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

concentrate on careful positioning and use of each foothold; to climb as briskly, smoothly, and decisively as possible between rests; to accurately read sequences before leaving the ground and while at each rest position; to remain positive, relaxed, and centered during each climb.
    4. Perform three sets of ten repetitions of the one-arm lunging exercise.
    5. Perform three sets of hypergravity pull-ups with ten pounds.
    6. Cool down with five to ten minutes of stretching.
    7. Eat a good meal within one to two hours after the workout.
    8. Get seven to eight hours of sleep.
     
    Exercise: Setting Medium-Term Goals
    Your medium-term goals can include both climbing and nonclimbing items; we’ll focus on the climbing-related goals here. Write down your top training goals (mental, physical, and technical) for the next three months, as well as a few climbing goals such as to-do routes or new areas to visit. Distill these goals into a single primary goal for the period, and remember to list a few things you will freely give up in order to reach these goals.

     
    Exercise: Setting Long-Term Goals
    Go somewhere quiet, allow yourself to relax for a few minutes, and ponder what long-term mega goals would really energize you and make for an exceptional journey. I call these mega goals because they are the few events that you most want to achieve in your life given your current perspective. For example, you might have an ultimate grade of climbing you’d like to achieve, or possibly a specific dream climb to send or mountain to summit. Think about where you’d go if time and money were not an issue—put it down on paper and the odds increase a thousandfold that you will someday be pulling down there! By all means write down a few of your nonclimbing mega goals as well, but keep the total list down to between six and eight items.
    As in setting your short- and medium-term goals, it’s absolutely critical that you write down a couple of major things that you will completely give up in order to reach these mega goals. Consider the activities, possessions, and people that drain your time, focus, and energy.

     

Taking Action and Making Course Corrections
     
    The Cycle of Improvement will spiral you upward in ability as long as the actions taken provide movement toward your goals. Sadly, taking consistent, disciplined action in the direction of worthy goals is very difficult for some people. The results of their misdirected actions always seem to leave them in an all-too-familiar situation. The phrase same s___, different day is born of this affliction.
    If any of this sounds familiar (in climbing or life), it’s important to begin taking notice of just who is directing the actions you take on a daily basis. In many cases you’ll discover that outside forces are calling the shots for you—that is, you are taking the actions someone else wants you to make, not those congruent with your goals. This is what the multibillion-dollar advertising industry is all about. Large companies spend millions with the sole intent of directing your actions in their favor (to make them money and drain your wallet). So while you might have a very worthy goal of, say, “getting out of debt” or “saving for a house,” advertisers cleverly divert your actions in their favor. Unless you are acutely aware of what’s going on (and the power they wield over you), you will veer off your course and onto theirs—and maybe never reach your goals.
    This may sound negative, but the same thing often happens when you’re training at the gym or climbing at the crag. Instead of doing the precise exercises and drills you need to improve your weaknesses, you end up climbing down the blind alley of someone else’s agenda. Consider how many climbing days you’ve spent working on someone else’s dream project (one that is either over your head or just not what you had planned) when you would have gained more by getting on a different type of climb. Or ponder how often you’ve gone to the gym and ended up socializing and just climbing mindlessly with no goal or direction. Sure, these kinds of evenings can be relaxing and fun once in a while, but on a regular basis they will not make you a better climber.
    The win-win solution is to find a partner equally motivated to taking actions that will produce the fastest possible gains in ability. With this person you can evenly split the climbing time, so that you each can work effectively toward your goals.