New Year, New Training, New Goals

Rate of improvement is based almost entirely on your willingness to fail.

-Todd Skinner

"Uhh... ...campus board training is hard, and not fun" I say aloud, thinking to myself that must be the secret to why it's so effective yet elusive for climbers. Clearly Wolfgang Gullich was a genius innovator of rock climbing. Although, my objective isn't Action Direct (it's Smith Rocks in March), I am learning a lot and committed to my training with the campus board now.

(click to enLARGE)

After 7+ years of climbing, I'm finally getting around to the sane use of a campus board lol. That is, for t-r-a-i-n-i-n-g. Ironically, only one week into a structured six-week campus board training regiment I've started, I can see the rewards. I am optimistic for sustained gains to come in my contact strength/crimping confidence, and my power/lock off ability; nonetheless, I am proceeding very cautiously... a word for the wise. Campus board training is scary. Pushing your body and tendons to the brink of injury, it's flirting with disaster to become stronger. It's uncomfortable.

I climb with an earned level of familiarity and confidence with what my body can do, but I don't train with that intent. I am working for humility in my training. My workouts are equal parts muscle confusion and ego confusion lol. To investigate where my attitudinal and physical limitations are takes work! This is where I'm at with this whole campus board regiment; where are my weaknesses?, how do I exploit them?, and how do I best experiment with ways to forge new boundaries, new states of being, .... new formulas for untapped potential.

1-4-3-4...

My campus board training regiment is two (2) workouts per week, with two (2) days rest (i.e. Ø climbing) between workouts. Each workout is approximately 30 minutes; with 30 minutes prior to warmup bouldering/stretching. I throw in at least one session per week of just fun climbing to prevent burn out

Workout for the first couple weeks:

1. LADDER 1-3-5-7-9
(2 sets w/ 1min rest between)

2. LADDER 1-4-6-9
(2 sets w/ each arm - 4 total- w/ 1min rest between)

Rest 4 minutes

3. LADDER 1-4-7
(3 tries w/ each arm leading - 6 total- w/ 2 min rest between)

4. TOUCHES 1-4-1
(3 sets of 1-4-1-4-1-4-1-4-1 leading w/ alternating hands, i.e. L hand touches rung 4 two times as does R hand, w/ 2 min rest between)

5. TOUCHES 1-4-3-4
(2 sets of 1-4-3-4-3-4-3-4 for each arm, for each set keeping other arm constantly on rung 1, w/ 2 min rest between sets)

Note: For those interested in campus board training, I'd recommend researching, resting, and taking tendon/shoulder health seriously.

Resources I've found to be good:
Eric Horst's books http://trainingforclimbing.com/new/books.shtml
Nicros http://www.nicros.com/archive/archive15.cfm
Moon Climbing http://usa.moonclimbing.com/campus-boarding-c-334_351.html