In the meantime, part 1: training

In a previous post I made the promise to fix some flaws in my training routine and to focus more on volume and fun outdoors. Whether that was a pledge to you or myself I'm not really sure, but either way I somehow felt obliged to keep it. And so I've been doing! There's enough to write about to fill several posts, but I'll try to keep it down to two.

Focussing on fun outdoors!

Let's start with the training and leave the outdoor fun for last. Most importantly, I abandoned the quite strictly linear training programme based on the Rock Climbers Training Manual by the Anderson brothers. I've been following it for more than a year now and came to realize that for me it has a few flaws. Three, to be precise. Firstly, the very predictable performance peaks that a linear periodized schedule produces may be very desirable for competition climbers or for training towards a big climbing holiday, it is far less ideal for the recreational outdoor climber that wants to get out whenever time and the weather allow, i.e. me. High peaks come with big troughs and when peaks coincide with bad weather or limited time that's rather frustrating. It is uncanny how much rain fell during my performance peaks.

Secondly, some phases of the programme have a strict planning that favors training over outdoor climbing. I want to be flexible enough to go out whenever I can, which doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like to. A training schedule shouldn't be another limiting factor to outdoor time when having a job and grown up responsibilities already are. Thirdly, I felt the training programma neglected maintenance of the performance aspects trained during other phases. For example, it provides little maintenance of strength during the power and power endurance phase. Most of the gains made during a strength fase evaporated during the rest of a training cycle.

So I started reading a lot again and set out to design a schedule that is less linearly periodized, includes more maintenance and always offers the flexibility to go out. I opted for a combination of classical and non-linear periodization (no periodization at all will result in plateau for sure: been there, done that) that cycles rather quickly between a focus on strength, power, power endurance and endurance while maintaining the other aspects. I'll have to stick a bit longer with it to tell whether it's an improvement or not, so I'll leave the description of the schedule for a future blog post. What I can say already, is that I can handle a bigger training volume in the new schedule.

Slowly all T-nuts on my homeboard are getting filled with climbing holds. The latest additions: Core mini jugs (grey) and Core Font micro jugs (dark green).

I also fixed a major flaw of my homeboard. So far, I've only invested in small holds to set hard boulders. Although it allowed me to do relatively short power endurance circuits (~20 move circuits in the 7b-7c route range were the easiest thing I could set), there was absolutely no way at all to train endurance in the aerobic energy system. So I asked my friend Matt from Flow Climbing Equipment to set me up with a new set of climbing holds and he did a great job again. There are 36 'mini' and 'micro' jugs from Core Climbing on my home board now (they really don't do those names justice, they're massive) and I started training on them. Although I aim for exercises around the aerobic threshold, I quickly noticed gains in power endurance as well. It's a bit unexpected (and may imply that the intensity of the exercise is actualy too high), but I'm not complaining.

Core Font micro jugs: extremely positive 2-pad jugs 

Surprisingly (and rather unexpectedly), the jugs provided a new challenge: skin management. Having climbed mainly on small 1-pad (and occasionally 2-pad) holds, my callusses are getting beaten up completely by the bigger holds. They get irritated, deep red and feel like they are about to turn into blisters or even flappers quickly. After a few sessions I figured out that if I climb on them at the end of a session (having well warmed up skin), not longer than 15 minutes and sand down my callusses agressively, I can train on them without getting debilitating skin injuries. It's enough to get quite a lot of moves done (about 200). Let's see if I can increase the volume as my skin slowly adapts to the torture I put it through...


A final fix in my training addresses my flexibility. I've always known that I don't have an impressively flexible body and that with my build genetics aren't exactly in my favor on this. The biggest mistake (the one I've been making for years) is to embrace this as an excuse, accept the weakness as it is and focus on strengths instead. Weaknesses provide the biggest potential for improvement and can be conquered with relatively little investment. So after getting shut down by a high foot placement on an otherwise easy boulder on the competition I joined in Februari, I finally decided to attack my flexibility weakness. At the end of every training I take between 10 and 15 minutes for stretching exercises, primarily for the hamstrings and hips. I'm getting noticably better at using high feet already and will try to keep stretching a part of my training routine.

Enough about training for now! In the future I'll sit down to write about some details of the training for those interested. First I'll stick with it for a while and see what it brings me! Time to write about my modest outdoor endeavours now, stay tuned!

Why all climbers should do push ups

All climbers should do push ups. Period. Well, that is my opinion... I have some arguments to back it up though that may sway the many climbers that dismiss push ups as a useless exercise for climbing: 

• Pushups work the triceps and pecs: important antagonists for the pulling muscles that we use in climbing moves. Keeping the antagonists just as strong as the pulling muscles helps keeping a balanced, injury free body. But it doesn't stop here: both the triceps and the pecs are recruited in many actual climbing moves: when moving up one hand, we (should) push down with the other. The triceps does this. And think of all the moves that require the pecs to come into action: sidestepping, locking off sidepulls, compression moves, etc.
• Pushups train core strength and stability, especially when instability is introduced by doing the excersice on one leg, using rings, a suspension trainer or a fitness ball. Core strength is required in nearly every climbing move, especially when the terrain gets steeper.
• Pushups can train a variety of shoulder muscles by varying in hand positioning (wide, narrow, above the shoulders, close to the waist, etc.) and by introducing instability to the hand using gymnastic rings, a suspension trainer or a fitness ball. Shoulder injuries are common among climbers and can hold you back for months or longer. Chronic shoulder injuries are almost impossible to get rid of. Strong shoulders are much less likely to get injured. By varying the push up excercises a lot of shoulder muscles can be trained, including all the small, tiny ones that get tweaked easily (think rotator cuff...).

There are endless variations of push up excercises. Varying them is important. Which ones you like comes down to personal taste, but I would recommend introducing some sort of instability and doing only exercises of which you can do at least a few good repetitions. It is easy to injure the small stabilizing muscles with an exercise that is too tough. That kind of defies the purpose of the exercise, wouldn't you say? 

For inspiration I've made a little video of the excercises that stuck with me and keep coming back regularly in my trainings. Enjoy training!

Ramblings from an old man

My God, am I a bad blogger! Months went by without sharing a single post. And all of the sudden 2015 is over and it's almost March 2016. Many goals for 2015 aren't realized, although it's easy to blame that on me landing on the intensive care and taking over half a year to recover to old fitness levels. A collection of uncorrelated, impossible to combine snippets of written story is scattered across a series of draft posts and by now there is no point in finishing them all and publish a tedious cluster of posts about the past months... Instead it seems more appropriate to wrap up the gap briefly (I've posted two 'new' video's from 2015 to the videos page). save you - my beloved reader - ploughing through my ramblings, and end on generally positive note rather than dwelling on the things I didn't do.

