A Torture Schedule for the Weekend Warrior (Hardwear Sessions)

By Ben Clark

Intermittent snow showers are falling in the San Juans. Swirls of wet and heavy gropple are slowly accumulating in steep couloirs and barren bowls. Trickling cascades are cycling from raging torrents to verglased slabs soon to become frozen pillars. The southwestern Colorado desert is windy and wet with rain, soon we will traverse sandy clay washouts to our famed sandstone for 50 degree days on South facing cracks. Winter is on its way.

Every autumn is the same for me except for this one, I already went on 2 expeditions this year, I canceled my third trip to China to get some work done and avoid political turmoil. Now I am pinned to a desk job that lets me ski 90 days a winter and shoot video on climbs. That isn't so bad, producing and writing television is worth a little sacrifice...but not at the cost of fitness. Not Newport Beach fitness, all around expedition fitness. The expedition I'm training for now; an unclimbed 70 degree face on a 7000M peak that we will traverse and also ski for a first descent. So how do I get from my desk to there? Lifting a lot of weights and getting outside as much as possible.

Going to the gym sounds scarier to some climbers and mountaineers than a run out over powder covered granite slabs but is every bit as useful for the professional's arsenal of experience. Weather, conditions and hazards are always closing in on big mountains. You must always be pushing yourself, eliminating the risk from the everyday struggle can actually save your life when speed really counts. In ten years of expeditions around the globe, I've learned to prepare for everything that comes with the mountain, running through airports in Cusco with 100 pounds of gear in hand, hiking to basecamp with a 50 pound duffel bag under the lid of my 70 pound pack, running from gun shots. Overall fitness and good health, not just route sending adrenaline, will guide you through the cumulative test of challenges.

To prepare for a climb and the travel to it, endurance and power come into play but most importantly, recovering while moving is the most critical element of Alpine exploration. The ability to keep moving after climbing over an overhanging ice route with skis on your back above 6000M is critical to our method. I have yet to find myself on any of the cruxes of my dream climbs in the Himalaya basking in the sun of a balmy day and relishing in my accomplishment with hours to burn. It is often at the end of the day when weather is closing in and the conditions are threatening to close us out. That is when training really counts. Your imagination and experience will lead you into these situations, your body will move you through them.

The training method below is a template for such maneuvers of mind and body, it is done in 16 week cycles as I put myself back together from the previous expedition and prepare for the next. I have tested it on my climbing partners and athletes ranging from 19 to 47 years of age. It is not as sexy as Crossfit or Gym Jones but is something you can do with access to even the least equipped facility, i.e., affordable on a climber's budget. The following scenarios and goals are what this program is intended to supplement and allow you to overcome: mastering the approach, deep wallowing in dangerous snow, fast ascents up monotonous snowfields below objective hazards, steep climbs with a pack and awkward balance, WI 6 and 5.11 or technical mixed ground at over 5000M, skiing lines with a 45 pound pack that are 5000' or greater in vertical at altitude, having enough steam to build a tent site at the end of a long technical day and of course---shoveling a lot of snow.

Smile at the end of every workout...it will help you forget about the nausea and remember, I like to do these workouts 3 days a week on top of any other climbing, mountaineering or skiing I've already done!

You can not possibly overtrain for high altitude alpine climbing and skiing and this training will not just focus on strength, it will give you agility, some athletic skill, as well as improve your footwork and reaction time. Use it however and whenever you like, laugh while you do it and adapt it to your focus, greater discipline will produce greater results.

Week 1 through 4, power phase:

The mechanics to remember for this routine are that you are doing short powerful circuits to "almost" failure, rest and hydrate between circuits but move quickly between exercises in the circuit.

Tuesday: Focus on upper body and core for about an hour.

Warm up for 20 minutes on an elliptical machine or rower. Follow with stretching to open up the shoulders, elbows and wrists. Yoga is good for this.

