Every fall, I follow a strength training program from Mountain Athlete to prepare for ice climbing season. I am not alone – even the best outdoor athletes head indoors once in awhile to train. Taking advantage of this rise in popularity of strength based training programs such as Crossfit, numerous outdoor brands are creating apparel, footwear, and even training communities to help outdoor athletes attain their goals.
Last week, The North Face officially launched their Mountain Athletics program with sport specific strength training programs to help you crush this summer season. The Mountain Athletics training programs help you set, train for, and successfully reach sport specific goals.
Currently, the sports on offer are climbing, skiing, and running. To get started, simply choose your chosen sport and the start date of your season, then Mountain Athletics spits out a detailed training program for you to follow.
Upon creating a climb specific program, Mountain Athletics gave me a 6-week, 5 days a week program to follow, complete with video instructions on how to complete some exercises. The program is designed to be taken on directly before a climbing trip or used as focused rock gym training to attain your next goal. The exercises can be completed at your local rock gym with a bouldering area, general fitness area, and campus boards.
Starting in July, The North Face will have a smartphone app to accompany the online training programs. Over the next couple of months, The North Face will be running Mountain Athletics boot camps across the country to introduce you to the type of strength training on offer. And of course, the company has designed a line of Mountain Athletics Kilowatt apparel and footwear to help you train.
I would love to hear from anyone that has started to follow a Mountain Athletics training program on what you think.