Hangboarding and degraded climbing performance

[nscherneck]

Hey all.

I've been climbing about 6 years and started training early this year.  I'm 6'2" and ~185lbs.  I'm climbing at 5.11- trad, 5.12- sport, and V5 bouldering in the gym.  Problem I'm encountering is when I'm transitioning from base to strength, I feel that the hangboarding is adversely effecting my climbing.  I'm hangboarding once a week, usually on Monday to allow full recovery for weekend climbing.  But I don't feel recovered enough during my limit climbing sessions during the week, so I've backed off the hangboarding entirely.  

The hangboarding is mostly at BW, though I've added 5 and 10 while on the biggest pockets during a couple sessions.  Of course, the sessions with the weight added negatively effected my climbing even more.  

I'm wondering if this happens to others and if I should just grin and bare it, if I should be subtracting weight with a pulley system, or if I should just continue avoiding the hangboard.  Any other thoughts?

Nathan

p.s. my goals are mostly long traditional free climbs (i.e. Astroman, Rostrum, RNWF, Shune's Buttress, Freeway, University Wall, etc.)

[Charlie S]

I'm no expert, but here are my recommendations:

1. Go to two times a week or every 4 days. A full week between hangboard workouts will not let you progress between workouts. But...
2. Definitely add a pulley system. If your hangboard workouts are still hurting you on Saturday from Monday, you're trying way too hard.
3. Are you struggling on problems that you could previously do? Or does your gym have a problem with grade shift/inconsistency? If the latter is going on, your goal "performance" is a perpetual moving target based on the setter's mood that day.

[Chris W]

Nathan, are you trying to "perform" every weekend? The Rock Prodigy system involves training periodization and a time set aside for peak levels of performance.

Also, if you're going through "limit" climbing sessions during the week, you may be overtraining. I had a big problem with this in another sport when I was young (in my teens) and too dumb to know any better. I used to start each season in good shape and good spirits, and watch each degrade to a pitiful level by the time our racing season came around. If you haven't, check out the RCTM book; it's well done and explains a lot of this.

[nscherneck]

Jul 14, 2014 4:48:17 GMT -7 Chris W said:

Also, if you're going through "limit" climbing sessions during the week, you may be overtraining. 

Chris, thanks for the response.  I've read the RCTM a couple times over.  By limit climbing I mean leading gym routes or working boulder problems that are at or above my max ability, ratings wise.  

[kerwinl]

You should expect reduced climbing performance while hangboarding, it is very stressful to the forearms, especially if you are new to training. Have you used the hangboard previously, if so for how long? Your ability to handle an increased training load will come with time and more training, but is very low initially.

I agree with Charlie that 1x/week is probably not enough to see much gains, but it might be enough for maintenance. If you find that your recovery is lacking, try self massage, icing, a easy ARC workout and lots of sleep to help with recovery.