Training for Bouldering
Part 1: Planning and Preparation
My most recent training endeavor has been to increase my rock climbing power. This was an attempt to "shift gears" to bouldering rather than sport climbing in order to avoid plateu-ing at a certain grade. I used a combination of several resources to formulate a four-week training plan which is listed here and the references included at the bottom of the post.
This post is the first in a three part series. This, first part, is just to list the training methods I used, and I'll discuss their effectiveness in later posts over the next few days. My prescribed training plan looks like what you will find below, however, there were several work/school/scheduling conflicts that arose; as well as the changing of my finishing date; which all called for some readjusting of this original prescription. I started on Day-4 of Week-1 (6/13/13) and ended on Day-4 of Week-4 (7/4/13).
Week 1
Monday - Boulder for Grade & 30 min Cardio
Tuesday - Boulder for Volume
Wednesday - Boulder for Volume & Yoga
Thursday - 30 min Cardio & Yoga
Friday - Boulder for Grade & 30 min Cardio
Saturday - 30 min Circuit & 30 min Cardio
Sunday - Rest / Diet Cheat Day
Week 2
Monday - Boulder for Grade & Yoga
Tuesday - Boulder for Volume & 30 min Cardio
Wednesday - Boulder for Volume & Yoga
Thursday - 30 min Circuit & Yoga
Friday - Boulder for Grade
Saturday - 30 min Circuit & Yoga
Sunday - Rest / Diet Cheat Day
Week 3
Monday - Boulder for Grade & Yoga
Tuesday - Boulder for Volume & Yoga
Wednesday - Boulder for Volume
Thursday - 30 min Circuit & 30 min Cardio
Friday - Boulder for Grade & Yoga
Saturday - 30 min Circuit & 30 min Cardio
Sunday - Rest / Diet Cheat Day
Week 4
Monday - Boulder for Grade & Yoga
Tuesday - 30 min Cardio & Yoga
Wednesday - Boulder for Volume
Thursday - Yoga
Friday - Yoga
Saturday - Travel / Rest
Sunday - Event
Details
Climbing for Grade - For these sessions I set a goal for myself of earning 50 "points" in about a 60 minute climbing session. For my skill set at the beginning of this program I assigned the following point values.
V0 and V1 = 1 point
V2 = 3 points
V2+ and V3- = 4 points
V3 = 5 points
v3+ and V4- = 10 points
V4 = 20 points
Climbing for Volume - These sessions had a goal of 150+ moves in about a 90 minute session. For example, a workout might included something like...
2 x 25 move taverse
V1 x 5
V2 x 4
V3 x 3
V4 x 2
V3 x 3
V2 x 4
V1 x 5
Yoga workouts usually consisted of a 30-60 min class, a ~60 minute youtube video, or ~60 minutes freestyle practice on my own at home. Circuit and Cardio workouts can be found in the references below.
Changes / Notes:
6/15 - Work schedule conflict, no training
6/20 - Work Schedule conflict, 30 min Cardio and 30 min Yoga
6/21 - Spur of the Moment Climbing trip; Sandrock, AL - apx. 5 hours, Sport Climbing, Diet Cheat Day
6/22 - Work Schedule; need to sleep BAD
6/23 - Recovery, still recovering from Sandrock trip
6/24 - Unplanned diet cheat meal, gave into late night cravings after work
6/28 - Work conflict, no cardio, extra cheat meal, but long day of climbing
6/29 - Still sore from Circuit - resting
6/30 - Still resting
7/1 - 2 hours climbing, no yoga
7/2 - 2 hours climbing, no yoga
7/4 - carb load, mostly starchy and clean, but SOME junk
7/5 - Event - rain canceled outdoor bouldering, tried out new rock gym.
References
- Diet
- Mildly Modified Slow-Carb Diet
- Slow-Carb Quick Reference Sheet
- Slow-Carb Vitamins and Supplements Cheat Sheet
- My Supplement Selection
- NOW Policosanol (1 in morning, 1 post-workout)
- NOW AlliBiotic (1 in morning, 1 post-workout)
- XCAP Natural Mins (4 post-workout)
- 4-Week Base Game Plan
- Article on DPM's website, "Fit for Fall in 4 Weeks"
- Training Article on Steve Bechtel's "ClimbStrong" website
- Climbing Training fro Grade
- Climbing magazine Article "New Workouts to Refresh Your Gym Training" by Julie Ellison and Alex Biale
- Climbing Training for Volume
- ROCKandICE magazine article "Never Get Pumped Again" by Neil Gresham
- Cardio - (Running hurts my back, cycling pumps my legs, eliptical machines are awkward, airdyne and skierg not available at my gym, thus... rowing is my cardio of choice)
- Workouts taken from the "short" option on the Concept2 "Workout of the Day" section
- Circuit Training
- I'm a long time fan of Gym Jones for both their knowledge and training. A couple of years ago I ran into a Men's Fitness article that reviewed some of their "Minimum Adequacies."
No comments:
Post a Comment