Hiatuses and Time Off

In life, as well as in sports and activities, we tend to take time off every now and then from things we do on a regular basis. Be it because of injury, other things/events taking priority, or simply to step back and take some time for the mind and/or body to refresh itself. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, I think it’s a necessity – especially in sport.

There’s two scenarios that could unfold:

1. You keep doing the same thing over and over until the body has hit a plateau and you get frustrated with a lack of improvement
2. You keep pushing yourself at an ever increasing pace and either injure yourself or simply burn out.

Both of these end up producing the same result – time off. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, be proactive, plan some time off to either relax or do something different for a bit. It doesn’t have to be a long time, sometimes just a week is enough. But if you take the time to recover and refresh before you’re forced to, that time off will be more enjoyable and it will be shorter. Whenever burnout or injury occur, the recovery/refresh period is always compounded. However, if you proactively step away, that time off will be far shorter.

Think of it in terms of refueling a car. If you drive until you run out of gas, you have to spend the time and energy pushing the car to the nearest gas station and fueling it up before you can drive again. If you pull in to a gas station and fill up before you are empty, you will spend less time filling up (not to mention not having to push).

So listen to your body and your mind. Take some downtime when you feel you need it. It will be the best thing you do…

Enjoying the Niagara Glen

Something New

Sometimes we get stuck doing the same thing (s) over and over, day in and day out. The little routines that we fall into can often times make us plateau and stop realizing any gains. If you are in a place you want to be, then there is nothing wrong with maintenance. However, it doesn’t hurt to change things up every now and then, even if it’s only for a short period of time.

Let’s look at your climbing – we’ll use myself as an example, since I recently was in the predicament I described above. I was feeling kind of stale, that my climbing was not only not improving, but was deteriorating a bit and also that my body had lost it’s definition and tone. So I took some time and devised a quick 15-20 minute workout to do two times per week on top of my regular climbing. This involved a hard circuit and a tiny bit of core at the end. The focus was on back and chest, since the back muscles are important for climbing and the chest balances the back out.

It’s been two and a half weeks and the differences have been astounding! This goes to show that by changing things up a little, adding something, upping the intensity, you reinvigorate the body and can get massive changes in results.

Below is the workout that I devised. Keep in mind that it is very taxing and that you want to make sure that if you follow it, you adapt it to your own needs. Make sure you warm up and cool down and drink plenty of water.

Back/Chest Circuit

• Chest Press x 15 reps
• Pull Ups x 15 reps
• Flys x 15 reps
• Inverted Rows x 20 reps
• Decline Press x 15 reps
• Reverse Flys x 15 reps
• Typewriters x 8 reps
• Push Ups x 25 reps
• Inverted Rows x 20 reps
• Hanging Push Ups x 12 reps

Perform these with no rest in between exercises. If you can’t complete the required reps for an exercise, take a few seconds to shake out, but make sure you complete all the reps.

Take a two minute rest and perform 1 set of hanging leg raises (knees to chest) while hanging off of slopers. This will help with contact strength.

 

So never underestimate the difference a small change can make. Little things as simple as adding a circuit, or even working through a really hard climb that you normally wouldn’t get on can have huge impacts on your climbing and gains that you may want to make or goals you may want to achieve.

The Change Up

The body is a complex and sophisticated machine that has the ability to adapt and change.  This is great for learning new movement, for with a little bit of practice, one can develop new skill sets with ease.  However, when training and trying to expand ones physical (and mental) strength, changing things up on a regular basis is crucial to avoid stagnation.  Generally, every 4-6 weeks should see a change. This way, you will help to stop the body from adapting and force it to continue to grow.

If you’re just getting out there and climbing, you should still make your body do something different every once in a while, but, because climbing movements are always changing, normally that time frame can be extended a bit.  This means that if you only boulder, try changing it up by adding a few weeks of circuits with little rest or getting a bit of endurance work done.  If routes are more your style, add some mileage to your normal routine by climbing up and down or trying to do wall wind sprints (climb a route as quick as possible, while maintaining technique and repeat the process after you’ve been lowered until you fall).  In adding something different to your normal routine, you help stave off any kind of plateaus as well as keep things interesting.

With weight training or any kind of specified training for climbing program, it is even more crucial to constantly keep the body guessing because you are physically trying to change it.  The body’s need for adaptation will negate any progress you make after a while.  With weight programs, the change to keep the body improving could be as simple as adding more weight or changing the number of reps you do.  You could also make it more complicated for the body and change the exercises you do or change the program altogether.  As long as there is a change, you stop the body from being able to adapt and allow yourself the opportunity to continue to grow.

The same is true with a specified training program such as campusing, stamina training or endurance training.  The body can only go through a training phase for so long before it will adapt. This means that every 4-6 weeks, you need to change things up, make the body think again so that it’s not doing the same thing over and over.  Even simple changes are often enough to restart the adaptation process and allow you to continue to make gains.

Do not fall into the trap of a routine.  Strive for change and reap the rewards of your training without stalling or plateauing.  Keep this in mind and your climbing performance will increase dramatically.