Kilimanjaro - Training

Over the past six months I have been busy training and gear up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro early April 2014. 

This was an amazing once in a lifetime experience and it was done in support of SOS Children's Villages (if you would like to donate you still can, please visit https://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=31663) which we later visited.

The training was more intense then I did for my cycling trip across Canada in 2012 and it needed to be as there would be long days and night of climbs (one step at a time) all the way the mount which was over 19,000 feet. The majority of the group that I went with were based in Ottawa and had a building over 30 floors available to them to complete their training. I was on my own and so I came up with my own training schedule. It involved a lot of leg strengthen exercises. But as date of the climb got closure, I started to feel that my training routine wasn't going to cut it. I found a trainer and in the last 4 weeks really kicked it up a notch. If also help that in those last four weeks I wound down my fundraising activities and really devoted my efforts to training. 

My training schedule included the following exercises which I completed 3 to 4 times a week:

Work out #1:
- Machine Squats
- Leg Extensions
- Hamstring Curls
- Lunges
- Leg press
- 21's with barbell
- Triceps extension
- Dumbbell front raises
- Dumbbell lateral raises
- Wide grip Lateral pull downs
- Lower back hyper extensions
- Decline abdominal crunches
 - 30 minutes on the stair-master 

Workout #2:
- Straight Leg Dead-lift
- Lunges
- Leg extensions
- Hamstring curls
- Glute kickbacks
- Standing bent over reverse fly
- Seated incline chest fly
- Overhead extensions
- Rope press downs
- Rope Hammer Curls
- Crunches
- Side Bends with Dumbbell
- 30 minutes on the stair-master

Workout #3:
- Machine Squats
- Heavy Good Mornings
- Leg press
- Calves on leg press
- Mountain Climbers
- High Bench Step-ups
- Double Kickbacks
- Dumbbell 21's
- Machine reverse fly
- Machine chest fly
- Cable crunches
- Side Bends
- 30 minutes on the stair-master