I'll go awry straight away: I tend to trivialise the physical impact of the illness I suffered this summer and expect to be climbing on the top of my game consistently again. Even without the illness that would be unreasonable, so unsurprisingly I've been disappoint myself regularly. I climbed ok, but not great. Honestly, I should be thankful to return to this shape and not having sustained some serious permanent damage. But my immune system suffered noticably (probably due to the fact that all of my blood plasma has been replaced...) and I'm tired and ill much more frequently than I used to be. Obviously that isn't complementing my training very well. I'm just returning from a four week break from training (longer even than after the intensive care!) and I hope I'll be able catch some momentum again now. It's frustrating to really want to go for it, but not have my body cooperate. Maybe I'm just getting old...

On a brighter note: lacking my sharp edge regularly is learning me to enjoy easier climbing without feeling the pressure to outperform myself all the time. I get better at picking climbs because I want to climb the line, not the grade, making every day out a more enjoyable experience. I try to broaden my palette again, the need for which was pointed out by a comp I participated in following the advice of climbing coach Jan Martin. I performed badly and discovered some weaknesses I have developped. Although I didn't feel too good during the comp and got ill the day after and I may blame part of the sub par performance on that, those weaknesses are unrelated to fitness. So I'm changing my training routines a bit and shifting my outdoor focus towards volume and fun for 2016. Lets see what the year brings!

Crash, crush!

Another strength training cycle is finished! For thirty days I religiously followed the training plan and it seems to have paid off. A few weeks ago I already wrote that even though the first sessions weren't good - number 2 being soul crushingly bad - a promising upward trend became visible after five trainings. The sessions that followed absolutely blew my mind: in terms of volume training number 6 was the toughest I've ever recorded and all the following trainings surpassed the previous. The volume graph below (in red) shows the rapid volume increase through the cycle compared with the previous cycles. After ten trainings I've set personal records on the added (and total) load for every single grip position (see second and third graph). I am amazed! After the 'big crash' this summer I set my hopes on reaching old strength levels again and didn't dare thinking about actually crushing them.

This is the first quantifiable result since I started recovery and it seems that through the course of the past thirty days I've fully reached my old (finger) strength levels again. Now let's hope the measured gains will translate well into power and increased climbing performances… Campus training is up next and I hope to get out on the rocks soon again!

Workout volume and time under tension per training (explained here). A rapid increase in volume during the third cylce is visible. The last five trainings exceed volume levels of previous cycles. Note that season 1 and 2 are hardly comparable, due to the much lower T.U.T. in season 1. Season 3 shows improvement over season 2 for similar T.U.T. though.

Added (or substracted) load per grip position (the exact excercises are described here). Personal records on all grip positions were reached. The figure below shows this also holds for the total load, which includes effects of body weight fluctuations.

Relapse, return

Just after sending my project 'Super Surfer', my life was thrown upside down. I started feeling ill on wednesday and found myself on the intensive care by saturday. Luckily the days of absolute misery that followed went by in a bit of a blur. One thing was made very clear though: if Michelle hadn't dragged me to the hospital, I would have died. Possibly on the same day. My liver was failing, my kidneys were failing, my brain was failing and my blood values were dropping like a brick in free fall. Not good. Although I was promised at least a month in the hospital, the doctors released me after a week. To this moment they are failing (and still trying) to identify the cause of my relapse, but after five days of intensive treatment and administration of a high dose of prednisone I started recovering rapidly. Two days later I slept in my own bed again. And for a few weeks, that's what I've mostly done: sleeping. Initially, even reading was too much of an effort. I got pulled through by Michelle, who arranged to be at home and take care of me for weeks.

As psychologically provoking and cathartic the experience may have been, I somehow fail to write down anything meaningful about it. I try to remember and to forget simultaneously. Most of all I want to feel healthy and strong again. It's severely testing my patience… After ten days at home, exactly three weeks after climbing 'Super Surfer' I tried climbing on my woody again. It was terrible: I couldn't finish a single boulder. Even the warmups of my previous trainings were too hard. I felt miserably weak. I was miserably weak. Since then, I did some sort of rehabilitation training on almost every single day: yoga, light crossfit, long walks, bouldering, anything to get back into climbing shape again. Gradually the intensity increased and after three weeks of rehabilitation I climbed a 7b route in Teuto again. Although still a long way from 8a, it was a massive confidence booster. I deeply enjoyed the following weeks of holiday, being able to enjoy live, to walk with Michelle and the dogs for days in Luxembourg and even do some more climbing in the lower half of the 7th grade. Higher 7's felt completely impossible though.

I will need one or more full training cycles to get back to my previous shape again. When work started two weeks ago, I kicked off a new cycle and began with strength training. Anticipating disappointment, I started with low loads. I was disappointed nevertheless… Because fingerboard trainings are very quantifiable, the results left little doubt about the fact that my initial performance sucked big time. Perseverance is paying off though and after two demoralizing first trainings I got the hang (pun fully intended) of it again. Now, five trainings in, it seems I'm on track to reach the high points of my previous season again. I'll be back!

Font again

A very short update, because right now I lack the time to write long stories here without sacrificing valuable training time... Too much work again, I hope next year is better. During the Ascension weekend I visited the bouldering Mekka of Fontainebleau again. I hadn't been there for years and needed (still need, to be honest) to get used to the specific, technical style of climbing. Although I only climbed a handful of low 7's, I haven't enjoyed bouldering this much in a long time. Font truly is one of the best climbing areas I've ever visited. I should visit it more often!

Below is a short video I cut from the rather random footage I managed to shoot there. I should have spent much more time to capture the beauty of the forest, but I didn't. Next time maybe... Nevertheless the video doesn't fail to convey the great atmosphere and the fun we had.

In the meantime I've started training power endurance. Gradually campus training started to have detrimental effects on my body. It took only a few hints to make me change gears and progress to the less injury prone power endurance training: a split middle finger tip that got deeper and more painful with every training, a flapper on a pinky and a near flapper on the other, a slowly developping nagging little pain in my wrist and elbow and a mild inflamation in a collateral ligament. Although I''m fully aware that a more sensible person may have stopped a few trainings earlier, I am mildly proud that I didn't stubbornly stick to the plan a let go of a few more campus trainings to prevent more serious injuries. It is motivating though to start working on power endurance, knowing it'll get me in shape for some hard route climbing in the summer. The first training was and absolute disaster and reduced my forearms to pulp even before finishing the first circuit, so there's a lot of room for improvement. That's good, right?

