Sharkathon 2025

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Monday - did some Yoga for Sharkathon go me

Tuesday - Big day. Edge Lifts up to 70kgs for each hand. Tried some Murples at the Works, did one, and did a lot of moves on others. Felt good! Following that benched up to 62.5 for 8 for 6 sets, then did 5x5 pullups, then supersetted 4 sets of 12 pressups and 4 sets of 30 second superman plank holds

Wednesday - Board. Felt good,relaly good. Made progress on a big proj, all the warm-ups were cruised. Mint session very enjoyable. Then squatted, 4 sets of 8 at 77.5kgs, followed by 4 supersets of 45 second side planks and 25 second single leg glute bridges per side. Then 6 supersets of 16 dumbbell reverse lunges with 25kgs and 12 hanging knee raises. Big session. Core is feeling like steel.

Thursday - Did all the new Purples no problem, then some other chill volume, then benched. 4 sets of 6 at 67.5kgs, then superset of chest flys and seal rows, and then hammer curls and skull crushers. The most ghetto seal row set up in the works gym lol

Friday - few hours walk, ease the nice aches

Saturday - Edge Lifts up to 70kgs. Chill climbing as feeling a bit beasted from the week, Benched, 4 sets of 4 at 75kgs, then 6 sets of 3 weighted chin ups, then 4 supersets of 12 overhead dumbbell presses and 4 sets of Arnold presses. Pretty beastly.

Sunday - Snatched. Return to humiliating weights, practised Snatching up to like 40+ kgs, but think that I could maybe get to 70 for a 1RM soon ish? Then squatted 80 kgs for 3 sets of 8 and then did 5x 30 second planks and 6 supersets of 32.5lgs barbell rows and 30 sec superman holds.
...

You cannot train hard all the time, or even most of the time. You have to rest, you have to have entire blocks where you focus on work capacity rather than development. Doing hard shit every day does not work unless you are 1) a genetic freak 2) on drugs 3) young 4) have spent years building an insane work capacity (see Nibs, and even Nibs does not go hard every day). The consequence for everyone else is injury, burn out and a complete performance drop.

I take two rest days a week where I do zero resistance or cardio, every week.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
I'm just built different mate

Seriously though, Monday and Friday I rested, also I am in a specifically tough lifting block, which is 12 weeks long, afterwards the volume will drop, also look at the intensity; benching and squatting well below my max at those reps, accessories that are tough but that I can accommodate especially as they target smaller muscles specifically that recover quicker etc. I still felt beasted on Saturday after a rest day so I specifically dialled the intensity down when climbing too!

Obviously individual capacity is different, some people have way higher capacity than me, some lower etc. What I am doing is within my capacity, I feel tired at time (good! I want to!) but overall I am also not sat bemoaning 1) not doing anything intense on rest days and 2) how I am on an eternal decline. If you feel fucking knackered on a rest day then REST you sausage!
 
I am also not sat bemoaning 1) not doing anything intense on rest days and 2) how I am on an eternal decline. If you feel fucking knackered on a rest day then REST you sausage!

Knob!! 1) I wasn;t intending to do anything remotely intense on a rest day. Yes a 15 minute run is gruelling for my issues, but no it's not intense for my body overall, no it doesn't fatigue me, and no it doesn't affect any of the tiredness in my upper body (apart from a burst of increased heart rate and blood flow helping recovery) 2) The eternal decline is due to doing too little of the right stuff (recovery runs, recovery walks, stretching, rehab, mobility etc). 3) It was my shoulders and forearms that were a bit fucking knacked so I RESTED them (and didn't grumble about that)
 
What I am saying is that the decline aint cos you aren't doing enough "recovery runs" because those aren't recovery they're just runs! And also that you need to do more recovery non-runs i.e. time where you sit on your arse and paint Orcs and rest!
 
That's pretty impressive though. If I did just one of those days (I couldn't even begin to) I'd need at least a week to recover. Impressed and a bit jealous.
(edit: I could probably manage the long walk, or the yoga to be fair)
 
Thing is though that it's a work capacity thing. I could do more than that (more volume or intensity) but not sustainably and recovery would be compromised and instead of benefiting me it would absolutely be actually be reduction in my progress or even a regression.

Overtraining as a condition is very rare and actually requires an insane amount of volume but under-resting definitely is quite common and easy to fall into. There's a threshold on rest days that I won't breach (yoga is gentle, walking is gentle) and I think Active Rest just... isn't Rest
 
What I am saying is that the decline aint cos you aren't doing enough "recovery runs" because those aren't recovery they're just runs! And also that you need to do more recovery non-runs i.e. time where you sit on your arse and paint Orcs and rest!
As I once said to Fiend, he's always asking for advice, but what he really wants is for you to reinforce whatever regime he's dreamed up for himself. Kind of like when Shark was told "just go bouldering" and proceeded to get stuck into the least bouldery boulders (mammoth floor-height traverses) the Peak could provide. You'll give Fiend advice and he will shriek "nOt LiKe thAt!"
 
13 - 6k run in snow
14 - 90 mins bouldering, running out of stuff on current sets so pleased to do a couple of new (for me) ones. 9k road run.
15 - circuits at the Depot (F6a, F6b, F6c, F7a, F7a+, F7b (80%), F7a, F6b) off 4 mins rest. Still dropping the same move on the F7b. 5k run/nursery pickup.
 
13 - 30 minutes table tennis
14 - 45 minutes table tennis. Why am I so shit?
15 - two hours skating in the bowl at The House. Fortunately my mate turned up, so my legs got reasonable rests in between runs and we shared the excitement of dodging piles of pigeon shit and wet concrete.
IMG_20250115_122311~2.jpg
 
Felt really really naff today on the way to my mate's for the board but after warming up had a decent session, not great but an hour and a half in length lots of solid effort. Then benched 75kgs for 4 sets of 6, kept the rest minimal (sub two mins) and did all the sets within eight minutes which makes me feel like I must be way stronger! Accessories were 6 supersets of 12 chest flys and 12 seal rows with 15kg dumbbells (okay fine) and then 4 supersets of 12 per arm(!) 12.5kg dumbbell hammer curls and 15 x 15kg skull crushers. Pretty grim. Felt amazing afterwards though.
 
15. Half hour yoga. Which made the mystery back pain which started yesterday reveal itself as probably an SI joint tweak. Which is annoying as fuck, but in some ways good because in the past those have tended to be very transient for me.
 
14. Up and down and hanging round on ropes. Low energy but still moving about.
15. Finger rehab. It's working, slowly!
 
Wellsy protocol: Tell Fiend to rest more if he's not feeling good. Feels "really really naff". Goes to do a board session and bench session anyway 🥴

16 - indoor bouldering, also enough housework and spring cleaning to get me the slagerthon on it's own.
 
You will note that there is a different between "I had a rest day yesterday and today I felt naff but I pushed through cos I knew my body was just being a sad loser and lo and behold I had a great session" and "I'm five days on from doing loads of training/climbing/cleaning routes/wanking myself to death and felt knackered so I went for a run and still felt knackered afterwards"

( <3 )
 
Wellsy protocol: Tell Fiend to rest more if he's not feeling good. Feels "really really naff". Goes to do a board session and bench session anyway 🥴

16 - indoor bouldering, also enough housework and spring cleaning to get me the slagerthon on it's own.
you know it's not spring yet, yeah?
 

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