How weight training enabled 60-year-old Michael to climb Everest Base Camp

“Lower body strength and coordination were vital for my ascent and descent from Everest. It was noticeable how much more manageable it was for me.

Michael didn’t let turning 60 stop him from achieving his goal of climbing to Mount Everest Base Camp.

After encountering some difficulties climbing Mont Blanc the previous summer, Michael was conscious he needed to be in peak shape to handle the challenging 14-day trek to Base Camp 17,598ft up into the Himalayas.

What’s more, he wanted to change his body composition and be photoshoot-ready in time for hitting his milestone 60th birthday.

And with the accountability and guidance from his trainer at Ultimate Performance, he accomplished both of his goals in less than six months.

With the right guidance on nutrition and how to weight train correctly, Michael was able to lose dangerous visceral fat around his belly, and head into his sixties fit, lean, and healthy.

In this Q&A with one of our expert trainers, Michael talks about the training he did for his Everest expedition and the importance of progress tracking to see measurable results…

You came to U.P. with very specific goals. Can you talk a little bit about them?

I had a couple of goals I was aiming towards. I was turning 60 in six months’ time, and I wanted to get my body into photoshoot condition. I’d also got a physical challenge in mind; I’m keen on high-altitude walking and I wanted to be able to get into shape to climb Everest Base Camp. I hadn’t been in photoshoot shape since my early twenties, so the plan was for me to achieve that by my 60th birthday and for me to ‘peak’ in my conditioning for the Everest trek shortly thereafter.

You definitely achieved your goals, well done. What made you decide to join U.P.?

For me, it was never about a rapid 12-week body transformation. I set a six-month goal to get into the shape I wanted to be in, and I felt that U.P.’s program was flexible for that. I was looking for good, steady progress that enabled me to fit the training into a busy professional and family life that didn’t encroach on that, but at the same time gave me the direction and accountability to get where I wanted to get to in the timescale that I’d chosen.

I had climbed and descended Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, in two days the previous summer. However, I was not quite fast enough to descend with optimum safety before the ice was starting to melt early afternoon, releasing large boulders down the mountainside and turning some sections into a game of Russian Roulette. I decided I couldn’t let that happen to me on Everest and I resolved to get leaner and fitter for that challenge. I was conscious that I needed to sharpen up my physique to be in better condition to stay safe and descend more quickly.

In terms of getting up to photoshoot condition, I’d never done that before, and I felt that U.P. were able to get me into that sort of shape. U.P. has a specific focus on body recomposition. The trainers I’d had in the past were more generalised in terms of conditioning and fitness, whereas with U.P. there’s a strong focus that is supported by the app. Despite different regimes for exercise and training and sports I’d done in the past, I’d never fully got on top of my visceral fat levels, and I think working with U.P. helped me break through the physiological and psychological barriers.

How would you compare your experience with U.P. with other gyms?

In the past, whilst I trained quite a bit and had been quite fit, I was conscious for quite some time all the different training regimes I’d used and even some of the eating regimes had not really attacked the visceral fat, my belly fat. This was something that I was conscious needed to be done for health reasons.

In terms of the structure of U.P.’s training, I think it was important that we did the three training sessions per week to keep the momentum and then the accountability on top of that through the app and the graphic representations within the app that help you visualise your progress and the ongoing photos as well.

That also helped me stay motivated because I could see the progress was being made in the direction I wanted it to go, but at the same time there was enough flexibility within the program to enable me to fit it into quite a busy professional and family life. U.P. ticked all the boxes for me.

Another positive aspect of U.P.’s processes is that you get constant feedback from the app in terms of whether you’re hitting sleep goals, step goals, nutrition goals, and it graphically represents your improvement in everything that is measured. All of those together create a positive momentum to motivate you further to continue the focus to reach your goals. Having a personal trainer provides accountability, guidance, and encouragement, and makes it more of a non-negotiable commitment.

You mentioned you’d trained a lot previously. How familiar were you with weight training?

The focus on weight training was new to me. A lot of the previous personal trainers I’d had were probably more focused on cardio. I was conscious that as I get older it’s more important than ever to maintain good muscle mass and to build muscle mass. The training is structured on developing the different muscle groups which helped with my goal of recompositioning my body to look good for the photoshoot.

I needed very specific guidance on the weight side of things, which U.P. provided. In my youth I did build quite a lot of muscle as a rugby player, but I’d never actually worked with weights to focus on the different muscle groups and to build functional strength. That has been a revelation for me, and it’s opened my eyes as to what can be achieved with very focused training.

How frequently were you working out with your trainer?

I was training on average three times per week and doing full-body workouts. We had a full body A and B workout session which we alternated. Every 4-6 weeks we progressed the technicality of some of the lifts to make things more challenging. The core of the workout was very simple. We alternated lower body with upper body movements in a ‘superset’ fashion. For example, lower body pushing movements (split squats/pendulum squats) with upper body pulling movements (lateral pulldowns/rows), and lower body pulling movements (incline hip extensions/leg curls) with upper body pushing movements (machine and dumbbell press variations). A total workout would usually consist of six exercises (three paired movements) and finish with prowlers or assault bike sprints.

How beneficial was weight training in terms of achieving your goals, and in your daily life?

I think the weight training has helped in several ways. Carrying additional muscle mass helps raise the metabolic rate, making it easier to maintain weight at a certain level on a certain calorie intake. In the beginning, I could barely balance for lower body lifts such as the split squats. Bodyweight alone was a real challenge! Tempo and control really made a difference over time. The emphasis was always on a slow three-second eccentric, a pause at the bottom of the lift, with a more powerful concentric. It wasn’t about just moving the weight from to A to B. You have to be really mindful that you are lifting the weights with the intended target muscles. This proved vital for my lower body strength and coordination for my ascent and especially the descent from Everest. It was noticeable how much more manageable it was for me compared to previous expeditions such as climbing Mont Blanc the year before.

Weight training obviously improves your physique and body composition, so in general it improves your body confidence as your clothes fit better and you just look better.

Michael is proof that you can achieve your health and fitness goals, whatever your age. Get started today with Ultimate Performance.

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