Some experience with Hillfit

I launched Hillfit on the world about 5 months ago now in the middle of January.  It is a short ebook aimed at hikers/hillwalkers with the idea that getting a little stronger, through simple safe exercise will bring a host of benefits:  walks will be easier, safer and more fun.

I've had some good feedback from the readers of the book and it has been interesting to see the recent discussions around alternatives to the squat for safely strengthening the lower body.

Dave Riley has been posting his thoughts on his training, inspired by Hillfit:

How much weight do you lift when performing HillFit?


I reckon the weight issue is subjective in context as you have a few variables you can play around with: (1) the angle of your movements (2) the pace you do the movements and (3) then you can consider what weight to add if any. For the pelvic lift I lay a dumbbell on each thigh and rest my upper back on a bench — a fantastic experience esp if done really really slowly.


The same knapsack (mine currently weighs in with a 13 kgm sandbag) is used for both squat and pull up. The push up plank offers so many tweaks I dont need the extra weight. But even with all that the slower I go the harder all the exercises get.


How slow is 'slow'?


Since I used to do and teach Tai Chi you get a handle on ‘slow’ and while I started off counting I now rely on the slow controlled breaths. With the dumbbells it is easy to cross over with the same principles in mind.


I recommend as a guide the very practical Matt Brzycki and Fred Fornicola Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness. Many options offered in its pages. It also discusses weight increments.


Nonetheless, since I have been lifting kettlebells for years the HillFit perspective undermines the practice of KB swinging but I now do no-swing routines ever so slowly like clean and jerks, bow ties, etc. You can do things with the bells you can’t do so well with dumbbells — and weight is formatted by other variables because KB cause you to adapt your body while the bells are lifted through space. A great example of a slow KB lift -- at least for the very adventurous -- is the Turkish Getup.






The Toolbox


So that’s a set of dumbbells, 3 single kettlebells at different weights (but two would do), a strong towel (which I reinforced with rope) an old knapsack…and a bag of sand.


An exercise bench is also real handy.


Music and Time


And the best thing is that I know HillFit will take me under 5 minutes to complete, and my weights routine – divided into 8 sections, each of approx 90 seconds followed by 10 sec rests — will take 16 minutes. And when I’m doing it all I have to do is listen to the music — my current fav is Javanese Gamelan — sequenced into 90 sec plus 10 secs x 8. ( I edited a song to my needs using a audio edit program like Audacity).


Mp3 players are essentials I reckon. A great discovery. As essential as a dumbbell.


I mention these details because I have done so many routines over the years, had a personal trainer for two years and followed many mixes in the past — but I love this blend. At two day intervals with alternating routines it doesn’t get boring. And the set time sequences stop me from trying to be macho enough to injure myself or foster ill health upon my good person...


I’d like to box more but I am tardy. I do other stuff mainly because I like this other stuff…but the low tech supplement I think I get the most from — and which I treat as part of serious exercise — is stair running.


Show  me a stair case and I’m up it like a rat up a drainpipe.

Resistance Training improves Cardio Fitness....Get Strong to get fit!

So we have been saying this for a while.... One of the key themes of my book Hillfit is that getting stronger will make you more fit for "cardio" activities such as hillwalking or hiking.  The theme is how to get stronger.  Indeed I had one client ask for a refund because I didn't tell her how to improve her cardiovascular fitness!  I need to send her this new paper:

Resistance Training to Momentary Muscular Failure Improves Cardiovascular Fitness in Humans: A Review of Acute Physiological Responses and Chronic Physiological Adaptations

A detailed, peer reviewed academic survey of the literature and previous studies which demonstrates that proper resistance training...to failure...improves all the standard measures of cardiovascular fitness.

This is a proper scientific paper, long and in depth.  The writers have been through all the relevant previous work on this and have demonstrated that getting stronger gets you fitter!

The full paper is available on line and  I have put the abstract below.

