How to train almost everyday?

If you train everyday what does your schedule look like? What do you work on

I train every weekday morning and weekend mornings if I am at home. To preface I have been climbing for a while but consider myself a fairly average climber. I have to work hard for it: I'm not a natural.

First of all mentality of training every day is LONG VIEW: if I'm working out every day you have to dial back the intensity. Moderate effort performed consistently beats maximum effort performed occasionally. I want to consistently progress over the course of years instead of max efforting to an injury or fear hang dogging things. Also, you HAVE to have medium to big goals and you HAVE to want it. Otherwise you won't be able to stick to a plan. I also think my daily training should be off of the climbing wall: hitting the climbing wall every day is a good way to get injured. Yes yes, I know there are freaks out there who can easily do it: i'm just an average climber sharing my experience. 

Second: work out strategy. Everyone is different: I get injured easily, and after enough injuries I spend A LOT of time performing injury prevention. To that end I do mobility to start every day (this routine: youtube.com/watch?v=7dT4KHt…) to warm up for everything else + some band based strength exercises + push ups and abs + shoulder and wrist CAR's (I feel that CAR's have made a huge difference for my shoulder and wrists but it took 3 months to see a difference). Tue and Thur I do extra push ups and pull ups. M/W/F I do lattice board (I built one in my garage because I wanted to train endurance). M and F I do cardio. Usually go to the climbing gym 2 times a week with my wife. Climb outside 2 times a week and do a lot of weekend climbing trips. 

Third: No point in doing any of this if you don't try to work on diet. Counting macros is ideal but a lot of work. Focusing on getting as much protein and vegetables as possible is a great. Also, you didn't want to hear it, but cutting alcohol out of my diet made a large difference in my bodies ability to recover. Like zero alcohol. 

Auden Alsop wrote:

Don't. You will hurt yourself or burn out. Also, by the way you're asking this question I'm going to assume you're relatively new to either climbing, training, or both. Climb a lot, if your skin gets wrecked, fingers feel noticeably sore, or something else hurts more than a solid soreness, rest. Try to climb with people better than you and you will figure these things out in a much safer way. Remember that climbing is supposed to be fun.

I don't mean that I'd be climbing or lifting everyday. I was including stretching or light antagonistic exercises into the *training day* category

Grug M wrote:

I train every weekday morning and weekend mornings if I am at home. To preface I have been climbing for a while but consider myself a fairly average climber. I have to work hard for it: I'm not a natural.

First of all mentality of training every day is LONG VIEW: if I'm working out every day you have to dial back the intensity. Moderate effort performed consistently beats maximum effort performed occasionally. I want to consistently progress over the course of years instead of max efforting to an injury or fear hang dogging things. Also, you HAVE to have medium to big goals and you HAVE to want it. Otherwise you won't be able to stick to a plan. I also think my daily training should be off of the climbing wall: hitting the climbing wall every day is a good way to get injured. Yes yes, I know there are freaks out there who can easily do it: i'm just an average climber sharing my experience. 

Second: work out strategy. Everyone is different: I get injured easily, and after enough injuries I spend A LOT of time performing injury prevention. To that end I do mobility to start every day (this routine: youtube.com/watch?v=7dT4KHt…) to warm up for everything else + some band based strength exercises + push ups and abs + shoulder and wrist CAR's (I feel that CAR's have made a huge difference for my shoulder and wrists but it took 3 months to see a difference). Tue and Thur I do extra push ups and pull ups. M/W/F I do lattice board (I built one in my garage because I wanted to train endurance). M and F I do cardio. Usually go to the climbing gym 2 times a week with my wife. Climb outside 2 times a week and do a lot of weekend climbing trips. 

Third: No point in doing any of this if you don't try to work on diet. Counting macros is ideal but a lot of work. Focusing on getting as much protein and vegetables as possible is a great. Also, you didn't want to hear it, but cutting alcohol out of my diet made a large difference in my bodies ability to recover. Like zero alcohol. 

