Muscular Endurance Training with Uphill Athlete Coaches

About this episode

The episode explores muscular endurance training with insights from Uphill Athlete coaches.

Steve House is joined by coaches Martin Zhor and Ben Morley for a deep dive into muscular endurance — what it is, why it matters, and how to train it. The conversation covers the critical distinction between local muscular fatigue and global cardiovascular fatigue, explaining why legs failing before lungs is the defining sign of a muscular endurance deficit. Drawing on examples from ultra running, mountaineering, ski touring, and cross-country skiing, the coaches walk through the physiological mechanisms at work: muscle fiber adaptation, capillarization, metabolic efficiency, and the role of stabilizer muscles in maintaining movement quality under load. The episode then turns practical, covering how to sequence muscular endurance training within a broader periodization plan — including the importance of building a strength and aerobic base first, how to use the 10% aerobic-to-anaerobic threshold rule as a readiness gauge, and what both gym-based and outdoor heavy-pack sessions should look and feel like. Martin and Ben also address common mistakes athletes make, from loading up on easy long hikes to skipping the downhill component entirely, and explain why this type of training is…

People in this episode

Host: Steve House

Guests: Martin Zhor, Ben Morley

Topics covered

• muscular endurance
• training techniques
• physiological mechanisms
• periodization
• athletic performance
• mountaineering
• ultra running

Keywords

• muscular endurance
• training
• fatigue
• aerobic
• anaerobic
• mountaineering
• ultra running
• strength
• periodization

Sponsors

Uphill Athlete

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Uphill Athlete

Places: Denali, UTMB

More episodes of Uphill Athlete Podcast

• Building the Aerobic Engine with Dr. Øyvind Sandbakk · June 9, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Voice of the Mountains: My Axe May Be Your Paintbrush with Jimmy Chin (Replay) · June 2, 2026 · 58 min
• The Four Inputs that Determine Your Progress · May 26, 2026 · 43 min
• Voice of the Mountains: Season Two Recap · May 5, 2026 · 1h 9m
• Making Sense of the Data with Dr. Marco Altini · April 15, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Voice of the Mountains: Success is Not the Summit with Peter Metcalf (Director's Cut) · April 7, 2026 · 3h 9m