Need help with identifying loop holes in my training plan.

I'm 27 and I started rock climbing about 2 years ago.
Although very haphazard in the beginning, for the last 5 - 6 months, I have been going through a relatively planned routine of training and climbing outdoors.
I practice bouldering in a gym 4/5 days a week and try to get to the outdoors once or twice a month, mostly on weekends.

For the last few weeks, I find myself stuck in a plateau. I'm finding it very difficult to figure out if the plateau came from over-training or from the lack of training.

Here's what seems to be going wrong:

1) I've several minor injuries in my upper body, some of which had been there for more than a month. I've tried resting and icing them for days. They mitigate to certain level, but do not seem to go away altogether.

2) Recurring finger pain, especially in the knuckles of my right-middle finger and left index finger. So far, I have been climbing despite the pain, ignoring it to the best of my abilities. But, even after 3/4 days of complete rest, the finger pain comes back after 5 mins of warm-up on jug holds.
(However, the pain is usually on the milder side. Hopefully, not strong enough to warrant medical attention)

3) Recurring wrist pain

4) I manage to climb V2/V3 grade problems at the most, that too when I'm feeling very psyched. On a bad day, I falter at V0/V1s. So far, I haven't gone any farther and I've been stuck at this level for quite a while.

5) Inability to stitch together harder problems. When I see a tough pitch, I can break it down to smaller "sub-problems" and send them one by one. But I can't seem to stitch these routes to send the complete route in one go.
(I think I have a power-endurance issue here, not sure though)

6) I never manage to flash problems, even the easier ones. If I climb a V2 in 8 attempts, I'll climb a V0 in 3. I never seem to send anything in the first attempt.


Please help me identify where I stand...

am I hurting because of over-training? or am I being pansy and I need to bear the pain and just punch through to even harder training/hang-boarding/workouts etc. ???

I practice bouldering in a gym 4/5 days a week and try to get to the outdoors once or twice a month, mostly on weekends.

1) I've several minor injuries in my upper body, some of which had been there for more than a month. I've tried resting and icing them for days. They mitigate to certain level, but do not seem to go away altogether.

2) Recurring finger pain, especially in the knuckles of my right-middle finger and left index finger. So far, I have been climbing despite the pain, ignoring it to the best of my abilities. But, even after 3/4 days of complete rest, the finger pain comes back after 5 mins of warm-up on jug holds.
(However, the pain is usually on the milder side. Hopefully, not strong enough to warrant medical attention)

3) Recurring wrist pain

4) I manage to climb V2/V3 grade problems at the most, that too when I'm feeling very psyched. On a bad day, I falter at V0/V1s. So far, I haven't gone any farther and I've been stuck at this level for quite a while.

5) Inability to stitch together harder problems. When I see a tough pitch, I can break it down to smaller "sub-problems" and send them one by one. But I can't seem to stitch these routes to send the complete route in one go.
(I think I have a power-endurance issue here, not sure though)

6) I never manage to flash problems, even the easier ones. If I climb a V2 in 8 attempts, I'll climb a V0 in 3. I never seem to send anything in the first attempt.

am I hurting because of over-training? or am I being pansy and I need to bear the pain and just punch through to even harder training/hang-boarding/workouts etc. ???

Thanks for the comment. But look at this:


...you talking about this book? Seriously a $1000 book, eh? OK, it figures high on my bucket list.

Meanwhile, I had been mugging up "Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance".

Thanks for the comment. But look at this:


...you talking about this book? Seriously a $1000 book, eh? OK, it figures high on my bucket list.

Meanwhile, I had been mugging up "Self-Coached Climber: The Guide to Movement, Training, Performance".

While Rock Climber's Training Manual is an awesome book that I have and use for training (and no, it certainly does not cost $1000), I don't think it is quite applicable to your situation yet. The book is a periodization training plan that puts training strength, power, power-endurance, endurance, and performance into a bigger picture of how to plan not just one workout, but an entire season.

BUT... IMO it is aimed at people who have a solid base of technique and climbing experience, and climb at a bit higher difficulty than you currently do. It is not a book that discusses movement training, and it assumes that you already know what ARCing is, and 4x4s, etc. and don't need help figuring out how to do it.
It sounds like you have barely a year of regimented climbing under your belt. It is much more likely at this stage that you will see more results from working on your technique, stamina and endurance, than you would from hangboard training.