Training to Momentary Muscular Failure Improves Cardiovascular Fitness in Humans: A Review of Acute Physiological Responses and Chronic Physiological Adaptations. JEPonline 2012;15(3):53- 80. Research demonstrates resistance training produces significant improvement in cardiovascular fitness (VO2 max, economy of movement). To date no review article has considered the underlying physiological mechanisms that might support such improvements. This article is a comprehensive, systematic narrative review of the literature surrounding the area of resistance training, cardiovascular fitness and the acute responses and chronic adaptations it produces. The primary concern with existing research is the lack of clarity and inappropriate quantification of resistance training intensity. Thus, an important consideration of this review is the effect of intensity. The acute metabolic and molecular responses to resistance training to momentary muscular failure do not differ from that of traditional endurance training. Myocardial function appears to be maintained, perhaps enhanced, in acute response to high intensity resistance training, and contraction intensity appears to mediate the acute vascular response to resistance training. The results of chronic physiological adaptations demonstrate that resistance training to momentary muscular failure produces a number of physiological adaptations, which may facilitate the observed improvements in cardiovascular fitness. The adaptations may include an increase in mitochondrial enzymes, mitochondrial proliferation, phenotypic conversion from type IIx towards type IIa muscle fibers, and vascular remodeling (including capillarization). Resistance training to momentary muscular failure causes sufficient acute stimuli to produce chronic physiological adaptations that enhance cardiovascular fitness. This review appears to be the first to present this conclusion and, therefore, it may help stimulate a changing paradigm addressing the misnomer of ‘cardiovascular’ exercise as being determined by modality.
Key Words: Aerobic, Metabolic, Molecular, Myocardial

Go and read it....it will challenge you but will also explain a lot of where I am coming from in this blog and in Hillfit.   James Steele, the lead author, writes about the paper on his excellent blog - No such thing as cardio

BBC discovers intervals

how long is it since that Tabata study?  The BBC finally discover intervals



I commented on this over at the Body By Science site

Just watched the BBC Horizon programme and the key bit was about what they called HIT but was really HIIT - interval training on an exercise bike. This benefitted the subject who improved his insulin sensitivity but - due they said to his genetics - did not improve his VO2 Max. They explained how this intense exercise had an impact on his glucose metabolism, emptying his muscles of glycogen so that they were able to absorb more glucose form the blood.

This was good in that we are inching along towards an understanding of the benefits of intense exercise, but disappointing in that we never seem to go the whole way from interval training to intense resistance training. If you really want to empty your glycogen stores and have some intense exercise, then go for BBS style HIT!

The other thing was that I found it disconcerting that the scientist who was extolling HIIT was not lean but on the way to obesity…..

I go over all of this science in by book Hillfit by the way.

Martin Gibala has been researching this too for a while and at least he looks lean

Stretching for Hillwalking & Hiking

Over on the Hillfit site I've started to post a few short articles which fit in with the them of the book.

Get in shape for hiking - get strong!  Looks at the importance of basic strength for hiking backpacking and hillwalking

Should hikers stretch?  looks at why stretching as a warm up is not necessarily a great idea

Both link in to themes that I've explored on this blog but both are intended to arouse interest in my book Hillfit:Strength.

Thinking about stretching, Jamie Scott helpfully pointed me towards an interesting new review of static stretching and its impact on performance.  

 Does pre-exercise static stretching inhibit maximal muscular performance?

We applied a meta-analytical approach to derive a robust estimate of the acute effects of pre-exercise static stretching (SS) on strength, power, and explosive muscular performance. A computerized search of articles published between 1966 and December 2010 was performed using PubMed, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases. A total of 104 studies yielding 61 data points for strength, 12 data points for power, and 57 data points for explosive performance met our inclusion criteria. The pooled estimate of the acute effects of SS on strength, power, and explosive performance, expressed in standardized units as well as in percentages, were -0.10 [95% confidence interval (CI): -0.15 to -0.04], -0.04 (95% CI: -0.16 to 0.08), and -0.03 (95% CI: -0.07 to 0.01), or -5.4% (95% CI: -6.6% to -4.2%), -1.9% (95% CI: -4.0% to 0.2%), and -2.0% (95% CI: -2.8% to -1.3%). These effects were not related to subject's age, gender, or fitness level; however, they were more pronounced in isometric vs dynamic tests, and were related to the total duration of stretch, with the smallest negative acute effects being observed with stretch duration of ≤45 s. We conclude that the usage of SS as the sole activity during warm-up routine should generally be avoided.

Now not to be misunderstood - I am not against all stretching.  However, he conclusion is clear and precise - static stretching as the only thing you do in a warm up is to be avoided..... 

Mountain Trail Walking Study

I suppose this one is for Hillfit?  Nothing very exciting - walking in the mountains is hard work and neither BCAA nor arginine supplementation have much impact.