Thanks this is very helpful especially those videos on injury prevention

Auden Alsop wrote:

Okay, that helps to know. All the same, the way you phrased the question makes it seem like you're approaching training in a potentially injurious way. I would say again that your body needs time off. Antagonist wise, lots of things work. Pushups are great, shoulder and forearm exercises on the Crimpd app help, etc.

I see. Do you care to share if you have a climbing schedule you follow weekly and what it looks like?

Grug M wrote:

Moderate effort performed consistently beats maximum effort performed occasionally.

For climbing, this is not true at all. Id rather go hard and climb until failure 2 days a week and spend 5 days recovering than never push myself to the max. The only way you'll ever get stronger is if you push yourself to failure, over and over. Just be sure to rest enough to stay injury free.

There is a difference between training and exercise, but a lot of people conflate the two.

You can absolutely exercise every day, if you want to. Climb two days a week, go for a run two days a week, lift weights two days a week, throw in some biking, yoga, substitute swimming for running sometimes … totally doable. Just have to choose the intensity of each exercise that lets you do them all. You would even be considered healthy by every measure. But that is not training.

Training needs, first and foremost, a goal. A specific goal, not just “I want to get better”. Then it needs an accurate/honest evaluation of where you are currently, taking into account the length of time you’ve been climbing, other non-physical-fitness issues that might be holding you back. And then it needs a plan for getting from where you are to where you want to be.

And generally the most efficient plans for climbing improvement don’t feature exercise every day. Because if you are going for thing like limit bouldering, you need to be fresh in order to really do limit bouldering. If you are going to be tired from your run/weightlifting, you won’t be able to really do it to the extent that you need, in order to see the gains from it. It would be back to exercise, instead of training…

If u consider recovery a part of you’re training schedule then you can and should train every day :) 

a short walk or some easy stretchy yoga routines work great for me on recovery days. 

I do training every morning, but I don't do training when I lack sleep the night before... Just some push ups, sit ups and also flanking.. In the afternoon, I do jog or walk.. I guess more and different training  will really help us. Thank you guys for sharing your thoughts too... 

Training makes you weak, resting makes you strong 

Auden Alsop wrote:

Okay, that helps to know. All the same, the way you phrased the question makes it seem like you're approaching training in a potentially injurious way. I would say again that your body needs time off. Antagonist wise, lots of things work. Pushups are great, shoulder and forearm exercises on the Crimpd app help, etc.

eh. I remember an interview of Sonnie Trotter in the 90s. He was working framing houses and everyday....everyday after work he would get home and jump on the hangboard and work on strength. I did that when I was young and it worked very well. Everyday hangboarding and climbing as much as possible and dirt bagging around the country whenever I had more than like $700.

We've come a long way in terms of understanding training and nutrition and how it applies to climbing but in the meantime lets not become pussies.

OP, chase general fitness, all day, every day. That means the whole deal: exercise (or at least not being sedentary), sleep, hydration, good food, good fun, good people.

Repeat.

Respect your body, and listen to it. It's far easier to stay in good shape than to recover from injuries or "fix" bad health habits once they catch up with you.

Do general strength, cardio, etc first, pay attention to your weight, nutrition, etc. Make that a habit.

Then add in climbing specific stuff. Most important of that, is hands. There are dumbbell exercises, bands, using a rice bucket, whatever, but hands are super easy to trash if you go after stuff too hard/too early.

Don't forget to find ways to keep it fun!

Best, Helen

I used to train at high intensity nearly everyday… not worth it. Light stretching on rest days is a great idea but you need time to compensate.

Auden Alsop wrote:

Speaking as someone who boulders *relatively* hard, trying to train hard every day is going to get most people hurt. Climbing outside a lot is not the same as what most people are referring to when they're talking about training. Also, this statement seems to be inherently contradictory. Training smart and not just overdoing it is the way to go long term.

agree but if all people read nowadays is "back off man, don't train too hard" - then the limits they set for themselves will always fall short of their potential.

But yes, it doesn't really matter. I think "have fun" is the best advice of the thread. It doesn't really matter if you only ever climb v7 and never do a v10 would be the most practical advice you could give somebody.