Strength Phase Timings

[solwertkin]

Some background info:

I have loosely followed the rock prodigy training method for a number of years with great success. I live in Leavenworth, WA and my goals are biased towards what is available to me. Hard Bouldering and Hard Traditional Alpine Rock Climbs. Thus far I have bouldered up to V10, sport climbed up to 5.13, and done multipitch traditional rock climbs deep in the mountains up to 5.12b/c. Much of my climbing is done on slabby/vertical to slightly overhanging granite. 


My question: 

Whether I got this from the misinterpretting the original Rock Prodigy PDF of perhaps from a similar protocol: Beastmaker, or Robot Climbing, or Ryan Palo (i'm not really sure..), my timings for hangboard repeater sets differ slightly from the RCTM protocol in intensity and duration. Currently I perform 8 grips 2 sets per grip for a total of 16.

• 1st set: 7sec on 3sec off, weight adjusted to fail on the 6th rep. 
  
• 2nd set: 6sec on, 4 sec off, same weight as the first set, ususally fail on the sixth rep.

Now this differs from the RCTM in that they advocate starting with a lower intensity weight for the first set and increasing intensity for the 2nd set, and that one should be able to complete the 7th rep on the first set. Both sets for me are of similar intensity, I decrease the on and increase the off on the 2nd set as I am pretty damn taxed from my first set.  As stated before I have had good results with this timing thus far though it is worth noting that I excel on short hard bouldery cruxes vs enduro style pumpfests. 

Would I get better gains by decreasing resistance so that I more closely follow the RCTM protocol? Does the bouldery vertical nature of my climbing goals make my protocol seem more specific to my goals? Does it not really matter?


Last question: I have had great results training my Ring Pinky combo (very carefully!). How come the RCTM does not discuss this combo?


Thanks for any thoughts on these questions. Train on fellow periodizers!

[MarkAnderson]

Regarding the second set, I think the Time Under Tension is probably the most important factor, and you're doing 36 seconds compared to the standard 35. So not a big difference there. Obviously you're resting more within the set (20 sec vs 15 sec), and then does put you more towards the power end of the spectrum, but I doubt it's a tangible difference.

Regarding the resistance, I would experiment with using less for the first set, and see how that effects the second set. For example, try using 5 lb less on set one, and see if that allows you to use 5 more on set two. In my experience, I really need to warm up well to perform my best. I perform significantly better (qualitatively and quantitatively) on my second and third sets than I do on my first, so it's worth "saving" something for the latter sets. If my first set is too hard, I will exhaust myself, thus undermining my latter sets, and thus undermining the opportunity to really crush on the money sets.

All that said, if what you're doing is working, that's great. But if you're looking to optimize your training, you have to make small excursions from what you normally do and see if there results get better or worse.

Regarding Ring/Pinky, grip selection is a matter of priority. I've trained that grip in the past, when I was more into thin crack climbing, but currently it's not a high-enough priority to make it into my workouts, YMMV (as a sport climber who goes out of his way to find pockets, I've used that grip exactly one time in ten years, and even then I had plenty of strength to do the move without training that grip). I know slim has trained it (maybe he still does) with great success. If I were training for City Park or something I would definitely train it.

[slimshaky]

man, i think it is pretty interesting that you have a similar performance on the second set, when it is an easier time setup. if i do 3 sets of the same grip and timing, each set i can usually do 2.5 lbs more than the previous set. (now that i think about it though, this is only the case for my HB workouts - for curls, pullups, etc i tend to go downhill each set, so maybe i am the odd one here).

for my current cycle i was going to cut back the weight on the first two sets, to see if i could bump up that last set a bit more. unfortunately, i was scurrying to get started and sort of forgot. maybe tomorrow (4th workout) i might try to drop them back a bit and see how it feels. this will be interesting, in general i can usually do a lot of tough sets without really degrading in performance that much, however i hit a pretty hard ceiling.

for the RP grip, like mark said i used to train it a lot for thin cracks. the last few years i have trained it more in an effort to see if it would help my four finger open crimp (and thus hopefully campusing also). i have definitely got a lot stronger on the RP combo, but the verdict is still out as to whether it has helped my 4foc. i did actually use an RP grip on a route about a month ago. it was (no surprise) a thin crack move on a limestone crack, and it made the move quite a bit easier for me. i think this is a really handy combo if you have a big difference in finger lengths as you can use it to go thumbs up in a pod that has a shallower lower section.

keep us posted on how it all goes, i am always curious about these things.