We continue the discussion, starting with some ways we can know if climbing is having a negative effect on our bodies, and then moving into some ideas about program design. Listen here:

Don Reagan Interview Part 2.mov – YouTube

This is the first installment of my interview with Dr. Don Reagan. Dr. Reagan has worked with Athletes around the country  he is Head Performance Coach and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) at the Orthopaedic Center of Central Virginia as well as Adjunct Professor of Strength & Conditioning at Liberty University. He integrates rehabilitation and athletic development for the betterment of his clientele using Functional Movement Systems. He is also an ardent student of manual therapy and pain science. He has over 10 years of experience in the fitness industry, and has competed in strength sports including Olympic Weightlifting and Power Lifting.

Dan and I met Dr. Reagan over dinner in 2011 and had a great conversation. I wanted to share some Dr. Reagan’s views with our readers and he was kind enough to agree to an interview. One of the things that is most interesting about Dr. Reagan is that he participates in strength sports but he places significant emphasis on movement. Our conversation covered a number of topics from movement, to the state of sports science today, to how best to think about injury prevention. We pick up our conversation with Dr. Reagan describing the idea of global movement.  the rest of the installments of our conversation will be posted in the days to come.

here is the link: Don Reagan Interview Part 1.mov – YouTube

Let us know how you like the interview and the addition of audio to the blog!

Three weeks ago I was in Bishop, shooting video at the Happy Boulders and the Buttermilks. On one day I was able to observe a climber projecting a V10.  He was having trouble with the crux move, in this case a very long reach to the left that is low to the ground and easy to work. Two things stood out to me about this climber’s efforts. He put in a huge number of tries on that move without success, and that he tried the move the same way every time. 

This is a pretty easy trap to fall into. If we feel that we are close to success on a move, or think a move should not be too hard for us; its easy to just keep trying, assuming that success will come quickly. The problem arises when after 7 or 10 tires, we still haven’t done the move; we are now tired, our skin is thinner, and our emotional state is tending towards frustration.  This is exactly what happened to the climber I was watching, and he ended up walking away from the problem in question. But did this need to be the case?

I can’t say with certainty that he would have completed the problem if he approached it differently but there are a few things that he should have been doing but didn’t.

1-    He should have placed a limit on the number of times he would try the move the same way without success. We are often right when we think a move will go quickly for us. But if we put in three or four tries and are still unsuccessful then its time to slow down and really start to analyze the structure of the move, to take it seriously and really learn it.

2-    He should have experimented with different beta. He didn’t significantly change how he was doing the move over his many efforts. He saw several other climbers do the move in question as a dyno, but he insisted on attempting it statically and he never altered his hand and foot position.

3-    Since the move in question was a very long move, he should have looked for intermediates, which would have allowed him to break one very long reach into two smaller parts.

4-    He should have tried the move with a power spot. Power spots are one of those fantastic tools that you just don’t see climbers using. A power spot gives the climber the opportunity to try the move with less stress, and provides a good opportunity to learn where the center of gravity needs to be in space in order to complete the move. Power spots help us learn moves faster. It assists the Motor learning process to actually complete a difficult move. Rather than falling at the same moment over repeated attempts. The fact that the timing is different and that the required effort is less, do matter, but the brain learns more when we complete a move with assistance, than it can when we fall.

If you have not tried using power spots, use them on your next bouldering project. The best procedure to follow is to have your spotter take off just enough weight to allow you to complete the move, but the spotter should not take off so much weight that the move becomes easy. It might take a few tries for your spotter to learn how to do this on a given move. Also, you will want to try the hard moves several times with a power spot. Have your spotter try to give less assistance on each consecutive attempt. The idea is that on each try you learn the move a little better and so will need slightly less help, until you have fully learned the move and should be able to do it with no assistance.

I’ve spent years observing how climbers approach the sport, and, for the most part, each could improve his or her performance by avoiding at least one of the following common mistakes. There are other, lesser mistakes to be sure, but in my experience if you become proficient in these skills you’ll be well on your way to realizing your potential as a climber. 

