ARC training

I’ve been trying to build endurance for a few months now and I was just made aware of ARC training. The only gym in town is a bouldering gym but they do have a tread wall. My time on the wall has definitely increased but reading about arc training I’m no where near the 45 minutes that most articles I read seem to keep pointing to. I had been climbing for the pump then pushing through as much as possible taking a 5 minute break then getting back on. I’m looking for some clarity but if I’m understanding correctly I should slow the speed of the wall and get right up to the pump and just try and cruise at a pace that doesn’t push me into fatigue. Am I understanding this correctly? What are some of the better articles or books that explain this and/or give some type of workout regiment?

I never understood ARC training as meant to be practiced on a tread wall. I ARC train while traversing, I can take my time and work through moving at a good pace, but able to shake out or rest when I find a good spot to. I believe this is the better way to do it as long as the person training isn't getting off the wall,  you're learning to hold yourself there and find ways to rest limbs individually. A tread wall sounds like it keeps you moving and that's really difficult, I would think you wouldn't be able to keep that up for 45 min unless you couldn't feel pain.
Anyone weigh in on this?

You can pause the treadwall and shake out on good holds or step down for up to a minute if you have to. The Anderson bros say ARC kicks in at 20 minutes and that 20 min on 10 min rest 20 min on is basically just as good as 40 min on.

I went back this morning paying more attention to time on the wall vs ft climbed and I had to take about three 2 minute breaks but I climbed for a total of 40 minutes and never got overly exhausted....hopefully soon I can get the full 45 minutes then I can push up the grades a little....it’s hard living 4 hours from any outdoor climbing and not have an indoor gym to train at with roped climbs

From what I understand about arcing (admittedly not very much), it's not so much about continuous climbing time as it is aggregate climbing time. Meaning, if you can do two uninterrupted 20 minute sets on the treadwall with a 10 - 15 minute rest in between, that's just about as good or no different from doing 40 uninterrupted minutes.

Also, I think the treadwall is typically considered more of a power endurance training tool, but I don't see why you couldn't use it for arcing as long as you keep the speed pretty slow and stick to the holds that aren't going to completely pump you off the treadwall. If you're getting so pumped you have to step off before your set is done, you're not training ARC effectively, you're doing a power endurance workout.

Read all of the articles on Eva Lopez's blog a few times: http://en-eva-lopez.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Endurance%20Training?updated-max=2014-11-13T15:28:00%2B01:00&max-results=20&start=4&by-date=false

From the theories on ARC training you should be very low on the pump scale, using holds that allow you to sustain continuous movement (no stances to shake) for the period set. This may mean traversing vertical walls on jugs at first. Sets may only be 10 minutes at a time at first to keep this very low level of pump. Your goal shouldn't be about the difficulty of routes, it ought to be a progression of time to the 20 minute sets, then moving to a higher percentage of smaller holds, and then to work onto steeper walls.

Take a look at this one about intensity:
http://en-eva-lopez.blogspot.com.es/2014/12/aerobic-endurance-training-in-sport.html

Local signs at the forearms:

• Moderate swelling and activation, never stiffness and strong pumping. As we progress in time or sets we may need to shake off every 2-3 moves for 1-2 seconds.
• Some vasodilation that can translate into "heat", reddening, bulging veins...
• Progressive "depletion" (according to the objectives for the session).
• Mild pain. Using the subjective scale from 1 to 5 developed by Binney & MacClure (2006), we should rate at 1 or 2.

Global signs:

• Light increase in breath and heart rate, etc.
• Moderate perspiration.
• As the session progresses, especially at the end of every set, it is normal to notice our movements are "slower", perhaps due to some related factors: a) we start running out of glycogen and use slow-burning fatty acids, b) we need to save energy and the kind of holds we are using allows us to do that, and c) because this way we can relax the free hand a bit longer. When climbing easy parts our hand can stay free for about 0,5 seconds, but it can go up to 1-2 seconds if we climb slower, giving time to the forearm to recover and keep on functioning.

All that being said, I'm not sold that the philological only focus leads to the best real world transfer. When I practiced ARC training as the Anderson brothers (and Lopez) prescribe I got very good at climbing massive jugs, could stay on them all day and recover decently. I still felt pump build rapidly on small holds though and really didn't climb that well through them.
I dropped the 1/2 level of pump continuous climbing in favor or linked boulders this winter. I'll do a V1-V3 problem up, then down climb a V0-V1 and traverse to another problem, and repeat. That lets me decrease hold size on the way up to more realistic one pad or less holds. It seems to have transferred to real world climbing far better. YMMV.

how is your power training? To be honest with you I trained ARC for YEARS (decade+) and I dunno if it ever had an effect on my endurance. I do think it helped me to rehearse movement schemas/technique though. I trained power too obviously and would notice I had WAY more endurance coming off limit bouldering trips compared to not. E.G. I would spend a month in Hueco and near the end of my trip run laps on ghetto simulator (power endurance) to wake up the endurance part of my forearms. Then I would go back home and stop somewhere in the southeast to sport climb....INSANE endurance....every move feels easier with power :)

I think power is the key to everything in climbing.

Do you mean ARC=Aerobic Capacity or ARC = Active Recovery?  These are two very different things.  

Aerobic Capacity training starts in at anything over 2 min of effort.  This does not have to be continuous either.  You could do 15 rounds of 45 seconds on 15 seconds off, and that is a solid aerobic capacity workout. As far as intensity goes, if you can finish the workout and it takes you 15-20 minutes of work, then you're somewhere in your aerobic zone.  This zone is pretty wide.

Active recovery this is easy climbing and only at the very bottom end of the aerobic zone.  so this would equate to no pump.  

