Plateau Syndrome

All climbers are familiar with 'Plateau Syndrome': getting mentally (and physically) trapped on a ledge in a climb - often just before a hard crux section - that's so debilitatingly comfortable compared with what's to come, it feels impossible to step off and continue climbing. On a larger time scale, a similar thing can occur in training, the ledge being a training routine that we've executed so often that we became so good at it, that doing anything else (in which we logically suck badly by then) is so uncomfortable for the ego that we'd rather avoid it. It happened to me repeatedly.

Patterns

Having had quite a bit of time not climbing outdoors, I've been thinking a lot about the strong start and disappointing finish of the route climbing season. In the past years - I started climbing seriously in the summer of 2010 - I've progressed from climbing my first 7a to my first 8a (routes), but on the way I have experienced several plateaus, sometimes even regressions.

The first plateau occured around 7a/7a+ during the 2011 route climbing season. In December Cube bouldergym opened and I switched from three weekly route climbing session in Arque to three weekly bouldering sessions in Cube. Immediately at the start of the next season I climbed my first 7b and 7c. Sticking to this 'winning' bouldering diet seemed a logical choice.

The second plateau occured right there and then. It took more than a full year to climb another 7c and during the entire 2013 season I didn't manage to break through the ceiling. In januari 2014, after moving to a new house and not climbing for three months, I installed my woody and started bouldering there. Occasionally I did some hangboarding and I started including more full body exercises for antagonist training and joint stability. At the start of the 2014 route season I climbed my first 7c+ and 8a. Again, sticking to this new 'winning' routine seemed to be the logical way to go.

The third plateau occured right there again... I haven't managed to climb more 7c+ or 8a routes and struggled on 7c's during the remainder of the season. Are you seeing the pattern?

Changing routines (dashed green lines) breaks plateaus. Not included is the third plateau I've experienced this season.

It's easy to point out ones mistakes in hindsight and I've become exceedingly good at pointing out my own while failing to notice them consistently when I'm making them (let alone predict them beforehand...). Obviously, every step up I made followed a dramatic change in my climbing routine. When I switched to Cube, I jumped from 7a+ to 7c, when I starting training on the woody from 7c to 8a. It doesn't necessarily mean that climbing in Cube beats climbing in Arque (although as a training facility I tend to consider Cube more complete than Arque) and that climbing on the woody beats both. It's the change that matters and there's a solid body of sports science explaining (and proofing!) it perfectly clear.

Periodization

Every time a new routine has given me gains, I clinged onto it for dear life, failing to realize that the switch in routine rather than the routine itself made me progress. The result is that I kept doing the same thing over and over again for way too long and plateaued. It's an easy pitfall and I've stumbled into this mental trap several times now. To keep progressing, doing the same thing at an increasing intensity (progressive overload) is good up to the point where gains are diminishing (duh..). That's the time to switch activities to a new one that is sensitive to progressive overload and reap the rewards of supercompensation again. After switching a few times it's feasible to get back to the first activity again. The starting point will be lower than the previous highpoint, but applying progressive overload again should push it past that previous highpoint this time. This cyclic process is called 'periodization' and it's at the root of any good training regimen aiming at progress in any sports.

Periodization in climbing training as a cyclical process.
Adapted from 'The Rock Climber's Training Manual' by M.L. Anderson PhD and M.L. Anderson (2014)

My mistake in the past years has been thinking that my focus on bouldering and bouldery sports routes didn't require me to train endurance at all and that training by just bouldering was fine. With this monotonous approach a plateau is inevitable. I even failed to distinguish between strength and power and at least cycle between those two aspects. So it's (way past...) time to start applying periodization to my training and keep stepping out of my comfort zone to achieve the next step up. I've made myself a schedule for the coming months, covering one training cycle going through a strength phase, a power phase and a power endurance phase leading into a performance peak. I'll document everything in a training log, allowing me to evaluate afterwards and keep track of progress through the cycle. I can only hope the peak really occurs. I'll let you know in March...