Thoughts on my routine for now

[climber511]

Climbing WO (just for this time period)

Remember I’m retired so I have lots of time to fill
Twice a week ARC on the wall in my garage – usually 2 x 20 to 30 minutes each day

Once a week Rec Center Wall (bigger than my home wall) – overall harder routes than the ARC but includes some limit climbing as well – usually a couple hours – try for “harder volume” if that makes sense and I have a couple project routes set..

Five days a week I go for a walk or a bike ride – nothing special but several hills on my route. Once in a while (and always close to a trip) I carry a largish weight pack. Zone 1 heart rate stuff is all.

I lift weights pretty much every day but very short – only a couple movements each day focusing on places climbing doesn’t reach well like pushing - pressing – abs – hips – backs of forearms etc. Something different each day. Takes no more than a half an hour for this. I do some therapy band stuff for old injuries and surgeries.

Do some light mobility – stretching each morning as well – my old bones are getting stiffer .

Recently started doing some Concept 2 rowing – short (500 to 1000 meters) for some higher HR work (heart doc said this would be a good idea to add in).

If I climb on the weekend of course everything changes.

Thoughts – recommendations?

[Chris W]

I think that if you just wanted to get better at climbing, you could cut out a lot of the non-climbing training you're doing. I guess it depends on what your goals are. I do some non-climbing training, but the reason for that is to keep the rest of my body strong for playing with the kids and to avoid injury. I don't do much extra, since my climbing training helps me meet almost all of my other physical goals, but still...

I've wondered if this would change as I get older. Right now, I'm 34, but when I'm 64 will I need to change my training to involve more general fitness training to continue to enjoy an active lifestyle?

It sounds like you're already generally fit and strong. If you have a certain climbing goal you're trying to achieve, I'd try to identify what you need to get there and plan accordingly. Maybe that plan would involve dropping the volume of non-climbing training. 

[climber511]

Thanks Chris.
At 68 probably the most important thing to me is to "age well" - a kind of vague goal I guess but one which seems to mean doing more than just the climbing and climbing training. Like most guys my age who have lead an active life (I've been quite lucky to have done a lot of things) I'm a collection of old injuries and health issues which need addressed. I still compete in a few strength sports which I have put on hold for this year to concentrate on climbing so I do have other goals to try and balance through working out. With being retired I find I can recover from my current program pretty well as it's a lot lower volume than I am used to overall. Here's a link to my you tube - it shows a few of the things I do other than climbing - or along with climbing I guess.  I do have to watch the forearm volume as I do struggle with recovery there.


www.youtube.com/user/climber5111

[willblack]

Disclaimer: I'm 23, so any advice I give should be taken with a grain of salt. I've always personally found ARC training to be important, but probably the least beneficial individual part of my training. That's not to say that I don't ARC, just that if I had to drop any one part of my training ARCing would be it. I've personally gotten the greatest gains from hangboarding and limit bouldering, and this even applies to areas like The Red that require a lot of endurance. I'd suggest maybe spending less time on ARCing and more time on more intense forms of training.

[climber511]

Thanks Will - It's about time for me to switch back towards hangboarding - two more weeks on this schedule. I find I can usually make any single move at the level I am climbing but run out of gas before I run out of route - that's why I keep pushing the ARC stuff. I do get one evening of hard to limit climbing each week. My hard problems are on walls 20 to 24' tall with rope - don't really have a bouldering area with pads to work with.

[willblack]

Do you do any power endurance training like linked bouldering circuits? I know a lot of people who are strong boulderers and can climb endless pitches of 5.moderate but struggle to send routes that should be very achievable based on their bouldering level. I think power endurance training does something that can't be entirely accomplished by power or endurance training alone in teaching you just how long you can continue to climb reasonably difficult moves while pumped. Also, just because you can do all the moves on the routes you are working on doesn't necessarily mean you have enough power, sometimes power training makes the individual moves feel easy enough to require a smaller percentage of your maximum effort. It's also worth noting that my perspective is biased by the fact that endurance has always come far more naturally than power or finger strength for my. I hear there are people out there who are good at bouldering, but I can't personally confirm this.

[climber511]

I have not worked power endurance much at all - I know I need to but have been trying to work on what I perceived as my biggest weaknesses first. I don't have anywhere to really boulder - one reason is no steep walls where I have easy access to and the other is that I don't "bounce" anymore and have no padding to land on. Ground falls and these old bones do not like each other The other thing the ARC work seems to help me with is better movement skills using my body more and my fingers less.

[Chris W]

If you're happy with your training volume, that's great. It would probably do me in. As far as endurance goes, ARC training seems to help, but I found, by accident, that doing long power endurance LBC's seems to help my real-world-route endurance. My LBC this spring was 3 minutes long. It was great for helping me hang on for a long time, and if I had a hold where I could shake out both hands, I could REALLY hang on for a long time. For my spring project, though, I don't think it was intense enough for what I need.

You could increase your endurance by improving your strength (quickly by cutting body fat if you have any to lose) or improve your power. ARC training may help, but it seems to me that, for real rock, my feeling of "endurance" benefited most by my PE phase, at least in the short term. My focus for long term improvement prioritizes finger strength.

Hope that all makes sense.

My current plan is:

ARC phase: Day 1 ARC 2 sets, Day 2 ARC 1 set and SE, Day 3 rest, repeat
Strength Phase: Day 1 HB, Day 2 SE, Day 3 rest, repeat
Power Phase: Day 1 Limit Boulder, Day 2 rest, Day 3 Campus, Day 4 SE, Day 5 rest, repeat
PE and Performance: Get outside as much as possible. At least 1 LBC day per week, at least 1 outdoor day per week, full rest day prior to outdoor days, SE if I have a time and place for them

[climber511]

Chris - Thanks again. My target peak time is Oct for a trip to Kalymnos. How would you suggest I set up my phases starting now to be at my best then? I'm willing to change focus and also willing to accept advice on how to do so. Hopeful perhaps Mark might chime in at some point as well.

[Chris W]

Well, I don't know anything about Kalymnos, so Mark or someone else may be better to discuss training for that area. My Fall 2017 Training Calendar follows the "advanced" template, not so much because I'm "advanced", but more because I feel it aligns better with my goal. If you follow the beginner template instead, I believe it involves more ARC and less Strength and Power. Anyhow, my plan is:

Now through July 15th: Active rest, goofing off with the kids, fun non-climbing training
July 16th - July 29th: Base Phase (ARCing)
July 30th - August 25th: Strength (Hangboarding, 9 total HB sessions, no outdoor climbing, time to get serious)
August 26th - September 16th: Power (limit boulder and campus, brutally hot outside, only goal with supplemental exercise work is to maintain strength built during Strength Phase, SE begins to take a back seat except for Abs)
September 17th - October 7th: Power Endurance, start to get outside as much as I can to work on my project
October 8th - October 28th: Performance, including a trip to the NRG between the 15th and 23rd

If I have the time and energy or if I haven't sent my project, I may extend the performance phase by a week, but we also have baby #4 due on Thanksgiving this year, so we'll have to see how everyone is doing. If you're trip to Kalymnos falls between October 8th and October 28th and you've been training hard already, I'd take a break for now and start you're fall season on the 16th. I suppose it depends, though, on how your body responds to training. I've done really well following the template suggestions in the Rock Climbers Training Manual and find I can peak well during the performance phase I've outlined above.

[climber511]

That sounds like a plan to me - I leave Oct 5th so an adjustment of just a couple days makes it work out easily. Thank you very much!!!! See now if Mark has any suggestions to add?