Mountain Athlete In-Season Training Plan Sessions

$59.00

  • 8 Week, 4x Day/Week Training Plan. 32x Total Training Sessions
  • Built as a in-season fitness supplemental for Mountain Athletes who spend 2+ days a week in the mountains
  • Developed for alpinists, backcountry skiers, backcountry snowboarders, backcountry hunters, peak baggers, mountain bikers, trail runners and mountain/ski/hunting guides
  • This training plan is one of the 450+ Plans included with an Athlete’s Subscription.

Description

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

This 24 Session training program is sport-specifically designed to provide supplemental fitness programming for in-season mountain athletes who are spending 2-4 long days per week in the mountains which includes significant mountain endurance volume and vertical gain/loss.

This includes alpinists, backcountry skiers, backcountry snowboarders, backcountry hunters, peak baggers, mountain bikers, trail runners and mountain/ski/hunting guides.

This is Version 1 of the Plan, Built November, 2024.

Scheduling

For in-season mountain athletes, gym-based fitness training should not negatively affect mountain performance because of soreness and/or fatigue. Because many mountain days are decided by weather, conditions, work schedules and partner availability, weekly mountain days can vary greatly. This means you as the athlete need to be smart with your scheduling and completion of gym-based fitness programming. Take a total days rest after a big mountain day. If possible, take a full day’s rest before a planned mountain day. If you’re feeling beat up and fatigued from mountain activity, rest. Again, what is most important, in-season, is on-mountain performance.

As the season progresses, sport-specific fitness will increase, which means recovery time will shorten and you as an athlete may be able to work in additional gym-based training sessions.

Base Fitness for Durability

If you’ve been following MTI’s mountain athlete programming theory, months prior to the season you completed our mountain athlete “base” fitness programming, then directly pre-season, completed a sport-specific training plan. Over the course of the season, especially if you’re spending 3-4 days in the mountains weekly, you’ll lose some base fitness – especially total body and chassis integrity strength. In theory, doing your sport exclusively without supplemental training can lead to strength imbalance, and ultimately overuse or other injuries.

However, there is a balance. Research and MTI’s own work has demonstrated that the most significant indicator of sport-specific durability is sport-specific fitness. For example, if you embark on a 12-mile, 6,000 foot vertical gain/loss,  18-hour peak bagging mission carrying a 30# pack without any previous uphill movement under load training, volume training, and eccentric leg strength programming, your chances of being injured on the downhill are significantly increased. At a minimum, you’ll be very sore for 2-4 days following. This is why MTI has focused, intense, pre-season, sport-specific training plans.

Setting aside sport-specific fitness, we believe total body strength and chassis integrity (functional core) strength and strength endurance do provide mountain athletes a layer of “armor” against injury. Stronger athletes are simply harder to injury, if they do get injured, don’t get injured as bad, and if they do get injured, recovery quicker.

Plan Programming Theory & Design

The training sessions in this plan are designed to supplement your on-mountain performance. Long mountain days means you’re getting plenty of moderate-paced endurance work, uphill movement under load, rucking, and eccentric (downhill) leg strength training. What you are not getting is total body strength, focused chassis integrity strength and strength endurance, short, intense work capacity, and aerobic base training. The training sessions in this plan address these fitness attributes.

There are a total of 32 training sessions in this plan, 8 weeks, with 4 sessions each week: 2x Strength, 1x Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity, and 1x Aerobic Base Maintenance. The strength and work capacity/chassis integrity sessions are designed to be completed in any commercal gym and are short – 45 minute sessions. The aerobic base maintenance sessions presbribes 60 minutes of jogging or spinning/biking at an easy, Zone 2, pace.

Strength Sessions – Each session includes two total and/or lower body strength exercises and one upper body strength exercise. The exercises are simple and classic, and each sesson’s programming is self-contained – i.e. it’s not progressive based on prior strength training. These sessions to maintain your max effort strength, without adding excess muscle mass.

Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity Sessions – Long mountain days already give you plenty of moderate paced endurance work. What you don’t generally receive is short-intense work capacity. The Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity training sessions in this plan include a 6-10 minute, intense, mulit-modal work capacity event to fill this gap, followed by a 4 Round “Grind” chassis integrity circuit to train your functional core. Sessions should last 40-45 minutes.

Aerobic Base Maintenance – In our experience, focused mountain missions move mostly at a moderate pace. Athletes are not sprinting, by neither are they plodding along. They are huslting at a high, but sustainable pace. The aerobic base sessions in this plan are designed to maintain your aerobic base – or Zone 2 fitness. These are easy paced, running or spinning, 60-minute efforts.