New season!

I still don't really know why I didn't write a decent wrap up for the last season, because in the end it wasn't really that bad. Although I didn't get outdoors nearly as much as I had wanted to, I climbed enough to discover that the disciplined training I've put myself through this winter is paying off and I am getting stronger again. Honestly, that's quite a relief after the absolute lack of results since April last year. After the initial (and undeniable) gains of installing my woody I got stuck in doing the same bouldering routine over and over again, which turned out to be equally effective as flogging a dead horse. Totally unnecessarily though, because essentially I have a luxury version (it has a window) of the dark and damp training dungeons that got British pioneers like Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt to the top of their game 20 years ago. It feels like only now I'm learning to use it properly with the help of some fancy training books offering the latest insights in climbing training. Somehow it seems though that said heroes like Moon and Moffatt were doing awkwardly similar things long before these books were written...

Ode to old school! Released in 1996, 'The Real Thing' was the first ever real bouldering movie.

Don't forget to watch parts 2 and 3!

Anyway, let's talk about me. I still haven't bragged about the last Teuto session halfway March and it's already a while ago since I shared how far my ego drifted off during the preceding session. It's baffling how little is needed to feed it! During the last session, my confidence got another boost. By failing. Now that's a rare thing. Usually failure frustrates me beyond reason, but this time I had no expectations whatsoever and got surprised by falling on the last hard move of my intended summer project. Twice! Reality check: the last move is a real bitch. It's a very powerful, technical deadpoint that requires accuracy. Although I can do it consistently when rested, it's horribly hard to do when fatigued and it's right at the end of a 16 move power endurance sequence. There can be a really long way between falling on the last move and doing the last move here… Nevertheless it's right on top of my goal list for the next season!

Fast forward to today: as I am writing this, over a month of the second training cycle has past already. The mentally draining strength phase is done and I've started working on power already. I carefully logged my trainings again and the results are quite insightful. I've described the training before, so I'll go straight to the results. Below are the graphs displaying the data from both season 1 and 2.

Time under tension (T.U.T., i.e. total time spent hanging) and Volume (integral of total load over time).

Added load per grip position (negative load implies weight was substracted). Grip positions are listed in chronological training order. The 'front 2' grip position (middle and index finger) has been added to the routine in season 2. The plateau on the 'Big Sloper' position is deliberate as the purpose is to warm up the elbows and shoulders (and not injure them).

Total load equals body weight plus added load and is used to calculate training volume.

Boring details (skip to Summary for the conclusions):
Having to build on a previous season brings the difficult choice of the starting loads of the first training. In the nearly three months between strength cycle 1 and strength cycle 2 detraining occurs: some strength is lost and it's unrealistic to expect to pick up right where I stopped. The aim is to surpass the previous highpoint at the end of the cycle though. Having no real clue what to choose, I varied the drop a bit per grip position: on the '4 finger open' hang I didn't drop weight at all, on 'front 3' I dropped 8 kg, on '4 finger half crimp' 6 kg and on 'mid 2' 4 kg.

To explain the additional drop for the last three after two trainings, I have to admit to making the stupid mistake of neglecting the advice of sticking to a 30 day regime of hangboarding exclusively. I broke the discipline already after the first training by squeezing in an outdoor bouldering session in Avalonia. I climbed six 7's in a day, but payed for it during hangboard trainings 2 and 3. They were terrible and I felt so weak that I decided to drop weight on the mentioned hangs after training 2.

Based on the results, it seems that dropping more weight is better: for the '4 finger half crimp' and 'mid 2' positions the weight drop was small and I only matched the highpoint of season 1. I wonder if I would have surpassed it if I hadn't gone out to Avalonia though… 'Back 3' had a slightly bigger drop (6 kg) and surpassed the previous season by 2 kg, 'front 3' had the biggest drop (8 kg) and the biggest gains (6 kg). The '4 finger open' positions seems to contradict the trend with no drop and a progression of 6 kg as well, but I think this particular grip position did benefit a lot from the campus training I did after the first strength cycle. With that in mind, it's spectacular that the 'front 3' grip has progressed 6 kg as well, especially since I did complete the 'front 3' hang on training 10 and failed to complete the '4 finger open' hang.

Because of the drop in load, a corresponding drop in training volume is expected at the start of a new cycle. It doesn't show up here, because the T.U.T. was increased by adding a new grip position to the routine. On this position ('front 2') I hit a brick wall during the last five trainings and wasn't able to progress anymore. I have no idea why. Next season I'll start with an even lower load and see what that does.

Summary:
The implications now, for those interested in hangboard training themselves and for future me, who should really, really read this before starting the third hangboard season:

• Stick to the program, don't do anything that interferes with the hangboard trainings. That means no hard climbing: the forearms get two full rest days between trainings. I did an hour of crossfit training for arm, core and shoulder strength and injury prevention on every first rest day, which seemed to work fine.
• Drop back in load significantly from the end of the previous cycle. Make sure it's high enough to be able to surpass the previous high point at the end of the cycle. Next season I'll try to drop back 10 kg. With a possible progression of 2 kg per training, it should be possible to match the previous highpoint during training 6. That leaves 4 trainings to try and surpass it.

Power Training Recap

Time flies by and I've nearly completed my power phase. Campus training has been the name of the game for nearly a month and having no significant prior experience with it, the gains were big and extremely motivating. In fact the workouts were so much fun to do, I feel a bit sorry to progress to power endurance training. That's a sharp contrast with the extremely demanding fingerboard session from the previous phase, which I haven't missed for a second yet.

Much like hangboarding, campussing is very quantifiable, so my inner geek went berserk again and I've analyzed the campus trainings a bit. Trainings consistently comprised a few warmup ladders (after roughly an hour of full body work and bouldering), followed by 'max ladder' attempts: three moves between three rungs as far apart as possible, out of which the second move obviously is the hardest. Because the ladders really boil down to this one move, they are asymmetrical: starting out with the left hand ('leading left') is different from starting out with the right hand ('leading right'). The first graph below shows the hardest max ladders I've completed per workout, differentiating between leading left and leading right. As I've stated before, I had no significant experience in campussing before starting this phase. This explains the fast progress to harder max ladders that the graph displays. I don't expect anything similar in the next season: I'd be very happy to get to 1-4-7 then.