1. Learn to learn

Figuring out and memorizing sequences, movement nuance, rests, clips, and all the other beta required to send a route is an acquired skill. Most climbers never really engage in an effective route learning process prior to making redpoint attempts.Douglasrecently wrote on this topic (Tactics and Mistakes We Don’t Know We’re Making) so I won’t belabor the point.

 2. Learn to train

A typical “training” session might consist of going to the gym, hanging out with friends, and doing a few routes or working that boulder problem project. Learn to separate training from performance. Get systematic with your training. Come up

Are you an inattentive belayer?

with goals, create a plan to get you there, and then follow the plan. An often overlooked component to training is documentation – keep a journal so you can gauge your progress. Training programs aren’t easy to create or follow, but they are very effective at improving performance. We’ve written voluminously on this topic including two books; the information is out there for the taking.

Be sure your plan works on your weaknesses. This is where you can make the biggest improvement in the shortest time. And while we’re on the subject of training, don’t short yourself on movement skills; leave time to practice efficiency.

3. Learn to boulder

I’ve often witnessed route climbers that boulder either too little or too much. Bouldering is an essential training activity for all climbers. It’s hands down the best way to build strength but too many route climbers routinely avoid bouldering. At the other end of the spectrum are those that aspire to improve their route climbing but focus too much energy on bouldering. You’ve seen these folks, they can send V6 but not 5.11.

Both endurance and strength are important attributes to the route climber. You need to boulder but not to the point where you’re excluding route climbing.

4. Learn to use your gear correctly

Ready for that sport route?

We’ve all witnessed the classic example of the climber that refuses to leave any gear on the ground carrying belay devices, cordelettes, and all other manner of equipment up sport routes. Using the wrong gear or the right gear incorrectly costs you efficiency. We cover this topic in great detail in Redpoint as have others; get appropriate equipment and use in correctly.

5. Learn to belay properly

The belayer’s role in a successful redpoint is often undervalued. Too often I’ve witnessed inattentive and uninterested belayers who perform at a mediocre level. More than simply the climber’s safety net, an effective belayer can often assist the climber by remembering sequences or offering helpful advice. In addition, the effective belayer can help the climber maneuver efficiently while learning a route by actively working the rope. Change your mindset such that you view the climber and belayer as a team and not simply two individuals performing two independent tasks.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to climb with, and observe a climber in his 20’s who is currently working his way through the 5.11 grade. One of the climbs we were on together was a 5.11d, a grade he had not yet successfully climbed. On his first attempt he essentially tried to flash the route and fell at the crux. He hung on the rope for a minute then tried the crux again; and again he fell. After another rest he tried again, and fell again. He repeated this pattern several times before getting through the crux.  Higher on the route he took a large fall because he climbed past the obvious clipping position and attempted to clip from a far less stable position with his feet five or six feet above the last bolt.  He left the crag that day without doing the route, without learning much about the route, and with his cage rattled due to a big fall.

What I found interesting about this climber is how crude his approach to the climb was. He started from the ground and climbed until he fell.  After each fall he pulled back on the rock and again climbed until he fell. He never asked his belayer to “take”, he also did not look for better sequencing options during his rests, and he didn’t review sections of the climb after he successfully climbed them. At the end of his first burn on the route he was tired, emotionally drained from the repeated falls, and had learned very little about the climb.

It bears repeating that success and failure in climbing don’t happen by accident, they are both constructed. They are both the natural outcome of our movement skills, our climbing specific fitness, our emotional state, and our tactics. This climber was excited about climbing, he was fairly fit, but he had poor movement skills and had no tactics that would aid him in the learning and memorization of the climb in question. Let this last idea sink in a bit. Imagine being engaged in a complex motor learning activity, at a high level of difficulty, with a large number of moves to memorize without having a learning methodology to aid you in the process. Isn’t that doing things the hardest way possible?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this young climber lately because he had no idea that he was making any tactical mistakes. He was doing what he thought was right. He had no idea that it was his lack of tactics that was causing him to go home that day without sending his first 5.11d.  This is what makes tactics such a tricky issue in climbing, it’s very difficult to gain an awareness of how our climbing behaviors hinder our progress. In all fairness I’d say that it’s pretty much impossible for us to see how our tactics create failure until we are exposed to better tactics and learn how and why they work. In the case of the climber I described above better tactics might have include the following:

