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Most useful energy system to train

Original Post
that guy named seb · · Britland · Joined Oct 2015 · Points: 236

Few weeks till I go for my first bit of real alpine climbing and I got thinking about various energy systems and how to train them but the thing that i kept thinking was how useful would this energy system actually be in the alpine.

So you are generally going to be looking at the following:

The atp-pcr system

The glycolytic system

The oxidative system

Now being active in the alpine will be using all of the systems above though which do you think is the most important to train to delay fatigue and why?

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
that guy named seb wrote:

my first bit of real alpine climbing

What do you mean by "alpine" climbing?

Simplest is just to tell us what specific route you're going to do, and
how many days you're going to take to do it.

And what is the altitude of the route versus the altitude where you live and normally climb?

that guy named seb · · Britland · Joined Oct 2015 · Points: 236
kenr wrote:

What do you mean by "alpine" climbing?

Simplest is just to tell us what specific route you're going to do, and
how many days you're going to take to do it.

And what is the altitude of the route versus the altitude where you live and normally climb.

Post isn't about me just interested in the effects of our energy systems on fatigue and exhaustion.

Think of alpinism as an all encompassing term covering pretty much everything. From basic mountaineering, steep snow couloirs, mixed, rock climbing and everything in between, while not all routes will contain every element of this with most routes being predominantly one or two.

I have a hypothesis that the maxing out of the glycolytic system is the biggest contributing factor towards exhaustion and fatigue out of the 3 systems, I just wanted to see what others thought or if anyone had any data confirming or refuting my hypothesis.

Kyle Tarry · · Portland, OR · Joined Mar 2015 · Points: 528

The point that Kenr is trying to make (I think) is that you can't just make a broad all-encompassing statement like "maxing out of the glycolytic system is the biggest contributing factor" when you're not making any distinction between a hard move on a mixed route and walking across a glacier.  The range of activities you're talking about is so gigantic, that the physiological processes involved vary significantly.

According to the following website, the glycolytic system is used in the following types of situations:  "any moderately-long runs such as 200-400 yards, a 1:30 effort of all-out MMA maneuvers, or a one-minute full-court press - offense display - and another full-court press effort in basketball."  That's not very well aligned with alpine climbing, which is generally a much lower effort level for a much longer duration.

https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/understanding-energy-systems-atp-pc-glycolytic-and-oxidative-oh-my

House and Johnston seem to agree with the assessment, as they focus thew vast majority of training on low-intensity and long-duration work, which would fall into the "oxidative system" using your parlance.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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