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The same balanced session? Or different but specific?
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I climb about 4 days per week, and my session is more or less the same every single time. Start with hangboard (only twice a week, one weighted and one on small (10mm) edges just bodyweight) Then project/limit climbing. Either boulder or ropes, whichever one actually has a route at my limit since most are easy. Not trying to humble brag, my gym just doesn't set much harder than V5 / 12a. Then endurance climbing. Either 2 4x4s or laps on the hardest spray wall circuit (V2) until failure a few times. Then some abs, then go home. Each session lasts about 3 hours. I feel worked but not exhausted pretty much every time. ------ I feel this is a pretty good session that hits both strength and endurance. While warming up and cooling down, I try to focus on technique as well. But I wonder if I'd benefit more with an "endurance only day" and "strength only day" and "drills day". Given I climb 4 days a week, I can certainly afford to only do endurance for a day and still have sessions dedicated to strength and technique as to not lose any progress in those areas. Thoughts? Has anyone transitioned from 4x1 general session to 1x4 specific sessions and seen improvement? Or vice versa? More info: Endurance/power endurance is by far my greatest strength. I could definitely work on lockoffs and small edges more. |
Shoe Enthusiast wrote: Yes. ---- You missed a key detail in this discussion: what are your goals? Your approach will differ if you want to improve your bouldering, vs enduro sport climbing. --- Generally speaking, it sounds like strength/power is what you need to send more time on. This generally means lowering the volume so you can give high quality, high intensity efforts. Which, in turn, usually means reducing the endurance junk miles. You should really consider dropping the endurance work to a single session per week (to maintain a baseline), or even just drop it altogether, for several months to really hone in on the strength side. The endurance will come back quickly enough when you add it back in later, and you'll have a higher strength level to work from. --- A good resource to consult for your situation would be Steve Bechtel's book Logical Progression. This gives a nice discussion of how to think about splitting up your week into separate strength and endurance sessions. |
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And a broader consideration: Ultimately, most climbers are a product of their environment. There are some exceptional cases that rise above, of course, but for most of us non exceptional folk environment, resources, and the community around us plays a huge role. Based in this, the most important long term consideration is to gain access to a gym (and outdoor areas) that has harder climbs and a strong community. If you spend all your time at a gym (and/or outdoor area) with a bunch of V-Hard climbs and V-Hard climbers, you'll improve quickly just by showing up and participating. This will generally take you farther, with less effort, than any overwrought training plan. This might mean moving. This might not be possible in the short term. That is OK. But work toward it in the longer term. Get out of the gym that maxes out at V5. |
JCM wrote: Thanks for pointing that out JCM, I edited in that I'm a sport climber, primarily climbing in the red. Pump is the name of the game there. I agree with your point about strength, that's definitely my #1 limiting factor at the moment. I have a project right now (Orange Juice, 12c) that I don't really get pumped on, but I just can't pull the crux moves. How would you suggest training strength when there's often little to nothing that requires me to try-hard? Maybe that's where the hangboard comes in, but I don't want to take it too far for injury concerns. I've tried eliminates as well, or combining bad holds from adjacent routes into something harder. But it's often difficult to find the thin area between dynos on jugs, and simply impossible. Edit: In regards to the gym being too easy. I agree. I'm working on this. There's been talk of adding new training tools like an improved spray wall, campus board, and system/LED board. Maybe these will happen soon. But know that I'm thinking about this for sure. I'll check out the book. Thanks for the suggestion. |
Shoe Enthusiast wrote: Good news on both counts there. If your gym adds a good spray wall or a Moon/Kilter/etc board, then you're covered for the strength/power work and will have access to lots of hard problems. That would solve your biggest issue. And then moving to a place with a strong climbing scene is a quantum leap for your climbing.
In the short term with current resources though...that's tough. More time of the hangboard is going to be pretty necessary, I suspect. The hangboard is not inherently injurious; I would not avoid it for injury concerns. It's actually more controlled and less risky than climbing. Just don't be an idiot with excessive volume. The hangboard isn't a complete replacement for hard bouldering - you won't learn the intricacies of hard bouldering - but it will make your fingers strong. This helps a lot. Making up your own problems is certainly a good approach. But with some of the limitations of low-density modern gym setting, this can be hard to do. This approach works well in high density old school gyms with lots of small holds to choose from. Less so in some modern gyms. Kinda hard to build a good power trainer eliminate if all the holds on the wall are big blobby volumes. Work with what you can find though. One option is to see if the gym will let you set on a volunteer basis, to add some harder problems. If they are open to that, which is a big "if". This could help your resource issue if they agree to it. Building your own home board would make a world of difference too. But this isn't possible for everyone (as someone who lives in a small apartment, I certainly understand that). But if you do have a basement, etc where you can build a board, you can get absurdly strong on a small, janky wall with some homemade wood holds. --- Anyway, aside from your resource issues and returning to original question: Yes, split your strength and endurance days. |
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I typically go for different sessions, but with a balanced approach on a longer timeline. IE, I don't just do 6 weeks of endurance, then a 4 week strength phase, 2 week PE phase. I like to do some of everything each week, unless I need something specifically soon. So I typically like to do a strength day (either hangboarding or hard indoor project roped climbing, could also do bouldering), an endurance day (up/down/up/downs for me, could also do arcing on a spray wall), and a power day (typically campus board). That's the standard during the winter. Come spring, I'll rotate in some PE instead of endurance (typically double laps on moderately hard, preferably overhanging stuff. Also did some repeaters on the hangboard this fall prepping for the project that seemed to work really well). It's easier to keep track of for me. I much prefer actually climbing (and climbing on ropes) to hangboard or campus board. And I feel like I'm better prepared for any day to be a potential send day (minus the true projects) vs being in a position where I haven't been doing any strength stuff so feel really weak. |
