PE Duty Cycle

[rctmdotcom]

"S" asked:

I read and worked on PE last night. Since I am in a cycle already, I jumped to this rather than restarting (and I am trying to peak for beg of May).

In the chapter on PE, it says about 6 seconds per hand movement. So I timed movement last night and my timing is about 4 sec/movement or slightly faster.

1. is there a value in a 6 sec isometric contraction? Since climbing is movement based, I would think I would not want to become more static (this is an issue for me already, and the last 6 months I have been really trying to move faster).

2. In your experience in PE training is the work time more important or the number of moves? I have found the most benefit by focusing on time. So if I need to be on the wall for 4 minutes, I would increase moves appropriately to get to this.

[MarkAnderson]

Did you time yourself climbing inside, on plastic? We all climb
faster on plastic than we do on real rock. The reason for this is
that plastic holds are less intricate, easier to grab and require less
adjustment to grab effectively. The same goes for plastic footholds,
which are generally much larger than real rock footholds, and so
require much less precision. These factors allow for much quicker
movements inside.

To your question, I think "Time Under Tension" (TUT) is more important
than # of moves. Ideally, you would climb your indoor PE training
route at the same pace you will climb your outdoor goal route. I
suggest your try to slow yourself down a bit while training inside,
and avoid the urge to sprint. However, even if you do that, you will
still likely be climbing faster than you do outside, so a good
compromise is to add more moves as you suggested, to increase the
total set time.

[Mike Anderson]

Remember, the timing given in the book is based purely on analysis of my own climbing. Therefore, the timing given is not universally applicable to everyone, but the method is. Take some video of yourself climbing on real rock (it's very easy to do in this day and age), and perform your own analysis.

As Mark implied, I think you'll find that you climb much, much slower outside. We describe some techniques in the book for slowing down your LBCs, like time gates, and using complicated holds.

[tclack88]

Commenting on an old post again. Forgive!

A duty cycle as I understand it is just a work to rest ratio correct?

In the book on page 186 you've got duty cycles of "2:2" and "4:4" but from what I understand these are just the same as "1:1" right? No special meaning behind these numbers?

[Chris W]

You are correct. If your LBC is 60 seconds long, you'd climb for 60 seconds, then rest for 60 seconds with a duty cycle of 1:1 or 4:4 or 2:2. A duty cycle of 1:2 with a 60 second LBC would be climb 60 seconds, rest for 120 seconds.

[MarkAnderson]

Well, not exactly. Yes 4/4=1/1. But the intent of using 4:4 is to indicate that for that particular session, you should be using a relatively long TUT (~4 minutes) and a relatively long rest period (~4 minutes). Certainly, an LBC with a 1:1 duty cycle is very different from a Route Interval with a 4:4 duty cycle, regardless of what the math says.

[tclack88]

Thanks for the clarification! I'm kicking myself now for not seeing it now. It's right there in the caption on pg 165.

Thanks again. Climb on friends!