Linear vs. Non Linear Periodization for Redpoint Climbing

A recent discussion has me curious - what kind of experience have you had? If you tried NLP for several years, did you see consistent year to year improvement in redpoint grade? If you have tried a more linear approach, have you seen success in line with the Andersons - or just frustration with limited "real climbing" time and grade stagnation?

Does anyone have any good data points (personal experience, detailed anecdotes, etc) on this?

Personally, I hewed closely to the "get outside as much as you can, that's your training" school of thought for a long time. Getting outside a LOT, this turned me into a .12c redpoint climber, but I was stuck there. I am back from a long layoff, no longer have that kind of free time, and am giving a more focused, linear approach a try.

Please help me understand a little more about your question. By linear periodization do you mean following a sequence or progression, of BASE->STRENGTH->POWER->POWER END.->PERFORMANCE, and by non linear do a little bit of all those things every week?

Gains can be made by focusing on specific types of workouts (strength, power, aerobic, etc), all within the same week/period. I think this is what you mean by non-linear, but I think this is better thought of as parallel or complex parallel plan.

By focusing on specific motor abilities in blocks of time, one is able to advance that ability. By cycling through the different abilities in an intelligent fashion and relying on the residual effects of the training, one can generate a nice performance peak. I think this is what you mean by linear, but I think it is better thought of as sequential.


The loading pattern used (ie, set, rep scheme, etc) used by each type of training exercise is where I think the terms linear and non-linear are useful. IE. Are you adding weight every workout on the hangboard (linear):
Monday:Baseline
Wednesday:Baseline+5
Friday:Baseline+10
Monday:Baseline+15

or doing something like:
Monday:High-Volume/Medium Weight
Wednesday:Low Volume/Medium-Weight
Friday:Low Volume/High Weight
Monday:Previous Monday+5

this would be a non linear loading pattern over a one week cycle, but linear week to week.

I think beginner->intermediate trainees CAN make progress using a parallel approach, but eventually will HAVE to switch to a sequential plan to continue to make progress. I generally follow a sequential plan (with mostly linear loading patterns) in the off climbing seasons, and a parallel plan (with non-linear loading during the climbing season). The reason for this is that the sequential plan will produce a large training effect at the expense of current climbing ability (good to make large jumps in ability when I cannot climb outside). The parallel plan does not provide much of a training effect, but will keep me strong during the spring/fall seasons when I am looking to perform outside.