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chalkhamster
Feb 19, 2009, 5:34 AM
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On average, I have the opportunity to climb two to three days a week (usually bouldering) and I try to get adequate rest in between. Lately, I'll have a great session, followed by five or six climbing sessions that are rather disappointing. I'll be well rested and thinking I'm going to crush and then feel completely sapped within a few problems.
I'm basically wondering if it would be acceptable to do some "maintenance" exercises on non climbing days in an attempt to set a new baseline and increase consistency. I'm trying to be very careful not to overwork myself.
Right now, in addition to stretches and such, I've been adding three twenty rep sets of medium weight dumbell curls and two twenty rep sets of hammer curls, two sets of 25 pushups, and a fair number of squeezes with a BD rubber ring.
Any advice?
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suilenroc
Feb 19, 2009, 5:37 AM
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Worry less.
Drink more PBR.
Climb, don't boulder.
Warm up for 30+ minutes.
Have fun.
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jto
Feb 19, 2009, 6:40 AM
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If you have time for it I see no reason why you canīt climb almost every day or twice a day even. I do it and Iīm 39 so age is not a problem. Usually 4-9 climbing or bouldering workouts a week.
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aerili
Feb 19, 2009, 6:51 AM
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suilenroc wrote: Warm up for 30+ minutes.
FAIL.
Moving on...
chalkhamster wrote: Lately, I'll have a great session, followed by five or six climbing sessions that are rather disappointing. I'll be well rested and thinking I'm going to crush and then feel completely sapped within a few problems.
So you're saying that you have a good climbing day once about every two weeks?
In reply to: I'm basically wondering if it would be acceptable to do some "maintenance" exercises on non climbing days in an attempt to set a new baseline and increase consistency. I'm trying to be very careful not to overwork myself.
In reply to: Right now, in addition to stretches and such, I've been adding three twenty rep sets of medium weight dumbell curls and two twenty rep sets of hammer curls, two sets of 25 pushups, and a fair number of squeezes with a BD rubber ring.
The only other things you should maybe consider is not eating enough calories, not getting enough sleep, or a medical problem (maybe a Complete Blood Count is in order?).
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suilenroc
Feb 19, 2009, 6:53 AM
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aerili wrote: suilenroc wrote: Warm up for 30+ minutes. FAIL. Moving on... chalkhamster wrote: Lately, I'll have a great session, followed by five or six climbing sessions that are rather disappointing. I'll be well rested and thinking I'm going to crush and then feel completely sapped within a few problems. So you're saying that you have a good climbing day once about every two weeks? In reply to: I'm basically wondering if it would be acceptable to do some "maintenance" exercises on non climbing days in an attempt to set a new baseline and increase consistency. I'm trying to be very careful not to overwork myself. Sorry, this is just confusing me a little. What do you feel you are not maintaining? General fitness? Specific fitness? Also, just so you are aware, "maintenance exercises" and "setting a new [fitness] baseline" aren't compatible in methodology. In reply to: Right now, in addition to stretches and such, I've been adding three twenty rep sets of medium weight dumbell curls and two twenty rep sets of hammer curls, two sets of 25 pushups, and a fair number of squeezes with a BD rubber ring. Without knowing exactly what feels sapped, it's hard to say what this will do. Personally, I don't think the curls will do much for you. The rubber ring...who knows? The push ups are okay for building antagonist strength but I don't know if they will change your general energy on the rock much. The only other things you should maybe consider is not eating enough calories, not getting enough sleep, or a medical problem (maybe a Complete Blood Count is in order?).
You FAiL because you were born, yeah i went there.
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Toast_in_the_Machine
Feb 19, 2009, 11:46 AM
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You can train your brain everyday. You can, and should, use your muscles every day. You can fully stress your muscles about only one every other day or so.
As for advice, be happy and enjoy life. It is better than the alternative.
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taydude
Feb 19, 2009, 1:34 PM
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Why does everyone over analyze everything? Climbing makes you stronger. If you feel good go climb. If you feel good enough to climb everyday than go for it.
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krusher4
Feb 19, 2009, 2:16 PM
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suilenroc wrote: Worry less. Drink more PBR. Climb, don't boulder. Warm up for 30+ minutes. Have fun.
Yes!
You can climb every day just vary the intensity. Many climbers just simply try their best/hardest every day this is not a great method. Read some books on training.
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ACJ
Feb 19, 2009, 2:48 PM
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In my OPINION I think you should try a bunch of different things. I think everyones body responds differently to climbing/intensity/frequency so maybe your not resting enough or maybe you can add some maintenance in there.
