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Post by solwertkin on Oct 26, 2016 7:30:28 GMT -7
I wrote a blog post discussing a bit about performance climbing as a father of two young children, details on my home climbing dojo, some criticisms that I have concerning the Rock Prodigy Training Method (which in listening to the Anderson Brothers recent Training Beta Podcast they may be tweaking..), and I created a concise "user guide" for Alex Barrows "Training for Sport Climbing" PDF. I thought it could be useful/interesting to some folks here, link below. Climbing Training Fall 2016 - Conjugate Periodized Energy Systems
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Post by brendann on Oct 26, 2016 10:58:48 GMT -7
That is great work, thanks!
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Post by daustin on Oct 27, 2016 20:18:31 GMT -7
Agreed, this is a great post. I've always been a bit frustrated that Barrows' article is a bit... maybe not disorganized, but not optimally organized. Thanks for simplifying and restructuring!
Would you be willing to share the specifics of your training plan following the Randall/Barrows approach, if it's not too much work? One thing I really appreciated with the RCTM is how much having a day-by-day sample plan made it easier to overcome the inertia of my laziness.
Lastly, out of curiosity -- how did you manage to swing a 4-month stint in Spain, if you don't mind me asking? Sounds amazing!
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Post by climber511 on Nov 3, 2016 20:32:56 GMT -7
If you'd like to read about Conjugate Training - go to the source. Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell invented it for Powerlifting (you can find a lot to read on it at his site). Actually he didn't "invent" it but organized it and made it popular well over a decade ago. People have been doing it in a less organized way long long before that. There are World Champions who train this way just as there are those who follow a straight periodization method. Pluses and minuses to both but educating oneself is always a good thing. In my mind the difference between lifting and climbing is the much larger need for skill and endurance to be incorporated. Conjugating this many aspects is going to require a significant amount of planning. Can't wait to read what the Anderson brothers come up with as I have had good results in my lifting strength development over the years using conjugate style training. FOR ME the biggest difference has been less of a "peak" and a more even level of increased performance if that makes sense.
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Post by climber511 on Nov 6, 2016 6:05:35 GMT -7
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Post by jcm on Nov 7, 2016 20:23:42 GMT -7
Warning: “Wall o’ Text” Ahead…
Various posters have asked for an example schedule of a conjugate-type training plan. The Barrows article (and Sol’s synopsis) provide a great framework for structuring a training plan. But they do not provide much guidance in how to actually schedule those exercises on a week-to-week basis. This is an issue, since the scheduling is the crux of this type of plan. How do you fit all the right types of training into each week, in the right amount and in the right order?
Anyway, here’s the schedule I’m following this winter. A friend asked me to type out the plan for him (previously it was in unreadable scrawl in my training notebook), and once I did that I figured I’d post it here. The plan isn’t quite Barrows, and isn’t quite Rock Prodigy either. I’ve set it up to balance the various trainable attributes, while still being easy to organize and follow. To do this, I’ve designed 4 sessions/workouts. Each session is a 2-2.5 hour workout, designed to go in a particular order. These are described in a second post below. I do those sessions in different frequencies each week depending on what phase I’m in. There are 2 phases (“Capacity” and Utilization”); these are split into subphases. The phases I have planned are as follows:
Capacity Phase (8 weeks, November-December): Cap 1 (1 week): Session A x3 (i.e. do Session A 3 days per week) Cap 2 (3 weeks): Session A x2, Session B x 1 Cap 3 (3 weeks): Session A x 1, Session B x 2 Cap 4 (1 week): Session B x3 (During this last week you drop Session A to focus on hitting the hangboard PRs)
(intermission: unavoidable week off from training at the end of December)
Utilization Phase (6 weeks, January to early February) Util 1 (1 week): Session C x3 Util 2: (3 weeks): Session C x2, Session D x1 Util 3: (2 weeks): Session C x1, Session D x2 (during Util 3, taper by reducing session length and number of reps, while maximizing intensity)
Then I go on a 2.5 week climbing trip in mid to late February
