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

the way of hypertrophy. Still, the numerous neural adaptations of properly executed reactive training will result in highly practical—and often surprisingly noticeable!—gains in lunging ability and contact strength (like Climber B in Figure 5.8).
    Tips for Training Power
     
    1. Exercise at faster-than-normal speeds with exercises such as Power Pull-ups, Uneven Grip Pull-Ups, and Lat Pull-Downs.
    2. Set a nontechnical boulder problem with several long, powerful moves. Send it several times.
    3. Employ reactive training techniques such as One-Arm Lunging and campus training to maximize neural excitement.
    4. Leverage Complex Training strategies for elite-level power training.
    5. Rest three to five minutes (or more) between sets so that you can make a high-quality effort each time.
    6. Cycle on and off power-training exercises every two to three weeks.
     
     
    In chapter 7 I will detail several reactive training exercises of varying difficulty and injury risk. The safest, and therefore the most appropriate for non-elite climbers, are reactive exercises performed at less than body weight and with some measure of control. For example, One-Arm Lunging and Campus Touches are two reactive exercises that most healthy intermediate climbers can incorporate into their training with little risk. By contrast, reactive exercises that involve full body weight and double-handed, drop-and-catch movements are extremely stressful and appropriate only in small doses for injury-free, elite climbers. The impact forces inherent to drop-and-catch exercises like campus training Double Dynos are dangerously large and injury may result from improper execution or overuse.

Anaerobic Endurance (A-E) Training
     
    Anaerobic endurance training is of high importance if your goal is sending difficult rope-length routes or long, sustained boulder problems. Think of A-E as your ability to maintain a high level of strength output over a relatively long period of time. As shown in figure 5.4, true maximum strength output (near 100 percent intensity) can only be sustained for a few fleeting moments. Anaerobic endurance relates to how long the muscle can function above the anaerobic threshold—that is, at a level not far below the absolute maximum. Of course, muscle action above this threshold generates lactic acid faster than the liver can metabolize it. Inevitably, blood lactate concentrations become so high that the working muscle fails or functions only at a much lower aerobic intensity (below the anaerobic threshold).
    The goal of A-E training is to produce muscular adaptations that will enable you to climb above the anaerobic threshold for as long as possible. Through repeated exposure, the muscles adapt by developing a higher tolerance to elevated blood lactate, enhanced lactate removal (due to increased capillary density) and metabolism, increased mitochondrial density, and other increases in cardiovascular efficiency. If you frequently climb to the point of getting a Hindenburgian forearm pump, then you have already acquired some of these adaptations. Let’s look at three methods of training anaerobic endurance.
HIGH-REPETITION TRAINING
     
    High-repetition training involves performing a high enough number of consecutive exercise movements that the muscles shift from burning ATP-CP for fuel to breaking down glycogen (and creating lactic acid) to sustain exercise into the anaerobic training zone. Exercise resistance and intensity should be high enough to bring the muscles to near failure in, at most, two or three minutes. However, the weight should not be so great as to cause failure in less than about thirty seconds (or fifteen reps).
    Since climbers are interested in increasing anaerobic endurance in the pull muscles and forearm, let’s consider a few training methods using a simple pull-up bar or fingerboard. Remember, the primary training requirements are that the exercise must last for between thirty seconds and three minutes and it should pump you up! For training forearm endurance, you could do a series of one- to two-minute straight-arm hangs on a pull-up bar. As you near muscular failure, step down and rest for one to two minutes, and repeat. For the large pull muscles or the arms and back, you could train on a lat pull-down machine or with Frenchies or high-rep pull-ups on a fingerboard. Many climbers will need to stand in loops of latex tubing or bungee cord to reduce the resistance so as to meet the