Category Archives: Training Talk

Training Talk 5: Getting Stronger by Resting Enough (2)

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At one point not too long ago, the experience of not recovering in time for the planned day of climbing outside that I described yesterday would have made me feel incredibly frustrated and irritated with my body. I would have probably tried to climb through the day anyhow, and then possibly ended up a broken-down, overly exhausted, super-emotional mess of a climber for multiple days in the future. After all, it was a beautiful warm day, and I had hiked up to climb all day…but now, I just know better. I knew exactly what had happened, and I also knew how to handle it and that the ultimate result, if I could/can just be patient with this situation on a daily basis, will be a faster arrival at the destination I seek (being stronger!) than I’d have if I dropped it down a notch and stopped trying Joe Daddy.

See, if I get on a route (or do a max-strength-training session) that works my muscles in this range, the one- to six-rep strength-training range of maximal strength, recovery will take longer than if I get on a route that isn’t so close to my current max-strength levels. This is why I was recovering faster until I got on Joe Daddy (and why I can easily climb two-on, one-off, two-on in the Red River Gorge, a much more endurance-oriented style of climbing in general). Before, I wasn’t pushing my peak strength levels; I was just bringing my power endurance up closer to them.

So, my choices now are to stop trying the max-strength taxer or not. If I stop trying it, I’d get to climb more days per week, and I’d get the short-term satisfaction of more climbing days and sending easier routes and improving my power endurance and endurance. However, if I keep getting on Joe Daddy whenever I’m recovered enough, I’ll get to climb fewer days per week – but in the long-term, I’m likely to reap a greater net gain because I’ll be pushing my maximal strength levels higher and higher with every effort, as long as I allow for enough recovery between efforts and have the discipline to call it when I’m not sufficiently recovered, like I did yesterday.

This can be so hard for a climber (or any athlete) to take mentally – to put his or her faith in the science behind this choice – but once you’ve done it repeatedly, the choice DOES get easier, I swear. And what is that science? As Gary Matthews explains in his excellent article, A Strength Training Tip: Muscle Recovery: “Muscles take between 4-7 days to fully recover from a workout and another 2-3 days for over-compensation to take place. It can also take up to 7-14 days for the neuromuscular system to fully recover from a high intensity strength training session.” He also contends that “Researchers have found that fitness enthusiasts can reduce the time they spend working out by two-thirds and still achieve the same results,” elaborating on this in greater detail in this eye-opening piece.

So what’s a climber to do – what decisions can and should we make to best further our ultimate climbing ability while also still living in the now and enjoying rock climbing in the moment? I’ll discuss this more tomorrow.

(to be continued)

Training Talk 5: Getting Stronger by Resting Enough (1)

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I’ve said it before: Training for maximal strength is (or should be) a component of every serious climber’s training program. (By serious climber, I simply mean climbers who want to improve their personal climbing ability in the most efficient way possible, not climbers who take themselves and their climbing way too seriously, of course!) I’ve talked about the importance of maximal strength training before, as well as the importance of resting and recovery time to allow muscles to compensate and grow stronger – since you only reap the benefits of training if you allow for enough recovery time between workouts.

And lucky me, if I didn’t get a huge dose of “you’re not recovered” to gnaw on and ponder yesterday, getting me thinking about this bit of a conundrum yet again. See, the thing is, in the bigger picture, it’s smartest (I believe) to spend a good amount of time every year trying to push your maximal-strength levels in climbing-related areas (like finger strength and pulling strength and core strength, for example), since max-strength is the ultimate governor of all other athletic skills (read my three-part series on training for maximal strength for more on this).

In a nutshell, even if your endurance or power endurance kick ass, you will ultimately be limited in those areas by how strong you are in the max-strength department, because if you don’t have the power/strength to do a move, it doesn’t matter how great your endurance/power-endurance are – and also, the stronger you are maximally, the easier all power-endurance and endurance moves are relative to your maximal-strength level, meaning each individual move on any given route has the potential to tax your body’s systems less (though you will likely need build up your power endurance and endurance to be able to utilize your strength fully to your advantage).

Anyhow, back to yesterday. So, until last Friday, I’d been spending my climbing days on steep and powerful climbs that did NOT tax my upper strength limits in and of themselves. The three routes I’d been trying all relied more on power endurance instead of really difficult, strength-sapping individual moves for me. And each day, as is often the case when a climber starts to build up his/her endurance and/or power endurance closer and closer to his or her actual power/strength levels, I’d been making progress on the routes – sending one, and high-pointing the others daily. Because these routes weren’t pushing my muscles at a max-strength level, I was also recovering quickly from each climbing day – a day off in between seemed to be enough for my body to regroup and recharge and improve performance the next day.

Until I tried Joe Daddy. As I talked about in my last entry, Joe Daddy kicked my butt, or rather, torched my muscles – each move pushed my pulling power pretty maximally, leaving my lats in particular drained and flamed. Though I didn’t really feel actively sore yesterday, as soon as I tried to climb, after one day off, I discovered that I’d lost all the pep and bounce in my climbing; I felt like sacks of sloppy sand had been attached to my bones instead of strong muscles. Everything felt slow and draggy. I was obviously not recovered from Friday, barely at all.

(to be continued)

Training Talk 4: Skin Savvy (Part 3, Keeping Your Cool)

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One other consideration that climbers should keep in mind both during training efforts and while attempting to perform at peak levels is that skin temperature can impact your athletic ability. While much attention has been paid to how a person’s core temperature affects sports performance, the connection between skin temperature and athletic function should not be ignored or overlooked.

As explained in the blog of the Westerville Crew, an Ohio-based high-school rowing organization, “The higher the skin temperature, regardless of body core temp, the higher the blood flow to the skin, and the greater the blood flow to the skin, the less the blood flow to the muscles, and the lower the VO2max becomes for the athlete.”

In other words, if your skin temperature is too high, this stands to decrease basic athletic-performance factors, including (but not limited to) VO2max. Less blood flow to muscles will undoubtedly result in a tendency to get pumped more quickly, as this would decrease the efficiency of your body’s ability to remove metabolic waste products, among other negative muscular effects. And, as everyone knows, feeling like your skin is too hot is mentally distracting as well, because it’s just plain uncomfortable – and being mentally distracted by external temperature, whether it’s too hot or too cold, can negatively influence athletic outcomes, taking your focus away from the tasks at hand.

Of course, the flip side of the too-hot equation is the too-cold equation: if you can’t feel the holds that you’re trying to use because your hands (or feet) are numb, you will experience a decline in athletic performance. And if your body is dumping energy into trying to maintain warmth by drawing too much blood away from your skin and into your core, you will experience a similar decrease in muscular strength and stamina and VO2max as you do when you’re skin’s too hot – because less blood will be going to your muscles as your body attempts to conserve heat in your core.

Your best bet, then, is to figure out the temperature range that works optimally for you as an athlete, as well as the clothing combinations that keep your skin at the proper temperature so that you’re not aware of any skin sensations of too-hot or too-cold when you’re trying to perform or train at peak levels. This knowledge can also help you predict which days outside have the potential to be top-performance days, as opposed to those days at the crags when it’s just too hot or too cold for your individual body to function like a fine-tuned machine.