dreamingWest
WKR
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2017
- Messages
- 937
A heavy pack for lunges or a staircase work well for me here in Texas. I also like holding unsymmetric kettlebells for step-ups/step-downs.
I would recommend if doing a gym style ME session try to stick with single leg movements. focus on producing that consistent leg burn without jacking your HR. I’m a pretty strong guy and have found that a circuit of body weight lunges, step-ups, & jumping lunges done with the right amount of reps/sets/rest can totally destroy my legs for 60-72 hours after. Example would be 4-6 sets of 10 each leg of those 3 exercises with 30-45 seconds of rest should result in the desired effect. I’ve never needed to add more than 20 lbs to them either. The reason to try limit the cardiovascular stress -like getting into Z4- is because the global fatigue cost is too high and doesn’t allow you to so more quality endurance work due to how long a session that hard takes to recover from. The minimal effective dose to produce those results is what your shooting for.Would you guys consider 1000 body weight squats (butt to heels) or a mile of walking lunges muscular endurance or cardio? If one is hitting and holding zone 4 heart rates, would you take that as a sign more weight needs to be added? If breathing is controlled and one can breath through heir nose and talk, would you ignore the hart rate?
One thing I remember from reading Uphill Athlete was that your lungs and heart should not be the limiting factor for lower body strength endurance. The limiting factor should be your legs. I'd suggest adding more weight.
A mile of lunges or the BW squats could be ME work so long as you do keep your HR in Z2 or with nasal breathing. If you are working in Zone 4, then I would say you are not doing ME work. You are working in more of a threshold zone, so two different energy systems.
Another reason single leg exercises is better with ME -besides it being more sport specific to hiking- is you mostly eliminate the muscle lengthening that happens at the top and bottom of a squat. You want to keep tension on the muscle being used for the set duration. Taking a 30-45” between sets is mostly good to just keep the HR in check and lets you do more work and produce a greater work capacity as well and transfer over to more endurance. A dedicated lower body ME session should take at least 45 minutes after your warm upSo, if doing 50 weighted squats with 120 pounds gets one to a zone 4 heart rate, is the answer just slow down? Perhaps add a 3 second pause between squats? Kind of like with running, even if you can hold zone 4 for an hour plus, you just shouldn't do it most of the time?
So, if doing 50 weighted squats with 120 pounds gets one to a zone 4 heart rate, is the answer just slow down? Perhaps add a 3 second pause between squats? Kind of like with running, even if you can hold zone 4 for an hour plus, you just shouldn't do it most of the time?