Climbing while in strength phase?

[timwest]

Hoping to get a recommendation on how to incorporate climbing into my strength training hangboard phase given my situation.

Currently, I work right next to my rock climbing gym and I can go there pretty much any day I want for multiple hours. Before starting the rock prodigy training method I was climbing 3-4 days a week usually one day on one day off. Climbing V5-V6 mostly bouldering.

My question is, given my hangboard setup being at home (about an hour from the gym) how can I incorporate climbing into the strength phase of the program? I see that it recommends some light arc'ing before hangboarding to warm up however I'm not sure if it would benefit me to stop by my gym, do a quick 30-40 minutes of light climbing, then hop on the train home and do my hangboard session when I get there an hour later. 

I'm having trouble doing just hangboarding as I have so much free time to climb so hoping to see if anyone has any recommendations on some climbing I could incorporate into the strength phase without hindering the results. Right now, my schedule is...

Monday - Hangboard

Tuesday - Yoga then Core Exercises (TRX, hanging leg raises, planks) 

Wednesday - Antagonist muscle workout

Thursday - Hangboard

Friday - Core Exercises

Saturday - Gym climbing (not sure if I should be climbing hard at this phase)

Sunday - If I climbed saturday then usually more of an antagonist muscle workout, if not Hangboard

Is there any way I could incorporate more climbing? If not I can continue as is, I just have a lot of time to dedicate and have trouble staying away from climbing haha.

Thanks in advance!

[rob]

As much as it sucks, I've seen by far the best HB gains and climbing performance improvements when I've gone the whole 10 sessions with no climbing in-between, doing workouts every 3rd day. So I'm more motivated this season to stick with it and not climb.... But I definitely understand your dilemma! My battle is more with resisting outdoor climbing when the weather is nice.

If you are going to climb during this phase then I would suggest adding more (at least some) rest days in there. HBing is really intense on your muscles and connective tissue when done at your limit, even if you don't feel that tired the next day. I know you're working core/ antagonists between HB sessions but you need some total rest days I think unless you're extremely well trained.

[latestart]

I asked a similar question a couple weeks back. It looks like your proposed Hangboard / Climbing schedule is essentially the same as what I laid out. My only recommendation would be to completely rest the day before a hangboard workout. Maybe do both your hangboard and SE's (yoga, TRX, core, whatever you're into) on the same day, antagonists the day after, and then a full rest day before hangboarding again.

Overall, the general consensus seems to be that if you're climbing AND hangboarding, you won't see as much improvement on the board. But if you're fairly new to training, you should still see some gains.

rockprodigytraining.proboards.com/thread/615/climbing-outside-strength-phase

[joshvillen]

I like to do my hang boarding at the gym so I can more effectively warm up and still get some climbing in too. Spend about 30 mins progressively warming up and then 10-30 mins project bouldering (nothing too pumpy...more along the lines of limit bouldering).

This way your movements don't get to rusty either. After 10 workouts with no climbing I felt very rusty with the simplest of movements and decided I still needed some mileage regardless of how small it was. 

[jessebruni]

I warmup at the gym and do a little bit of hard bouldering in the last 10-15 minutes as well. But then I drive home and hangboard there.

[Lundy]

Like Jesse and Josh I warmup boulder, do about 15-20 minutes of limit bouldering (again not to get pumped, but not so much that I'm starting to burn out), then hit the hangboard. Have the full setup at home, so it's easier to get all this in. The key for me in my HB performance is to start hangboarding right as I'm getting to feel really strong on the boulder wall, which usually happens around 45 minutes into my climb.

[slimshaky]

yeah, i have found that (for me at least) 45 minutes is the perfect length of bouldering time. another option for climbing during the strength phase would be something along the lines of:

Monday HB, Thursday HB, Sunday outside, Wed HB, Sat HB or outside, Tue HB, Fri HB, Mon HB Thur HB, Sun outside
(assuming an every 3rd day schedule). you could probably get by with only 2 days rest before or after outside sessions as they usually aren't as intense. this can help to schedule it such that you basically have 2 HB sessions and 1 outdoor session per week. for example Mon HB, Thurs HB, Sun outdoors, repeat... also, if i have an outside session scheduled and the weather sucks i will do an HB workout instead or rest and do my next HB the following day to get a day 'ahead'.

i have done this a few times and overall i really like it. one thing is that it kind of stretches out the 'length' of the HB cycle, usually by a week or two.

[micahk]

My first time I did the strength phase, I didn't really climb outside of it at all. This time on the day after my hangboard session, I tossed in climbing days on on sub 5.11 trad routes (5-10 routes), and didn't do anything particularly hard or bouldery. Didn't seem to affect my hangboard, as I had good gains over the last time I did the strength phase, and I didn't go stir crazy, and actually felt more focused on my hangboarding.

[BillyJack Gordon]

I too have found that I'm stronger on HB workouts if I've bouldered prior, probably because my central nervous system and forearm muscles are activated. It seems like since only a certain % of muscle fibers are called into use until they are needed, having the largest % of muscles firing prior to starting a HB workout would be then lead to loading of the highest % of muscle fiber possible resulting in maximal hypertrophy. Are there any other factors that I'm missing such as concerns of overtraining? Why exactly do we train strength and power in subsequent phases?

[rroic]

A bit offtopic, but what would be a safe and solid warmup at home? In my strenth phase, I drive off to a secluded gym with no "traffic" to have the ability to both warmup and HB in peace and quite. But it takes me 2hours there and back, which is a bit crazy. I have a HB at home, but am unsure what kind of warmup would be good enough for hard tensions that follows it? Thanks to all

[heelhook]

Hey rroic, I face a very similar situation. HB at home. 1h drive to a gym. What I do is I first do a body warm up. Running up and down stairs, jumping around. Then some light push ups. Then I use a rubber ball to warm up the grip. Then get on the HB and, with my feet on a platform move around the HB, switching to different grips.

I do this in several sets, so after moving around the HB I'll go back into jumping around, push ups, then HB again. I do this until I feel warm and I sweat a little bit. Often I feel that I'm getting stronger on the HB throughout my warmup which is a good indication that my body is getting ready to work. On my last couple of HB warmups I "monkey" around the HB a bit, meaning, with no feet, I dangle from one hold to the other (e.g. left and right hand on the jugs, let go right hand (body swings to the left), catch a sloper with my right hand, let go my left hand (body swings right now), catch a big edge with my left hand, etc.) I do this last one slowly and carefully and avoid big swings. After doing that for a few minutes I rest a bit and start with timed warmup sets on jugs.

It usually takes me 20 minutes to do everything for the warmup, usually when I'm 15 minutes in I feel I'm ready to start working hard.

Hope this helps