Scheduling

Because work schedules, conditions and partner availability vary, you’ll need to control your own training session scheduling around your mountain days, post-mission recovery, and pre-mission rest. This training plan has 32 training sessions, 16x strength, 8x work capacity/chassis integrity and 8x aerobic base maintenance. In terms of scheduling, prioritize the strength sessions followed by work capacity/chassis integrity, and finally aerobic base maintenance. Specifically, if you have ….

  • 1x Day/Week for Gym Training – Complete a Strength Session
  • 2x Days/Week for Gym Training – Complete 1x Strength and 1x Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity Sessions
  • 3x Days/Week for Gym Training – Complete 1x Strength, 1x Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity and 1x Aerobic Base Sessions
  • 4x Days/Week for Gym Training – Complete 2x Strength, 1x Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity and 1x Aerobic Base Sessions

COMMON QUESTIONS

How long should the training sessions take? 
Training Sessions run 45 – 60 minutes. Strength and work capacity/chassis intengrity sessions are designed to take 45 minutes. Aerobic base sessions are 60-minutes long.

Where do I find unfamiliar exercises?
See our Exercise Library HERE.

What about nutrition?
See our Nutritional Guidelines HERE.

What does “40/60#” mean? How about “3/5x”?
“40/60# = women use 40#, men use 60#. 3/5x = women do 3x reps, men do 5 reps.

What if I have more questions? Email coach@mtntactical.com

Good luck!
– Rob Shaul

DISCLAIMER
Before beginning any exercise program, consult with your physician to ensure that you are in proper health.  Physical training contains inherent risks including, but not limited to, muscle strains, tears, physical and bodily injury up to and including death.  This training program is not meant to provide medical advice; you should obtain medical advice from your private health care practitioner.  If you are unable to assume these risks then you should not engage in this training program.  No liability is assumed by Mountain Tactical Institute, Inc, its owners or employees, and you train at your own risk.  Mountain Tactical Institute makes no warranty, express or implied, of any kind in connection with this training program.

Required Equipment

Commercial Gym with ...

  • Barbells, Weights, Rack, Bench

  • Dumbbells

  • 15-18” Box, bench, stool or whatever for step ups for work capacity events

  • Pull up bar

  • Foam Roller

  • Optional: 20" Plyo Box ... use a regular bench of you don't have a box

Sample Training

Session 1

OBJ: Strength

Warm Up

  • 3 Rounds:
    • 8x Back Squat - Start light and increase load as you warm up
    • 4x Scotty Bob - 15/25#
    • Instep Stretch
    • Lat + Pec Stretch

Training

  • 6 Rounds:
    • 3x Back Squat - Increase weight rapidly each round until 3x is hard but doable
    • 3rd World Squat Stretch
  • 5 Rounds:
    • 5x Bench Press - Increase load each round until 5x is hard but doable
    • 5x Walking Lunges - Increase load each round until 5x is hard but doable
    • 5x Shoulder Dislocates
  • 2 Rounds:
    • Toe Touch Complex
    • 30-Count Dead Hang - Hang from a pull-up bar and slow count to 30

The dead hang is designed to stretch your shoulders and back - it's not a grip strength exercise.

Session 2

OBJ: Work Capacity, Chassis Integrity

Warm Up

  • 3 Rounds:
    • 5x Walking Lunges
    • 5x Push Ups
    • 5x Box Jumps - 20"
    • Instep +

Training

  • 10 Rounds:
    • 30 Second Touch Jump Touch
    • 30 Second Rest
  • 4 Round Grind ...
    • 10x Weighted Situp - Start at 25# and increase load each round until 10x is hard, but doable
    • 5x Side Plank Raises
    • 10x Good Morning - Start with an empty barbell and increase load each round until 10x is hard, but doable

"Grind" = work steadily, not frantically through the exercises in this circuit for 4 rounds. Pace yourself, but don't stop to rest.

  • 2 Rounds:
    • 3rd World Squat Stretch
    • Foam Roll Low Back

Session 3

OBJ: Aerobic Base Maintenance

Warm Up
Training

  • Aerobic Base Maintenance
    • 60 Minute Run or Bike/Spin - Easy Pace

"Easy" = you can speak in full sentences while moving. If you have a heart rate monitor, take 180-age and move within 5 bpm of that number.

Example for a 35 year old: 180-35 = 145. Keep your heart rate 140-150 bpm.

Session 4

OBJ: Strength

Warm Up

  • 3x Front Squat - Start light and increase load as you warm up
  • 8x Hand Release Push-up
  • Instep Stretch
  • Lat + Pec Stretch

Training

  • 6 Rounds:
    • 3x Front Squat - Increase weight rapidly each round until 3x is hard but doable
    • 3x Ankle Stretch to Skater Squat
  • 5 Rounds:
    • 5x Hinge Lift - Increase load each round until 5x is hard, but doable
    • 5x Scotty Bob - 15/25#
    • Foam Roll Low Back
  • 2 Rounds:
    • Hug - Hip Mobility Drill
    • Hip Flexor Stretch

1)  Mission Direct

Gym numbers mean nothing. All that matters is mission performance. 

