MTI vs. Uphill Athlete

I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on MTI training plans vs. Uphill Athlete? I’ve personally tried both but never in prep for a specific trip. I find the Uphill plans fairly manageable but the MTI stuff absolutely kicks my ass. I’m a skinny white dude and all the lifting in MTI plans is incredibly hard. I also look at some of the athletes using Uphill plans to get ready for Everest, Cho Oyu, etc. and think these people don’t really seems like that great of athletes... have any of you used MTI plans for specific objectives? How did it go? 

Matt Wells wrote: I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on MTI training plans vs. Uphill Athlete? I’ve personally tried both but never in prep for a specific trip. I find the Uphill plans fairly manageable but the MTI stuff absolutely kicks my ass. I’m a skinny white dude and all the lifting in MTI plans is incredibly hard. I also look at some of the athletes using Uphill plans to get ready for Everest, Cho Oyu, etc. and think these people don’t really seems like that great of athletes... have any of you used MTI plans for specific objectives? How did it go? 

He used one for Fire academy and another for a Denali trip. He really liked them, but he already had a existing lifting base and cardio to jump into the programs. 

I used MTI's Rainier plan and I felt amazing on that climb. It was the best fitness level I've hiked at. I found the workouts on MTI related more directly to the climb, like the weighted stepups and sandbag getups. I highly recommend both programs. Use the Uphill Athlete to build your endurance base. Then use a MTI plan to prepare for your specific objective.

sandrock wrote: I used MTI's Rainier plan and I felt amazing on that climb. It was the best fitness level I've hiked at. I found the workouts on MTI related more directly to the climb, like the weighted stepups and sandbag getups. I highly recommend both programs. Use the Uphill Athlete to build your endurance base. Then use a MTI plan to prepare for your specific objective.

Really good points. That was my original thought as well. 

sandrock wrote: I found the workouts on MTI related more directly to the climb, like the weighted stepups and sandbag getups. I highly recommend both programs. Use the Uphill Athlete to build your endurance base. Then use a MTI plan to prepare for your specific objective.

I'd be interested in hearing more thoughts about this.  I'm surprised to hear this specific critique of UA, since their second/third phase implements significant objective-specific weighted uphill carries (which could also be stepups if the terrain isn't available), and their final phase is climbing-specific fitness including goal route simulations.  I have always felt that these things related very directly to the climb?