Seperate HB and whole body strenght training.

[beginner]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if I can do my finger training in the mornings (at home) and whole body exercises in the evenings (in the gym)? Or do them on consecutive days?
 
Also I feel I have a lot of energy during the 72 rest hours so is it ok to engage in any aerobic ex such as running, swimming or tennis?

I am a little bit concerned on overloading the nerve system as I do not really understand how it works.

I have been climbing for around 5 years (twice a week in the gym) but just started training with this awesome book so I am pretty weak (6c RP)

Thanks and sorry if already discussed somewhere else.

[andreas]

Hi,

i was in a similar situation about a year ago when i started to train with a plan. In the beginning I also had the feeling i need to do "more". I used to do high intensity intervals training in the days in between and so on.
What I learned is that this was not the best idea. In the beginning the training sessions do not feel that draining and exhausting. However, I learned that following a training regime is more like running a marathon. It will get intense and I started to feel "worked" after 5 to 6 weeks. During the first cycle i really had to push myself to have enough energy left for the PE phase.
I would recommend to start slow and really focus on your training - try to put all energy and focus in the sessions. If you want to do something in addition to that I think stretching and yoga is the most powerful additional training. I started to stretch a lot (3-5 hours a week in some weeks) and attended up to 2 yoga sessions a week.
The increased hip and hamstring flexibility made a significant difference in my opinion. Yoga and meditation started to greatly increase my mindset when it comes to sending and helped me to rally listen to my body and focus on what i do right now.

Regards,
Andreas

[scojo]

Doing HB and other strength training on the same day shouldn't be a problem (separating it into morning and evening should be fine as well; just make sure you warm up for both sessions).

My opinion is that it's fine to do easy exercise on your rest days. The key here is that it should be so easy it doesn't make you feel any more tired. I'd be careful with tennis though, especially if you've had a history of tennis/climber's elbow.

If you start feeling that you're not recovered for your next training session, the first thing you should do is cut back on the extra exercise.

[MarkAnderson]

Agree with the above; it's ok to split your Supplemental Exercise out to another session later in the day, or the day following a HB day. Also, some other exercise on "rest" days is ok, but not ideal. I would also be particularly wary of tennis, which takes something out of your racket forearm in my experience. If you must do something, best to pick an activity that you can do with little or no grip strength.

[itsmisterbrown]

I've had some pretty good success with treating the strength phase as both a finger strength phase and a whole body strength phase. Inevitably, you'll put on some mass (mostly in the form of additional retained water), but I generally keep up with a weightlifting regimen until the hangboard workouts get tough. I've noticed that I suffer a performance decrease on the hangboard if I lift on my first rest day after a hangboard workout. For me, this is acceptable for the first few workouts when I'm at submaximal effort. However, once I hit workout 4 or 5, I've really got to start kicking it into gear to continuously progress.This also affords plenty of time to de-bulk for your performance phase.

On my last cycle, I tried to do a hangboard workout in the morning and lift in the evening, in order to preserve my two full days of rest. I really liked this approach, as I felt more rested for my HB workouts, but this approach also makes for pretty long days, especially when you're trying to write your dissertation as well.

[erick]

I have always struggled to find time to get my supplementals in after the HB workout. By the time I was done hanging i really did not want to continue doing more strength exercises. I tried splitting into morning/evening sessions but that really did not work well for me.

This season I have done more of an integrated approach which has worked really well. I do a deep warm up, then do my first set of hangs (advanced repeaters). During the rest period I do just one set up supplementals. For the supplementals I keep my resistance to a place where I only do 5 reps per set. This keeps me from getting too worked during my HB rest period. I often feel great when its time to get back on the HB. If I am still feeling tired I will increase the HB rest period from 3 to 4-5 minutes depending on what is needed. I generally only do 5 different supplementals and I find it very easy to get them all in during the HB rest periods. When i am done hanging I am usually done with everything else and the next day I feel WORKED with no desire to do anything but go for a nice walk with the dog.

I have been really happy with this setup and I am actually on track to having HB PRs in all my grips in the next workout or two. I can't prove this but I feel that this "active rest" approach has actually helped quite a bit. I am feeling stronger on the HB than I was before when my rest involved walking around looking at my finger tips.

Eric