The second graph shows the volume per workout (in red) and the average distance covered per hand move for each workout (in blue). In my opinion, the combination of these two reflects the performance during a training a bit better than just the best performed max ladders. Volume is calculated as the total distance covered multiplied by my body weight. Note the difference with the definition of volume I used for the strength trainings, in which I multiplied mass and time. Due to the static nature of deadhangs, no distance is covered. It's all about the T.U.T. (Time Under Tension). Now, with the dynamic campus exercises, covering distances is what counts. Most readers won't be very interested in these details, but it's important to point out that the quantitative values of volume from hangboard workouts cannot be compared to those of campus workouts. Throughout the phase a steady rise in volume and average distance per hand movement can be seen, which - obviously - makes me very content with the results of this power phase. Now it's time to shift my focus to power endurance!

Hardest max ladder performed per workout, differentiating between leading left (left hand first) and leading right (right hand first). On the vertical axis are the progressively harder max ladders. 1-3-5 for example means both hands start at rung 1, one hand moves up to rung 3, the other to rung 5 and finally both hands match on rung 5. Rungs are at Moon spacing (22 cm), half numbers (like 5.5) indicate rungs at half Moon spacing. More board specs here.

Average distance per hand movement and volume for each workout. Together they give a good indication of the intensity of a workout: a workout with many, many small hand movements could still have a very high volume, but has a very low average distance per move.

Some interesting things I've noticed or learned during this power phase:

• Already after a few campus trainings, I noticed an increase in contact strength on dynamic moves while bouldering.
• Performing a fully maximal explosive movement requires extremely high arousal. Taking time to concentrate on getting all fired up prior to starting the exercise really helps to explode up and makes the difference between not even coming close and sticking a movement easily. This is a bit different from the power breathing approach that worked so well for deadhangs, although power breathing can help induce high arousal.
• Campus training is addictive and it requires discipline to end the workout before performance drops and the risk of injuries increases dramatically.
• Focussing on the lower hand (to push down) rather than the higher hand (to pull up) is extremely helpful. I figured out how to do this during workout 4. See for the results yourself in the upper graph.
• I'm considerably better at max ladders starting out with left. As in this case the left hand does the pulling during the hardest move, this isn't really surprising for a left-handed guy...

Strength training recap

Last week I enthusiastically wrote about starting a periodized training schedule. Truth is that I had already started it weeks before and this week I've completed the strength phase. The core exercise of this phase was doing isometric deadhangs on the fingerboard. I've approached it quite differently though compared to how I used to perform deadhang training. Previously I followed up the advice of Dave McLeod and Eva Lopez and aimed for a very small volume of very short, maximum intensity hangs (in my case a set of 12 single hangs I could hold for up to 8 seconds and then take several minutes of rest before the next hang). Such a routine aims for neurological adaptations exclusively.

In my current training program (based on the The Rock Climber's Training Manual by the Anderson brothers) neurological adaptations are primarily addressed in the power phase. In this case they are trained in the context dynamic movements, which is much more sports specific than isometric hangs and therefore makes a lot of sense to me. As the strength phase precedes the power phase, aiming for hypertrophy first is sensible and therefore a different approach to the exercises is required. So I switched to doing 'repeaters': sets of 7 second hangs separated by just 3 seconds of rest. Sets contain 6 or 7 hangs and are separated by 3 minute rests. With a harness, some weights and a pulley system the load can be carefully adjusted to aim for muscular failure at the last hang of each set and progressively increase the intensity through the strength phase. The basics are described elaborately in The Rock Climber's Training Manual and partly in this article plus video by Ned Feehally from Beastmaker fingerboards (see also the second part about the advanced routine).

The result of this regimen is a much higher training volume at a slightly reduced intensity, aiming for hypertrophy in the forearms (it should be noted though that most strength gains in this phase are still from neurological adaptations). I did 10 workouts, consisting of about an hour of progressive warming up (mostly by bouldering) followed by 13 sets of repeaters in varying grip positions (although I had to start with less, but could increase the volume quickly in the first 4 workouts) and finally some upper body and antagonist exercises. As predicted, I was able to increase the load consistently between the first workouts, but the gains started to diminish towards the end of the phase, which is the cue to progress to the power phase.

As hangboarding is extremely quantifiable, it's easy to keep track of progress and analyze workouts. I've made the following graphs from the data I collected during my trainings and they nicely show the progress through the strength phase. A list of the grip positions and their abbreviations can be found below.

Time Under Tension (T.U.T.) and Volume per workout. T.U.T. is the actual time spent hanging and volume equals the integral of total load over time. Initial gains in volume are mainly due to the increasing T.U.T., after workout 4 primarily due to increased load.

Added load for each grip position per workout. Negative numbers imply weight has been substracted. Chronological order (as shown by the legend) is important, as is demonstrated for example by the open handed 4 finger hangs: small hold, high load at the start of a workout and a lower load on bigger hold at the end due to fatigue. The initial decrease observed in load for the latter is because I started too high and had to keep adjusting it down during the first 5 workouts.

Total load equals body mass plus added mass and is actually a more interesting number than the added mass, as this is the total load the fingers have to support. Fluctuations in body mass are visible and explain for example the small volume drop in workout 9.

List of the grip positions (in chronological order):

1. 'Big sloper': open handed hang on big sloper
2. '4f open 18 mm': open handed, four finger hang on 18 mm edge
3. 'front 3 24 mm': open handed, index/middle/ring finger hang on 24 mm edge
4. 'back 3 24 mm': open handed, pinky/ring/middle finger hang on 24 mm edge
5. '4f h. crimp 24 mm': four finger half crimp hang on 24 mm edge
6. 'mid 2 28 mm': open handed, middle/ring finger hang on 28 mm pocket
7. '4f open 24 mm': open handed, four finger hang on 24 mm edge

Some valuably things I've learned during this strength training phase:

• Repeaters are punishing on the fingers and if a grip position is only slightly unergonomic, the results are devastating. Already after the second workout I had a mildly inflamed collateral ligament on the PIP joint of my left index finger due to a tweaky grip position. I performed an open front three hang (ring, middle and index finger) on a set of edges that's too close to the centre of my board, forcing a tilt in my arms (pushing the elbows out) and putting strain on the PIP joints of the index fingers. By responding quickly, taking a few days off and moving this particular hang to a different, wider set of holds allowed to continue training without further problems. The take away message: (almost) all boards have holds close to the centre that are potentially dangerous for two handed hangs. Try to position the hands above the shoulders to avoid injuries.
• Power breathing is a great way to enforce a state of high arousal and push trough the extremely uncomfortable final hang(s) and really reach muscular failure. I'm trying to apply it to hard climbing moves as well, but still struggle with the fact that coordination seems to suffer in a state of very high arousal. Maybe it simply needs some practice...
• Starting a strength phase turned out to be very exciting and the rapid initial gains were very motivating to push through the workouts. Towards the end of the phase, the workouts became more and more mentally challenging. Hangboarding works best when you dig deep, really deep and I've consistently managed to push myself to the point of being slightly dizzy and nauseated (thanks to power breathing). During the final workouts it became hard to keep doing this and I'm happy - almost relieved - to switch to a new phase now. Obviously periodization is not only beneficial for the body, but also for the mind!

