Bouldering training plan

[bickill]

Hi all,

I'm starting a RCTM cycle this week for the first time. I had a few questions:

1. I'm doing this primarily for bouldering and was going to follow the routine presented in the bouldering chapter. I feel like power is my biggest limiting factor, and the plan in the book has only about 20 days of power training, would it be wise to take roughly a week away from the strength phase and tack it onto the power phase? Or is the 20 days more than sufficient in your experiences? Also there's no warm ups listed for the HB days...should I just to arc for 20-30 mins or WBL?

2. My girlfriend is also training and has expressed concern over her endurance, when while bouldering and I agree with her. Should we remove a week or two from the strength and power cycles to create a 1-2 week PE cycle or would that be a waste of her time?

Thanks for your input and help! This board is inspiring!!

Darryl

[MarkAnderson]

1. Don't get too caught up on the phase names. While the Power Phase is only 20 days long, the plan continues to recommend Limit Bouldering and Campusing throughout the 4 week Performance Phase. So really you're doing about 7 weeks of power training during the 12 weeks of training, and 4 of the other 5 weeks is strength training. So basically all you're doing is strength and power. I definitely would NOT recommend reducing the Strength Phase. That is critical to preparing your body for a successful Power Phase, and it will do far more for your long-term progression than an extra week of power will. If you want a longer "Power Phase", take it from the "Performance Phase". That should be pretty easy since the are nearly identical

Read the strength chapter (6) for an obnoxiously detailed description of the HB warmup.

2. If PE is limiting, I would include some LBCs (see chapter 8). I would keep Strength and Power Phases the same, and tack on some LBC's at the end of her LB days starting around Day #46. She can keep that up through the end of the training cycle if she thinks she still needs it. If you search around the forum I've described how to combine power and PE in more detail in other threads.

[bickill]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback