campus gains question

[Morganh]

Hi - I'm in my power phase. I've basically been campusing 1 day, resting a day, limit bouldering, resting two days, campusing again, etc. I've been doing the intermediate workout on the campus board. The board at our gym includes three sets of rungs, but the small rung spacing is about 8", so there are about half as many rungs as the moon spacing.  I can skip two, then skip two when doing max ladders with pretty good repeatibility, but can not get anywhere close to skipping two then skipping three. The second move is just too big, it would be roughly equivalent to 1-4-8, with 8" between rungs.

After I do a couple sets of 1-4-7, what should I move on to next? I've been doing 1-4-6,7,8 as a bump again, and that seems pretty good. What have other people been doing to train to get to the next rung?

Thanks.   

[jessebruni]

I thought moon spacing was 22cm on center? That's about 8.6 inches per rung. Anyway, I can't help you except to say that 1-4-7 on small rungs at 8" is pretty damn good. And that I've always preferred taking two days off after campusing and 1 day after limit bouldering. For me the campusing wrecks me for longer.

[Sander]

Lacking half spacing rungs, you could go for more asymmetric ladders as a bridging exercise: try 1-3-7 and 1-5-7 for example. This way you prepare for the larger distances you'd have to cover in higher ladders in an easier manner. I often find doing these asymmetric ladders quite a bit harder and use them to progress even between rungs at half spacing.

[jonfrisby]

Jesse, I prefer a day after campusing and two after LB like Morgan. The reason is that I feel being rested for the most brutal workout is more important than resting extra afterward in terms of injury prevention. That may be wrong and I'd like to see some other opinions on the issue.

[climber511]

The very basic way things work (I've been a weight lifter for 56 years now) is this:
Work the muscles - break them down
Allow for recovery (recovery really only means "back to where they were" before the workout.
Allow time for what is called Super Compensation.

It's the last part that people generally don't do. It may sound like splitting hairs on the definitions but it is the key to progress. Everyone has a different rate of recovery and that will vary with many factors and of course progress can only last before plateauing. Only you can figure out how much rest time is needed to allow for the over compensation to occur. But as a very general rule of thumb - when in doubt allow more time between workouts for max strength gains rather than less time.

[Morganh]

Jesse - You're right, the rungs at our gym are on the moon spacing at 8.6", I measured. I didn't have an iphone or inclinometer to measure the angle though. I've been following the sample training schedules from the book, and they recommend two days rest prior to campusing. It seems to work pretty well so far, and I think is probably a good idea from an injury prevention perspective.

I've only got one more campus workout before the PE phase starts up, so I'll have to wait for next phase to see if it works, but what I'm doing now is:

Boulder to warm up.

Warm up on ladders, one set each on each rung size.

Max ladders, each hand:

Set 1
1-3-5
Set 2
1-4-6
Set 3
1-4-7
Set 4
1-4-7
Set 5
1-4-5, then bump to 6,7,8,9, fail trying to go to 10
Set 6
1-4-5, then bump to 6,7,8,9, fail trying to go to 10

Then mess around on doubles a bit, but end up giving up pretty quickly because my skin usually hurts. Next cycle, I'll do this from the start instead of fruitless failing at 1-4-8 for the last two sets. Unless someone wise comes up with a better idea.

[andytheblacksmith]

Out here in Santa Barbara, campusing has turned in to quite the sport in and of itself—not just a tool for training power. We started a campusing competition called Lord Of The Rungs, which this year included a bunch of climbing gyms from all over the country. I bring this up to spread the news about LOTR (here's the website: www.lordoftherungs.com/), as well as to provide a good framework for campus training. One of the hardest things to structure in campusing is progression. What moves do you start with? And what moves are incrementally harder or easier? Check out the scoring sheet for the event:

reports.lordoftherungs.com/ReportServer/Pages/ReportViewer.aspx?/LOTR_ReportGroup_Competitor/ScoringMethod_Moves&rs:Command=Render

Using the above point system , you can look at the breadth of "classic" campusing moves, and structure your workouts accordingly. I'm sure people on this forum have their own viewpoints and opinions regarding how much importance to ascribe to the campus board, but I love it. That said, take the scoresheet with a grain of salt (for example, we did a lot of two-finger campusing, because hey, it's super fun to watch and gets big points... but it IS super dangerous).