Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

importance of targeting your weaknesses, and the ways to sustain motivation and provide a peaking effect. Next up, you will learn how to structure your program to include microcycles, mesocycles, and an annual macrocycle—this form of periodization is essential to making the most of your daily workouts and obtaining maximal gains season after season. With this understanding you will be empowered to craft a highly effective training program, according to your current ability level—this chapter provides detailed guidance for designing a beginner-, intermediate-, and elite-level program. The chapter then concludes with some unique training considerations for youth, female, and over-fifty climbers.

Keys to an Effective Training Program
     
    The premise of this book is that a well-informed, motivated, and mature individual can grow to climb at an exceedingly high level in just a few years. The preceding chapters provided a comprehensive look at the fundamental elements of climbing perform-ance—mental, technical, and physical—and you’ve also been armed with the knowledge of an introspective self-assessment test. You are now in a position to execute an uncommonly effective training program—one that will help you outperform the masses! To do so, the program must be designed to optimize your body composition, improve flexibility, increase antagonist-muscle conditioning, enhance stamina and recovery ability, and increase climbing-specific strength, power, and endurance (see figure 8.1).

     
    Figure 8.1 Training Goals
     

Premeditate Your Training
     
    The mass of people who engage in some form of conditioning program do so in a haphazard, ad-lib manner. There is little or no method to their madness other than to “climb a lot” and “get pumped.” This unsystematic approach will produce mediocre results and can often end in injury.
    Conversely, savvy climbers are proactive in designing and modifying their training program for maximum effectiveness. Wisely, the program targets their weaknesses, is modified regularly to stave off mental or physical stagnation, and is crafted in a way to produce a peaking effect for an upcoming road trip or competition.
TARGET YOUR WEAKNESSES
     
    Several times throughout this book, I’ve highlighted the importance of training the weakest link. For many climbers this weakest link involves poor technique, tactics, and mental control. While the unintelligent climber trains only for more physical strength, you know that it’s paramount to train your weaknesses in all aspects of the performance triad. The amount of time you dedicate to training technique, the mind, and physical strength depends on both the results of your self-assessment and your current ability level.
    As a rough rule of thumb, beginner and intermediate climbers should focus about 70 percent of their training time on improving technique, tactics, and the mental game. For these climbers, only 30 percent of their training time should be invested in general and sport-specific conditioning. Conversely, elite climbers (who possess highly honed technical skills) would be wise to invest much more training time in the pursuit of maximizing strength, power, and anaerobic endurance.
MANIPULATE THE WORKOUT TO “CONFUSE” THE BODY AND INCREASE MOTIVATION
     
    Chapter 5 explained the importance of regularly modifying your training for climbing. Sadly, many individuals go through the same basic workout ritual week after week and get frustrated with their lack of progress. Furthermore, engaging in the same weekday training or weekend at the crags will slowly quell your motivation to work hard and push beyond your current limits.
    Clearly, an intelligently designed program must regularly vary the focus of your training and climbing. In the gym it’s vital to vary the fundamental details of workout intensity, volume, length, and the amount of rest between sets (or climbs). On the rock motivation and achievement often come in proportion to your willingness to try new types of climbing, visit new areas, and test the limits of what is possible (given your current ability). Later in this chapter you will learn how to use a ten-week mesocycle and fifty-two-week macrocycle to optimize the effectiveness of your training-for-climbing program.
PRODUCE A PEAKING EFFECT FOR A ROAD TRIP OR COMPETITION
     
    Olympic and professional athletes design their training schedules to produce a peaking phase around the time of a major event or