Muscular Endurance for Mountain Athletes

[dreamingWest]

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.

 

[Josh Gray]

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?

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.

 

[Marbles]

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.

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?

 

[Josh Gray]

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?

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 up

 

[Josh Gray]

Also should ad if your doing lunges or step-ups do 10 reps on leg then 10 reps other leg rest 30 seconds. Jumping lunges are stressful enough were it doesn’t matter if your swapping legs during the set, but still do 10x for each leg. I’ll also take 2-3 minutes active recovery between exercises.

 

[mtnbound]

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?

Yes, slow down. When I do ME step ups it’s like one step every 2-3 seconds depending on load and current fitness level. If you are not using a HR strap then do the nasal breathing like you described in your post.

 

[bpitcher]

This is a great gym-based ME workout that's based on jumping lunges and squat jumps. A good block of these, followed by a good block of weighted uphill hikes, is a great way to prep and then peak.

FREE At Home Muscular Endurance Workout with Progression

Click to download a printable PDF of this workout.The following gym-based ME program is ideal for runners, skiers, alpinists, and any other mountain

www.uphillathlete.com

I'm currently on week 4 of Evoke's gym based muscular endurance workout listed on their site and have enjoyed it so far. Very similar to this. Lots of single leg work and heavy legs - especially on the cool down run.

https://evokeendurance.com/muscular-endurance-all-you-need-to-know/