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Post by jcm on Nov 7, 2016 20:24:22 GMT -7
Sessions:
Session A: Focus: Aerobic Capacity - 20 min ARC. Low intensity on 5 degree wall for 1st 10 min to warm up (little to no pump), medium-low intensity (light pump) on 25 degree wall for second 10 minutes. Shake out as needed. -10 minutes rest - 20 min ARC. Start on the 25 degree wall at medium-low intensity (light pump) for 1st 15 minutes. Cool down on 5 degree wall for last 5 minutes. Shake out as needed. - 10 min rest - SE’s (mostly core and antagonists)
Session B: Focus: Strength, Anaerobic Capacity (hangboard repeaters hit both of these) Maintain: Power Session goes in this order: - 30-45 min bouldering (25 degree wall and moon board). Warm up on easy boulders and work up to hard boulders. Get right to the point where you do 1-2 attempts on a limit boulder, then stop. This serves as a thorough warmup for hangboarding and also maintains ability to do powerful movement. -10 minutes rest -Hangboard repeaters. RCTM advanced protocol. 7 on 3 off, 3 sets per hold, with 7 then 6 then 5 reps per set. Add 10 lbs between sets. 5 grips: 14mm ½ crimp (Beastmaker 2000), 14 mm drag (Beastmaker 2000), thin crimp (Forge), 1 pad MR (Beastmaker 2000), Medium pinch (Forge) -10 min rest - SE’s
Session C: Focus: Power Maintain: Strength Session goes in this order: - 30 min bouldering (25 degree wall and moon board). Warm up on easy boulders and work up to hard boulders. Get right to the point where you are ready to try a limit boulder. -10 minutes rest -Hangboard max hangs. 3 reps per grip. 10 second reps with 2 minutes rest in between. 3 grips: 14 mm drag (Beastmaker 2000), thin crimp (Forge), Medium pinch (Forge). TUT is designed to maintain strength without producing enough fatigue to negatively affect limit bouldering. Using small holds helps too; relatively light max hangs on a tiny hold doesn’t tire me out in a way that impacts my ability to boulder of the 1=pad holds on the moon board -10 min rest - Back to the moon board for limit bouldering (45 min). -10 min rest - SE’s
Session D: Focus: Anaerobic utilization, Aerobic utilization Maintain: Power Session goes in this order: -30 min bouldering (25 degree wall and moon board). Warm up on easy boulders and work up to hard boulders. Get right to the point where you are ready to try a limit boulder. -10 minutes rest -Anaerobic utilization protocol: Either a (A) 25-30 move traverse or (B) Moonboard 4x4. If doing a circuit, can break it up with a 20 second rest in the middle One completion of circuit (with or without rests), or one completion of the 4 moonboard problems is a set. Do 3-4 sets, with 10 minutes rest between reps. Should be failing 50% of the time due to “powering out”, not due to a low percentage crux. -20 min rest - Aerobic capacity protocol: 90 seconds on (2 laps on treadwall), 90 seconds off on steep treadwall. 4 reps. Things should get desperate by then end of the 4th rep. -10 min rest - (Optional second Aerobic Capacity set on treadwall) - SE’s
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Post by jcm on Nov 7, 2016 20:25:00 GMT -7
Comparison to Rock Prodigy:
-RCTM forum members will notice that this plan looks a lot like Rock Prodigy. Session A is mostly an ARC workout, Session B is mostly a hangboard day, Session C is mostly a limit boulder workout, and Session D is mostly a PE workout. Also, the Capacity Phase starts out looking like base fitness and transitions into being a strength phase. The Utilization Phase starts out looking like a power phase and transitions into Power Endurance. So the overall structure is pretty similar. There are some key differences, though. These are:
-The phases are spliced together so you are almost always doing some strength work, some power work, some anaerobic work, and some aerobic endurance work each week. Nothing atrophies too much. There is a 2 week period during Cap 4 and Util 1 where you drop all endurance work, but this is a relatively short period of time, and the aerobic capacity in particular is a durable attribute.
-The transitions between phases are smoother. I always found the transition from one phase to the next to be a bit of a shock…going from ARCing 4 days a week to only doing strength work is a big jump. With this plan, you start with just 1 strength workout each week and ease into it. Even going from the Capacity Phase into the Utilization Phase is very smooth, since during Cap 4 you are only doing Session B, and during Util 1 you are only doing Session C. Both these workouts are a mix of hangboarding and bouldering, so in switching from one phase to the next all you are doing in adjusting the relative volumes and intensities of these two things.