1-    Using his first burn as a learning burn. This would have meant intentionally stopping and taking at every bolt on the route. Stopping and resting at every bolt would have allowed him to review the moves he performed in the previous section, for the sake of evaluating their efficiency, or committing them to memory. Stopping at every bolt also would have meant getting more rest so that he could climb and learn each section without being tired or pumped, which fosters better motor learning. Finally, stopping at each bolt would have allowed him to read sequences and moves for the sections to come. He could have formulated a plan or at least known the holds available to him prior to launching into each new section.

2-    Taking fewer falls. Taking falls in the redpoint context is fine if you are experimenting with the fall to see how if feels. It’s also fine to fall when going for linkage. Falling becomes a problem when it’s unnecessary. The climber I was observing was falling because he had not read the sequences, and was just trying random things on the fly. This is bad because taking repeated falls was draining his emotional energy, and made him feel that he was far from success. These falls did not aid the learning process. In this case it would have been easy for the climber to taken instead of falling, or he should have advanced the rope above him so that he could have tried the difficult moves on top rope.

3-    Reviewed the climb. When lowering off a route after working burn, the climber could have reviewed each section by reviewing the hold and his sequence, and he could have climbed sections again where he found his information was incomplete.

There are more tactics that would have helped the climber in question, but even this brief list would have been a tremendous advantage over what he was doing. I realize that tactics don’t excite many climbers the way physical training does, and many climbers don’t give their on-sight and redpoint tactics much thought, but without good tactics our training and our psych to climb won’t get us very far compared to what we could achieve with good tactics.

My apologies for going for so long without a post! I actually have several posts ready to go that I need to get up as soon as possible.

After reading Brendon’s update I was thinking about how important it is to keep track of our training. Keeping a journal being an essential part of this process. But writing everything down in the first place is just the start of the process. The learning happens when we review the contents of our journals and assess the volume, difficulty and quality of the climbing that we have done in the past weeks, month, quarter, or year.

So with that in mind, I went over my climbing journal for the end of 2011 and did an analysis that you can see here:  Climbing_review Sheet1

After have not climbed for most of 2011 I got motivated in November and started climbing on a regular basis. As you might imagine, with about a year’s worth of no real climbing my starting point was pretty low. In addition, I didn’t really create a plan in advance, I just wanted to work hard and have fun using the kind of workouts best suited to the gym I climb at. In this case, I had not done interval training in a very long time so I thought it would be fun to do bouldering circuits. Of course its not the best idea to do bouldering circuits off the couch so I started at a low level and didn’t push myself to the limit in any given workout.

What I like about breaking the numbers down as shown in the link above  is being able to see the over all change in volume in climbing as well as each grade as a percentage of completed problems.  Even without a training schedule I find this very helpful; it makes it easy to see if progress is being made, and it makes planning for the coming weeks pretty easy.

So, if you are not keeping a climbing journal please do so!  And if your are keeping a journal, don’t forget to do your reviews!

It’s March already and if you’re like a lot of climbers you spent the winter doing more dreaming of perfect sends than training. And now it’s March and you’re beginning to panic. This weekend we switch to daylight savings time and

Enough said!

combined with the warm winter we’ve had the spring climbing season can’t be far behind. So, what do you do? Can you catch up at this late date. If so, what is the most effective use of your training time for the next month?

 Stamina

When you do get outside you’ll want to make the most of it by being able to sustain intensive effort over an entire day. That means stamina and fortunately you can improve this important aspect of conditioning with Continuous Repetition Intensity (CIR) sessions in just a few weeks.  Do the following twice a week for three to four weeks to see an increase in the number of hard attempts you can make in a single session or day.

