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Climbing Rope Handling DVD - Knots and more...

6 highly experienced climb leaders from the Seattle Mountaineers teach you the basics of knot-tying and rope handling, including belaying, rappelling, fallen climber tie-off and z-pulley. Learn more

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More Training Info > WebTrainer Sample

WebTraining: How It Works for “Aster”

WebTrainer (see www.bodyresults.com/p1webt.asp) is Body Results' on-line training service, created in order to allow us to provide personalized exercise programs for outdoor enthusiasts such as you, anywhere around the world. We often get detailed letters from readers who are wondering what WebTrainer provides and whether it will work for them. Are you looking for a coach who is familiar with your favorite alpine or outdoor sporting activity? Are you ready to make some changes in your training, but are not quite sure exactly what you need to accomplish your goals? Included below is a sample detailed program complete with pictures of stretches and strength exercises much as you’d receive in your own personalized program. (Program discussed below is fictitious and does not reflect the case history of any single client; we created “Aster” solely to illustrate a sample one-month program based on what we might encounter in a real WebTrainer client.)

Health History

“Aster” is a 28-year-old single female living in Kentucky who wants to climb Mt. Rainier in June 2003. She has purchased (in January) the Train to Climb Mt. Rainier video along with 3 of her friends (all older women, all on the west coast) who will be climbing with her, through a well-known guide service based in Washington. Because of her history of knee and back problems and concerns about a lack of access to mountains for training, she has enlisted the help of WebTraining to customize the 6-month training program to match her lowland training options and strengthening issues. She’s been on a 5-day backpacking trip in the Smokey Mountains in the last three years, but has never been above 8,000 feet. Her exercise preferences are walking or jogging on the treadmill, taking step aerobics classes when her knees are okay, and strength training with free weights when she can get to the gym with a friend. No health concerns other than the knees and back; her bodyfat is about 22%, and the highest heart rate she’s ever seen (she trains with a heart rate monitor on her jogs) was 176. When she signs on with a trainer, she shares that she can dedicate 5 days a week for about an hour each for her workouts for the first three months, although she can spend a little more time one day on the weekend. The past week she did 2 jogging workouts of 30 minutes each, one step class (1 hr. Wednesdays), her very first yoga class (30 min. on Tuesdays) and strength training (30 min.) 1x/wk.

First Month of WebTraining

Upon receipt of the Health History form, we ask one more round of questions on-line about her knee and back issues, to discover that the back bothers her when she’s inactive, and the knees have never really kept her from doing anything, but whenever she tries to increase her running mileage or do the stairmaster they both hurt. We discuss issues such as 1) trying new shoes, 2) gradually increasing her mileage (as we’ll teach her to do), 3) building up to running outside on pavement if she primarily runs indoors on a treadmill, 4) alternating running days with low-impact activities such as elliptical training or biking, and 5) continuing with the yoga or the stretches we specify for her based on her responses to us when she’s tried her workout the first week.

We also suggest that since “Aster” has access to descriptions of our most-often recommended strength and stretching exercises for climbing, we draw on those free weights exercises first to get her developing single-leg and core strength as she’d need in her climbing, in order to help her build more stability and confidence in her knees and lower back early on. We also modify her cardiovascular workouts to include one weekend pack walk outdoors (which can be done inside if weather doesn’t cooperate) to build leg, shoulder, and core strength endurance. We also suggest she start to increase the incline ramp on one of her treadmill walking workouts to simulate steady uphill climbing, since she has little or no access to mountains. We include stretches for her hips, quads, hamstrings and glutes, which on her first progress report felt really good but she discovered that her right side is considerably tighter than her left which is probably contributing to the lower back discomfort.

Sample Calendar

“Aster’s” first month of climbing-specific workouts is pictured below, and will be adjusted on a weekly basis depending on her work schedule, energy levels, knees and back progress, and family/social commitments as she reports back to us. We include a sample calendar with times, intensity levels, training options, variety where important and desired, strength workouts, pictures of strength and stretch exercises, a chart on which she can record her program, and descriptions of the exercises. Each monthly calendar takes into consideration time availability, equipment, exercise preferences, training goals, personal limitations or needs, geographic location, and health history.