How much does temperature effect HB performance?

[cookienomster]

I did a HB routine for maintenance during my performance cycle, and surprisingly i hit PRs across the board.  the last time i did a HB session was back in mid november and the temps have dropped notably since then (~30 degrees).  I'm not sure if it's because i'm in the middle of my peak and i've just generally gotten stronger or because of temps or because of both.

so it begs the question, how much does temperature effect HB performance?

PS. apologies if this has already been brought up but i did a search and didn't come across too much.

[joev9]

I would say temps matter quite a bit, but others may be able to quantify an actual percentage. Probably a combination of both. This happened to me last spring with a campus workout in the middle of my performance phase where I hadn't campused for a while, didn't expect much, and ended up with some big PRs.

[Lundy]

Not sure about you, but I tend to lose a lot of weight during the performance phase, so if I were measuring my HB performance by weight added or subtracted, rather than total (i.e. including body weight) it might seem like I was crushing, when in reality most of it was probably weight loss. In addition, I would imagine that you'd probably be stronger during performance because, well, it's what you've been training for. I'm sure temps have something to do with it as well, but my guess would be those other factors.

[MarkAnderson]

That's fascinating. I think Lundy is on to something. Generally my weight peaks near the end of my Strength Phase, then steadily declines through the rest of my season. I've never done a mid-peak hangboard workout, so I can't say for sure how that would go, but I regularly campus "late" in my season, and the later workouts are generally the best, since I'm around 5-10 lb. lighter than I was when the Power Phase began (plus I've been "practicing" campusing regularly).

However, when I've found myself doing a campus workout late in the season when I had NOT been regularly campusing, my performance is terrible due to lack of practice and training (although if I do a couple workouts in a such a season, my campusing improves quickly). For that reason, if your HB workout was done after a long break from your Strength Phase I would still think the result is surprising, even if you are significantly lighter, since you would be relatively out of practice.

As for weather, humidity is a far more significant environmental factor, but temperature can play a role too. If your training area has gotten 30 degrees cooler, that could be really significant. My guess is the outside temperature has dropped 30degrees, but the temp in your training area hasn't changed quite that much. Still, I would guess that for me there is about a 5 lb difference between 50F and 60F. If I went from regularly hangboarding in 80F to 50F, I think it would make a huge difference.

So here are my questions for the sake of curiosity:

-How long between this PR workout and the previous HB workout?
-How much do you weigh now vs. the end of your Strength Phase?
-What is the temp in your training area now vs. in November?
-Any change in humidity that you know of? Around here (CO) it tends to be much drier in the winter than in the summer/spring.

[joev9]

Another interesting question would be, how did you choose your weights to hit these PRs? I'm asking because I think if I were to do a mid or late peak phase hangboard session, I'm not sure where I would go on the baseline weights. Not sure, I would straight up pick PR weights having not done any hangboarding for 6 or more weeks. When I start a new HB phase, my baseline weights are a fair bit below my previous PRs so as to build up to new PRs by HB6+

[cookienomster]

to answer mark's questions:

-How long between this PR workout and the previous HB workout?

specifically, this is my 2nd maintenance HB session. my 1st was a little under 2 weeks prior, and my last HB session of my strength phase was a month before that. the 2nd session consisted of PRs across the board. the 1st session was decent where i got a couple of my holds, but missed all the others.

-How much do you weigh now vs. the end of your Strength Phase?

my weight has been consistent this whole time so i haven't gain or loss any weight. i've been trying to diet the last few weeks but the holidays made that difficult. having a really bad sweet tooth doesn't help.

-What is the temp in your training area now vs. in November?

outside we're looking at about 30 degree difference. inside i'd guess about a 5-10 degree difference. this was an indoor gym so they keep the temperature pretty comfortable despite whatever is going on outside.

-Any change in humidity that you know of? Around here (CO) it tends to be much drier in the winter than in the summer/spring.

- i can't really answer that one. the only time i notice humidity around here is when it's 90+ degrees and it feels like the amazon rain forest.

[cookienomster]

Jan 6, 2016 9:38:41 GMT -7 joev9 said:

Another interesting question would be, how did you choose your weights to hit these PRs? I'm asking because I think if I were to do a mid or late peak phase hangboard session, I'm not sure where I would go on the baseline weights. Not sure, I would straight up pick PR weights having not done any hangboarding for 6 or more weeks. When I start a new HB phase, my baseline weights are a fair bit below my previous PRs so as to build up to new PRs by HB6+

i just started with the same weights i used for the last HB session during my strength phase.  i was thinking about pulling back 5 pounds or so but I was like screw it, lets see what happens. surprisingly when i did my first maintenance HB, my results were similar to my last HB session.  they were still mostly fails but i failed around the same set and second as last time.  later i did my 2nd maintenance HB session and PR'd across the board.

i understand what you're saying when having to pull back between strength cycles.  when i started my second strength cycle, my baseline was about 5-10s less than my previous cycle.

[joev9]

Nice! Maybe I will give this a try next performance cycle to see how things stand though I would find it hard to "waste" a performance day on the hangboard as I feel like I don't get enough performance days as it is...