-Although Session B is mostly a hangboard workout and Session C is mostly power, there are some differences from the typical Rock Prodigy workouts. Notably: In Session B the quantity and intensity of bouldering during the “warmup” is increased a bit to provide for more climbing movment during this phase, and the number of hangboard grips is reduced accordingly to keep the volume reasonable. In Session C max hangs on the hangboard are added in to maintain finger strength. Again, this all serves to “de-linearize” the periodization. You are still focusing on one key attribute in each phase/session, but you keep up the maintenance.
-Session D is a bit different from Rock Prodigy PE protocols.At first glance, the Barrows Anaerobic Utilization protocol (25-30 move circuits) tlooks a lot like the Rock Prodigy circuit/LBCs workout. The basic idea is similar, and the number of moves in the circuit is similar. But when you look more closely, you see that the duty cycles and rest intervals are very different, and that means that these are two very different workouts. The Barrows Anaerobic Utilization protocol uses 10 minutes between reps on the circuit, whereas the Andersons call for 2-4 minutes. This means that in the Anderson program you carry fatigue from one rep into the next… in terms of the duty cycles and rest times the Anderson workout actually falls halfway between the two protocols used here.
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Post by jcm on Nov 7, 2016 20:26:02 GMT -7
A few notes:
For context, my trip is to El Potrero Chico and my primary goal is to climb El Sendero Luminoso (15 pitches of vertical crimping, up to 5.12+). A secondary goal is to do one or more of the steep/pumpy/tufa 5.13s in the Surf Bowl. With these mixed goals, I need to develop a broad mix of strong crimping, a lot of aerobic capacity for all-day climbing, and some anaerobic endurance for the steep single pitch stuff. Because of the long route goal, I’m emphasizing Aero Cap way more than I have in the recent past. It is generally not a weakness for me, so I don’t train it. But more aerobic capacity will be very useful for this objective.
If you wanted to emphasize strength and de-emphasize Aero Cap, you could easily just shorten Cap 1 and Cap 2, and correspondingly lengthen Cap 3 and Cap 4 to get in more hangboard sessions. I expect I will do this for my spring season in 2017. The opposite it also possible. Same possibily with adjusting the lengths of Util 1, 2 and 3 to emphasize power or PE more. The overall length of the training season could also be adjusted.
In this cycle, I just finished Cap 1 and began Cap 2 this week.
I do 3 workouts per week. I always take a rest day between sessions, and get 1 double rest day per week. An example week in Cap 3 might have me doing Session B (mostly hangboarding) on Monday and Thurdays, and Session A (mostly ARCing) on Saturday. This gives 72-96 hours between hangboard sessions.
Session A and D are fairly easily replaced with roped outdoor climbing; Session A (mostly ARCing and other capacity work) can be substituted with Outdoor Mileage, and Session D (Aero Util and An Util) can be substituted with Outdoor Projecting. For this reason, I try to schedule these sessions to fall on the weekend, so in the rare event that the sun comes out in November in Seattle I can enjoy it and climb outside without deviating from the training plan. Session C (mostly power) could be replaced with outdoor bouldering, but this doesn’t work quite as well since there is some hangboarding involved in that session too. Session B (mostly hangboarding) really needs to be done indoors, so schedule it on days you have to be at work.
This structure allows you to do workouts the same 3 days each week (such as on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). This makes it easier to plan the rest of your life than doing hangboard workouts every 3 days, regardless of the day of the week. This keeps the Missus happy.
The Brits’ terminology is stupid. What the hell is Aerobic Power? This is confusing because the term “power” is already in use in training, and “power” and “aerobic” are oxymorons here in freedom-land. So I changed it. Instead of “Aerobic Power”, I’m calling it “Aerobic Utlilization”. Same idea with Anaerobic utilization. The meanings are otherwise the same. Interestingly, “power” as we typically thing of it (limit bouldering) is basically just strength utilization (but I’ll still call it “power” here). Also, what the Brits call the “peak” phase is confusing and stupid (since “peaking” already means something different), so I changed the term to the “utilization phase”. So you train the capacities (strength, an cap, aero cap) during the Capacity Phase and the Utilizations during the Utilization phase.
