Rest during power phase

[uplandermark]

I'm almost 60 and have been climbing 10 years. I started the program 11 weeks ago, resting 72 hours between workouts for Base & Strength. I built a nice campus board & have had four campus sessions. Two session with 96 hours rest went well. Two sessions with 72 hours had definite drop-off in strength like my last one I was using half moon steps on large rungs only & could not do mediums. With 96 hours I did some full moon step sets on large rungs & medium rung half step sets through end of session. I felt I could of went harder but know I'm a beginner & heed the books advise for beginner campusing. Before RCTM training I worked out on my indoor wall once a week & climbed outside once week, always resting 96 hours for outdoor performance. Winter off season was indoors mostly every 96 hours.
I was getting better every year doing what I was doing so my rest from a training standpoint was positive. So I'm looking for guidance. Wondering if there's data/info that supports sticking to a 72 hour cycle for particular training although not at a peak rested condition. As in this power phase for me am I better off resting 96 hours & performing better on the campus board?

[aikibujin]

I would suggest listen to your body and stick to what works for you. Sounds like resting 96 hours is what your body needs. As we age we tend to need longer rests. Some of the young teenage mutant ninjas climb hard everyday in the gym and get stronger everyday, but if I do that I'd wreck myself. I'm almost 40, and I feel like I need 48 to 72 hours between workouts to recover.

[uplandermark]

Thanks for response. Getting into this program & looking at seasonal training plans I didn't want to miss something. I have always followed how I felt. I'll keep doing that. Enjoying my new training regimen.

[climbnkev]

Just something to consider, but training should not be looked at like performance. If you are 100% rested for each workout you are leaving adaptation potential behind. Although power may be compromised by less rest, going from two to three days of climbing per week is going to have a much greater improvement in your skill in the long haul as that is potentially a 33% increase in your practice. My recommendation is to scale back your campusing to a easier session that allows you to train more frequently.

[Chris W]

Mar 3, 2017 18:46:44 GMT -7 uplandermark said:

Thanks for response. Getting into this program & looking at seasonal training plans I didn't want to miss something. I have always followed how I felt. I'll keep doing that. Enjoying my new training regimen.

It's really cool to hear that you're 60 and training hard. In the grand scheme of things, 60 isn't really that old, but in the world of sports 30 is considered over the hill. I'm 34 now and still improving thanks to some smart training. I'd like to believe I'll continue to improve for years to come. I find guys like you more inspiring and interesting than hearing about the latest boulder that Daniel Woods sent.

[aikibujin]

Mar 3, 2017 22:24:09 GMT -7 climbnkev said:

If you are 100% rested for each workout you are leaving adaptation potential behind.

Interesting. Can you expand on that? I thought the idea of supercompensation is that you have to be fully rested before supercompensation will occur? If you train while still in recovery (in the red zone), you will actually get progressively worse over time.

[daustin]

Is the time period in that graph a single workout? Or a macrocycle?

[aikibujin]

That's for a single workout. I stole it from the Wikipedia page on supercompensation.

[climbnkev]

If you wait for complete recovery you can only compensate for a single given workout. If this is all the compensation we could gain from training there would be no real reason for training cycles, we could infinitely improve one workout at a time. Training is much more complex than this, and our bodies need elevated levels of cortisol to create supercompensation patterns. A perfectly executed training cycle is the culmination of multiple training stimuli carried over a 4-12 week cycle which creates a peak from all of the various attributes at a given time. This only occurs if the training stress is high enough. Just as too little rest leads to over training, too much rest negates all of the hard work you have done.

[jonfrisby]

I think you are a good candidate for a non-linear training plan. I think you'd see value in alternating hard (power or strength) and endurance days so that you can underrecover for the endurance day but be close to 100 for training power. This way you get more frequency of training without digging too deep a hole

[uplandermark]

Mar 4, 2017 23:00:58 GMT -7 climbnkev said:

If you wait for complete recovery you can only compensate for a single given workout. If this is all the compensation we could gain from training there would be no real reason for training cycles, we could infinitely improve one workout at a time. Training is much more complex than this, and our bodies need elevated levels of cortisol to create supercompensation patterns. A perfectly executed training cycle is the culmination of multiple training stimuli carried over a 4-12 week cycle which creates a peak from all of the various attributes at a given time. This only occurs if the training stress is high enough. Just as too little rest leads to over training, too much rest negates all of the hard work you have done.

This is exactly what I was wondering.  In the power phase I feel like I need to perform.  I want to see progress (not regress) in my bouldering routes & campus sessions during the current phase.  Maybe that is an incorrect approach for a training cycle.  Plus based on the ARCing I'm doing now compared to "never" before, my rest periods will improve, meaning faster recovery.  For power, maybe I'll mix it up, 72 & 96.