The CIR exercise can be performed on either boulder problems or routes. For your first session you’ll need 16 boulder problems or 12 routes at your on-sight grade minus one. Example, if your on-sight grade is V4 or 11d your first CIR session will be at either V3 or 11c. If you don’t have 16 boulder problems or 12 routes in your target grade available you’ll have to repeat some of the climbs. Once you’ve selected the appropriate grade and located the climbs you have two hours to complete all the routes. There is no timed rest in this exercise, but you can’t dawdle either. Rest as much as you like, but try to finish in the allotted two hours.

At the end of the 12 routes or 16 boulder problems you should feel depleted; the last few climbs should feel difficult. If you fail to complete all the climbs in two hours because of fatigue drop down another grade for the next session. If you’re not fatigued then bump up a grade. If you chose correctly and felt depleted but completed all the routes then in the next session push the intensity by increasing the grade of roughly one third of the routes by a single letter (routes) or number (boulder problems). In this way you’ll be improving your ability to handle more difficult climbing for long periods. Keep pushing the intensity each session.

Although the CIR exercise might not seem that difficult to complete, the continuous nature and high volume of this moderately intensive climbing will leave you with an expanded ability to make solid attemps over a relatively long period of time.

Anaerobic Endurance

Another conditioning element that responds quickly to training is anaerobic endurance (AE). Again, you can train your AE on both roped routes or boulder problems. The classic AE exercise is the 4X4 in which you complete four different boulder problems consecutively with no rest and then take a timed two to two and a half minute rest period. Repeat three more times, thus four sets of four boulder problems. If you want to use a route, you’ll choose a single line and after each single lap you’ll rest for two to two and a half minutes; complete the route four times.

Effort now = results later!

Fine tuning the AE exercise means finding the grade, or combination of grades, where you complete all the problems or routes but just barely finish the last one. At the end you should be completely trashed. This on again, off again exercise at an intensive level with a timed rest  is known as interval training. The idea is to pump your muscles and then let them partially recover before pumping them again thereby training your body to adapt to the anaerobic condition that is part and parcel of difficult route climbing. A more thorough description of the 4X4 exercise, and CIR for that matter, can be found in The Self Coached Climber.

If winter got away from you it’s not too late to get in a little preseason training. Get on it now and be as ready as you can be in a month when the sun shines and the rock warms.

About a month ago we were asked by two climbers in Salt Lake if, since we’d be there anyway for the official release of Redpoint at the Outdoor Retailer show, we’d be willing to sit down and provide some climbing improvement guidance. Apparently our travel schedules are becoming known. Anyway Brendan and Brendan (no, we haven’t changed the names to protect the innocent) were willing to work around our hectic show schedules and a date was set.

Redpoint book signing at Outdoor Retailer

Background

The Brendans are seasoned climbers with many fine ascents to their credit. Both are working their way into 14a sport; Brendan 1 is on his way back to the grade having sent 14a in 2002 and 2003, and Brendan 2 is making his first foray into the 14 world. As it turns out, Brendan 1 had been a member of the youth climbing team inSaltLakeunderDouglasso he is well versed in our methods. Both are in their mid- to late 20s and live in theSalt Lake Cityarea.

Available resources

As far as physical resources go it’s hard to imagine a richer environment. There are multiple crags to choose from consisting of a variety of rock types, and outdoor climbing is available year round within just a few hours drive.SaltLakealso boasts one of the best indoor training environments as well with many fine gyms within easy commuting distance.

Brendan 1 has a full time career, a wife, and a young child so time for training and climbing is at a premium. He feels like three to four training sessions a week are doable, but the time he can spend away from home to climb outdoors is limited. Brendan 2 has fewer time constraints so we tailored our recommendations more to Brendan 1 since the two enjoy training together.

Goals

The Brendans were very clear about this: move up to the 14b or c level within the next year. Their current project is Horse Latitudes at the Virgin River Gorge, a 110 foot slightly overhanging limestone 14a. The climb is broken at the half way point by an undercling shake, the first half consisting of 12c. The second half contains the V7 crux, an offset balance deadpoint from a small crimp to a pocket. Both Brendans would like to send Horse Latitudes by the end of February, the close of the 2012 VRG season.