I generally don't campus. I think I have more to gain from limit bouldering, for a set of reasons I won't fully go into here. And campusing makes my shoulders feel tweaky. But if you want to campus it would be easy to include it on some of the Session C days.
I don’t do SE’s every session, but aim to do them at least 2x per week. I focus on core, push muscles, and shoulders. Core: TRX saws/pikes, front levers, kettlebell swings. Push/shoulders: Shoulder presses, lateral-to-front raises, dips, push-ups. I also work on 1 arm pulls. Generally 2 sets per exercise, organized into two circuits. Takes 30 minutes.
I also do some light band work for shoulder stability on rest days.
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Post by daustin on Nov 7, 2016 21:28:27 GMT -7
Hell yeah, that is MONEY! Thanks much for such an in depth, insightful series of posts, JCM. Tremendously helpful. I'm going to digest and come back with some questions when I have more time. Cheers!
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Post by daustin on Nov 11, 2016 18:05:20 GMT -7
After digesting, I realized I don't really have any questions... Kudos on a thorough, articulate review of your scheduling. I'm about a week and a half into training for a mid January trip as well, and I'd taken a stab at scheduling based on Barrows' article and Sol's synopsis, but I really like the simplicity of your approach. I already have some ideas for modifying my plan.
My only question -- favor, really -- is to ask you to report back to this thread with any insights as you progress through the protocol, and of course with a readout of the EPC trip!
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Post by jcm on Nov 12, 2016 8:44:46 GMT -7
Thanks. Writing that out was super useful to me too; it made me chase down some loose ends in my scheduling. It is definitely still a work in progress. I've experimented with all of the different elements in the program during previous seasons, but this is the first time I've laid all these elements out in a coherent plan from the start of the season. We'll see how it goes. If anyone else has ideas, experiences, or critiques I'd love to hear them.
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Post by daustin on Nov 14, 2016 0:15:50 GMT -7
Just put the finishing touches on scheduling my own program based on your outline -- so psyched!
One question did come to my mind as I was scheduling -- have you always trained 3x per week, with two 1-day rests and one 2-day rest between workouts? Aside from ARC/aero cap workouts, I usually try to have 2-day rests between training sessions, which means I typically get in 2-2.5x per week instead of a full 3x.
I'm a little concerned that 3x will be too much volume for me. I'm not overly concerned, as non-climbing commitments over the next couple months will force me closer to 2-2.5x than 3x anyway. But still, I'd be interested to hear your experience and preferred rest cycle.
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Post by climber511 on Nov 14, 2016 7:22:24 GMT -7
Just put the finishing touches on scheduling my own program based on your outline -- so psyched! One question did come to my mind as I was scheduling -- have you always trained 3x per week, with two 1-day rests and one 2-day rest between workouts? Aside from ARC/aero cap workouts, I usually try to have 2-day rests between training sessions, which means I typically get in 2-2.5x per week instead of a full 3x. I'm a little concerned that 3x will be too much volume for me. I'm not overly concerned, as non-climbing commitments over the next couple months will force me closer to 2-2.5x than 3x anyway. But still, I'd be interested to hear your experience and preferred rest cycle. In the weightlifting world something that is fairly common is to forget the 7 day week schedule and go with what might be called an 8 - 9 or even 10 day week. Workout day - however many recovery days you need - workout - recovery as needed etc. This assumes there aren't "fixed" days where you can only ARC etc on certain days because of work - gym access etc.
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Post by daustin on Dec 3, 2016 15:26:12 GMT -7
jcm - I have a question on your max hang protocol for Session C. Do you progress by adding weight with each successive workout? (And if so, by what increments?)Or do you follow more of the Maisch approach where you increase the number of sets and then every 4th workout do a "re-test" to determine if your baseline has increased? Also I just posted a thread in the Strength forum, but may as well ask you here too. Do you have any personal data you could share on the resistance you use for repeaters vs. max hangs?
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