Three climbers and the story of climbing level.

Lets start with a few definitions.

1. We'll say a climber's base level is the level at which a person climbs quickly(in a day for routes, an hour or so for boulders) when they are fit but haven't performed any intense training.  
2. The standard level is the level at which a person climbs quickly when a person is benefitting from a training regimen. 
3. The maximum level is the level at which a person climbs, after training, given a large amount of time.

Now lets look at three common types of climbers.

1. The organic climber only trains by climbing. More specifically, this climber only trains by trying a project.  The organic climber will try other climbs but only for "fun" and never at a level appropriate to add significant fitness. This climbing style is best suited to a person who wants other interests and lives near a never-ending supply of climbs
2. The human climber uses traditional training methods for climbing. This climber holds to the mantra "the best training for climbing is climbing". The human climber trains by doing intervals on routes/boulders, repeating difficult routes, having multiple projects that work different strengths, etc. Cross-training is achieved through running, calisthenics, and other standard fitness builders. This climbing style is suited to someone who wants to perform well in a wide area of climbing and has no interest in boring training.
3. The robot climber uses all of the methods of the human climber but adds to them some "advanced techniques". These techniques are what this blog is devoted to. See the workouts page above if you're new. The robot climber thoughtfully combines all of these training methods so that nothing important to the goal is left out. This style of climbing is suited to someone who wants to push their physical limits and redefine what is possible.

Now lets put these ideas together, here is a rough chart showing the three different levels of the three different climbers. For simplicity I've shown the case when all three climbers have the same base level. There is no hard data behind this, these are from observations I've made in the field.

Here are some important things to notice from the above chart. Because of how the organic climber trains his standard level is never much higher than his base level, though his maximum level is a good deal higher than either. The human climber and robot climber have similar standard levels while the robot climber has a significantly higher maximum level. This will play out with the human and robot climber performing similarly on a week or two road trip even though the robot has climbed much harder at home.

We'll end there for today. Next time we'll discuss how to "reset" you base level and how that process differs for the three different climbers.

Data Collection and other notes

The fingerboard and one arm pull-up spreadsheets are being updated live during workouts. Look at the top of the page and click on "Training Charts and Logs" if you are interested. I'm going to start keeping a log of climbing days as well so I can start to see how the training numbers carry over to climbing performance.

In other news, my friend Tyler has joined the chart keeping team. It will be interesting to have another set of data points.

Readers may have noticed that the information in this blog is devoted to the physical aspect of climbing as opposed to the technical or mental. There are a few reasons for this bias. I'll make a list.

1. I don't believe climbing is quite as technical as everyone says. This might have something to do with my background in much more technical sports(gymnastics, diving).
2. I don't feel qualified to talk in depth about the mental side of climbing. Dave Macleod's book 9 out of 10 climbers makes the same mistakes has some good writing on this topic.
3. I feel like the training methods I have developed are very beneficial while breaking most of the standard "rules" regarding training for climbing.

If anyone has a good link or reference for training climbing movement skills or mental strategies: Write a comment!

One last thing.  You can now "like" this blog on facebook. If you are interested in such things click the box at the top of the page, or search for "Robot Climbing" on facebook.

Maximum vs. "Usable" Strength

I am still collecting data on the relation of Beastmaker training numbers (like these here, here, and here) to climbing performance. What would really help was if someone would join me in the study so we could have two data sets. Anyone? Before we get started here is a new addition to the Robot Training Facility.

From Robot Training Facility

Reading this thread on the Gymnastic Bodies forum got me thinking how this applies to training for climbing. The main point of the thread is that maximum strength has little use if you cannot apply it. For this discussion lets distill climbing strength down to finger strength and upper body pulling strength. Obviously there are a lot more subtle things going on, but lets ignore them for now. I train maximum finger strength with my fingerboard, and pulling strength with one arm pull ups(either weighted, unweighted, or with assistance). As I see it there are two methods for refining this maximum strength into something usable.

Campus Boarding: The campus board is the most basic method for refining maximum strength. While campusing one's muscles have to react quickly and with coordination. Both of these are missing in a fingerboard workout.

Bouldering: The subtle way muscles work together is not captured when pulling straight down on a campus board, but Bouldering does not develop quickness as much as campus boarding. A complete training plan contains at least fingerboarding, campus boarding, and bouldering.

Now I'll present a few examples from my own climbing history, keeping my level at the time in mind. I've tried to keep the spray at a minimum on the blog but its hard to give these examples without mentioning grades and such, I apologize.

Example 1(Winter 2005/2006-Spring 2006): This was the beginning of my serious training(I was climbing around V6/7, and 5.12b/c). For November and December I trained with the complete trinity(fingerboard, campus board, bouldering). That January I spent in Hueco and climbed several V7s easily, a handfull of V8s, and one V9. Shortly thereafter I injured a finger. I trained myself back to what I thought was a high level only using the fingerboard and took a spring break trip to the Red. On this trip I barely climbed 12a and got shut down on 12c's. Upon returning I added bouldering and campusing to the equation and quickly climbed 13a for the first time. There was not enough time between the red and this to add any strength, but the strength gains needed to be refined.

Example 2(Late summer/fall 2007):At this point I had climbed V9 and 13b consistently. My training in the summer of 2007 consisted of fingerboarding and campusing without bouldering. When I started climbing again in september it took a few days to get back in the swing of things(due to the zero bouldering). After this, I quickly dispatched V10/11 for the first time. Later that fall I nearly climbed 13d(I didn't from a beta mistake not a lack of strength).

Example 3(Winter 2009/2010): At this point I had climbed V11 and 14a. After a good Rumney season working on China Beach I spent around 6 weeks training for a bouldering trip to Arkansas. The training focus was one arm pull-ups, fingerboarding, and a small amount of bouldering. In the trip to Arkansas I was able to climb many problems in the V8/V9 range very quickly. I was only able to climb one very soft V10. This was a slight disappointment. Every problem I climbed I was able to do so with control, but I didn't have the "pop" to climb the next level problems.

I'll leave you with a video from last weekend.