[csurfleet]

Now that I like the sound of! The ease of the pyramids along with a very simplified periodization model by doing a route pyramid then a bouldering one. Good stuff!

[shark]

If you do that it is a good idea to set aside a session of maintenance work each week ie a session of routes when you are focussing on bouldering and a session of routes when you are focussing on bouldering to reduce the depth hole you have to climb out of when you swap emphasis.

[biscuit]

SCC is about routes not bouldering so i can't be specific for you.

Is it? I interpreted as appropriate for bouldering, sport and trad.  I had three pyramids going on  and was 'periodising' between the bouldering and routes pyramid to work both.

I was meaning with reference to the table on page 192 where it shows what levels you should be at to be 'good enough' to climb a certain level. It doesn't give that level of info for bouldering - however i too now have pyramids everywhere with one for indoor, sport, indoor bouldering and outdoor bouldering.

Pyramidtastic !

I have decided to go for progression concentrating on shorter routes/bouldering first, to make sure i've got the power in the bag, and then swapping to endurance training to crush comedy.

Thanks for the advice i'll let you know how it goes.

[Dexter]

at the end of summer after having done not a lot of hard climbing and so feeling rather weak I basically spent 2 months beasting it with almost no rest (I climbed 28 days in a month). The idea was not to build strength at the time but increase my recovery speed for comp season so I could train more. After the two months I had a small amount of strength gain but the following two months I found I could climb loads a week and still feel fresh so I had massive gains during that period. Oh and arond 80% of these sessions were bouldering. If you want to dramatically increase bouldering strength over 3-4months you could try this. However this does have a rather high injury risk factor.

[Rocksteady]

The way I read the SCC was that while it recognises the gains to be had from a properly periodised training plan, it questions how applicable periodisation is to the average climber who wants to climb throughout the year.

So periodisation (which as I understand it focuses on building a base, then training hypertrophy, then training power, then training recruitment/strength, then training power endurance/endurance - then performing) brings you higher highs but also lower lows.

The SCC pyramid progression system seemed to me to emphasise keeping all your elements ticking over in a year, so in a week you did one session building a bouldering pyramid emphasising power and recruitment, one session doing power endurance exercises like 4x4s, and two sessions of 'performance'. Obviously you could choose whether you did that for routes or bouldering.

I felt the SCC suggested that this sort of method might not bring you the big gains you could get from a periodised program, but could keep you going with little improvements throughout the year, which suits people who are weekend warriors - i.e. can't commit to only achieving goals in a particular time window.

[johnyates]

Biscuit. Fascinating topic - just been reading SCC myself and have designed a training pyramid to give some structure and focus to my sessions and to enable me to measure any gains etc. Not sure where u train or when, but if you are in yorkshire or the north west and can train during the day and need a belayer/training partner, let me know

[biscuit]

Just as an update there was an article in January's Rock & Ice by Dave Macleod where he discusses the pro's and con's of periodisation against what he calls the intuitive approach.

Although the article s balanced in it's opinion he does seem to recommend true periodisation only for those who are truly knowledgeable about the theory, themselves and able to make the correct decisions without self bias ( or get an elite coach ).

The intuitive approach is to use:

progressive overload
specificity 
variety
individuality

and to remember reversibility. Other than saying that you listen to your body carefully and contrast what you are feeling against your goal. Again quite hard to do without self bias. No mention of the SCC structure, which i think provides the framework for you to measure yourself against your goal without much self bias.

It makes me feel i made the right decision to go with progression/intuitive approach.