What am I missing?

[fern]

so lying chest down on the swiss ball with arms out perpendicular to the sides and crunching your shoulder blades together gets the same muscles maybe?

 

I like the swiss ball because you can play with it in front of the TV, unlike cable machines.

[Courtenay]

Same movement. Same muscles. Though I'd hazard a guess that you probably won't be able to use as much weight on the stability ball as you would on some of the other exercises.

[bolt_clipper]

I recently read an article by Eric Horst discussing training cycles to peak for a short time each season (shades of Mark Twight). Question is, if you don't train peaks, at what point are you physically not able to improve? I do no training other than bouldering my brains out at the gym three days a week, if anyone's wondering.

[jon]

quote:

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Originally posted by bolt clipper:

I recently read an article by Eric Horst discussing training cycles to peak for a short time each season (shades of Mark Twight). Question is, if you don't train peaks, at what point are you physically not able to improve? I do no training other than bouldering my brains out at the gym three days a week, if anyone's wondering.

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It's called periodization, developed by the Russians to kick our asses at the Olympics for a couple decades until we caught on. There has been a lot of research done about periodization versus normal training like you are talking about. There is a saying that 90% of your potential comes from 10% of the work required to realize 100% potential. It's that last 10% where periodization is the key. I've done a serious periodization plan for about 8 months and the results were mind bogling versus just a general routine.

[Peter_Puget]

Training for what Jon?

[freeclimb9]

quote:

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Originally posted by jon:

It's called periodization, developed by the Russians to kick our asses at the Olympics for a couple decades until we caught on.

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FYI, the Greeks developed periodization over 2,000 years ago. The Russians picked up the study in the 1920's and 30's, but it wasn't long after that Finnish and English exercise scientists started publishing papers on the subject.

The Soviet Union's success in Olympic competition had more to do with early childhood identification and developement, IMO. And, clearly anabolic steroids were used on many East bloc athletes.

With regards to Peter Puget's original query, if he's 35 years old, or more, he'd probably best benefit from an overall fitness program that combines resistance training with cardio workouts. For the "periodization" part, microcycles on a weekly basis superimposed on a series of mesocycles on top of a macrocycle aiming towards a peak somtime in Spring (a particular event, or two?) would be easily planned. I've used the Workout From Hell as a basis for winter training, and like it very much.

 

[ 11-07-2002, 09:01 AM: Message edited by: freeclimb9 ]

[Courtenay]

Boltclipper, Freeclimb9 and the rest --

 

<< Question is, if you don't train peaks, at what point are you physically not able to improve? I do no training other than bouldering my brains out at the gym three days a week, if anyone's wondering.>> If you don't have some sort of "goal" you're working towards, or a program oriented toward that goal, you may find that at the start of each season (doing the same thing on off-season you've done in previous years) you're back to where you were last season; it's not that you're physically not able to improve, it's more a matter of a lack of optimum training. With optimum training, however, you can keep improving for years, ALTHOUGH the improvement will never be as dramatic as in the first year or two of a periodized program, because the body always adapts to whatever changes you throw at it. The suggestions of periodizing your program are all good, and www.bodyresults.com has a number of examples of how to do that.

[bolt_clipper]

I climb inside year-round, so off-season weakening doesn't affect me.