Look up Dave Binney's stuff on this.  Very good info out there. 

sasquatch wrote:   This does not have to be continuous either.  You could do 15 rounds of 45 seconds on 15 seconds off, and that is a solid aerobic capacity workout. As far as intensity goes, if you can finish the workout and it takes you 15-20 minutes of work, then you're somewhere in your aerobic zone.  This zone is pretty wide.

All the trainers/authors I can find out there stress that the climbing be continuous to elicit the increased capillary density.  

Evan R wrote: I’ve been trying to build endurance for a few months now and I was just made aware of ARC training. The only gym in town is a bouldering gym but they do have a tread wall. My time on the wall has definitely increased but reading about arc training I’m no where near the 45 minutes that most articles I read seem to keep pointing to. I had been climbing for the pump then pushing through as much as possible taking a 5 minute break then getting back on. I’m looking for some clarity but if I’m understanding correctly I should slow the speed of the wall and get right up to the pump and just try and cruise at a pace that doesn’t push me into fatigue. Am I understanding this correctly? What are some of the better articles or books that explain this and/or give some type of workout regiment?

What you are describing here is interval training that will primarily impact the anaerobic energy system. 

You do not need to go for 45min to increase the effectiveness of the aerobic energy system.

If you are getting pumped the intensity of the workout is most likely too high.

pointers for good ARCing:
- Keep the climbing as continuous as possible, if your are doing a lot of pausing to shake out, it's less impactful than if you are moving in a more continuous manner.
- You don't need to start with 30 - 45 minute session you can start with 5 or 10 minute climbing periods and increase the climbing time over a period of days or weeks.
- Always start by doing a "test" day or two in which you measure your current aerobic level. It does not matter what the level is, you just need to know it so you can measure progress. You need to come away from test days being able to say "my aerobic level is 5.9" or whatever, but it is crucial 
- Combine ARCing with stamina training. For example doing Continuous or Variable repetition training. in my experience ARCing is most effective when use in concert with stamina training. 
- do a high concentration of ARC workouts such as 5 - 7 per week.
- Have a target level you want to reach that is achievable. For example if your current ARC level is 5.9- then it is reasonable to try to raise your ARC level to 5.10- in 4 -6 weeks if you are doing 5 - 7 session per week and combining it with stamina training. 

Douglas Hunter wrote:

...

- Combine ARCing with stamina training. For example doing Continuous or Variable repetition training. in my experience ARCing is most effective when use in concert with stamina training.

Thanks, I think your book is on the bookshelf in my little training dungeon back at home but I don't recall, is "stamina training" the same thing as anaerobic endurance/tolerance?

David Morison wrote: 
I don't recall, is "stamina training" the same thing as anaerobic endurance/tolerance?No, they are different. Stamina is the way we describe how much volume of climbing a climber can do in a session or a day at a given level of effort so its not a direct method of training AE. if you look up CIR / VIR in TSSC it should review it there.

In short there are three methods of sport-specific training:
Continuous methods such as in ARCing,
Interval methods such as in 4 X 4s,  
repetition methods such as CIR / VIR.

The difference between interval methods and repetition methods is that in intervals we are always limiting recovery. In repetitions we are encouraging recovery. Its total load over the course of the session that creates the impact. Each individual effort will be sub maximal.

reboot wrote:

So, interval training has been the rage for running and cycling to improve the aerobic and anaerobic systems concurrently, especially for amateur athletes (and let's face it, there no pro climbers here) who don't have a lot of time. Why would one spend significant (or any at all) energy ARCing, especially for a movement sport, where I find the low intensity doesn't provide nearly as much practice/refinement benefits for the more difficult movement patterns.

The reason goes back to what I said above, that the goal of ARCing is to raise the maximum level one can climb while relying primarily on the aerobic energy system. Intervals are extremely important for climbing, and if a sport climber had to choose just one workout, intervals would be it; but intervals don’t do it all, ARCing is a great tool for refining movement skills, and is an important tool for raising one’s aerobic level. 

Douglas Hunter wrote:

What you are describing here is interval training that will primarily impact the anaerobic energy system. 

You do not need to go for 45min to increase the effectiveness of the aerobic energy system.

If you are getting pumped the intensity of the workout is most likely too high.

pointers for good ARCing:
- Keep the climbing as continuous as possible, if your are doing a lot of pausing to shake out, it's less impactful than if you are moving in a more continuous manner.
- You don't need to start with 30 - 45 minute session you can start with 5 or 10 minute climbing periods and increase the climbing time over a period of days or weeks.
- Always start by doing a "test" day or two in which you measure your current aerobic level. It does not matter what the level is, you just need to know it so you can measure progress. You need to come away from test days being able to say "my aerobic level is 5.9" or whatever, but it is crucial
- Combine ARCing with stamina training. For example doing Continuous or Variable repetition training. in my experience ARCing is most effective when use in concert with stamina training.
- do a high concentration of ARC workouts such as 5 - 7 per week.
- Have a target level you want to reach that is achievable. For example if your current ARC level is 5.9- then it is reasonable to try to raise your ARC level to 5.10- in 4 -6 weeks if you are doing 5 - 7 session per week and combining it with stamina training. 

Doug - I have your book so I may just need to re-read it, but 5 ARC workouts a week? Do you mean say Mo/Tu/Th doing 2x ARC a day, or do you mean doing an ARC workout Mo/Tu/Th/Fr/Sa with 1 ARC workout on each of those days. And by ARC workout I mean a 30-45 minute session.  

Hey John, since ARCs are low impact, you can schedule it however it works best for you. As for length I am fine with 20-30 mins. 45mins is essentially  only for people who really enjoy in and have great resources for this kind of workout.