Oh Steemians -- It's so sad.
The weekend is almost over. A beautiful hike day yesterday, a rainy brunch and housecleaning day today. Sometimes I'm not sure if my mind drifts off first, or if it's my hands and fingers start to imagine the crimps, underclings, and sharp gritty texture of the wall...
Training begins tomorrow:
So I thought today, I would share a video of what loops in my head while I train. This is a video of me and a couple buddies climbing at Bear Country (Bear Cave and Middle Bear Wall) at KLO Creek in Kelowna, BC, Canada.
It's like a riddle for your muscles:
The physical puzzle that is climbing. It's hard to think about balance points and body weight while your forearms are pumping out and your adrenaline is rushing because you're gonna take a 5m fall if you let go right now. That feeling of raw exposure, with open air below you, and nothing between you and gravity but the friction of your finger tips.
Working towards a goal:
Each training season that I've completed previously consists of 5 phases, spread out of 17 weeks.
- Base Fitness (4 weeks) -- This phase consists primarily of skillwork and ARC (Aerobic Respiration and Capillarity) Training --> ARC training can generally be thought of as endurance training, and is useful for getting accustomed to climbing while that burning pump sets it. Lactic acid ain't no thang.
- Strength (3 weeks) -- This phase actually contains the least amount of 'climbing' as compared to all other phases. Lots of time will be spent doing dead-hangs on hangboards to strengthen different grip types, and lots of time will be spent doing body-weight / free-weight workouts in the gym -- as well as lots of yoga.
- Power (2 weeks) -- This phase contains a lot of bouldering. For those not in the know, bouldering often consists of climbing short routes, that have significantly more difficult body positions, compression moves, and dynamic movements. This phase is about developing fast-twitch muscles that can increase explosive strength, as opposed to slow movement or lock-off strength.
- Power Endurance (3 weeks) -- This phase is an absoloute beast. If the last phase was trying to recruit as much explosive power as possible, this phase could be seen as dialing it back a little ways, but sustaining it over longer routes, or sets of boulders strung together. Being able to repeat move after move after move is key to getting through a difficult sequence, and this is where that comes in. There's an emphasis on exposing yourself to outdoor climbing in this phase (as all climbers know -- the gym doesn't really prepare your for what's waiting outside.
- Performance (3 weeks) -- Ladies and gentlen-men, this is what it's all for. This is a word heavy post, but I'm going to share one graphic with you here so you can understand what it's all for up to this point.
The Method to the Madness
*Picture snapped from my copy of The Rock Climbers Training Manual. I can't recommend this book enough for the beginner/novice/advanced climbers that are interested in developing a routine that they can use to take their climbing to the next level.
- Rest and Recovery (2 weeks) -- As anyone who has taken part in a training cycle knows, recovery is super important and is actually the time when your muscles (not to mention your skin, in the case of climbers) get a chance to rebuild stronger than when you started. Also, as you can see from the graph above, the performance curve begins to decline pretty rapidly as your body gets tired (also increasing the chances for injury). This phase consists of taking a bit of a break, but also putting a renewed focus on doing a little bit of running and other things you may be neglecting.
Be well everyone! Excited to start the 17 week journey tomorrow and share some updates/tips/motivation/photos along the way. Keep crushing!
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