To this end, MTI’s fitness solutions and programming are not boxed in by convention, tradition, orthodoxy, public opinion or any other artificial constraint driven by inside or outside forces.

We begin with the raw fitness demands of the mission and build a fitness solution which directly prepares the athlete for those demands.

 

2) Fitness Solutions Built from the Ground Up

MTI’s programming is not “re-tread” bodybuilding, football, CrossFit, kettlebell, strength or general fitness programming. We’ve built our fitness programming for mountain and tactical athletes from the ground up.

The Fluid Periodization methodology we deploy to concurrently train multiple fitness attributes is completely original and has continued to evolve and improve over the years.

Our mid-section training methodology, Chassis Integrity, is also original, as is our endurance programming, 7 strength training progressions, tactical agility, and work capacity programming.

Our mountain sports pre-season training plans, tactical PFT, selection, school, course, and fitness improvement training plans across military, LE and Fire Rescue are MTI-developed, tested and athlete-proven.

Over the years hundreds of athletes and coaches have taken our advanced programming and unit fitness leader programming courses and MTI is widely recognized within the mountain and tactical professions and fitness media as a thought leader in fitness programming for military and tactical athletes.

 

3) The MTI Method

→ Research: MTI begins program design with extensive research of the fitness demands of the mission, sport or event, identifies the exercises and progressions which sport-specifically meet those demands, chose end-of-cycle goals, and program backward to design the training plan.

→ Deploy & Assess: We deploy the training plan “Lab Rats” at our Wyoming facility. Training session and cycle issues are identified and fixed as we work through the training plan. Post cycle we assess the programming’s effectiveness and efficiency. We keep the stuff that works, and fix or toss the stuff that doesn’t.

→ Publish & Assess Again: Plan is published for purchase as an individual training plan and made available to our subscribers. Feedback/results are assessed.

→ Iterate: We take what we learn from lab rats and athletes, re-visit, update and improve already published training plans. Several of our individual training plans are on their 4th or 5th version.

 

4) Mission-Direct Research

MTI exists to “Improve Mountain and Tactical Athletes mission performance and keep them safe.” To that end, we have developed a unique research methodology aimed at identifying real world areas of improvement and identifying immediately deployable mission-direct solutions. Click HERE to learn more about MTI’s Mission-Direct Research methodology, and Here to read about just few of our research efforts.

5) Field Proven

Our stuff works. Weekly we receive unsolicited reviews of our programming and testimonials to its effectiveness.

 

6) Programming Breadth

MTI’s library of 200+ sport-specific fitness plans for mountain and tactical athletes is unmatched. Resources range from specific programming for tactical special forces selections, to specific plans for climbing Rainier and Denali, to general fitness solutions such as running improvement, to post-rehab from injury.

Over the past decade, MTI has partnered with hundreds of athletes throughout their individual mountain and tactical careers, and provided fitness solutions as they face new mountain objectives, tactical schools, selections, PFTs and deployments, and came back from injury.

 

7) Worldwide Influence

Our work is not limited to US Athletes.

We’ve developed selection-specific training plans for Canadian, UK, Australian and German Special Forces Selections and worked with individual military personnel from Scandinavia, South, and Central America.

Canadian, Australian, UK and western European law enforcement and fire/rescue athletes have used MTI programming for mission-direct fitness.

On the mountain side, Alpinists from Japan to Slovakia have consulted with MTI and used MTI’s programming to prepare for mountain objectives.

 

8) Mission Performance beyond Fitness

MTI’s exists is to improve Mission Performance for mountain and tactical athletes and keep them safe. 

This focus on “mission direct” solutions, enhancements and improvements drives our work and research and extends beyond fitness solutions to include training, leadership, gear, team culture, and safety. 

Fitness is just one area of our work.

Our non-fitness research has included tactical cultures, combat uniforms, and gore-tex performance, and effect of stress on marksmanship.

Our work on defining what it means to be a Quiet Professional has had penetrating influence and driven healthy conversations with both mountain and tactical professionals.

 

9) Direct, Honest, Clear Answers

Since 2007 we’ve taken and answered dozens of questions weekly from mountain and tactical athletes. We’ve saved these individual Q&A’s and now thousands are archived on our site.

We’re not salesmen, and our answers are noted for their directness, honesty, and clarity. Our stuff isn’t for everyone. If we can help, we’ll let you know. If we can’t, we’ll let you know that, too.

