RRC Archives

Attached is the training plan I used during the past 6 weeks for power and strength building for anyone that's interested. I consolidated into two files to send to a couple of people so I figured I'd share it. I created it using some other people's plans (blogs, books, emails, etc.) and added my own twist. For the non-climbing training I used a few of the P90X DVDs so if you don't have those just reference any climbing training book (Horst for example) since they recommend most of the same exercises that Tony Horton uses in Core Synergistics. You'll also need the Ben Moon fingerboard for the fingerboard training to make sense. Oh, and also Nicros HIT strips. So basically without those tools this plan will mean nothing but if you want to invest in those tools here's a plan.

I'm not very strong on small holds so my intent was to fix that. I'm still not crazy strong on the small Moon fingerboard holds but I definitely saw improvement using this plan. I feel like it transferred decently to bouldering and hopefully it will to routes after a few weeks of power endurance.

You guys should post your plans up also if you've got them down electronically. I know 512OW has a crazy Moon board plan he might want to share and Lee probably has some crazy stuff too.

I LOVE THIS! This open sharing of information is beyond cool to me. Ray, Kris, and many others figured out how to progress after being in the game for years. They could have been hush-hush about it, but instead, they are offering it up to the massess.

These guys are offering up a drastic way to decrease the learning curve.

My thing, Ray, is trying to understand the physiology behind what induces change, how long the changes last, least amount of stimulus to induce change, and what interferes with what.

And didn't you send Cut Throat quickly? Id say ur doing ok on crimps.

I think this is awesome too. I am starting to realize that to progress going to the gym and climbing on tuesday and thursday probably wont do much. I need to get more structured, or at least try a structured method before writting it off. Thanks for sharing guys.

Also, my two cents on cut throat... it is not a crimpy route. It is a route defined by a two move boulder problem. What worked for me on this route was campusing on small slopey rungs (the wood rungs at rocksport are almost identical to the crux boulder problem on cut throat). If you can do 1-4 on the rungs at rocksport it seems reasonable that you should be able to do the moves on cut throat as they are the same distance apart, similar in size, but on the route you actually get feet.

Brings me to my next point... any campus training for you guys? Odub, Ray, Lee, anyone?

I didn't this season. I see gains everytime i do, but Im really lacking in the mechanics of movement on bad holds and feet. A year of working on the technique side, and I hope it wont be a weakness any more and I can move back to campusing again.

No campusing for me this season either. I was just reading on the Nicros training site last night though about some low intensity methods so I might squeeze those in during my power endurance phase just to keep my contact strength up. The reason I've avoided it is due to elbow and shoulder pain but I think I get a little out of hand with it instead of just doing it maybe once or twice a week. I think I read Horst say that you should avoid dynamic campusing after 40 (or something like that) so I guess I've got a year left.

I agree with everyone that the sharing of information, especially this year, has been nothing short of inspiring. While I'm in the "over 40 mediocre climber" category, I have found it very beneficial to learn what you guys are doing to gain strength for periodic peaks. As a geriatric and injured climber I have tailored my conditioning to a single long term goal of trying to stay healthy while making modest gains. For the past 2 years this has consisted of a lot of general fitness and very little climbing specific training. The only climbing I do is at the crag. This summer though I have re-engineered my program to try and work on the weaknesses that have been exposed during my climbing over the last year, primarily hand work (increasing strength and comfort on pinches and slopers, and a little more crimp strength) and added core (which fails me when I approach my psychological limit). And since I have remained virtually injury free the past year (knock on wood) I have also kicked it all up a notch in a Gym Jones / Mark Twight kinda way (if you are planning to climb 60 feet, train for 600 feet). Push yourself, especially when you think you have no more to give. You guys inspire me. And I'm also taking pages from your play books. Thanks! Oh, my general fitness consists of free weights, a couple of thera-band exercises, some traditional calisthenics and cardio (trail running). For added core I'm using AbRipperX. Also, I'm trying to adjust my schedule to add some yoga (twice a week is the goal). For hand strength I have added one short fingerboard session and a 40 minute "rock carrying" program, once each per week.

thanks for sharing that Ray, I learned last year (at least for me) that incorporating some fingerboard training every week really seemed to help in the fall, I think a lot of times in the past when the good weather hit I would go to the Red as much as possible and then mix in a day or two of either bouldering at climb time or power endurance training but my finger strength would gradually weaken throughout the fall, it seems to me from reading about the Euro's that they do a lot more fingerboard training and campus board training than the people I talk to around here

SCIN, I found that putting on some small foot chips to take some of the weight off is a great way to break in to campusing, or for the old fart crew. I like to stand on a single chip and just bounce up and down the same two campus strips.

pigsteak wrote:SCIN, I found that putting on some small foot chips to take some of the weight off is a great way to break in to campusing,

plus the foot chip or minus the Mountain Dew either way some weight comes off.

The only thing missing SCIN is climbing. When do you climb???