Adventure Training

This is a common question amounts challenge central challengers and personal training clients.

"What sort of training do I need to do for the 3 peaks/tough guy/navigational/climbing Kilimanjaro"

Its a good question!

As closely as possible training needs to match the demands of the event you plan to take part in. This is fairly simple when you are training for a run or even a triathlon, you know exactly how far you have to go and environment around you. In sports we can pull apart the movements(bio mechanics) in involved to enhance the performance by improving strength and core stability of muscles involved in the movements. Taking part in some kind of adventure challenge is a difficult to train for however. Unless you live next to a mountain, training to walk up mountains will always be difficult!

What I look to do when confronted with this type of preparation is do everything possible to simulate the environment of the event. If use the a mountain challenge as an example I will be looking for exercises which involves step ups to mimic the efforts of walking up a mountain. The next best thing to the real thing is using and strengthen the same muscle groups required in the event. Sticking with the example of mountain walking I would want to increase the leg extending action by working on the quads and gluteus.

Training for an event like tough guy, which is an obstacle course based event lasting up to 3 hours requires another type of training. Firstly we need to look at what fitness components are required to compete in an event like this - upper body strength and endurance, lower body strength and endurance, flexibility, co-ordination and balance. speed and power are helpful but not essential. That is a lot of components for a single event and that's because it combines a lot of different movements over a long period of time.

Training therefore needs to be varied to incorporate both upper and lower body strength exercises in a fashion where they are one after the other to stimulate an obstacle course. Using movements rather than fixed machines in training is a must as you being strong on the chest press machine doesn't make you any better at climbing a rope.

Equipment such as kettle bells, medicine balls and fit balls need to be combined with co-ordination & speed drills such as ladders, boxing and resistance bands . This is the sort of training that will get you in shape for the demands of an adventure challenge.

For those of you who train with me already you will be familiar with this sort of training, so you can rest assure that you are already fit for any challenge!