Kimmo

for who?

again, a generalization. technique is NOT 90%. the route will not give a goshdang about your "technique" if you do not have the strength to pull a move. In this situation, technique is a big fat 0%. again, a generalization. climbing more is not always the best way to train; the best way to train might be to train one specific move, or monos for instance, if the route one is trying has a section that gives one problems ("best" is entirely subjective, and applicable only to one's goals; even then it's sometimes hard to figure out what "best" is). agreed.

tendons are amazingly strong. look at what they do on a daily basis. what a load of crap. tendons take 4 years to BEGIN to strengthen? insane.

do you have a specific goal? or simply generic fitness for long trad climbs? goals kinda dictate methods.

explain please.

dude, it sounds like you've figured out! congratulations! but seriously, beyond the clionical theory tone, most of what you say makes sense. but again, it's not the end-all you seem to indicate.

oh my goodness. i see the problem here. you guys think i'm suggesting we all start powerlifting? READING COMPREHENSION, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think again, that while the above might be the preferred approach for the majority of climbers, it isn't a hard and fast rule. there is no doubt that doing specific training preparation for a specific route can be the best way to spend one's time vs generic "climbing". hard and fast rules piss me off! get creative; it's the only way anything evolves.

i would add that all my commentary is geared towards bouldering and sport climbing, btw, not alpine or mixed or somesuch. side-note: john, you seem to present things as hard and fast rules, ie. you do this and this will definitely happen, regarding injury, bulking up, blah blah blah. the real world is a little more flexible than that. it seems you might have been one of the critics of abadjiev because he didn't conform to accepted theory (as his lifters took gold after gold).

but...above you said climbing wasn't a strength sport....you are contradicting yourself. you also haven't answered the question regarding resting in the "eastern bloc" approach to lifting, and the seeming contradiction the bulgarians present to this. and what is the "programming" i propose to achieve hard climbing? i would imagine him being unable to lift a water bottle over his head had less to do with pull pull pull than with actual injury. i only do pull pull pull, can do a one arm, etc etc and oh, i'm 43. damn short "career", eh? you seem to be an expert on theory, but how much of this have you personally experienced through hard climbing?

some top climbers train like maniacs. too many to list. as far as "rest" goes, the soviets periodized and used drugs; the bulgarians didn't periodize and also used drugs, and proceded to kick soviet ass. not too much "resting" going on in the bulgarian system, at least in a conventioanl sense.

climbing isn't rocket science. climbing is simply a technical form of weight-lifting. certainly technique is important, but in the end, it's about strength to weight ratio, with a large part of that equation being finger strength to weight ratio. i'm not meaning to disrespect your opinion, but your above statement calling climbing a "non strength" sport is laughable at best....

can one of you explain your "apples to slugs" comment, cuz i don't know what it refers to. thanks.

can you explain the specifics of this? you are lumping together different approaches when you say "eastern bloc". the soviets were into periodization, which is what bulgaria broke with. the soviet approach relied on lots of sets and reps and the necessary rest days, whereas the bulgs did way less reps but high high intensity, doing this multiple times a day on successive days (very little rest, in the traditional sense). what is it you mean? who are you thinking of specifically?

you mean weightlifting vs climbing? au contrair mon ami, i think climbing IS weightlifting, just simply a form where the weight being lifted is your own body. i think bouldering has the most direct relevance to the above theory, but i believe it can be adapted to other forms of climbing....

so anyone who's really into training has certainly heard about periodization, and how it's the holy grail of training scheduling. climbing books all seem to be on the bandwagon. there's some interesting stuff i read about it recently, and it turns out that it's not as accepted a concept as i once thought. ivan abadjiev was a bulgarian weightlifting coach who said he threw away the literature on periodization after reading it. he developed a system that had his lifters doing basically only the lifts they would do in competition, doing them often, and doing them very intensely, close to or at max. "often" being multiple times a day. year round. people called him crazy, but from the tiny country of bulgaria came what, 9 gold medalists in the olympics and 50 or 60 world champs. then it seems he might have been forced to quit: the soviet union couldn't be upstaged on the world stage like that! i think the same approach works with climbing, and training for climbing. don't let this silly fear of "over-doing it" that gets preached all the time get in the way. if your body can handle it, campus three days in a row, but don't do tons of sets. do finger boarding twice a day (i read that the forearm muscles recover quickly and can be trained multiple times a day; experiment.) in other words, don't spend time "building base" at certain times of the year; just mimic the type of climbing you plan on doing, the intensities required, and do so often.

why no hinged ideas? it's easy to incorporate adjustability into a home wall.... but if you must fix, i would make it at least 30 degrees, and no more than 60 degrees. for me it would be 60, but if you're more into alpine and trad, maybe closer to 30. this would at least theoretically force better technique while still working core strength, whereas the steeper you go, more core but less on-your-feet technique.

Avanti does offer a layaway plan, but neither Avanti or Pratt accept downpayments. I love it when you get all serious about your ego n' shit... did you guys know dwayner has a PhD?

flying accounts for less than 2% of global emissions.

you kidder you. i inadvertently almost FA'd a 13b after two bottles of czech beer. i think you could be a functioning alcoholic and still rp 5.13 or 5.14. like a 6 pack a day kind of thing. mebbe more. half rack even. so there. and i appreciate your passion regarding long trad. fun stuff.

rudy, that's nothing. friend comes home to find fence taken down, and tree company up in a tree in his back yard hacking away. tells 'em to come down, they laugh at him. calls cops, they show up and say there's nothing they can do. civil matter. they took down 5 trees. i might have grabbed a shot gun. if i owned one. which is what i suggest you do.

now that's fuckin funny (and it has nothing to do with your height, rudy).

? where would be the fun if you already knew you'd send a particular route (grade)? sounds like dwayner with his 5.13's. nice 2 cents, but what's cool about climbing is that you can get siked about whatever aspect you want (actually this has nothing to do with what's cool about climbing!) . i've done pretty much all the varieties of climbing, be it aid, wall, trad etc etc, but what i always come back to is sport and bouldering, cuz that's what gets me in the end. it's what i remember. actually i remember being benighted on particular wall climbs quite well, and although it has its charm, it's not something i'm running out to repeat. and haston onsiting 13d 14a crack? shit, you don't have much appreciation for the sport you're engaged in if you don't appreciate that! that's like playing basketball and not appreciating (understanding?) pistol pete maravich, or steve nash; like being into chess and not appreciating (understanding?) bobby fischer; gymnastics and not appreciating the chinese dude who effed up the rings in the last olympics. maybe it's the alcohol?

fuuuuuckkk yeah! that's badass. fully inspiring.