I need your help, IST. I'm in the process of becoming pic related and need to master the stair climb within 6 weeks.
The stair climb is the first part of the physical test and it consists of climbing at a rate of 60 spm (steps per minute) for 3 minutes whilst wearing a 75 lb weight vest.
I just got the weight vest and I'm absolutely rekt after 3 minutes of sheer willpower which is no good because I need enough fuel in the tank to go through the rest of the course.
How do I effectively and efficiently progress here? I need some sort of system. I've talked to a few firefighters and they've suggested I should work towards a full 10 minutes on the stair climb (with 75 lb vest and 60 spm). For reference, my typical (unweighted) cardio session is 30 minutes of 15 incline 2.2 speed treadmill with an avg heartrate of 142 bpm. I'm 6'3" around 240 lb, aprox 30% bf.
Any feedback appreciate, much love and I wish everyone happy holidays this upcoming season <3
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>typical cardio session has avg heartrate of 142 bpm
I wonder why your cardio sucks shit
What should it be at?
Mine is usually around 160-165, depends on your maximum heart rate but if you're going hard your BPM should be like ~75% of your max.
Meaningless.
Rule of thumb is: 80% of training volume at or just below the aerobic lactate threshold (LT1), 20% of training volume at or just below the anaerobic lactate threshold (LT2). But you need to do a physiological test in the lab or buy a lactate testing kit and test yourself during training in order to determine what those thresholds are for you.
Improving cardiovascular fitness takes months and years.
Since your test is so specific, your time would best be spent with highly specific training, i.e. on the stairmaster, with the full 75lbs equipment. If this isn't convenient for you, at least train with the boots and a weighted backpack.
I honestly don’t understand posts like this. Does anyone actually track this data for training? I’ve always just lifted stuff and did cardio the way the old dudes and coaches told me to, and I reached very high levels that way, but then I come here reading about these %s and crazy lift science from people struggling to do 2 plates or 1 overhead and running 20+ min 5ks.
Just do what the old guys and coaches tells you and quit trying to take magic short cuts.
What do those old guys teach you to do?
>hey kid
>eat healthy
>when you lift you should use good form
>don’t ego lift
>8-12x3 reps for power and strength
>3-6x3 for more strength
>do your sit ups every day
>calisthenics are an important part of sports and prevent injuries
>stretch daily
>if you want to get better at running then try running
>maybe don’t run the 10 miles on the first day and gradually build up to it
>you should run harder if you want to get faster
You know, common sense stuff
Vs here
>drink snake juice and quit eating solids
>lift heavy af every day and only ever do 5x5 because nothing else works
>sit ups are bad for my back because I don’t like them, I’ll just do a dragon flag for 30 seconds that I’m not actually strong enough to do properly
>calisthenics are pointless and you should never do more than 10 push ups
>look at this clearly roided eceleb that eats nothing but ox testicles, clearly we should be eating ox testicle diet
>your v02 % should be x or you’re not doing anything
>oh yeah, but what about your aesthetic bro? Post abs
I dunno, it just seems ridiculous and most posters here don’t seem very fit since their expectations are either sky high or laughably low.
>30% bodyfat
I think it'd be easier with one weight vest rather than 2 wouldn't it
First you don't need to be 240. At 6'3 220 should be your limit. In fact you should normally hover between 200-215 if your job recuires you to be more adept in cardio.
The best way to train for the stairmaster is to actually train on the stairmaster, so you should do what those friends suggested, but without the weighted vest at first. Once you manage that then you gradually increase the weight.
Thanks for the first constructive post. I can definitely get to 10 minutes without the vest first then add weight over time.
Alternatively I can start with the full 75 lb and work on increasing duration. Thoughts on this method?
Also, in terms of recovery. Do you think it's necessary to have any rest days or is it sustainable to train like this every day given I eat enough?
Thanks for your help so far 🙂
alternate easy, long sessions with harder short sessions. This balances recovery with maximal gains. The test is so fasted pace as to be anaerobic but still a large portion aerobic as well. So ideally you train both systems. It's really that simple.
your feet, neck, back and traps aren't ready for 75 straight away. at least spend 2 weeks steadily increasing the weight from 20lbs.
I agree with this anon that you need to lose weight to a lower bf % and practising on the stairmaster. It is much easier to do work against gravity with less weight and you're constantly simulating the test that you will need to do eventually.
Do you have any other physical aptitude tests?
This.
Literally just practice it but don’t do 150% with weights and shit right out of the gate or you won’t improve.
run up mountains with a backpack twice a week - six weeks is just enough time.
Get a weight vest and go around town walking up random staircases around.
Go into buildings and ask security if they'll let you walk up their stairs.
Climb up fire escapes on the sides of buildings.
Run up and down your capitol building's steps in a grey sweatshirt.
The stairmassa fricking murders me. I've started doing it a few times a week at 60spm for 15 minutes, and by the end my HR is at 160. I'm going to keep trying to increase my endurance on it until I can mog other people by walking up a few flights of stairs with them and not even looking a tiny bit out of breath.
OP is massively overweight into clear obesity no wonder he can't do anything physical at all
>within 6 weeks
don't bother
get fit first, then apply somewhere else
when i was at my best cardio-wise i did intervals on the treadmill every second day
got me to a sub 40 RHR
OP here. I’m on mobile so it’s hard to reply to everyone but thank you all, I have what I need
>6'3" around 240 lb, aprox 30% bf
Run. Do at least a mile after your work out. You can walk but try and run most of it and at least finish the mile
Here is what I would do:
Lots of stairs (volume) but low intensity. So something like 30 sec weighted: 1 minute unweighted. You could even do it on real stairs: 1 story weighted: 1 story unweighted. Consider it as 'star climbing practice'
Next, I would do lots of walking with the vest on. It will get the body used to carrying the weight, but wont exhaust yourself.
I guess what I'm saying is, treat it as much as practice as an exercise.
If you can, literally just grease the groove it.
I think it might be worth it to get good at it without the weight first. You only need to go 3 minutes. I think you could try going easy on the stairmaster to start but shooting for longer periods of time. You get better at it pretty quick and it's not so intense that you can't do it the next day. So maybe you get comfortable going slow on it for 15 minutes, then 30. That's what I did. Now when I get on the stairmaster I do one world trade center's worth of stairs every session in about half an hour. I'm a really tiny dude so maybe that helps, I don't know, but if you told me to wear a weight vest but I only have to go for 3 minutes I think it'd be pretty easy even from where I'm at, which is having never trained with weight.