[route149]

Okay, some serious fingerboarding, I can now use the holds on an indoor V10, but of course that don't make me a V10 boulderer.

I guess what I'm doing is 'threshold' bouldering - two to three moves at a time, so it's solidly 4 V grades above my grade.  I understand the theory and I'm kind of following the self-taught climber.

Q is, if I can crimp those crimps (and I can) but can't do all the moves, am I better off cranking up my core power to match now, before getting any stronger in the fingers?  Or is it better for me to get my locks sorted (close to l1 arm 45 degree lock but v slow progress)


cheers guyse

[benpritch]

sounds like the fingers are strong enough but other stuff needs working on like your core, legs and arms.

this will improve gradually if you continue to boulder but could be accelerated by training one armers, campusing, front levers and clean and jerks?

all i do is boulder these days but i used to notice significant gains from one armers (assisted or otherwise) over a five day block day 1 - 5 sets of 5. day 2 - 5 sets of 1 max and climb, day 3 - 5 sets of 5, day four 5 x 1 and climb, day 5 - 5 x 5.

this is quite a tiring regime and 4 - 5 weeks should see your arms transformed or if you aren't careful ie totally warmed up and strong enough to perform the excercise well and in control,  totally hosed. be especially careful when coming down to a straight arm. also concentrate on getting into as deep a lock as possible , ie get your head and opposite shoulder above the bar/board.

mix this with some front lever training http://www.beastskills.com/FrontLever.htm

campusing is another useful excercise because as well as promoting some fast explosive movement in your arms it will also improve contact strength in your fingers, very important for bouldering. stay off the big rungs in my opinion.

[i.munro]

this is quite a tiring regime

 

[route149]

hi Ben,

t i used to notice significant gains from one armers (assisted or otherwise) over a five day block day 1 - 5 sets of 5. day 2 - 5 sets of 1 max and climb, day 3 - 5 sets of 5, day four 5 x 1 and climb, day 5 - 5 x 5.

this is quite a tiring regime and 4 - 5 weeks should see your arms transformed or if you aren't careful ie totally warmed up and strong enough to perform the excercise well and in control,  totally hosed. be especially careful when coming down to a straight arm. also concentrate on getting into as deep a lock as possible , ie get your head and opposite shoulder above the bar/board.

mix this with some front lever training http://www.beastskills.com/FrontLever.htm

Great stuff.  That's a pretty comrehensive answer!  I am inpired by the idea of training the lock in 5 day blocks as that's something I'd never thought of before.  I may build up to that over a month or so.

The other thing I'd never considered is the clean and jerk.  I didn't know that had any specificity to climbing because I'd just never realised it could be a core exercise - so time to rethink! I guess i'm slightly worried about that as I used to use weights when I was a track athlete I tend to put on kilogrammes by even looking at weights.  But inspiring idea.

Brilliant answer all round so have some karma.

[benpritch]

thought i should clarify - one armers = one arm pull ups, not lock offs.

good luck.

[route149]

all good, but another question just occurred to me.  most training programmes stress that you should recover for 48 hours after pure strength work... so intrigued how this one, which is kina power oriented, is an exception?

note I'm not casting doubt, just trying to eduate myself on the difference, you know?

[benpritch]

i'm sure as a track athlete you know more about this than me, but this is a program invented by a sports scientist specifically for climbing and it really did make a huge difference to me when i followed it. I am just psyching up to take a month off climbing to do it again. maybe when the rainy season arrives in june. and you get 48 hrs off every five days anyway. i was amazed how much training actual athletes do. most seem to train 6 days a week, even power lifters.

[route149]

i was amazed how much training actual athletes do. most seem to train 6 days a week, even power lifters.

yes, I think it's remarkable.  slightly OT but I read for example that by age 13, a swimmer wanting to qualify for the next olympics would be putting in 35 hours of swimming-pool training a week.  That's not travellling to venues or other peripheral stuff, just pool lap hours.  Climbers' contact time is typically fractional compared to this, isn't it?

[jwi]

Well swimming isn't very hard.

[route149]

Starting front lever training today.   It's exciting to be trying new stuff.

[Johnny Brown]

All this is great for strength, but how are you going about improving your skills/ technique?

[route149]

All this is great for strength, but how are you going about improving your skills/ technique?

Oh, usual ways.  I work technique drills into my climbing warm-ups and specifically, on made-up boulder problems.  A couple of my mates are v9-11 and they give me enough demonstration of sound technique. It's a good point, though, so cheers.