In 2008 I climbed 200 days in 9 months. Towards the end I would feel rested and strong and blah blah blah. What I didn't realize is how much stronger I could be. I suffered a finger injury (overuse sounds obvious) and during the recovery time I stayed active but with no focus on training any climbing muscles. Now, once I have started climbing again I am surprised to feel dramatically stronger and right off the back able to campus problems that were difficult for me in the fall.
So really just figure out what your body needs. I think for most climbers though, the dreaded "read a book and ride your bike for a few weeks" sounds like the end of the world. If you can manage to take a few down weeks it might be worth your while. Otherwise just keep searching for the right combination of climbing/rest for your body.
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krusher4
Feb 19, 2009, 2:53 PM
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ACJ is right, everyone is diff so diff things work for everyone.
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elcapinyoazz
Feb 19, 2009, 3:46 PM
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You need to add alot more info to get any kind of relevant suggestions:
How much volume in a typical session? Age. How much sleep do you get and is it on a regular or irregular schedule (college students are terrible at this). Are you a caffeine addict. Do you eat at consistent times in relation to the workout. Do you workout at the same time every session? Male or female. Do you warm up and how. Do you periodize or otherwise cycle your training?
Squeezing a rubber ring and doing a few curls aren't going to do anything for you IMO. From my own experience and what I see in my climbing gym, many people overtrain. The stress needed to elicit a positive response is probably less volume than you think when building strength or power. I believe alot of people go well beyond that point in a typical gym bouldering session and consequently take longer to recover, often to the point of not being fully recovered even with 2-3 days rest. They get in a deficit and never really get out of it until there is forced extended rest...usually from an overtraining injury.
Aerili is probably your best source of info on this here intardwebsite, being a professional in the field, but after answering the same questions over and over it's kind of like being a doctor at a cocktail party...everyone wants free advice. "Hey doc, can you take a look at this goiter on my chonson?"
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chalkhamster
Feb 19, 2009, 4:22 PM
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I live in a county with seven microbreweries, although I do drink some PBR occasionally. Its my drink of choice at the RRG. I manage to get some rope climbing in, but it is TR at a gym because there are no bolts set up for leading. I wish I could climb more, but the nearest gym is over half an hour away and real rock is 45 min+.
aerili wrote: So you're saying that you have a good climbing day once about every two weeks?
This is not always the case but sometimes it seems like it. Granted, when I get the opportunity to climb, I'm usually pushing myself pretty hard and have fairly high expectations. It's not like I'm flailing on everything; my form and focus seem to be adequate.
aerili wrote: Sorry, this is just confusing me a little. What do you feel you are not maintaining? General fitness? Specific fitness?
I would say general fitness. It is more like my whole body feels tired as opposed to my arms, back, legs, etc.
aerili wrote: Without knowing exactly what feels sapped, it's hard to say what this will do. Personally, I don't think the curls will do much for you. The rubber ring...who knows? The push ups are okay for building antagonist strength but I don't know if they will change your general energy on the rock much.
My general energy is what I'm hoping to change. I know that there is no surefire way to do this and there is no way to guarantee that I'm even going to feel 90% every time. I suppose I will start adding in more moderate roped routes, add some cardio (lacking as of late), and perhaps try to sleep more (I'm already getting close to 8 hours).
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troutboy
Feb 19, 2009, 4:32 PM
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Any other symptoms such as minor sore throat or low grade fever ? Joint pain ? Headaches ?
Any chance there could be an underlying cause such as Mono or Lyme Disease ?
TS
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chalkhamster
Feb 19, 2009, 5:33 PM
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Nope, and hopefully that kind of mess is not in my near future. After reading some threads on here concerning sleep, I'm going to attempt to bump my hours to a solid 8.5 and see what happens.
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aerili
Feb 19, 2009, 9:44 PM
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Without knowing your age, lifestyle habits, eating habits, weight/body comp, and so forth, it's nigh impossible to give a better response for a more probable specific source of poor energy and inconsistent climbing workouts.
Not to mention that psychological factors could have a huge impact on how you're doing physically--either your general mental health state or more specifically sport psych mindset in particular, but these are not my areas of knowledge.
It wouldn't hurt to get a blood work-up just to make sure everything is A-ok on that end.
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aerili
Feb 19, 2009, 9:54 PM
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elcapinyoazz wrote: Aerili is probably your best source of info on this here intardwebsite, being a professional in the field, but after answering the same questions over and over it's kind of like being a doctor at a cocktail party...everyone wants free advice. "Hey doc, can you take a look at this goiter on my chonson?"
