Denali Training Regimen

Today, Saturday, is one of the three weekdays I've set aside for strength training. The schedule is designed to replicate motions I expect to find on the expedition.

Like every exercise day, I start with 20 minutes of cycling, which gets my heart rate to 110 bpm. I follow this with leg stretches - hamstrings, gluts, hip flexors, and quads - holding each position for 30 seconds. Floor bench exercises are next. Lying down with feet up on an exercise ball, raise off the floor and hold for ten seconds. Do 10 sets.

For strength exercises, I subscribe to the theory of low weight and high reps.

Bench exercises, where I do 3 sets of 30 reps with 32.5 pound weights, kick off the cycle. In between sets, I do arm curls with 3 sets of 20 reps with 32.5 pound weights. On the incline bench, raised to 45 degrees, I do 3 sets of 15 reps with 15 pound weights. Building on these sets, Building snow walls and igloos will be demanding and these will help. Miltary press comes next. This is good for working with hands overhead, most obviously in crevasse self-rescue. I do 3 sets of 30 reps with 10 pound weights.

Triceps come into play when traveling with ski poles. Two exercises are helpful: The first involves kneeling before the weight stack and pulling down from overhead to the stomach. This replicates standing up with a heavy pack, which I expect to be 60+ pounds. The second relates more to using ski poles during glacier travel on show shoes or skis. I do 3 sets of 30 reps with a 40 pound stack. Then, standing, I do 3 sets of 30 reps with the same 40 pound stack.

I finished today off with a 35 minute treadmill.

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means it's time for surfing. That is, if rain storms don't turn the ocean into a polluted mess.