Energy expenditure during 2-day trail walking in the mountains (2,857 m) and the effects of amino acid supplementation in older men and women

We compared relative exercise intensity and active energy expenditure (AEE) on trail walking in the mountains, with those of daily exercise training, and whether branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) and arginine supplementation attenuated the release of markers indicating muscle damage and declines in physical performance. Twenty-one subjects (~63 years) were divided into two groups: amino acid (AA, 51 g of amino acids and 40 g of carbohydrate, male/female = 6/4) or placebo (PL, 91 g of carbohydrate, male/female = 6/5) supplementation during 2 days of trail walking in the mountains. We measured heart rate (HR), AEE, fatigue sensation, water and food intake, and sweat loss during walking. In addition, we measured peak aerobic capacity (VO2peak) and heart rate (HRpeak) with graded-intensity walking, vertical jumping height (VJ) before and after walking. We found that average HR and AEE during uphill walking were ~100% HRpeak and ~60% VO2peak, while they were ~80 and ~20% during downhill walking, respectively. Moreover, average total AEE per day was sevenfold that of their daily walking training. VJ after walking remained unchanged compared with the baseline in AA (P > 0.2), while it was reduced by ~10% in PL (P < 0.01), although with no significant difference in the reduction between the groups (P > 0.4). The responses of other variables were not significantly different between groups (all, P > 0.2). Thus, trail walking in the mountains required a high-intensity effort for older people, while the effects of BCAA and arginine supplementation were modest in this condition.

Body by Science recommends Hillfit

Doug had already given a great review to Hillfit, but today on Body by Science, he had more to say:

Chris Highcock over at www.conditioningresearch.com  has a new book out called Hillfit. It is basically a high intensity training program directed toward hikers and climbers.  Even though it is directed at this particular sport, it is pertinent to any sport as it effectively shows how to combine (and separate) physical conditioning and skill conditioning in the most user-friendly fashion I have seen to date.

As I said previously I have massive respect for Doug.  He is my inspiration and mentor and  to read these words from him is fantastic.

Read more about the book and order it from www.hillfit.com

Hillfit to go places like this

What a morning.  As I tried to explain in Hillfit:Strength all this training is about facilitating other things, recreation and even every day life.  This morning that meant going up my local mountains and sharing the sunrise with the sheep.

It was amazing.

Doug McGuff reviews Hillfit!

Hillfit.comDoug McGuff is an MD, co-author of Body by Science and a leading thinker in the world of physical training.  I interviewed him on this blog a couple of years ago and have previously pointed to videos of him speaking.  Doug has been good enough to review Hillfit:Strength and offer his comments.  I am humbled by what he says:

Chris has knocked it out of the ballpark with Hillfit! Although the book is oriented to those who hike or climb, it is applicable to any sport, or even just activities of daily life.  In Hillfit Chris has effectively distilled physical conditioning and strength training down to its essential elements.  The "why" and hows" are presented more clearly and precisely than I have ever seen.  This book will not just be another conditioning book for a specific sport;  it will serve to demonstrate for all sports the appropriate separation between physical conditioning and skill conditioning.  Bravo Chris!

Doug McGuff MD (author of Body by Science)


You can find more about the book and buy it at Hillfit.com

Hillfit: Strength the missing element in your training

Well the booklet is now finished and available for sale.   It has its own site at Hillfit.com,  where I write more about it and give some testimonials / reviews from people that have read early drafts. 

There is also a Table of Contents pasted up on that page.  Hillfit.com has some buttons where you can buy the booklet.  It downloads as a pdf file and is about 50 pages.  I hope you enjoy it!

Alternatively you can just buy it now by clicking here if you like:
 Click here to download the booklet.

If you have any questions or comments, either leave a comment or email me

The book approaches.....

So I was advised that I needed a decent book cover for my ebook and was pointed towards www.fiverr.com  I used http://fiverr.com/shuttercraft to create a design.

I think it is good, what do you reckon?

I am hoping to launch the thing this weekend.  It is all about final proof-reading and editing just now.  Plus my job is very pressured just now.....

Hillfit - An ebook

UPDATE - the book is now available at www.hillift.com 

Pretty soon I will be launching a short ebook that I have put together on strength training for the hillwalker / backpacker / hiker.  Walking in the Scottish mountains is my main interest and love.  Much of my training is focussed on making sure I am in shape for that.

I've been writing articles on fitness for the UK magazine TGO for a few months.  This booklet will pull together some of the themes from those pieces but focus really on developing strength through a simple bodyweight HIT style routine.

It should be finalised in a coulpe of weeks and ready for sale on its own website.  It is about 50 pages with some illustrations and a fairly long appendix of references and research to back up what I am saying.   Writing it is only half the battle  -  and that has been hard enough - but the marketing of it will be a challenge!  I am trying to avoid all of the hype filled sales pages, but unfortunately those techniques do seem to work.