Sunday, August 26, 2012

Increasing Time Until Fatigue - Part 1

Exercise Order Matters!!!


It has been well documented that large, compound movements, involving multiple muscles over a number of joints stimulate the release of growth hormones acutely (ie dead lifts). Conversely, isolated movements, involving small muscles across a single joint (such as the bicep curl) have very little effect on growth hormone release. The practical relevance of this observation is that large compound movements performed prior to isolated movements will result in far greater growth and development of the isolated muscle; eg bicep.


In rock climbing, the number one predictor of climbing performance is time until fatigue. That is, the time taken for the forearm muscles to become fully fatigued and unable to grasp the holds. Technique, body fat percentage, age, nutritional status, anthropometric measurements etc all play factors in this equation, however, all factors the same, time until fatigue is the number one determinant.

Therefore, increasing the time until fatigue will, assuming all factors are the same, have greatest effect on your climbing ability…


Now, before I go any further I want to acknowledge that climbing is an incredibly diverse sport and climbing ability is the endpoint of many variables. These include, but are not necessarily limited to flexibility, coordination, technique, problem solving ability etc. One should ALWAYS strive to improve these and never become too focused on simply “getting strong”. Therefore, the aim of this article is to highlight a way in which one can structure their session so to make the most appropriate gains in strength, endurance and recovery.

Now, to the training…


In this instance we assume the muscles of the forearm are the smaller, isolated muscles we wish to develop. The larger, more compound movements will come from big, dynamic actions which require the whole body; such as steep boulder problems and routes requiring large reaches. It is important to note however that the big movements should be on relatively large holds. At this point we are training to recruit as much of the large pulling and pushing muscles such as the back and legs and keep the forearms relatively fresh.

Using this knowledge our session should look something like this:

1. Warm up: 15-30 minutes. Gentle climbing that gets you ready for activity

2. Skills phase: Another 15-30 minutes of climbing specific skills and drills. Things you want to work on or are weak in. We should not be focused on difficulty at this point

3. Fitness phase 1 (approximately 20 minutes) – Compound Movement: This is where you will introduce large, dynamic movement. Each movement should be powerful and involve the entire body. Steep bouldering on severely overhung walls or aretes will simulate this well!

4. Fitness phase 2 (approximately 20 minutes) – Isolation Movement: Now we introduce the isolation phase. Your blood is surging with growth factors and it is time to trap them in the forearms!!! Climb routes which are forearm dominant. Steep, vertical routes on small holds are best for this. You should be SUPER pumped!!!!

5. Cool down: Spend 10 minutes cooling down

Now, before you tell me this is rubbish and that the hormones will reach the forearms anyway etc, I would like you to think about this….

A common approach to gym climbing:

You head off the climbing gym and begin your warm up. Following this you progress onto doing some skills drills. Feeling thoroughly warm you decide to hit the pump factor and get those forearms really trashed… After getting totally fried you begin to grab larger and larger holds. Deciding enough crimping is enough you move on to some large holds are try and work all those big pulling muscles. Pull-up after pull-up, you begin big compound movements…

Question: Now, using the knowledge I lay out earlier, when will the growth hormones be released?

Answer: At the end of the session…

Question: Where will the growth hormones be directed?

Answer: Big pulling muscles…

The long term adaptation is such that your pulling power and campus abilities will increase. Your physique will change and muscles will develop. However, not enough muscle development is directed towards the forearms. The final result is a great looking a powerful physique with suboptimal forearm change which may ultimately result in a poorer power to weight ratio…

Well there you have it… Train big movements first then isolate those forearms at the end of the session for some killer pump! It’s a hypothesis, and I may be very wrong, so feel free to dissect it and test it, but limit knocking it until you’ve tried it ;-)

Happy climbing

Hugh

No comments:

Post a Comment