[cha1n]

Right then, I haven't got around to proper training yet but when I climb indoors, I usually warm up and then jump on a something I think will take me a few sessions. I try the problem until I'm certain I'm too tired to do it and sometimes that can be an hour, sometimes 30 minutes and I wonder what I should do after.

Sometimes I go around climbing some volume on stuff until I can barely hold onto jugs any more, sometimes I climb as close to my limit as I can for a little while and then stretch and leave.

What's the science on once you're on the downward slope in terms of energy? It feels really lazy just going and pulling hard for 30-60 minutes (with a fair amount of resting inbetween) and then leaving. Plus, it's not really that satisfying because you don't really feel like you've climbed much.

Occasionally I'll go on the bar at the works and do some dips or try and work on my 1-armers but I'm usually too tired to give 100% but don't really want to waste a proper opportunity to climb to fanny about trying to do 1-armers. I know I could try on a rest day but I feel that it would have a negative effect on the climbing day afterwards. Anyone think that one-armers are that important that I should substitute a climbing day for it or risk ruining a climbing day by doing it the day before? Anyone, digressing slightly there.

[lagerstarfish]

word on the street is that finishing climbing whilst you are still strong is the way to go

I've never managed it

1 armers have nothing to do with climbing, but the chicks dig it

[Nibile]

There is no best method wothout a specific goal.
Each excercise trains itself, with a potentially big or limited crossover.
Get your goals and priorities right, then find the method.

One armers are goooooooooood!

[cha1n]

Yeh I've heard of finishing strong before. I suppose the main thing I'm interested in is during the week if I'm short on time, if I finish whilst strong but I know I've tried hard, will I get as good a training effect as if I'd stayed longer?

Is there anyone who's trained in both ways and can comment on this? I remember when I first started climbing and was dead keen, I'd do 4, 4-5 hour sessions a week and when I cut that down to 3 2-hour sessions per week I never noticed any negative effects, which makes me think that adding on an extra period to the session where you're pulling sub-maximally isn't necessarily of any benefit?

Not sure if that still applies to a really short session though. Obviously, by the end of a 5 hour session I'd be climbing such easy stuff but it'd still feel hard because of how tired I was.

[jfdm]

 
Have a look at this Daniel Wood training.
Absolutely thrashed after one round!
Don't think this is the intended training effect.
In places quite choppy.

Here's another one better quality showing some good training exercises?

[a dense loner]

Like stuff like this, guys are taking time and effort to show and explain the kind of things they do when coaching. None of it's rocket science and most people do stuff similar but at least someones starting to put it out there with some kind of explanation

[b3n99]

This is well worth a watch too, talks about training times and things.

I find that 1 and a half to 2 hours of climbing hard on a board or trying difficult problems is about my limit. After that I can go and play about on the techy/weird/slabby stuff for another hour. Much more beneficial than that though is to do some training in this time I find. I usually do something like the chris webb parsons fingerboard plan with core exercises in the rests or sets of assisted one armers.

Also I find it very odd that people say one arm pull ups aren't helpful. Anybody know someone that can boulder 8B but not do one? Being stronger is always going to be helpful and I think one armers are a really good and specific way of training that raw arm strength. Even better on a small hold!!

[Doylo]

I've seen Dave Graham fail to do one. You can compensate for it if you're talented and have hydraulic fingers.

[a dense loner]

Micky Page can't do one

[tomtom]

IIRC Ondra can do 8B (and more) but not 1 arm....

Last year I was at the Tor and a chap there could one arm on a tree branch then was comprehensively shut down on Saline Drip... (7A - soft)...

But I suspect if you're operating up in the 8's theres got to be a fair chance you have enough in the guns to do one...

[kelvin]

Ondra did his first one armer almost a couple of years ago now but two years ago, back when I was in Swizzy with the people he'd been there bouldering with the week before - he couldn't do one then for sure and he was bopping 8B back then. In fact, a couple of them couldn't do one armers but could boulder 8B. It's all in the core is what they told me.

Ondra is a freak... maybe it skews things with him in it.

[b3n99]

I just think that for a lot of boulder problems you need that pure pulling power. What other way do people think is a better way to train this? I definitely feel one armer and lock off training has improved my climbing!

[jfdm]

Hope that the two links I put up work?
For mere mortals the second one shows exercises that would be of use to everyone.