Anecdotal experience of couple people I know who climb at ~5.10-5.11 range suggests that they were not really seeing much in terms of results after attempting to follow the Rockprodigy plan. It was frustrating to them because they couldn't even pick 6-7 different holds on the hangboard that they could hang on, even with subtraction of ~60 lb. And they couldn't campus even on jugs, let alone campus rungs.

My suggestions for you:

1) scale back to 3-4 climbing sessions per week (that includes outside and inside). Bouldering consecutive days at your top effort is really hard, and all those minor nagging and recurring injuries are your body's way of telling you to slow down.

2) Sounds like you already got Self-Coached Climber book. Have you done self-assessment? There are very helpful tables in the book that break down "you want to climb 5.11c/d" (or other grades) into "you should be able to send V3-V4 after working on it, you should be able to flash V0-V1, you should be able to do ARC at a certain level, do stamina laps at a certain level, etc." It is really helpful because you can immediately see where your weaknesses are, as in, "O.K., I can boulder V3, but i can't do ARC on even 5.9, I should work on that"

3) make sure you structure your gym sessions. Again, SCC has sample suggested plans, for different levels. The gist of it is that you need to make sure you warm up well, and mix up working on maximal level on problems that you can't do yet with working on sub-maximal levels, on problems you can already do, where your goal should be to climb them "perfectly", with as little effort as possible, with good form and technique. There are many movement drills described in SCC, practice them.

Climbing or training in the gym for 4-5 days/week is too much unless you're really young. Even then its not advisable. Also, too much volume on a particular day isn't good, particularly if you're going to climb again the next day. Good boulderers often work one problem for the whole day and maybe put in a half dozen to a dozen legitimate efforts per day. It all depends on how long the problem is, how sustained the moves are, etc.

Also, ignoring injuries rarely works out well. Especially if there is accompanying inflamation which can be difficult to see. There are plenty of folks out there who have been forced to cut their climbing careers short because of mismanaged injuries.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/swolen-pip-joints/109364199

Thanks for the analysis. Much appreciated.

I do know a bit about 4x4s and 6x8s. I make it a point to do them once a week. I try to follow the V2 V2 V1 V0 routine for 4x4s and mostly V1s, V0s and Vb- for 6x8s. I do ARC for 45 mins or more, once a week, on 10-15 degree overhang.
And I can manage campus on jug holds.

I have been trying to follow the SCC regimen for the last few months now, to the best of my understanding. Going through your comments and from what Gravitron5000 said, I've figured hangboarding is a bit too much for me at this stage.

I'll avoid that. And campussing too.

I'm trying to improve my technique as much as I can. SCC is a real gem of a training manual.

Yes, SCC is a very helpful book.

In terms of doing 4x4s, I think doing them once a week is not very helpful. This is where the Rock Climbers Training Manual has got things right.

IMO, you should focus on one thing at a time.

For example, make endurance your focus for the next 3-4 weeks. Do longer ARCing at every training session, plan for high volume of easier climbing, and focus on movement drills.

Then switch to power/power-endurance for several weeks, doing it at every session. Warm up (still paying attention to your movement drills during warmup), then work on harder bouldering problems that you can't send yet, again, analyze the moves in terms of what technique you should be applying, where your movement initiation comes from, make small adjustments as you keep trying... and then finish the session with 4x4s (just one set of 4x4, if you feel like you can still climb after doing a 4x4, you need to pick harder problems for it).

It helps if you can pick a goal, and tailor your training to that goal. FOr example, if there is a route you have done in sections, but not put together, try to pick your boulder problems that mimic that route for your 4x4s. If your route has a hard start, then a section of easier climbing, and then another hard section, do the same for your 4x4s. Don't do V2, V1, V0, V0, if your route is more like V1, V0,V0, V2. You might have to start with V2, V1, V1, V0, if that's all you can do, but then switch the problems around after a few sessions when you are getting better. (and you will, if you do them at every session).

But after 3-4 weeks of doing 4x4s at every session, it is time to lay off of them for a period of time, and maybe do stamina laps for a few weeks. And then go back to endurance, and work up to a higher level than in the previous cycle.

And by all means, you should but Rock Climber's Training manual and read it. If it is not applicable now, it would be in a year or so.