Chain didn't quite go for me last. I repeatedly fell off the final dyno. However, I have had some success out at the Rat Cave with quite a few low and mid 5.12 ascents. I'm hoping the power endurance intensive climbing I have been doing at the RC and in the Gym will give me that little push I need to reach an inch higher and stick the finishing jug of Chain. After next weekend, send or not, it'll be time for me to get down to business and start training for the Bishop trip that I'll be taking in late December.
The basic idea of this training plan is to eek as much strength gain as possible into the first 4 weeks and then have some fun cutting loose with a bit of power and recruitment training for the last 2 weeks before the trip. It is important that the differences between the entities of strength, power and recruitment are fully understood before one can understand the methods that are used to train them. First, lets examine strength. When I say my climbing strength, I am referring to the absolute maximum amount of force that my forearm muscles can channel into my fingers. Simple as that. Whether it takes me a half second or 10 seconds to produce this maximum force is irrelevant. Power on the other hand has everything to do with time. When I say Power, I am referring to the amount of time it takes me to achieve my maximum force. Essentially, the amount of time it takes me to recruit all the muscle fibers I can and put maximum force into whatever climbing hold I'm grabbing. This brings me to the final entity; recruitment. Recruitment refers to the percentage of muscular fibers that are activated when gripping a hold. For example, if I look at 100 total muscle fibers, and 10 fire, I have a recruitment of 10%.
Now that we have these entities defined, let's figure out what factors influence their development. To me, it's a simple matter of training and genetics. Some people are born with great tendon insertion causing naturally strong fingers. No matter what your thoughts are regarding nature vs. nurture, it is inarguable that each person has a set genetic maximum for any activity. There is a maximum level of physical adaptation that each person's body will make. The good news, I believe most all climbers (professionals excluded) are quite far away from this genetic maximum. Most people climb and train in a haphazard way with little focus or direction. They boulder one day without resting enough to regain full strength and power between burns.The next day they go sport climbing. The next they traverse and call it training. Certain people respond well to this sort of "training" and become strong climbers regardless. I'd say that's about 1 percent of people. The rest of us will quickly plateau and gains will become slow or non-existent. Frustration then ensues as people cannot understand why they stopped improving like they did in there first year or so of climbing. Beyond genetics, the only way to quickly improve and break plateaus is through focused and intelligent training.
In the coming week or so, I will post training schedules and plans and explain how they relate to the big three training principles.
Eric
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