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

junction, is sensitive to the level of tension in the muscle, and in situations of high force it sends inhibitory signals that prevent further motor units from firing. In most individuals this protective response limits force production to some amount far below your absolute maximum-force-producing potential. It’s like putting a restrictor plate on the engine of a race car to limit its top speed to 150 miles per hour, even though it’s capable of 225. Fortunately, regular high-intensity training reduces the sensitivity of the Golgi tendon organ (disinhibition) and thus opens up a new level of maximum strength.
    The difference between your maximum voluntary force and the absolute maximum capacity is called the strength deficit. Research has shown that significant gains in strength are possible by training to reduce these neural inhibitions. One study (Tidow 1990) showed that untrained individuals possessed strength deficits of up to 45 percent; that is, neural inhibition was reducing their maximum strength to almost half of their absolute capacity. The study also revealed that targeted training by elite athletes reduced strength deficits to only 5 percent. Therefore, large gains in strength are possible without ever growing a larger, heavier muscle!
    As a final note, the best type of training to produce disinhibition depends on the magnitude of your strength deficit. Intermediate climbers, who likely have larger strength deficits, would benefit most by training with heavy loads (heavy pull-downs, hypergravity training on a fingerboard or HIT system, and so forth). Elite climbers with smaller strength deficits might realize further improvements only through a combination of high resistance (hypergravity) and high-speed (reactive/plyometric) training.
     
ADAPTATION OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM
     
    Long-term gains in muscular strength result from increases in the size of the individual muscle fibers (see figure 5.2). This process of growing larger muscles is known as hypertrophy. Since there is a strong relationship between the size and the strength of muscles, your ability to grow stronger over the long term depends to some degree on hypertrophy.
    Certainly large muscles in the wrong place (such as legs, chest, and shoulders) are a liability to climbers. Even overdevelopment of the all-important pull muscles can be a bad thing if it’s the result of exercising in a nonspecific way (such as heavy free-weight or circuit training). For example, baseball-size biceps that result from doing heavy biceps curls will not only underperform on the rock but also get in the way and prevent you from locking off effectively while you are climbing.
    Still, any muscular hypertrophy occurring in the forearms, arms, and back resulting from sport-specific training should be viewed as a good thing. In fact, an experienced climber who has been training for a long time and doesn’t realize a little hypertrophy probably isn’t training effectively or eating right. Since most hypertrophy occurs in response to high-intensity, heavy-load training, you would want to train with higher resistances (hypergravity training) to trigger this adaptation.

     
    Figure 5.2 Muscular Adaptations to Strength
     

    It’s interesting to note that a highly trained neuromuscular system is not absolutely necessary for being a strong climber. As mentioned in chapter 1, a small number of individuals possess tendon insertion points at a larger distance from the joint (axis of rotation) than the rest of us with average genetics. These gifted people will exhibit what seems to be amazing strength given their modest body builds. Other genetic factors, such as having a slight build or an unusually high percentage of fast-twitch fibers, may further enhance their physical prowess. With this in mind, you can see why these rare climbers will be incredibly strong regardless of the type of training, if any, in which they engage. Hence it would be a mistake to copy their training methods, and you should question the advice of anyone who instructs you to train like such-and-such a 5.14 climber does.

Energy Systems
     
    In climbing, energy production in the crucial pull muscles most often comes from the ATP-CP system and the lactic acid system. The lactic acid system can function both in the presence (aerobic) or absence (anaerobic) of oxygen.
ATP-CP
     
    The ATP-CP system provides rapid energy for brief, intense movements such as a vigorous boulder problem or a few maximal