Wow!

I cant believe I haven’t written anything since Jan-2016!!!

Oh wait ya I can, I actually do this thing, it’s call getting outside😜.

I spent a lot of time in the gym this winter trying to get stronger for my spring projects, which are actually my uncompleted 2016 fall projects. It was particularly hard this year to stay focused on a routine and do legitimate “training”. The little I did get in involved; core work outs, and varying campus/lock-off regimines. For core it was simple, burn out on the 45 followed by crunches with a 20lb medicine ball. For campus and lock off strength I hit different campus rungs and systems boards.  The gym I climb at has a 30’+ wall set aside just for training, this makes it easy to vary the type of work outs you do. I would cycle over 2 different sections per session and try and change it up at the next session. I try to always be moving from one type of movement to another every time I climb and I try to work on my weaknesses weather I’m climbing or working out. For me the gym is a great place because the nature of gym holds and style of gym climbing hits all of my weaknesses.

I have 3 major weakness’ ; pinch strength, dynamic movement, and core.  The unbalance of strength is quite drastic, I could flash a crimpy v9 and struggle for days on a dynamic pinch v7. Since my training routine kinda fell apart let’s talk about what I did on the wall to improve.

First and fore most, I stopped climbing routes that were my style and easy for me. Second I honed in skills that were lacking and charged full ahead. Take dynamic movement, in the past I would walk away from anything I had to throw for. This season if I couldn’t do a move I would approach it from 2 directions. One,I would watch those I climbed with and ask for beta (in my case how to jump) ; two, I wouldn’t stop trying the move or technique till I made progress or actually did the move. Sometimes I would have to try a dyno 20/30 time before I stuck it.

A training session should always starts with a good warm up , move into your session, and end with a cool down or burn out. Warming up is essential to prevent injury, get your brain focused, and allows you to climb harder and longer. Your sessions should always vary, mix it up. Set goals for yourself weather it be endurance & power, projecting or on sighting , or technique.

As for the cool down or burn out ,I tend to burn out. After about 2 hour session I’m pretty spent and will start trying to send as many problems at my onsight level as possible. On a good night this could be 5/6, on a night I’m totally trashed not even one. If you want to cool down, the best thing is to just move around on the kiddy wall, doing low effort and just stretching out as you go up and down.

So did my winter gym sessions help?

I believe they did, I have seen improvements on my projects this spring & hope to see some sendage!!

No matter what you do to train, the most important thing to do is to actually….

well …. just do it! Don’t stop, get off your ass and get out and climb!

or campus, lift, cardio, whatever it is; get it done!