Thanks for the kind words, and also I find your statement so funny and true.... Sometimes at social events I avoid telling my background because I end up either
1) Being interrogated (usually by a guy) to go over their training program detail by detail in order to help them improve it, or
2) Argued with by some moron who has read/heard something quite inaccurate and employed it in their training and doesn't want to believe that I could know any better than they do
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timl
Feb 19, 2009, 10:10 PM
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What do you train in the gym? Usually gym climbing isn't really training. It's climbing. Are you having bouldering sessions, or session that you work specific areas like, endurance, power, etc. A lot of it depends on many factors that you have not provided. Also the intensity of your training sessions. I train two days back to back and climb two days a week. After two days of intense training session with running on either side, I'm toasted and need a day or so to recover for real climbing outside. I can easily say when I'm training it's not like I'm climbing. Campus and fingerboards pyramids are training, but I can tell the difference when i go out on the rock on the weekends.
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viciado
Feb 19, 2009, 10:12 PM
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No one can rule out other underlying factors without some sort of exam and /or blood work-up, but from what you report, you may benefit from adding some cardio in your training. This would help your "general" fitness and you will likely see improvement in your recovery time. Sounds like you already got on the eat and sleep healthy (except for that PBR garbage!  )
There is great reading material out there, just do a search on this site and you'll find several good titles with links.
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Myxomatosis
Feb 20, 2009, 3:41 AM
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I know the secert to climbing hard.......
Train less and have fun more oftern.
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onceahardman
Feb 20, 2009, 3:54 AM
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In reply to: Thanks for the kind words, and also I find your statement so funny and true.... Sometimes at social events I avoid telling my background because I end up either 1) Being interrogated (usually by a guy) to go over their training program detail by detail in order to help them improve it, or 2) Argued with by some moron who has read/heard something quite inaccurate and employed it in their training and doesn't want to believe that I could know any better than they do
So true. Still, though, I have gotten stuck doing spine manipulations at apres-ski parties, and being asked to assess shoulder pain while I'm half in the bag...
The worst, though, is when people ask you for advice, and you give your knowledge freely, but then they want to argue with you, because they don't like your advice.
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justroberto
Feb 20, 2009, 6:08 AM
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suilenroc wrote: aerili wrote: suilenroc wrote: Warm up for 30+ minutes. FAIL. You FAiL because you were born, yeah i went there.
Wow. For posterity.
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suilenroc
Feb 20, 2009, 8:10 AM
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justroberto wrote: suilenroc wrote: aerili wrote: suilenroc wrote: Warm up for 30+ minutes. FAIL. You FAiL because you were born, yeah i went there. Wow. For posterity.
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suilenroc
Feb 20, 2009, 8:31 AM
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suilenroc wrote: justroberto wrote: suilenroc wrote: aerili wrote: suilenroc wrote: Warm up for 30+ minutes. FAIL. You FAiL because you were born, yeah i went there. Wow. For posterity. Yeah, for posterity... For truth.
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chalkhamster
Feb 21, 2009, 4:54 AM
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I really do appreciate all the replies, even the "have more fun" answers. I have definitely realized that my initial question was actually a fairly complex one. Much of prompted my post is probably psychological because I do have my moments where I feel like I suck at climbing. Nevertheless, I'm in love with the sport.
To answer some more questions (forgive me for not quoting the askers):
I have never had a true training regimen. I just climb, making sure I focus on a variety of problems and routes. I don't use a hang or campus board either.
I'm 24, 5'8" and 142 lbs. I had a CBC about 8 months ago and everything was fine.
Warming up includes a lot of stretching, probably 80 feet of traversing, and then two runs up an easy roped route or a couple of problems at lower grades starting at V0. A given roped session might include 10-12 pitches, while I may crank out 25-35 (I'm guessing) problems at the gym.
Right now I get around 7 hours of sleep a night and usually around 9 on the weekends.
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suilenroc
Feb 21, 2009, 9:11 AM
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suilenroc wrote: suilenroc wrote: justroberto wrote: suilenroc wrote: aerili wrote: suilenroc wrote: Warm up for 30+ minutes. FAIL. You FAiL because you were born, yeah i went there. Wow. For posterity. Yeah, for posterity... For truth. For PBR. those that take this serious... lAME. go climb a tree
OFF TOPIC...
i did not write that, hacked?
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