Fingerboard ladders

Now that I have my own bouldering wall, I've decided to get a little more serious about my training for climbing. 

I started a month or so ago in the hope of getting stronger for a summer of development work, but an offer arose for an Arapiles trip 23/9-3/10. This has meant some substantial changes to my plan, cutting it down from an 8 week cycle directed to bouldering, to a 6 week one to a peak for trad routes. 

The initial plan was to adapt Horst's Training for climbing plan, to see how it works for me, which is a 4,3,2,1 cycle. 4 weeks general, 3 weeks power, 2 weeks power endurance, 1 week peak. This is combined with a lot of stretching, rolling and antagonist exercises, which seem to be helping to address my ongoing back and shoulder issues. I thought these were related to sitting at a desk for work, but my shoulders have felt stiff for years, well before I started a desk job. So it may be an imbalance between my climbing muscles and everything else that I neglect.  

Due to time constraints and the change to routes, I've modified the plan to 3,1,2,1 as power is going to be less relevant than endurance for Arapiles. I hope to get a bunch of sub 20 routes done, with a few 22-24's thrown in if I can find a belayer. 

On top of this basic plan I'm also doing hangboard ladders to increase finger strength again, without getting injured. The basic idea is to load the fingers for short periods in all possible positions, with adequate rests to increase strength without risking injury, Climbing has a good overview of the plan.  

To help keep track of where I am in the sets, and to allow tracking over time I've made up a table that allows the hold selection and added weight to be recorded, along with the dates on which the ladder training was conducted. I'm currently doing a cycle on the 1 1/8" edge for open and half crimp, and the 1" for full crimp, and this targeted work has made me add a few more things to my training setup beyond the 45 bouldering wall. A set of light free weights, a set of wrist and ankle weights, and a large LED clock with a seconds display

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