First circuit: Do one set of each three times

Pec Flys 5 reps, Bench Press 5 reps, pullups--no more than ten, scaling down toward your third set

2nd circuit: Do one set of each three times

Military press 5 reps, Rows 5 reps

3rd circuit: You will need a BOSU and a roman chair and do one set of each three times

Side bends for right and left using 30 lb free weight while balanced on the BOSU, 15 reps each side. 15 leg lifts on a roman chair

4th circuit: You will need a roller, a dynadisk, a ball and rings. Do one set of each three times

Balance your knees on the dynadisk and roll the roller until your arms are fully extended and your nose almost touching the floor 5 reps

Get on the ball and do crunches to full extension, let you head point toward the floor on the back extension and slowly rise up 10 reps

Place rings 6" from the floor and do 10 pushups. The first time you do this you should really feel your core, by the third set you may not be able to do a push up your first time, this is okay---keep trying

Thursday: Cardio and lower body, about an hour and a half

Warmup for 10 minutes on bike. Just loosen up and get the blood flowing. Stretch the hip flexors, calves and thighs

20 minutes on the treadmill, start at 3.0 miles with no incline, adjust the incline to 5 degrees at 3 minutes and every 2 minutes raise the speed by .25 miles per hour and the incline by 2 degrees until you are moving 4 mph at 15 degrees for 2 minutes. At 15 minutes drop the incline by 2 degrees and the speed by .25 until you are back down to 5 degrees and 3 mph. I like to walk it out and drop my hear rate back down for an additional 2 minutes. You should burn just over 200 calories.

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 5 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

30 minutes on the stair climber. Do this at your own pace and pick a program that emphasizes a long steady ascent and descent. I use a Stairmaster and do the Long peak program at 4+ setting. You should burn over 300 calories and climb about 1400'.

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 5 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

Do 4 sets of 26 jump steps on a block. Left to right, right to left and the block should be at least 10" high. Follow each set of jump steps by immediately getting on a bike and spinning for about 3 to 5 minutes until your heart rate comes back down to a manageable pace.

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 5 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

You're done!

Saturday or Sunday but not both days: Combine both if you didn't get out as much as you wanted or do the lower body if you went for a nice alpine climb or long trad route, do the upper body if you went backcountry skiing or for a mountain run.

After the first four weeks stay out of the gym for a week. Climb, run, do yoga or just veg...whatever you want.

Weeks 6 through 10, endurance phase:

The mechanics to remember for this routine are that you are doing circuits and working with weights that are about 70% of your max during the power phase, rest and hydrate between circuits but move quickly between excercises in the circuit

Tuesday: Focus on upper body and core for about an hour and a half

Warm up for 20 minutes on an elliptical machine or rower. Follow with stretching to open up the shoulders, elbows and wrists. Yoga is good for this.

First circuit: Do one set of each four times

Pec Flys 8 reps, Bench Press 8 reps, pullups--no more than 12, scaling down toward your third set

2nd circuit: Do one set of each four times

Military press 8 reps, Rows 8 reps

3rd circuit: You will need a BOSU and a roman chair and do one set of each three times

Side bends for right and left using 25 lb free weight while balanced on the BOSU, 20 reps each side. 25 leg lifts on a roman chair

4th circuit: You will need a roller, a dynadisk, a ball and rings. Do one set of each four times

Balance your knees on the dynadisk and roll the roller until your arms are fully extended and your nose almost touching the floor 8 reps

Get on the ball and do crunches to full extension, let you head point toward the floor on the back extension and slowly rise up 12 reps

Place rings 6" from the floor and do 12 pushups.

Thursday: Cardio and lower body, about two hours

Warmup for 20 minutes on bike. Just loosen up and get the blood flowing. Stretch the hip flexors, calves and thighs

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 5 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

40 minutes on the stair climber. Do this at your own pace and pick a program that emphasizes a long steady ascent and descent. I use a Stairmaster and do the Long peak program at 4+ setting. You should burn over 400 calories and climb about 1800'.