Attic upgrade: Campus board!

I've almost finished the strength phase of my training cycle, doing a lot isometric deadhangs on the fingerboard. Next up is a power phase and the key concept for power training - plyometrics (i.e. going explosively from a forced eccentric contraction to a concentric contraction) - requires a special training tool to target the forearms: a campus board. The concept was developed by the legendary Wolfgang Güllich to train for his then futuristic, powerful test pieces in the Frankenjura. He was the first to apply plyometrics to forearm training and his campus board has been embraced by the climbing community ever since. Every gym has one nowadays. My attic didn't...

And now it does! Having a training plan that requires me to train on a campus board finally made me construct one. I contemplated doing it for months, but I've always avoided campus board training. I was put off by the relatively high risk of finger injuries that is inherent to the activity. But truth be told I really suck at campus board training, which didn't contribute to its appeal either. It should though, because apparently there's huge improvement potential in it for me. Two more hangboard sessions and I'll start training on the campus board for power. I can hardly wait now that the board is finished!

Constructing my own campus board allowed me to make all design decisions myself and I wanted it to be as good as it could possibly be. The biggest constraint was the available space in the attic. Additionally, it had to be mobile, as the only big enough space was right in front of my climbing wall. So it should be possible to put it up relatively easy after thoroughly warming up by bouldering and take it down afterwards, without sacrificing stability of the board to cope with the dynamic moves I'll be making on it. The result exceeds my expectations and it's ready to use.

The board is 1.90 m tall, allowing for 9 rungs at Moon spacing (22 cm centre-to-centre spacing). This should keep me busy for a while: the 1-5-9 is considered the ultimate expression of power and is a challenge for the elite (except for gravity defying machine Jan Hojer). Between rungs 3 and 9 I've added rungs at half spacing to allow for easier progress to larger campus distances. The board is 16.0 degrees off vertical. The guideline here is to aim for 15 to 20 degrees, where smaller angles tend to make the campus exercises harder.

What I dreaded the most was choosing the depth of the rungs. The smaller, the better, but it should still be possible to perform the exercises from them. Given more space, I could have installed two or three rows of rungs with varying depths, but that's not the case. A rule of thumb is that you should be able to do at least 5 pull ups on one rung. I knew I could easily do that from the smallest rung on my hangboard, which is 18 mm deep. That's not 16 degrees overhanging though... Eventually I decided to buy the rungs from same supplier as the rungs on the board in Cube Bouldergym: Woodpecker Holds from Poland. Ordering directly from the supplier was no problem at all and the service provided was great (and quick!). I knew for a fact that the quality of the rungs would be good and the curvature of the edges would be ergonomic and skin friendly. Additionally, in Cube I was able to test the different sizes Woodpecker makes: 20 mm, 25 mm and 30 mm. Of these, 25 mm seemed ideal for me. 30 mm feels difficult enough, but exceeds the size of a finger pad and is therefore tough on the calluses. 20 mm feels terribly hard, but 25 mm perfectly corresponds to a single finger pad and feels the most ergonomic. It still feels uncomfortably hard, but at least possible. And hey, isn't campus board training supposed to be hard?

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...

Food for (vegetarian) climbers part 3: creatine

I promised to be a bit faster with this third post on food for veggies and to keep it shorter than the previous one. So here it is, within a few days and all about creatine. Luckily, the story on creatine is much shorter. I have to admit though that I cheated a bit: most of it was written already before publishing the previous post. Anyway, here we go.

About creatine

So for starters, what's creatine? It is an amino acid that our own body produces constantly. As all vertebrates produce creatine, we consume it when eating meat, raising creatine levels significantly above levels that our own body can produce. Consequently, vegetarians - like me - usually have lower creatine levels than meat eaters. Without dwelling into scientific details, let me explain why creatine can be important for athletes. Remember the three different systems that produce ATP - the fuel in our muscle cells - that I discussed in part 1? The 'phosphagen system', providing ATP at high rates for a short duration, needs creatine phosphate. It's the fastest energy supplying mechanism and the first our muscles will resort to. A higher level of creatine phosphate means a bigger capacity of the phosphagen system. And the body needs creatine to form creatine phosphate (open door, isn't it?). Additionally, creatine is believed to speed up the recovery process after training. In summary, effects of increased creatine levels are:

• An increased capacity of the fast energy supplying phosphagen system during high intensity exercises and therefore an increased ability to perform them. That means a few more push ups or bench presses per set if you're into that. By increasing the training volume you can handle (imaging doing the same number of exercises, but with a few more moves/repetitions in every single set), creatine will help you build up muscles. For climbers it could also mean an increase in power endurance. The more creatine phosphate we have stored in our muscles, the more very hard (crux our boulder) moves can be done relying on the phosphagen system before the glycogen lactid acid system has to take over and the pump clock starts to tick. In other words: higher creatine levels will increase strength, power and to some extent (indirectly) power endurance.
• Creatine is osmotically active and will draw more water into your muscles. This will make you heavier. It also aids in the regeneration and recovery of muscles. Faster recovery means that shorter rest periods between training session suffice and more training is possible (this relies on more effects than just water being drawn into the muscles).

Opinions collide on whether this is good for climbers or not. I'd say for climbers two effects of creatine supplementation are interesting: an increase in strength, power and anaerobic endurance and faster recovery, allowing more training. The third effect is less favorable: an increase in weight, partly due to water retention and partly due to the additional muscle mass your body might start building up if you milk the extra few reps that the extra creatine allows you to perform. As ultimately the strength-to-weight ratio is what matters in climbing, it becomes a trade off: will the additional weight drag you down or will the increased power and power endurance launch you to the next level? This balance will be different for everybody. The only way to find out if it works for you, is giving it a try. Finally I should mention that there are non-responders to creatine supplementation. Some people notice strong effects, some don't. Again, you'll have to try and see how it works for you. Nevertheless it is reasonable to assume that in a low-creatine diet (like a veggie diet) stronger effects from additional supplementation can be expected than in a high-creatine diet.

