so in this video i wanted to share some of the most common mistakes that i see people
making when they're training seriously for a hike or a climb these are mistakes that
i've made personally and professionally so i wanted to share them with you in the
hope that you can get the best possible result for whatever you're training for
by far the most common question that i'm asked is will i be fit enough for x mountain or how
long will it take for me to get fit for this hike there is no real answer to that and i know because
i've spent the last 10 years of my career trying to answer that question that question tends to
come from people who have a very limited amount of experience in their sport whether it's hiking
or mountaineering climbing whatever it has to be and i think the reason people ask that type of
question is almost that they're seeking permission to go out and start training and start doing
the thing that they need to do to prepare so my advice to that person and i have been that person
uh is to stop asking so many questions and just go out and do the thing that you need to do so
i think the first mistake that people make is that they over complicate things and make it
way more difficult than it needs to be when you're starting out at least the most important
thing is that you're actually getting out and doing the sport so if you can walk
then you have no excuses you can get out and start walking it doesn't matter whether it's on the flat
or where it's on the stairs hills you've got to get out there and start doing it so stop letting
your mind get in the way of you starting because the best time to start is right now or
yesterday and that brings me to the second mistake that i see people making
when they're training for hiking or climbing and that is not paying enough
attention to their overall health often in the world of fitness we have those two terms
interchanging health and fitness i would go as far as to say that the latter fitness
it's not real fitness is an illusion it's a mirage hovering over something which is much more real
which is your own health i've worked with a lot of athletes over the years who on paper would be
considered to be extremely fit you know in terms of what they're able to do the real numbers the
data but when you look at the individual and see how their training progresses or doesn't
progress is the reality is very different and the underlying health of that individual
is often really in jeopardy you know i see people who are physically and emotionally exhausted they
have high lifestyle stress high training stress you know they're doing a lot of work putting a lot
of hours into their training but at the same time they're very susceptible to injury or sickness
or any kind of illness their health is really bouncing on this fine knife edge where a stiff
breeze could boil them over and they could injure themselves which means they are really struggling
to progress especially as they get older and so often these individuals are always looking for
the new perfect training program because they're finding that they're repeating the cycles over
and over that they get injured and they think well this is not the training program for me maybe this
one is and they look for the next thing and then the next thing and the next thing and it just goes
on and on and on and not making progress when training should be very simple
and it should not be over complicated and right now i'm going to share one of the major things
that i think is really important for athletes beginners or people that aren't doing any exercise
at all should be paying attention to to ensure that they're able to progress without adding
extra lifestyle and training stress which is going to break this system down so the third mistake
that i see people making a lot is confusing cardio with real targeted aerobic training
we're going to do a little bit of word association so when i say the word cardio what are some of the
images that come to mind more than likely you'll be thinking heavy breathing panting
you know sweating profusely exhausted laying on the ground at the end of the session true
aerobic training couldn't be further from that it's entirely different we have this psyche
in our society especially in the world of fitness that prioritizes no pain no gain mentality
and it simply doesn't work for endurance training it doesn't work for fat loss
none of that is relevant to those two things if that's what you're interested in and really doing
the long tedious boring process of building your aerobic base is the answer to getting long-term
fat loss results and building a long-term base of endurance with which all of your training
can build upon it's not really sellable it's not very sexy and it's not something that you can buy
and instantly get a result from it takes time it takes work and it takes dedication in the in the
serious endurance world they call this phase of training the perseverance phase or the dedication
phase or the persistence phase because that's what it takes it takes long term kind of day in day out
application of going and doing something very simple which is working sub maximally working
below your maximum aerobic heart rate so this is it guys the first thing i want you to do
is if you're serious about this is to go out and buy a heart rate monitor you don't have to spend
700 on the most fancy heart rate monitor the one that i have here the one that i use it
cost me 15 euros from decathlon really simple and just go out and buy yourself a really basic
heart rate monitor then the next thing you need to do is you need to work out your 180 formula
your maximum aerobic heart rate and then work within 10 beats per minute below of that number
now this is not something i'm going to go into in this video i've got a 4 000 word blog post on this
you can see it in the link in the description it's free you can go through the 180 formula figure out
where you need to be working and then you can put your heart rate monitor on and then you can start
working and you've got plenty of options to go out and do this that's the beauty of aerobic training
the body doesn't discriminate it could be cycling rowing hiking stairs trail running
running on the flat you could be running on the treadmill really doesn't matter
your cardiovascular system your respiratory system doesn't discriminate it doesn't care what you're
doing as long as you're in that zone and this is yet another thing in the world of fitness this
is very confusing people are constantly asking me what heart rate zone they should be working
should i be working in zone two zone three zone four guys it's irrelevant because there is
1500 different variations none of there's no consensus across the board on
what zone one is or zone two is and so for that reason i just don't pay attention to any type
of zone training because it's different for every different watchmaker or manufacturer or
every different article that you read online as a different zone calculator the one that i stick
