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Comment by bwv848 | Hacker News Reader

Here's how to actually train for it.

https://uphillathlete.com/aerobic-training/vertical-beast-mo...

Its not even something hard to come up with if you are active, understand you body and generally how workouts work on you.

I've trained in similar fashion for my trip to Aconcagua or Nepal, and never researched for that nor discussed with anybody. You carry big backpacks up there a lot, or smaller backpacks for 10-12h each day, every day in places where lack of oxygen makes you lose breath in 5-10 steps easily when walking uphill. It figures that when training for strength-endurance there needs to be a lot of repetitions with some added weight.

I just took some weights into backpack at building I was living back then, hiked those 8 floors on stairs, took elevator down, rinse and repeat many times. Or elliptic trainer with same backpack. Or other movements/machines (just don't run with that).

Why the elevator down though? One needs to train going down as much as going up, possibly even more (given my limited experiences hiking up / down some touristy mountains in the UK). I'd even argue going down is harder because you have to stop your own momentum all the time, vs up where maintaining it is beneficial.

Up is hard on the muscles, down on the knees.

The cartilage in your knees is a living tissue. Like muscle, it responds and adapts to stimulus. If descending stairs gives you knee pain that isn't from some past injury being aggravated, then train them.

You get people who go skiing or running for the first time in a while and they complain "Oh, my knees hurt, I'm too old for this". Nope. You're just out of condition. Use it or lose it.

Nice theory, now go ahead and do it for some time (meaning few decades) and then lets talk. Or talk to knee surgeons.

Or no, just listen to few folks who have something to sell like books or training regimens or guiding, or simply won genetic lottery in that very specific part of their bodies, since such advice definitely applies to everybody, at any age, at any situation.

Now that I'm in my 50s my tendons have lost a great deal of elasticity, maintaining muscle mass is starting to feel like a losing battle, but my knee joints are great, and that's in spite of a lifetime spent ignoring all popular advice on how not to wreck them.

Of course, You don't have to look far to see pro-athletes or ex-pro athletes: runners, tennis players, basketball players and gymnasts who have been going hard on their knees for decades and are still physically impressive relative to any of us mortals.

If you've torn or damaged your meniscus at some point you are statistically prone to osteoarthritis later in life but otherwise you should be fine.

https://msklab.med.ubc.ca/how-to-save-your-knees-without-giv...

Stairs? Nope.

Mountains? Sometimes, if it's a long hike and i don't pay attention.

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