Legendary Wolfgang Güllich and Kurt Albert have pushed the bounderies of sports climbing like few others and make most climbers look like twigs. The strength to weight ratio of Güllich was good enough to climb the world's first 9a nevertheless... Simply looking at this picture makes me feel much less worried about my weight again.

As a vegetarian, I was inclined to expect a response to creatine supplementation. I spent days reading about possible side effects and health risks associated with it. It turned out that after being popularized in the early 90's (after reportedly paving the way to some Olympic gold medals), creatine became the most studied food supplement for athletes and stood all tests and scrutiny. Some early reports of kidney damage and other health effects were later discredited and in 2004 the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) published a report stating that a long-term oral intake of 3g creatine per day is risk-free. Curious about the results of the trade off between strength and weight and puzzled by the low training volume I could handle, I decided to give it a go. I ordered a can of high quality, pure creatine and started taking the prescribed daily 4g supplement.

Initial results of my increased creatine intake

In the first week of supplementation, I didn't notice any difference in my training. But towards the end of the second week, the first results were undeniable. I could clearly hold up better in my antagonist & fitness workouts and I could do significantly more hard bouldering within a short training session. Additionally, my (perceived) strength increased. That's all rather vague, unquantified and subjective, but here are some numbers to chew on: in the second week I was able to increase the additional load I could carry in a typical deadhang session on my fingerboard by 7 kg. That may not sound like a lot, but those familiar with deadhang training will know that (provided you're not new to hangboarding) gains here usually are very small, come tediously slowly and require inhuman patience and persistence. Clearly my strength to weight ratio had increased (as predicted by several studies, I measured a weight gain of about 1 kg in the first two weeks).

Weeks later I measured some more weight gains: adding up to about 3 kg in total. I think it's mostly gains in bigger core muscle groups that I regularly address in my training. Although my perceived strength and power increased, I also got the rather subjective and unquantifiable feeling that my power endurance suffered a bit, probably due to the additional weight. As it pushed me past the psychological barrier of 80 kg, I started trying harder to achieve a small caloric deficit and over nearly two months I lost about 2 kg again. I am almost back at my old weight now, but obviously I would have been lighter had I done the same without creatine supplementation. Focussing on power endurance training for a few weeks restored my power endurance to a level I haven't had the entire season, so overall I feel like the additional creatine gave me the sharp edge I missed before and hasn't given me significant disadvantages in the end. But again: most of this is hard to quantify and quite subjective.

In conclusion

Among many other nutrients, proteins and creatine affect climbing performance and our ability to endure and recover from hard training sessions. A vegetarian diet is prone to be low in both without some extra attention. Although it's relatively easy to consume plenty of proteins while refraining from meat for most, vegetarians have to rely only on the creatine their own bodies produce. I turned out to be a responder to creatine supplementation (but there are plenty of accounts of non-responders as well). I feel stronger and fitter during training, but haven't really had the chance to test these perceived gains on real rock. I'll let you know when I do. Based mostly on the deadhang statistics, it seems my strength to weight ratio has increased, tipping the balance to the beneficial effects of creatine. It might be different for you though. There's only one way to find out. That is, if you care to bother.

I would recommend a vegetarian diet to everyone. For me it has made weight control much easier and made me feel healthier. Cooking and eating became more interesting and it has affected my eating attitude positively. But with or without meat, making varied meals from clean, unprocessed ingredients is what's most important. For me starting to eat veggie simply triggered a change of mindset regarding food. I'll stick with it for sure, because it makes me feel good and healthy. But during periods of hard strength and power training I will supplement (just a bit of) extra proteins, as it seems to help my body recover. And for now I'll keep supplementing some creatine as well for the reasons described above. After a while I do intend to stop it briefly though and see what difference that makes. Despite all guidelines, studies and good advice about eating, the way an individual body responds to eating habits remains unpredictable, making dieting above all a matter experimenting. Only through trial and error you can find out what works for you and what doesn't. If you suspect that an eating habit is holding you back somehow, simply change it for a few weeks and evaluate the results. You might end up pleasantly surprised, just like me. 

Six euros well spent

There's not much to mention on the outdoor front unfortunately... I've had limited chances to get out and I didn't use them quite as well as I should have. Let's not talk about it. I started noticing that my endurance and stamina (the possible volume of a session) are suffering badly from my regimen of short, strength and power oriented boulder trainings. I've been doing them almost exclusively for (way) too long: the gains are diminishing and the neglected aspects such as volume and endurance are hitting rock bottom. On top of that, tweaking my diet to support hypertrophy (yes, I know, I still have to finish an article about it...) made me measurably stronger (my deadhang performance took quite a leap, I'll write about that too), but also about 3 kg heavier. I feel like it helped my maximum strength, but it had a detrimental effect on more endurance oriented exercises. Although I do feel stronger than ever on short bursts, it's time to translate the power and strength gains to power endurance. Additionally, training for some stamina will help me make the most of future outdoor sessions.

So I started hitting the gym again once a week to refamiliarize with pumped forearms. For me, the best place to do that probably is Arque: the gym where time stands still and all routes are nothing but endurance and fitness tests. There's no place on earth where I climb as badly as in Arque and I can't image climbing much further out of my comfort zone. Lots of improvement potential and excellent training! Additionally, I devised a 25 move power endurance circuit on my woody and started doing laps on it. Tough! In the steep lead walls of Arque I realized that clipping quickdraws is very taxing for me: I tend to waste a lot of energy there and get pumped extremely fast. This conclusion led me to install a four hangers for quickdraws on my woody. With a harness and a short rope (three meters) I now (try to) include several clips in my power endurance circuit. It's the best 6 euros I've spent in a long time. Relatively easy sections suddenly became much, much harder and super sustained. As all holds are small, the board is steep and all footholds are sloping, holding clipping positions turned out to be a real challenge. After three training sessions, I'm not even close to completing my power endurance circuit once with clipping, whereas I can repeat it eight times more or less to the finish without.

Getting stuck in a routine is an easy pitfall and I stumbled into it again, face first. It's past time to change my game again. I've marked a few dates in my calendar at which I'm supposed to switch routines and enter a new training phase again. All is geared to achieving a peak in lead climbing performance during the holiday break in Februari. In theory it looks good. Now let's see what it really does...

