The evening of Tuesday, March 5th, from 4-9pm, at Rockquest in Cincinnati! During the demo, all Evolv shoes, in stock or special order, are 10% off. Gym members will receive an additional 10% off!
New to the demo fleet are the sister to the award winning Shaman, the Shaman LV. Lower volume for you skinnier footed, smaller heeled guys and girls.
I'll be around for most of the evening, so if you wanna talk training, or learn some better footwork to go with these better shoes, stop by and chat a while.
Come out and send your gym projects in style!
Kris,
ReplyDeleteFirst, THANK YOU.
Thank you for providing such a great resource for the climbing community; thank you for telling it like it is; thank you for helping me realize that I have sufficient time to train and that “training” isn’t simply climbing/hangboarding more.
Second, I was hoping you might be able to comment on a question I have. Most of your training advice seems to be geared towards sport climbers. Are there any significant modifications you would recommend to a training program for someone with a focus on boulders? I’m new to training in phases. While I enjoy sport climbing, at the moment I have (much) better access to quality bouldering. If you are interested, I’ll include some information below about myself, the training that I have recently done, and some progress I’ve made.
Thanks
-T
A bit about me; I am a boulderer who has been hopelessly plateaued for 5 plus years. I have a full time job, a wife, 2 year old daughter, and a fixer-upper house. I’ve often felt that I don’t have the time to train properly (after all training is simply climbing more, right?) Your blog has helped me see the error of my ways, thank you.
After discovering your blog, I threw together a somewhat half-assed (by your standards) plan hoping to at least maintain my current level. I did hypertrophy, a little recruitment, and anaerobic endurance phases. As I mentioned above I’ve never tried training in phases. (Anaerobic endurance is by far my weak point since I climb 95+% boulders). 4x4’s initially kicked my ass, but by the end of the phase I was able to work some v4-6’s into my 4x4’s and dry heave my way through them.
I didn’t really think I’d experience any kind of increased performance. I was, after all, just hoping to maintain (this Kris character couldn’t possibly know what he is talking about). A particularly busy week kept me out of the gym following the AE. Then seemingly out of nowhere, everything felt like it started to click. Quick sends in the gym of problems that would normally take me lots of work; an outdoor project above my plateau grade, SENT; solid progress on another outdoor project above my plateau grade.
I’m hooked. I want more. I haven’t felt improvements like this in years. I’ll soon be trying to come up with another program (this one not quite so half-assed) and that brings me back to my question. Are there any modifications to the training phases that you recommend for those of us who primarily boulder? If you made it this far, again, thank you. -T
Wow T, Thanks. It means alot to hear from the people who are
Deleteinspired by the blog... it keeps me motivated. I appreciate you reading, and am psyched for your progression.
You're right... most of my advice is for sport climbers. I've been doing some thinking lately along the lines of your question. Reason is, my girlfriend has decided that she is mostly a boulderer as well, so I'd better know how to train her, huh?
I'll keep it somewhat short here, but I'll add the topic to my list of topics to cover.
Here are my current basic thoughts on how to modify training for boulderers:
1. Hypertrophy.
I've never been a big fan of training with heavy weights on a hangboard, but Eva Lopez has done a huge amount of research that supports its importance. I'm going to try it. In my next hypo phase I'll also be system boarding, focusing on weak movements and positions, and doing low rep difficult sets of those trouble areas. Also, be very focused on working on single hard moves and 3 move or less sequences in this phase. Intensity has to be the ruling idea, and once you're 7 moves into a problem, you've lost 100% intensity. Also, be positive to quit before you're going downhill. It will reduce recovery time and allow for a more fresh session the next time.
Recruitment:
I've recently become a big fan of campusing on bigger rungs with bigger moves. It makes more sense that the adaptations had from this would be more "powerful" than moving to smaller rungs and being forced into shorter moves. Ditto with the time ideas from the previous phase.
Anaerobic Endurance:
For dedicated boulderers doing intervals, I'd say keep it short and powerful. Do four 3-5 move problems rather than several longer problems. It's a different kind of hard. You'll find that your coordination falls apart much faster than you'd anticipate.
Beyond all those things, address any weaknesses you may have... if weight training will help you put on some needed muscle, try it. If running or biking will shed a little extra weight, go that route. Need more sleep? Need to eat better? Change SOMETHING every time you run through a cycle, and you'll keep seeing progress.
Hope that helps for now. Look for this to all be covered more in depth this summer, and check back in and let me know how it's going!
Kris
Kris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply and your thoughts. I'll definitely take them into consideration. -T