It's obvious that a certain degree of physical preparation first of all allows you to cope with that given workload...
that the climb, the height gain to cover and the roughness of the path present us with, and then, more importantly, it means we don't put our health at risk or get injured.
The factors to consider when setting up a good training programme are mainly three:
- WEIGHT: an overweight person (which you can calculate from the body mass index, weight\height squared > 25) may be prone to a greater risk of injury in the mountains, and also carries around a useless weight (the fat mass). An underweight person (BMI<18) may well be favoured on the ascent, but will have a deficient lean mass, “the muscles”, and will therefore lack power.
- PSYCHOLOGY: anyone can go to the mountains, but a certain inner calm is advisable. The neurotic, the hasty, the anxious will never be able to face hours of effort with the ease of the mountaineer. This isn't the beach, where a sedentary life is often the rule; the mountain person should be considered on a par with an athlete.
- LIFESTYLE HABITS: smoking, besides its carcinogenic effects, which we hope are by now all too well known, causes compounds to form between the blood's haemoglobin and carbon monoxide (carboxyhaemoglobin), with the result that the blood loses some of its capacity to carry oxygen around the body, so our performance will drop. Alcohol, although in rare cases (frostbite syndromes) it may help, will always take something away from us: attention, reflexes in avoiding dangers, and it will cause an unwelcome relaxation of the muscles.
So, since we must consider ourselves athletes, it's a good idea to consider taking up serious training. For anyone the word training brings to mind aching muscles, going out after work when you're tired, time stolen from other occupations. True, the start is hard, but keeping in shape afterwards is easy and even pleasant, as we shall see.
“Physical fitness” is the name for the psycho-physical condition of adaptation to physical effort. It is reached through the “induction” phase of training, kept through “maintenance”, and lost through a sedentary life, in a time shorter (by about 1\3) than the time needed to get into shape.
Training gives us some unexpected “gifts”:
- cholesterol (killer of the coronary arteries, as well as the engine of ageing) falls, while the good kind (HDL cholesterol) rises a lot;
- blood pressure, thanks to the loss of excess sodium with sweat, falls, and as a result so does cellulite due to salt retention; blood sugar drops too, and the sporty person will never get adult-type diabetes mellitus;
- the nervous system benefits: very often insomnia stops thanks to sport, and you gain an inner ability to face problems with more drive, optimism and energy. Anxiety drops considerably, and finally you get that mechanism that pushes the athlete not to stay still for too long: “addiction”. Which of us hasn't felt the euphoria, the great sense of relaxation at the end of a climb or a sporting event? It has been confirmed that this is caused by a large release of endorphins in the brain, opioid substances that spread the sensation of pleasure.
This article was co-written with the help of Alessandro Vittore
Continue with Physiology of exertion (Part II).