Holiday recap

Just a few more days and the summer holidays are over. Due to several reasons I didn't get to climbing outdoors nearly as much as I'd wanted, but other things in life sometimes get in the way of our desires... On the bright side, I'm paving the way to a nearby future that gives me the flexibility to climb more and achieve my goals. If that means a little less rock climbing now, I consider it a good investment. That said, I did get out a bit and in particular two days in Berdorf with Frans stand out. I finally climbed an old Nemesis that somehow slipped through my fingers on a few occasions when I tried it at the end of previous visits: the beautiful 'Kaffisdous'. It's the final 7a+ I hadn't yet climbed in Berdorf and with an easy start and a hard 12 move power endurance finish it should be right up my alley, but long story short it turned out to be a real pain in the neck to climb it. Consequently, I was very happy to do it now with Frans. Followed by an unexpectedly quick ascent of the vertical 'Tapis Roulant' 7b+ with a very fingery boulder crux on my second attempt (while putting up the quickdraws...) and an ascent of the vertical technotour 'Superschlup' 7b (generously graded 7b+ in the guide with an ambiguous definition) on my first attempt, the results of this trip are the highlights of the holiday. Other short excursions to rock unfortunately didn't give the desired results. I've been puzzled by a bit of a summer dip similar to the one I experienced last year and started to suspect that food and sleep could play a big role in it. So I made some alterations in my diet and I'll write more on that soon! Additionally I'm implementing changes in the way I train, with more attention for general fitness, injury prevention and flexibility. Also more on that soon... Now, I'll set my mind to the next year of work, getting back behind the school desks myself and I'll dream about the places I'd like to visit while saving for a van that can get me there with the dogs. Meanwhile, I'll be training my ass off to shine whenever it's time again.

Woody upgrade

I've been off the radar for a while. Honestly I've only climbed once in two weeks time... I spent my evenings correcting exams and snacking calories rather then burning them away. But that should change now, most of the work is done! To fuel my motivation, an amazing treat arrived yesterday: a great selection of Core climbing holds hand picked for a steep woody by Core co-owner Leo himself. When I told Matt (from Flow climbing) I was quite passively looking for a good set of slopers and pinches a while ago, he immediately contacted the guys at Core Climbing. I wasn't too confident he would succeed in meeting my quite unreasonable list of demands: slopers and pinches happen to be big, heavy and therefore expensive holds and I had quite a limited budget to offer. On top of that, it isn't easy to find a suitable set of sloping holds for an over 40 degrees overhanging board. Nevertheless, Matt was very confident. And he was right: a few e-mails and photos later a hand picked selection of pinches, slopers, small footholds and shiny new allen bolts - all selected for the purpose of setting roughly seventh grade boulders on my steep woody - was sent out. So today I unpacked a huge box stuffed with brightly coloured resin, happy as a child. A big thank you to Matt and Core is in place for their great help, outstanding service and seemingly endless patience in dealing with all my wishes and questions!

The goodies packed and unpacked, plastic-junky Coen giving them a first inspection.

About the holds then. I gave them a quick try in the afternoon and I am very pleased! Some are just good enough for big powerful moves, others are barely good enough to move from at all. Leo from Core has done a superb job selecting exactly the right holds. The texture of the holds is great too, they have a very rough and natural feel. The selection consist mostly of holds from the 'geometric' range: relatively simply shaped, ergonomic training holds. The 'geometric pinches' are awesome, the 'geometric mini wedges' (the red triangles, which aren't anything near 'mini') are brilliantly awkward and the 'geometric domes' are downright terrible to hold on to, as are the 'mini slopers' from the 'core' range. They target some of my weaker grip positions perfectly: I am mostly good at pulling hard from positive edges and none of these new holds come close to being positive. This upgrade of my woody has painfully reminded my of how much I suck at climbing on slopers and amped up my motivation for training hard again. It will draw me out of my comfort zone for sure and has dramatically increased the versatility of my board (and not to mention its colourfulness). Time to lock myself in the attic again, get my butt kicked by those horrible slopers and hopefully come out a stronger climber!

And ready to use!

Paradigm shifts

As the only thing here that's flatter than the Netherlands is the adjacent sea, my rock climbing adventures tend to happen abroad. In the past years I've met a lot of climbers there and made new friends. Many of them don't speak Dutch. Nevertheless some of them take an interest in my blog and videos. I've been contemplating a switch to English for a while now, afraid that people might accuse me of megalomania (really, I'm not that good to consider myself a climber of international interest...) or that Dutch readers get put off. But it occurred to me that I don't give a rat's arse about the former and have enough faith in the familiarity with the English language of my Dutch readers. And so it happens that you're reading my first post in English. Matt, you can stop deciphering the cryptic results of Google Translate now.

I have two climbing related new year's resolutions: to get out and climb real rock as much as possible and to build my own small training wall at home: a 'woody'. Surprisingly, my amazing Michelle made no objections to the latter (still waiting for the catch...). So in the first week of the year I've concocted a plan to convert the 42 degree overhanging wall in our attic to a climbing wall. Instead of starting the construction though, I've made good use of the dry weather in the weekend and drove to Avalonia again for a bouldering session, this time with Matt and Vienna. It amazed me to see how crowded the place has gotten during sunny weekend days. Of course Daniel and quite a few regulars were around, but that didn't add up to the approximately 40 people we met. It was good fun though, seeing many familiar faces from both Germany and the Netherlands. Ignoring the occasional kid that couldn't leave home without bringing a radio to brutalize the tranquility of nature (or am I just getting old?), the atmosphere was good and friendly. Olli came down all the way from the Ith, there even were some friends from Enschede and then there was Martin, who just got back from half a year of climbing in Spain. He had just made quick work of an unclimbed, open project in the Katla Cave. Strong man! We sampled almost every piece of rock in Avalonia, making quick attempts in many boulders, but ascending just a few. I was happy to do a low start to the nice 7A boulder 'Mesa Verde' though. It is called 'Invasion der Steinmänner' and weighs in at 7B. It all comes down to a very wide shoulder move which involves pulling very hard from a heel hook. These are two things I'm quite good at, so the boulder went down rapidly.

In the week after, I did start the construction of my woody, fueled by some new motivation for training by the freshly delivered book 'Gimme Kraft'. With the help and experience from Herman - who recently built himself an entire boulder gym - it went faster than I could have imagined. All that's left now is collecting an interesting set of climbing holds, which turns out to be a pricely affair... But with a small set of fingery holds to start with and a pair of gymnastic rings suspended from the top of the wall, I can finally start doing some regular power training at home. I hope it lives up to the expectation and will help me push my limits further!