The Daniel Woods one shows that even the best have bad days.
Or that what you might think would work doesn't.
Each person will react differently to a series of exercises.
Even the best coaches can totally misjudge the intensity of things!
I suppose that is the key out of the box new climbers will not be able to do one arm pull ups! That taking things slowly and carefully is often the sensible way.

Havin just got back into climbing want to sort out a good programme over the winter.
And try to build a small system board in the attic.
To hopefully climb more difficult problems.
The difficult thing is bringing everything together to make it work.

The nice thing about getting back into climbing is that I have enjoyed bumbling around.
It has been great to use ukb forum - in a way it has helped me with my climbing.

The Louder Than 11 who produced the training videos also have some pretty cool interviews with climbers. Check it all out - it's free!

[a dense loner]

Who's Dave Woods? Daniels stronger younger brother that no one talks about at parties? I went to school with David Wood who's now a foreman at Lees' Brewery. Awful stuff

b3n99 I don't think the 3 guys mentioned above are getting held back by having no pulling power. One armers are arbitrary nonsense that look good. In darts they'd be under trebles, as in "trebles for show, doubles for dough"

[jfdm]

Who's Dave Woods? Daniels stronger younger brother that no one talks about at parties? I went to school with David Wood who's now a foreman at Lees' Brewery. Awful stuff

b3n99 I don't think the 3 guys mentioned above are getting held back by having no pulling power. One armers are arbitrary nonsense that look good. In darts they'd be under trebles, as in "trebles for show, doubles for dough"

You are right "dense" it is Daniel - my fault - corrected in my last post!

[b3n99]

There's a video of Ondra doing 2 in a row on one of the tierra boulder battle videos. That and the fact that he trained it as it addressed a point of weakness shows to me that they surely of some value? Yes they are a bit of a showpiece and not completely transferable to climbing but thats the same with a lot of things. Surely being stronger at pulling can't do anything but help?

[lagerstarfish]

I once did 3 one armers

I did 2 one armers with my legs out at 90 degrees

I did a one armer off a girder, wearing Koflachs at 3600m immediately after tearing up an ED and an ABO with very little sleep in between

I've never bouldered 7C

[Moo]

  on all counts for your last post lager

[a dense loner]

I read a piece by Stevie Haston a long time ago about doing one armers at altitude. When I went to the Himalayas I wanted to do one at 5000m, it was all I could think about really, I could barely walk at that altitude!

[Jim]

people who can climb 8b but can't do one armers have never trained or tried to do a one armer.
doing one armers is good, i used to be able to do them and I was 14stone+ even back then, beat that you thin bastards!

[Moo]

Jim nobody here will bother trying to beat that except maybe Andy B.

People aren't saying they are totally pointless it's just not perhaps what one should prioritise in their training.

[cha1n]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'm not really that motivated to train really so I have to trick myself into doing stuff which resembles training. I quite like trying to do one-armers and whilst there's other things that are more important, I guess it can't really hurt. Dedicating the strong part of a session to training them is a whole other matter though. I don't like doing them THAT much!

I keep meaning to do all the antagonistic stuff though, I've even bought the therabands!

I definitely couldn't do a fingerboard session after bouldering hard though Ben, but you've always been like that! You always used to have a campus session after the end of a hard bouldering session too!

[Jaspersharpe]

For sure one armers are a party piece rather than something that makes you better at climbing. However if arm strength is holding you back then there's nothing wrong with training that.

I think it's a personal physiology thing to a certain extent though. When I was quite strong I could pull and lock stuff foot off on most holds but I could never do a one arm pull up even on a massive jug. If I put my little finger on the back of my forearm I could one arm anything I could hang.

I figured there was never going to be a situation where I couldn't do that in climbing so stopped worrying about it.

[tomtom]

I once did 3 one armers

I did 2 one armers with my legs out at 90 degrees

I did a one armer off a girder, wearing Koflachs at 3600m immediately after tearing up an ED and an ABO with very little sleep in between

I've never bouldered 7C

You are my hero Lagers <3

I hope there was 80's action film style music playing in your head at the time

[Jaspersharpe]

Lagers is being modest.

He's not mentioned how without climbing or training for ages and being quite heavy he could always still bust out a one armer at around 3am at a party having done about ten pints of Stella, a bottle of vodka, three pills, a bit of acid, weed and mushrooms and a load of speed.

I found it almost as heroic as the fact that I'd done twice as much and could still stand up and witness the feat.