Climbing with Training

[newmandan]

Anyone know how to fit training into a regular climbing schedule?

I believe training works, but if I'm climbing three days a week, shouldn't the others be recovery time?

Climbing alone doesn't seem like enough, unless I somehow made it more taxing than the routes I want to finish. What does everyone else do?

Dan

[Courtenay]

Hi Dan,

Truly an excellent question, and one that has numerous answers, as I'm sure you'll find out. How long have you been climbing, and do you follow any sort of periodized training program (such as that suggested in "How to Climb 5.12" with the 4-3-2-1 week scheme) or do you train more "instinctively" with your climbing?

In order to avoid overtraining, you're correct -- you want to give your body enough recovery time, which generally means if you're climbing 3x/week (with at least a day of rest between) you want to take the other days off.

HOWEVER, if you want to do some non-climbing training to balance out the pulling muscles (as in doing some pushups, reverse wrist curls, seated rows for the rhomboids, shoulder presses, and some core or leg work) you could do these on non-climbing days or following your climbing (say, if you're going to Stone Gardens or Vertical World.) If your primary goal in training is to strengthen the exact climbing muscles, you might want to think about off-season training of climbing 2x/week and strength 1-2x/week, reducing the strength training closer to season to maximize your climbing time.

Another idea (if you're following the 4-3-2-1 plan) is to do strength training during the Endurance phase (4 weeks) which is generally supposed to be lower-intensity, non-pumpy climbing, and perhaps do that 2x/week, but once you get into the more demanding power or power-endurance phases, lift only once (perhaps every 4 days or so) alternating with the climbing days to give your body enough time to recover.

How about hearing from some of you who've been climbing injury-free for years? (Are there any such people?)