to and what the vast majority of this video is based upon is really good science from a guy
from dr philip mathetone he has a book called the big book of endurance training and racing
this is it it's a really interesting read can be a little bit dry i mean it's rock solid science
read a page or two a day within a year you'll know more about the world of endurance training
than just about anyone on the planet and you'll be able to implement that knowledge i want to share
something with you that my coach told me last week that really stuck with me is that nothing of any
real value can ever be taught it has to be learned by the individual who's learning it it has to be
internalized you have to understand why you're doing things to be able to fully understand them
and to integrate them into the practice that you're doing day in day out i try and
integrate this knowledge as much as i can into the content that i create and into my programs as well
my very basic program elements goes into this stuff a little bit deeper but i do understand
that a lot of people need more guidance than that especially when it comes to the musculoskeletal
side of things the strength and conditioning side of things that's kind of different but in terms of
aerobic and cardio based training what we would typically think of cardio it's very very simple
the fourth mistake that i see people making a lot is that they're training at the wrong
intensity and most of the time if they're an experienced athlete they're doing a lot of
training they're training too high there's this perception that in order to perform
fast to race fast then you have to run fast or swim faster cycle faster whatever it is
from my experience what i've learned is that it's just not true for me i went from a base of doing
basically no running at all really very little aerobic activity to gradually integrating
sub maximal aerobic work doing it often uh doing a lot of it and gradually increasing that
to the point where i was doing 30 40 kilometers multiple days in a row
and being quite comfortable being able to do that and that's because i put the work in and i'm stuck
within those parameters and since then you know during the last year or so i've been encouraging
people to work smarter not harder to drop it back a bit to work within a comfortable zone you know
breathing deeply breathing through the nose moving or running at a conversation pace so being able to
hold a conversation whilst breathing deeply and this is a really beautiful meditative practice
where you kind of get in this flow you get in the zone of being able to be relatively comfortable
and cover long distances if you're a hiker and you want to be able to do longer distances
then i would really recommend looking into this aerobic function stuff
to lay out a bit of a plan for yourself and really give it a shot because the dividends have paid off
massively for me and for the people that i've worked with that have really given it a proper
shot not just kind of half half-assed it but really gone in and done the work
the benefits have been off the charts the thing is that everyone without exception is very surprised
at how low and slow they have to train with their intensity to be able to stay within their aerobic
zone while doing this work and it's not easy especially for an athlete someone that has a
background and training fast and hard all the time it's very big hit to the ego and it does take a
little bit of time a lot of this stuff is going to be contradictory to what you may already believe
and i think that's a really good thing like challenging your beliefs and overcoming things
it's a great thing to do on a daily basis the fifth and final mistake that i want to
share with you and this is really to kind of tie everything all together and that is to stop trying
to do everything at once there's an old russian proverb that says if you try and chase two rabbits
at the same time you won't catch any so focus on one thing does that mean that you can't
work on your mobility and flexibility and your balance and proprioception at the same time as
working on your aerobic base no it just means that you have to pick a priority so initially i
generally recommend for people to start working on their aerobic base just to start walking now
if you have musculoskeletal issues some of those issues may arise through you doing this training
more than likely if you're just walking and you're working sub maximally more than likely
you're just going to become aware of those issues while you're walking hopefully you do
rather than exacerbating them which is what doing high intensity high demand high impact that's the
stuff that's probably going to keep you injured which is just yet another reason to work smarter
not harder as a strength coach someone who focuses on strength you might be wondering why
i'm talking about this well it's because that it all integrates from my perspective we can't just
work on aerobic strength is a very necessary part of training and that happens to be where i do most
of my work where i focus most of my attention but that can come at a later stage depending
on where you're at in your journey if you're a real beginner what i recommend is you build that
aerobic base you don't have to buy anything other than a heart rate monitor you can go out and start
building that aerobic base three to six months maybe nine months honestly longer the better
then when you're feeling like you want to take things more into the vertical world
carry more weight in your backpack then we can really start working on the strength components
and that's when some of my other programs might come into play maybe you've got knee issues that's
probably not going to be fixed by doing aerobic training that's something from the strength and
conditioning side that we'll have to look at from a strength and mobility and a movement perspective
but it's up to you which one you want to prioritize do you want to build your aerobic base
first or do you want to address the injuries or the strength component first it's really totally
up to you but if this is you know day zero for you and you're just starting to look into training for
hiking and climbing then what i would recommend what i would offer you is to go and start building
an aerobic base because it will massively pay off in the long term so rather than following what
your friends or your instagram heroes are doing for their training or trying to find the magical
program that's going to make you the fittest most ultimate mountain climber in the world
focus on you and your body and your experience start training stop asking questions and looking
for the magical pill go out and do the work use the environment and the natural resources that you
have around you to start exploring your backyard exploring your body and start experiencing
your body and what it's capable of there is no such thing as fitness it is not
real what is real is health and being well i'll leave you with that i'll see you in the summit you