Attic 2.0

Het plastic dieet

Verschrikkelijk, wat heb ik al lang niets meer op mijn blog geschreven! Erger nog is misschien wel dat er in al die tijd ook bijna niets te melden is geweest... In een laatste bezoek aan Berdorf met Frans heb ik Cima Ovest niet kunnen klimmen, de dyno bleek nog een veel te laag succespercentage te hebben. Gelukkig heb ik er wel met veel plezier nog een paar mooie lagere 7's kunnen klimmen (l'Écossaise bleek een bijzondere 7a te zijn en kostte me evenveel moeite als een aantal 7b's in Berdorf en Rocky Horror Friction Show 7a+ had een mooie, technische cruxpassage). Sindsdien heb ik geen rotsen meer aangeraakt. Dat is bijna drie maanden zonder inmiddels! Onwil is het zeker niet geweest, maar beschikbare tijd en het weer gooien al een tijdje roet in het eten. Naast mijn promotiewerk - dat over een jaar af moet zijn - volg ik een paar vakken om een tweede Master ('Science Communication & Education') binnen te halen en sta ik als invulling van een bijbehorende stage nu een aantal uren in de week voor VWO bovenbouw klassen als docent Natuurkunde. Ik heb nog nooit zoveel plezier in mijn werk gehad, maar tijd om uitgebreid de rotsen op te zoeken blijft op het moment niet echt over. Vrijnemen was nog nooit zo lastig en het lukt me sinds kort pas weer om met enige regelmaat ouderwets drie trainingen per week uit te voeren.

Nieuwe wanden, een uitstekende basis voor een plastic dieet. Foto: HVPhotography.nl

Een aangename troost is dat Cube in de tussentijd grondig verbouwd is en ik nu een van de mooiste hallen van het land naast de deur heb. Fit blijven moet zeker lukken in deze periode en hopelijk kan ik deze winter toch nog wat groeien als klimmer. In januari keert de Hard Moves competitie weer terug en dat zal zeker een goede motivator zijn om hard mijn best te doen. Vorig jaar heeft het mijn niveau zeker verhoogd! Mijn streven is om de komende tijd in ieder geval af en toe een update te plaatsen over de voortgang van mijn training en wie weet - als een lage werkdruk, een vrij moment en goede weersomstandighede nog eens samenvallen - kan ik binnenkort weer schrijven over een bezoek aan rots! Voorlopig neem ik maar even genoegen met een plastic dieet...

Tijd om na te denken

Akelig stil is het hier alweer een tijdje... Veel noemenswaardigs is er ook niet gebeurd of veranderd, moet ik opbiechten. Na Berdorf heb ik slechts een enkel middagje buiten geklommen, in het Teutoburger Wald met Frans. Daar hebben we in het 'grote' dak van het Plisseetal gehangen en de routes 'Brüllmaschine' (7a+) en 'Plisseedach' (7a) geklommen, beide met een korte bouldercrux in - jawel - het dak. Het weer is nog niet goed genoeg geweest om de beoogde projecten ('Die Hexe' 7b en 'Alien' 7c) te beginnen. Beide zijn bij klamme omstandigheden niet klimbaar. Hopelijk binnenkort!

Genoeg tijd gehad dus om binnen te trainen en vooral weer veel na te denken over de invulling daarvan. Ik vind klimmen een moeilijke sport om voor te trainen. Fysieke, mentale en technische vaardigheden zijn ongeveer gelijkwaardig en even essentieel. Allemaal zijn ze complex van aard en het schrijven van een toegewijd artikel waard. Wellicht doe ik dat binnenkort nog eens om mijn gedachten te structuren. Het is nu in ieder geval tijd om te erkennen dat als progressie mijn doel is, ik niet alleen maar kan blijven boulderen. Vervelend om toe te geven, want de overzichtelijkheid van een exclusief boulderdieet bevalt me wel. Maar ik verwaarloos mijn duurvermogen (en dat is al een persoonlijk zwak punt) en verleer door alle maximaalinspanningen om licht, vloeiend en snel te bewegen. Er is meestal meer nodig om door een route heen te komen dan de firepower voor de cruxpassen...

Dat gezegd hebbend denk ik ook dat mijn boulder-break een goed besluit is geweest, het heeft me van een plateau geholpen en me zowel technisch als fysiek een stuk verder gebracht. Boulderen zal voorlopig het hoofdingrediënt van mijn training blijven, maar ik zal er weer meer periodisering in aanbrengen om meer aspecten van het spectrum van vaardigheden te trainen en te onderhouden. Ik werk dus weer door mijn trainingsboek heen en wacht met smart op het volgende boek dat in bestelling is, lees zoveel mogelijk trainingsartikelen als ik online kan vinden en schaaf aan een nieuw trainingsschema terwijl ik door mijn laatste fase maximaaltraining heen werk. In deze laatste fase waag ik me voor het eerst aan oefeningen op een campusbord. Ik ben daar altijd met een boogje omheen gegaan uit angst voor blessures en me verschuilend achter het argument dat je van veel campussen vooral beter wordt in campussen. Ditmaal heb ik het voordeel van de twijfel gegeven aan de theorie dat het een krachtig trainingsinstrument kan zijn, mits goed en met mate gebruikt als aanvulling op klimtraining. Immiddels ben ik bijna door de cyclus heen en merk ik - zoals te verwachten - beter ben geworden in de oefeningen die ik doe. Ik heb nog geen idee of het me gaat lukken dit in betere klimresultaten om te zetten. Over een tijdje zal ik nog een serie campustrainingen in mijn programma opnemen en na tijd proberen te evalueren of het me echt geholpen heeft (geen flauw benul hoe ik dat ga doen overigens...). Maar eerst neem ik een tijdje pauze van het campusbord, want ik merk dat ik van mijn ellebogen niet heel veel meer kan vragen.

Hopelijk kan ik dus binnenkort weer nieuwe berichten schrijven, bijvoorbeeld over een nieuw trainingsschema. Of over het klimmen van mijn eerste 7B boulder, een psychologisch belangrijke stap voor mij nu ik 7A+ al een paar maanden als een plafond ervaar. Mocht dat niet gebeuren, dan hoop ik in ieder geval het voor mij nieuwe 7b-7c routebereik verder te verkennen en daar meer routes in te klimmen. Stay tuned!