– Rob Shaul, Founder

 

All of the Above is Backed Up By Our Promise: Our Stuff Works. Guaranteed.

Our Stuff Works. Guaranteed.

By Rob Shaul

I received notes frequently from athletes hesitant to purchase a subscription or training plans asking me to sell them on why they should make the purchase.

While I understand the question, I’m not a salesman – so I can’t put a hard sale on anyone for our programming.

I can tell them the process we go through to design our programming.

We begin with extensive research on the fitness demands of the event, identify the exercises and progressions which sport specifically meet those demands, chose end-of-cycle goals, and program backward to design the plan.

Then we test the cycle on ourselves and our lab rats here in Wyoming. We document, note what works and doesn’t work, re-assess, and make changes and modifications.

Then we publish the programming in the form of one of our plans or as part of our subscription daily training sessions for tactical and mountain athletes.
We don’t stop there – our daily programming is the “tip of the spear” for our programming evolution. We use these sessions to learn and make continuous improvement.

As we learn more and improve, we go back, and update the sport-specific training plans on the website. For example, we’re currently on Version 5 of our Ruck Based Selection Training Plan and Version 3 of our Dryland Ski Training Plan and Version 4 of our Big Game Back Country Hunting Training Plan.

We understand our programing isn’t cheap, but we believe it’s a great value. The $79 for the Ruck Based Selection Training Plan, and $39 for the Dryland Ski Training Plan reflect the, research, work, innovative theory, iteration, testing and feedback we’ve put in and received to make these plans effective.

All that matters for us is outside performance, and we feel strongly that Our Stuff Works in the real world.

Here’s our guarantee:

1) Individual Training Plan Purchase:
If you purchase an individual training plan, follow it as prescribed before your season/event/pft/selection, and if you don’t feel you were physically ready for your season/event/pft/selection, and/or didn’t see dramatic improvements in your early season performance, we’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

2) Athlete’s Subscription
If you purchase an Athletes’ Subscription, follow the training sessions as prescribed, and are not satisfied with the quality of the programming, notify us within 30 days of purchase, and we’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

Questions?
Email: rob@mtntactical.com

COMMON QUESTIONS:

Do you have any reviews or testimonials from athletes who have used your Athlete’s Subscription
Yes. Click HERE.

Is it true you guarantee your stuff works?
Yes. If you purchase an Athletes’ Subscription, follow the training sessions as prescribed, and are not satisfied with the quality of the programming, notify us within 30 days of purchase, and we’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

How is MTI programming different than CrossFit?
This is a common question. Read our answer HERE.

You have a lot of competitors. Why should I choose MTI?
MTI is driven to improve mountain and tactical athletes’ mission performance and keep them safe. This emphasis and focus on mission performance sets us apart. Read about more that sets us apart HERE.

If I purchase a plan or subscription, how do I access the programming?
All of our plans are online, accessible via username and password.
You can log in through our →Website  or Mobile App →IOS and Android.

Do you have downloadable .pdf’s of the training plans?
No. But you can print the programming, by week, from your browser. You access individual training plans online via a username and password.

Do you have a mobile app?
Yes, we do. Available for IOS and Android.

What is the difference between purchasing an individual training plan, packet of plans or an Athlete’s Subscription?

  • Plan – Like purchasing the DVD of the first Star Wars movie. You own it forever, including any updates we make to the plan.
  • Packet – Like purchasing the DVD’s of all the Star Wars movies. You own them forever, including any updates we make to the plans.
  • Athlete’s Subscription – Like subscribing to Netflix. You get access to all 200+ plan in our library, but lose access if you unsubscribe.

If I purchase an Athletes Subscription Can I cancel on my own, anytime?
Yes.

Do I have to contact MTI to cancel or can I do it myself?
You can do it yourself. Instructions HERE.

If I purchase a subscription and have questions about where to start or what plans(s) to use for my goals, will you help?
Yes. We answer dozens of training questions from athletes weekly. Email coach@mtntactical.com.

If you add new plans or update existing plans after I subscribe will I have access to them?
Yes. We are continuously adding training plans and packets (2-5/month) and updating plans. With your subscription you’ll have access to all new plans, new courses and plan updates.

What Equipment is Required?
Click the “Required Equipment” tab to find out what equipment is required for the specific plan you are interested in.

Where do I find unfamiliar exercises?
See our Exercise Library HERE. The Run and Ruck Calculators are listed as exercises.

What about nutrition?
See our Nutritional Guidelines HERE.

Can I see sample training?
Click the “Sample Training” tab to see the entire first week of programming. You are encouraged to do it before purchasing.

What if I have more questions?
Email rob@mtntactical.com

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