Strength Training

Nothing has tested my strength like moto does!

This page outlines our Strength goals and contains our library of strength exercises (scroll down). Our Training Plans reference which/how many of these exercises to perform.

Please see this video for an overview on desired technique (hint, get intimately acquainted with your Transverse Abdominis muscle).

Alpine Endurance's goals for strength training are:

• Injury prevention 

• Joint longevity

• Core stability/movement efficiency 

• Whole body movements

• Increasing strength

Injury Prevention & longevity: We want to build a robust/durable body.  Endurance training progression relies on consistency over time.  Having injury interruptions in your training is the financial equivalent of withdrawing your investments every few months. 

We want to: 

• Make a strong body that’s resistant to injury when we perform our mountain sport.

• Not have strength training itself injure us.  You will not find max dead-lifts in our strength training program.  This paper found that inadequate core stability was a risk factor for lower extremity injuries, especially overuse injuries.  Increased muscle mass has also been shown to provide both stability to joints and absorb/disipate force.  I have chronic SI joint issues stemming from a compression fracture of my L2 vertebrae in my teens. The gym is my savior; If I don’t do my strength work my back will be a hot mess. I’ve been strength training since grade 10 (1995).

• End game longevity: I’m the first to admit that too much muscle is just adding unwanted weight that slows us down on climbs. However, I view muscle mass as my retirement investment account. Muscle loss happens with age. If you have more to begin with, I think there’s less chance of mobility issues in your golden years.

Core stability/movement economy. Why is it harder to break trail ski touring as opposed to following a up-track?  Your legs’ energy is used to compress the snow and thus less energy contributes to moving you up the hill. Same goes for pedaling a soft DH bike with 200 mm travel, running in sand vs. pavement, hiking in scree vs. a trail…. your muscles produce force, but that force is wasted on things other than your locomotion. 

This same ‘wasted force’ happens when your body collapses/bends/deflects during movement.  Look at a World Tour road cyclist: do their legs deflect side-to-side when pedaling? Does their pelvis rock back and forth? Hell no.  Does a nordic ski racer's spine collapse side-to-side when poling?  Nope.  

Alpine Endurance's strength program focuses on whole body movements that require the force to be transmitted through your core.  You wouldn't build a car with a 500 horsepower engine but a transmission that can only handle 200 HP. Why do that with your body? For example: bench press laying on your back - the force is not transmitted through your entire body. If you try and use that chest strength in real life, like pushing a car out of a snow bank, your core may not be capable of transmitting that force.  Beach muscles are not our goal; a stable platform that's efficient at creating & transmitting force is.

Enhancing whole body movements: It’s important that our strength training mimics how our body works in real life; multi-joint movements with our core needing to stabilize in order to have force transfer.  In real life we don’t sit on a chair with our arms on a padded rest while we do isolated bicep curls.

Increasing Strength: Mountain biking and ski touring can have high peak forces, which you need to be able to handle.  Also, having higher strength means that when common forces are experienced during our sport (hitting a creek compression on skis with a pack on, casing a jump on your MTB), they’re not max strength efforts that would fatigue or injure us. Many initial gains in strength training are from muscle recruitment. As in, your body did not previously have a need for ‘all hands on deck’ but Strength work wakes everyone up to help.