[erm, sam]

I have been a climbing cripple since I was about 20. I seem always to have some injury or other, with a new one starting round about the time the last one finally got fixed..
During all this time I have tried different ways of training, but my injuries never really have gone away.
 What with all the breaks for recovery and taking it easy to get over finger, elbow, shoulder etc I haven't (If I am brutally honest with myself) got much better over the last 10 years. I have got better, but not really that much.
Over the last couple of months I have had a revolution in thinking regarding resting.
My new plan is to plan training sessions days with two rest days in between and stick to a 16 week plan. The key element that this brings to me is that I find it really easy to keep training sessions at sub injury level. If I am not fit to train three days later, then the session was too hard, or too long and I know to tone it down at the next session.
By planning 16 sessions at a time, I am not driven to train too hard, I can see that if I get through all 16 sessions without injury then I will be at x target, and ready for more.
Without the planner I always feel like I should push it more, and allways push too much. I end up taking more rest before everything feels ok and want to train harder to make up for lost time etc...

This is an amazing new idea to me, but maybe you have all worked it out allready, I thought I would share my revelation, just in case anybody also suffered from "Training like a fucking idiot" syndrome.

Anybody else got any other blindingly obvious tips?

[saltbeef]

the thing that seems to have helped me re injury is to stop afterr about 2 hours. or before. don't fuck yourself, you get tired, loose quality and snap something, or at least put it on the road to inflammation. more sessions, less time.
looking at your location, i'd probably say its cos all you be climbing on is mono's.

[tobym]

I reckon this book might be of interest, when it eventually comes out(I've been waiting since last August :cry:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0811732177/203-1834453-1881537?%5Fencoding=UTF8
It's co-written by Doug Fisher("Fluxus"), who posts very intelligently on RC.com in the training forum, and I reckon it looks a lot better than the stuff people like Horst come out with.

[erm, sam]

Yeah, I to have been waiting for that book. I asked my inlaws for it for my Birthday in January and every now and then they ring up to say it is still not available..... Ho humm

[mark]

Looks like you can get it from amazon.com rather than .co.uk

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811733394/ref=pd_sim_b_3/102-7939482-9130566?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Around $31 including shipping.

I interviewed the other author - Doug Hunter - for a short piece for Rock and Ice a few years ago. Interesting guy with unusual, Dawes-esque ideas about climbing. I'm sure the book will be a good read.

[moose]

As a fellow complete and utter stupid bastard when it come to bouldering - I always, always climb at fairly high intensity to exhaustion - my fairly obvious tip is to at least make sure you eat pretty damn quick after a session.  

This is a problem for me as I'm lazy and often can't be arsed to cook 'owt decent when I return... and even if I do at least an hour has generally passed.   So as my own step towards a more painfree life I recently started to take a protein / carb shake to the wall with me for my midweek wall trips and does seem to help cut the whole-upper-body badness I used to suffer from (2-3 days of painful aches and stiffness).  Not sure whether there'll be any longer term gains... here's hoping.

Admittedly I know the best thing I could do for both strength gains and injury recovery would be to stop climbing whilst still feeling strong ... but I'm a moron who can't stop himself and the shakes appear to at least mitigate my idiocy.  Currently using the SIS Rego recovery stuff and drinking it towards the tail-end, and after my session.  It is bloody pricey though (figured for the experimental trial I may as well do things properly) so when my batch runs out I might look into more home-made alternative.

[account_inactive]

Looks like you can get it from amazon.com rather than .co.uk

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811733394/ref=pd_sim_b_3/102-7939482-9130566?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Around $31 including shipping.

I interviewed the other author - Doug Hunter - for a short piece for Rock and Ice a few years ago. Interesting guy with unusual, Dawes-esque ideas about climbing. I'm sure the book will be a good read.

I've been chatting with him regarding some biomechanic stuff.  Seems like a nice guy with a good view on climbing.  Just received his book, which seems very useful and complements performance rock very well

[account_inactive]

Is this article I've seen posted in a couple of places relevant?

http://www.rockclimbing.com/articles/index.php?id=2140

I think is about as good as you will find in the Eric Horst books, which also focuses mainly on the physiology of climbing.

Its iinteresting to not that this guy trains like a demon and is still climbing at relatively punter levels! With all that effort I'd want to be knocking out 9a's at the very least.

[tobym]

Just received his book, which seems very useful and complements performance rock very well

Where did you get it from, Dylan?, did Doug send you an advance copy or did you order it from the US?

[lorentz]

Don't take the piss, but have you tried yoga? Been doing it a couple of years, and besides giving you a good awareness of how your own body moves and feels and being a great way to warm up and down, I've found that little injuries that I'd considered permanent have gradually eased and disappeared - and (touch wood) now I know how to warm up properly I don't get injured so much any more.

Also helps you to remember to breath and relax while climbing allowing you to conserve strength and achieve more.

And various mental benefits yada yada yada. I'm evangelising now so I'll quit while I'm ahead! =)

Cheers

Lorentz

[erm, sam]

I have tried yoga and sometimes found it helpfull. But it always seems to me that just the week my shoulder is getting better I go to Yoga and spend half an hour in head down dog followed by the plank and then, surprise my shoulder is even more wrecked...
I guess it all comes down to knowign when to stop..