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 7 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

Do 4 sets of 26 jump steps on a block. Left to right, right to left and the block should be at least 14 to 20" high. Follow each set of jump steps by immediately getting on a bike and spinning for about 5 to 7 minutes until your heart rate comes back down to a manageable pace.

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 10 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

30 minutes on the treadmill, start at 3.0 miles with no incline, adjust the incline to 5 degrees at 3 minutes and every 2 minutes raise the speed by .25 miles per hour and the incline by 2 degrees until you are moving 4 mph at 15 degrees for 2 minutes. At 15 minutes drop the incline by 2 degrees and the speed by .25 until you are back down to 5 degrees and 3 mph. I like to walk it out and drop my hear rate back down for an additional 2 minutes. You should burn just over 300 calories.

Saturday or Sunday but not both days: Go hard outside one day and follow that day with a combination of both routines, yea it will eat some time but you're stabilizing muscles will be happy you did it and you will feel like you went through a summit day.

Take another week off, I like two because I plan to do something serious in the mountains or at the crags. You should feel pretty good in your body at this point but don't overdo it. If you aren't used to lifting weights your joints will need the rest.

Week 12 through 16, power for the upper body, endurance for the core!

The mechanics to remember for this routine are that you are doing short powerful circuits to failure, increase your weights from the fist 4 weeks by at least 10%, rest and hydrate between circuits but move quickly between exercises in the circuit.

Tuesday: Focus on upper body and core for about an hour

Warm up for 20 minutes on an elliptical machine or rower. Follow with stretching to open up the shoulders, elbows and wrists. Yoga is good for this.

First circuit: Do one set of each three times

Pec Flys 5 reps, Bench Press 5 reps, pullups--no more than 12, push to failure

2nd circuit: Do one set of each three times to failure

Military press 5 reps, Rows 5 reps

3rd circuit: You will need a BOSU and a roman chair and do one set of each three times

Side bends for right and left using 30 lb free weight while balanced on the BOSU, 20 reps each side. 30 leg lifts on a roman chair

4th circuit: You will need a roller, a dynadisk, a ball and rings. Do one set of each three times

Balance your knees on the dynadisk and roll the roller until your arms are fully extended and your nose almost touching the floor 10 reps

Get on the ball and do crunches to full extension, let you head point toward the floor on the back extension and slowly rise up 15 reps

Place rings 6" from the floor and do 15 pushups, as many as you can on the last set.

Thursday: Cardio and lower body, about an hour and a half to 2 hours

Warmup for 10 minutes on bike. Just loosen up and get the blood flowing. Stretch the hip flexors, calves and thighs

Circuit: Three sets of Leg press 5 reps, three sets of Calf raises 30 reps

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 5 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

30 minutes on the stair climber. Do this at your own pace and pick a program that emphasizes a long steady ascent and descent. I use a Stairmaster and do the Long Peak program at 4+ setting. You should burn over 300 calories and climb about 1400'.

Do a wall sit with your legs at 90 degrees for 5 minutes, stretch and hydrate.

Saturday or Sunday but not both: Combine both if you didn't get out as much as you wanted or do the lower body if you went for a nice alpine climb or long trad route, do the upper body if you went backcountry skiing or for a mountain run.

You are now ready to hop on a plane and hike for a few weeks before arriving at your mountain objective. Take it easy and eat whatever you want during this time, sleep as much as you want and know that when the time to get on the hill is right, you will have a tremendous base of fitness to negotiate the hazards and risks. Hopefully you have not slacked or rested between the sets on the circuits, the faster you get at banging out the individual circuits the better your recovery will be while moving. That is the point, to pull off sustained hard moves when you are dehydrated cold and scared while maintaining a constant pace for 6 to 10 hours without ever really stopping for longer than 5 minutes or only at belays. As for summit day and getting off, god help you, only the mountain can prepare you for that one!

Good luck!