Current training regimen

The Brendans have been involved in a periodized training schedule with heavy emphasis on strength training by using a campus board, finger board, and system wall. Both have felt like a lack of strength is the main issue holding them back from higher grades, and they’ve worked hard to try and overcome this perceived deficit.

Assessment process

We asked the Brendans to provide us baseline information about their current condition. The two are fairly well matched in all categories, and here is what they told us:

Local aerobic endurance (20 minutes continuous climbing): 11c

Local anaerobic endurance (4X4): V5

Max bouldering grade: V9 or V10

Stamina (12 – 15 pitches in a session): 12c

We visited with the Brendans at a Salt Lake gym in order to perform an abbreviated movement diagnostics session. We watched and videoed the two as they worked on several boulder problems observing their process and movement. In addition we created a very specific two move problem to see how they would approach a common movement issue for climbers at their level.

Assessment conclusions

Movement: Video analysis showed that both Brendans have some very positive attributes in their movement. Brendan 1 showed very good trunk extension on vertical moves and on some steeper moves as well. We also saw that in a number of dynamic situations he was able to initiate movement from the hips.  Brendan 2 demonstrated good body tension and the ability to make small yet critical adjustments that allowed him to change a move of off-set balance into a move of more stable balance. Finally both showed very good active range of motion in the hip joints. Neither of them struck us as a “thug” and most people watching them would say they move very well.

We felt that their current movement skills form a good base for further refinement, but we didn’t see as much well controlled movement initiation as we would have liked. We felt that they still have more to learn about balance and how to distribute the effort of movement in the body relying less on the upper body for initation. The Brendans, like most climbers, rely on feel and an intuitive sense of how to approach a particular problem type, and this tends to favor those skills which are well learned and that the climber is particularly good at and disfavors weaker, less used skills.

Physical: The Brendans spend a lot of time bouldering and doing the strength training explained above. This type of work tends to be of a high intensity, short duration, and low volume nature and helps explain their relatively low level of aerobic and anaerobic endurance. At V9/10, maximum strength is adequate for the climbing anticipated.

Recommendations

Movement: We believe the Brendans have spent plenty of time with hangboards, etc. and instead should place more emphasis on sport specific training methods. By sport specific we mean activities that closely resemble the requirements of the ultimate objective, i.e. climbing! Hang and campus boards increase isolated muscle strength but do little to help in the application of that strength. Think about a skier that complains of leg fatigue. Would weighted leg presses be the solution? Probably not since a leg press does little to help the skier’s overall performance which is dependent on efficiently using balance and body position to best advantage, and to achieve this he needs to do what? Ski, of course!

We’d like to see the Brendans spend more time climbing, and in the case of learning movement, work boulder problems at just beyond their redpoint grade. In addition we’d like them to analyze easier problems in the V6 to V8 range in which the objective is to experiment with balance and movement initiation until the most efficient sequence is discovered.

Physical: We feel like the Brendans have spent sufficient time with intensive, short duration strength building exercises and should instead concentrate on less intensity and longer durations. We have three objectives in mind…

1. Improve aerobic endurance. Increase the grade at which they can climb continuously from 11c to 12a or b. Raising the anaerobic threshold will provide two benefits. First, the Brendans will be able to climb to the rest on Horse Latitudes using mostly efficient aerobic energy and will therefore be fresher at the beginning of the shake. Second, the recovery at the rest will be faster and deeper so that when they cast off for the second half they’ll be more rested. Keep in mind that on 5.14s there is often no climbing easier than 5.12. This means that if a climber’s aerobic endurance level is under 5.12 then all the climbing will be above their anaerobic threshold.

2. Increase anaerobic endurance: Increase 4X4 grade to V6. The Brendans currently have anaerobic endurance levels consistent with solid 5.13 climbing, but since they want to move into the mid 14s they will need to be able to climb longer sections with sustained movement intensity of V5 and higher. They will also need to be able to do harder cruxes while pumped. Raising their anaerobic endurance level will help with these issues. We also suggested that they use longer form interval training such as 6X8 as these will help them deal with the long lower intensity sections of climbing on a route like Horse Latitudes.

