fun runs, triathlons etc.  we would train multiple times a week. So why do most (and I use ‘most’ lightly) of weekend walkers think it is acceptable to sit on their backsides throughout the week and then expect to suddenly become a mountain goat on the weekends?

The principles of training and becoming fitter are extremely easy:

Training = Adaptation = Improvement

So where, what and when can we become fitter? There are several ways to become fitter, below I will give one gym training routine outline which a healthy non- active/ beginner should be able to follow.

*Please not that you should book yourself for an induction for the facility which you intend on using, and please seek medical advice prior to participating this or any similar programme if you have any outlining medical conditions

Warm up options:

Warm up (Alpha) 2 MIN RUN (at comfortable pace)  
  10 BODY WEIGHT SQUATS  
  10 PRESS UPS X 2 ROUNDS
  10 SIT UPS  
  250 METER ROW   

 

Warm up (Bravo)  250 METER ROW  
  10 PRESS UPS  
  10 BURPEES X 1 ROUNDS
  250 METER ROW  
  10 SIT UPS  
  10 STAR JUMPS  

 

Warm up (Charlie) 200 METER RUN  
  10 PULL UPS (JUMPING IF NEEDED)  
  10 STAR JUMPS X 2 ROUNDS
  10 LUNGES  
  200 METER RUN  

Monday (or Day 1)

Monday * warm up Alpha      
Exercise Reps Sets Rest
Leg Press Machine 15 4 30 s
Bodyweight Walking Lunges  15 3 30 s
Box Jumps 20″ 10 3 30 s
5 minute 6% incline fast walk treadmill      

 Wednesday (or Day 2)

Wednesday * warm up Bravo      
Exercise Reps Sets Rest
Flat bench press 5 5 45 s
Back cable row 15 3 30 s
Lateral pull down 15 3 30 s
Kettle bell swing  15 3 25 s
10 minutes stepper machine      

Friday (or Day 3)

Friday * warm up Charlie         
Exercise Reps Sets Rest  
500 meter row for time 500m 2 90 s  
Tricep rope pull down 15 3 30 s SUPER SET
Bicep Curls 15 3 30 s SUPER SET
         
Smith machine shoulder press 15 3 30s SUPER SET
Front shoulder raise 15 3 30 s SUPER SET
Treadmill sprints 30s (ON) 10 30 s (OFF)  

*Please note that you should use appropriate weights for each exercise and progress as you feel suitable, also feel free to alternate routines and warm ups

Carnedd Williams

@CarneddWilliams

 

 

Please rate this

Tryfan Williams

I’m a Welshman born and raised in the shadow of Snowdonia, and you could say the Mountains are in my blood with a name like Tryfan! I would class myself as a relative newcomer to the outdoor pursuits arena, and so my articles will be my attempt to chronicle my adventures, hopefully learning as I go and giving those that are in a similar boat an insight / forum to share and learn.

More Posts By This Author

3 thoughts on “Mountain Walking Basic Fitness”

Comments are closed.