Perodized Training 6 (Maintenance)

Following a week without training, I’ve begun the maintenance phase.  Hopefully I will be climbing outside often and hard, so the goal in-season is to maintain all the positive adaptations I’ve made over the past four months.  And there have been many notable improvements:  1) There is a big difference in my strength when executing one-arm pulls, lock-offs, sticking to small 2-fingers edges and pockets, big reaches, etc.  2) Better endurance both in terms of delaying the onset of a pump, and in clearing it between attempts.  Also in optimally orienting my shoulder and wrist joints for hanging rests. (Obviously bent arm is bad, but to the surprise of many, excessively relaxed hanging is also bad as it distracts the joints and can partially occlude blood flow.  This makes pulling out of the rest to make the next move very difficult.) 3) More power and precision executing dynamic moves.  4) More confidence and more persistence to fight through hard moves. 5) Refined movement techniques and expanded repertoire of moves.

Though I’ve noticed these factors on a number of hardish routes this spring, I’ve only been able to really put the programme to the test on one limit-pushing climb.  That’s the longstanding project at Gondola Point.  In each of three brief visits, I’ve had the endurance to take more attempts than I’ve taken in each of the past 5 years.  I’ve been able to spend time at the first crux move, experimenting with different footwork, and readjusting grip.  I almost got the route on the second day, but broke a hold.  Actually, I crushed it I was pinching it so hard!  So now without a thumbcatch, moving up and left off the chest-height shallow-undercling- thick-pinch hold is more difficult.  But I feel very good and still think I can get it.

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I guess I should explain the need for a maintenance programme.  If a climbing-specific training makes you better at climbing, when you’re done training, shouldn’t climbing participation be enough to keep you ‘better’ in perpetuity?  In theory, yes.  In reality, not even close.  First of all this programme was for generally improving my abilities, not to prepare for one specific route or move.  Second, it was designed to prepare me for a long season, not just one trip.  Third, due to work, weather, partners, insects, and so many other factors my climbing schedule is not regular, structured or predictable.  Weeks or even months may pass between hard days, or long days, or steep problems, or cracks or... 

So down to the nitty gritty; here’s the overview of the first 3 months of the in-season maintenance programme:

It’s a concurrent training programme at the organismal (human) level, but periodized at the regional (muscular) level.   What this means is each week involves hypertropy, strength and power training, but each muscle group only receives one of these training stimuli for the entire month.  

For the first month, day one is a hypertrophy protocol (7 exercises, sets of 10) for posterior muscles. Day two is a strength protocol (5 exercises, sets of 5) for anterior muscles. Day three is a power protocol which also includes some conditioning drills (5 exercises, various repetitions or timed sets) for lateral muscles. 

For the second month, lateral muscles are trained with a hypertrophy protocol, posterior muscles with a strength protocol, and anterior muscles with a power protocol.  Month three is the last combination.  

There are three training sessions each week (and hopefully three climbing days).  Typically two sets are performed for each exercise, but some days of some weeks this may increase to three, if climbing volume and intensity are low that week.  Contrarily, training loads may be decreased some weeks, if they are hard climbing weeks.  This provides some variability to the training, while adapting to my actual climbing schedule, as opposed to having the training programme dictate my climbing schedule.

There are many more details with regards to exercise selection and progression, but this post is already long enough.  The strength and conditioning coach you’ve been working with for the past four months should be able to put something together for you.