3. Increase stamina: The Brendans don’t get much outdoor climbing in due to their schedules, and their daily volume of climbing and training is lower than solid 5.14 climbers should have. The goal of improving stamina is to increase the amount of productive time they have during each day of outdoor climbing. We want them to be able to quickly redpoint 5.14a in a few tries and to be able to put a number of solid working burns in on a 5.14b/c in a day. To this end their stamina level needs to be raised. We suggest that they start doing Continuous Intensity Repetitions at a bouldering grade of V7 and work up from there. On routes they should start withCIR/VIRat the 5.12d level and work up to 5.13b.

We agreed to monitor the Brendans’ progress so stay tuned for future entries.

Every year I take the month of December off from climbing, but a hectic holiday schedule (why does everyone wait until December to throw a party?) is not the only reason to break. Overtraining can take a toll both physically and mentally – you might need an extended break if you’re experiencing some or all of these signs:

• Fatigue or physical exhaustion
• Soreness that won’t go away
• Dreading your workouts
• Poor performance
• You’re not able to progress in your workouts
• You feel unmotivated or bored
• An injury or illness
• You can’t stand the thought of exercising

For kids the problem is even more critical. The American Academy of Pediatrics says ”athletes should take time off from one sport for two to three months each year. Taking a break from a sport allows injuries to heal … It also helps kids take a psychological break, which is necessary to avoid burnout, or overtraining syndrome.” Coaches take note: For the long-term health of your climbers give them some time off each year.

Completely curtailing an activity will necessarily cause a deterioration in fitness. However, there is some evidence that suggests that exercise of once per week can maintain your level of fitness. If you don’t want to completely stop climbing then maybe just reduce your volume to one moderate workout per week. At that level injuries can still heal, your desire to perform can recharge, and at the end of the break you’ll be ready to begin a new round of performance improvement.

Good luck and happy holidays!

by Douglas Hunter

Efficiency can be thought of as addressing the question of what is the minimum amount of work an athlete needs to do in order to achieve the desired performance goals. Efficiency also means how well structured your climbing / training time is, in the short, medium and long term.

Efficiency begins with our ability to make and execute a plan for a single day of climbing or training. Without efficiency at this level medium and long term efficiency won’t be achievable. So the making of daily plans and executing them well is the foundation of efficiency. Most climbers already know that the most basic daily plan consists of a warm-up, a main activity and a cool down. What we are concerned with is the quality of each of these phases and how successful we are in each of them.

For the warm-up, the considerations are how quickly it prepares your body and your mind for the climbing to come. Does your warm-up help you move well, does it help you feel energized and ready to work? Does it need to last two hours, or thirty minutes? Faster isn’t necessarily better, the point is to make sure that the time is used wisely, and that activities in the warm-up contribute to your readiness for the main activity.

In the main activity the goal is for the climbing to be well structured and well executed. The overall time the activity takes will depend on what it is. Some activities such as high intensity intervals can be done in thirty minutes. Other activities such as on-sight practice may take several hours. In either case its important to assess how well you did in the activity and why. If for example, your goal was to do a CIR at the V2 level but you could only do seven V2s before you needed to drop down to V1s. You want to figure out why this happened. Was V2 too high of a level for you? Were you unmotivated? Did your skin wear out too quickly? On the other hand what if the CIR went well and you succeeded in doing twelve V2s in the session. What factors contributed to that success, and do you think you are ready to increase the intensity?

Finally, for the cool down, the goal is to aid recovery from the climbing. The cool down is the time to prevent cramping and stiffness that often follows climbing workouts. So we need to consider how well our cool down is working, this can usually be done by examining how you feel the day after a climbing / training session. How well do you perform the basic movement patterns of daily life? How does your body feel as you get out of bed the morning after a climbing / training session? Muscle soreness is a natural part of the training process, but how sore you are and how often your muscles feel extremely sore is influenced by your cool down.

. . .

After taking a couple of hours away from this post I re-read it and thought that maybe it’s too simple, too basic. But that’s actually the point. Training efficiency begins with the structure of each day, and it’s the ability to put together days, weeks and months of efficient training that we hope to foster in ourselves as we learn how to train.