There’s nothing like failing to send your project to get you motivated to go back into the gym to train (it’s either that or the crushing weight of failure will force you to sell all your gear and give up climbing altogether—see my post on Burnout.)
A few weeks ago I sat down to review the past year and make a game plan for next season. Through our conversations on training, my climbing partner and I were on the brink of something BIG, but it hadn’t been formulated into a unified theory of crushing yet.
And then, a few days later, as I was stretching in the gym, I ran into a wicked strong local kid and asked him, “What your secret?” We’re all looking for new training methods, tips, and secrets.
He told me to check out the Anderson brothers’ The Rock Climber’s Training Manual. “You’ll love it, it’s up your alley. Very scientific.”
I went home and ordered the book, and two days later I was deep into their fantastic content. It blew my mind. Every bias that I already had was confirmed (which I suppose is the definition of confirmation bias.)
One of the components that I appreciate the most was the focus on making your training quantifiable, being able to track (and actually tracking) the progress over time.
In the post Difficulty is Subjective I mentioned that grades aren’t necessarily the best indicator of how you are doing. It could have moves that fit your strengths or weaknesses. Furthermore, you have to go based on feedback that is subjective, i.e. how you felt while doing the moves—solid, tired, pumped, sketched out. These are not the best metrics to track since they don’t actually tell what you need to do to improve.
If you want to improve, you will need objective data, so you have to start tracking it.
After my initial read of the book I committed to the process (I also went ahead and bought their Rock Prodigy hangboard and pulley kit from Trango). Their book comes with a training log, but I opted to create my own Excel spreadsheet to track and analyze the data.
You can track all kinds of data, including resistance (taking weight off or putting it on), length of time, type of hold, and so on. But at the moment I am primarily interested in the resistance loads. Everything else remaining constant for this initial phase, I will be able to track, adjust, and establish an understanding of my baseline finger strength and slowly and methodically increase resistance each session over the next few weeks.
I’ve only just started, but already I’m pretty excited. Anytime I get to nerd out in Excel AND train? This is the beginning of a very beautiful relationship. Finally, a use for that expensive Master’s degree: I can track something useful like finger strength.
As business writer Peter Drucker famously put it, “What gets measured, gets managed.”
If you don’t already have it, get the Rock Climber’s Training Manual, make a training plan, track the data, and get on the path of continuous improvement. (It’s perhaps the best advice I have ever given myself.)
N.B. Neither the Anderson brothers, nor their publisher, nor Trango are sponsors of this site or this post. Yet. I’m talking about the products just because I love ‘em.