Strength vs hill walking

[Nockian]

Last week I was on holiday on the beautiful Amalfi coast in Italy for a walking holiday. The walks aren't too taxing, fairly short, but steep and rather warm. I was out there a three years ago just before beginning NLP. Back then I weighed 147lbs and quickly adapted to the walking schedule. This year I weigh 176lbs and I'm 300% stronger than when I fist picked up a barbell, but, I found the walking harder, I didn't walk as quickly and became winded more quickly.

I figured 3 years older makes a difference as I'm now 59 and carrying an extra chunk of muscle/fat won't help. It makes sense that training for strength is likely to have a negative impact on endurance style exercise which improves with being lighter. I could still do the walks fine, but I kind of miss the more quick paced, mountain goat style of me. I know I'm objectively stronger, it just seems like there shouldn't be that much of a trade off. That said, I gave up conditioning training on the prowler because it was causing too much fatigue and killing the strength increases, so I'm not doing much to improve that side of things which might have helped with the walking.

Is it just the case that there is always a compromise between strength and endurance. If you wish to gallop up the sides of mountains then you will be a lot weaker if you are faster ?

[Suwannee Dave]

...Is it just the case that there is always a compromise between strength and endurance. If you wish to gallop up the sides of mountains then you will be a lot weaker if you are faster ?

I don't think it is endurance per se, but whenever you are moving your body weight against gravity, more weight can be detrimental. The best example is probably rock climbers. They are strong enough to move straight up, but lean enough to do it efficiently. Another example is professional cyclists who specialize in mountain stages. They are usually pretty light weight. It is your choice to determine where on the strength/body weight continuum you want to be.

[Gerald Boggs]

Is it just the case that there is always a compromise between strength and endurance. If you wish to gallop up the sides of mountains then you will be a lot weaker if you are faster ?

Stats: 59 and a fat bastard. I live near the AT and regularly hike with a brisk pace, I feel no loss of strength from the hiking. However, weather and work will sometimes interfere with my hiking and when I start up again, there's always a period of feeling the burn and being out of breath. After a week or two, I'm back to enjoy the hikes. I think it's less a compromise between strength and endurance, more one needs to maintain one's hiking conditioning. Mind you, I'm talking about day hikes of less then 5 miles with the occasional 10 miler, not the twenty mile days of my youth.

[Erik Y]

There’s a trade off at the extreme end, to be sure. If you’ve cut all conditioning and are solely focused on being as big and strong as possible, it makes sense that you’ll get somewhat deconditioned. If you add just a little conditioning back in, it will make a big impact on your conditioning, but your strength training will probably slow down a bit. Not an expert, but that’s my understanding of the matter. Only you can decide where the trade-off balances out for you.

[Hayden-William Courtland]

Strength will always be an asset, even more so to someone who was not strong to begin with. Age and excess body fat can certainly be a factor in why your hikes were harder. However, hiking (especially for long durations with hills) presents a different metabolic and muscular stimulus than typical strength training. So, it is expected that you won't be optimized for it without some conditioning work and exposure to higher rep ranges (i.e., the prowler).

[Nockian]

Strength will always be an asset, even more so to someone who was not strong to begin with. Age and excess body fat can certainly be a factor in why your hikes were harder. However, hiking (especially for long durations with hills) presents a different metabolic and muscular stimulus than typical strength training. So, it is expected that you won't be optimized for it without some conditioning work and exposure to higher rep ranges (i.e., the prowler).

Which is clearly why elite marathon runners look like famine victims and 100m sprinters are more muscular. I've always hill walked, climbed, run, cycled and caved -strength wasn't something that interested me until recently. As long as I could do a long hill walk I considered myself sufficiently strong/fit.

[poser]

I mountain bike in a mountainous region, backcountry snowboard (lots of climbing/skinning/bootpacking not to mention the going down part) and elk hunt (which is basically hiking the potential for very heavy loads). My experience is that there is always a compromise, often times a significant one, between strength and endurance. I go into each seasonal pursuit as strong as possible and loose strength along the way as my body adapts to the efficiency demands of the particular sport as well as the additional stress. I end up much weaker by peak season, but still significantly stronger than I would be otherwise. Example: If I want to get out of Mtn bike season with a 275 x5 Backsquat, I need to go into the season with a 335 x5 squat. I run HLM in season and 4-6 week cycles of LP between seasons.

[Nockian]

I mountain bike in a mountainous region, backcountry snowboard (lots of climbing/skinning/bootpacking not to mention the going down part) and elk hunt (which is basically hiking the potential for very heavy loads). My experience is that there is always a compromise, often times a significant one, between strength and endurance. I go into each seasonal pursuit as strong as possible and loose strength along the way as my body adapts to the efficiency demands of the particular sport as well as the additional stress. I end up much weaker by peak season, but still significantly stronger than I would be otherwise. Example: If I want to get out of Mtn bike season with a 275 x5 Backsquat, I need to go into the season with a 335 x5 squat. I run HLM in season and 4-6 week cycles of LP between seasons.

Great information poser. That's exactly what I was looking for and can work with that.