(Part 2) Top products from r/climbharder

As far as improving your headgame goes, leading easy but long runouts is super helpful, as well as falling onto (well-placed) gear. Alpine multipitch is an admirable goal, but it is a far cry from what most people think of as trad climbing. You should be confident on long runouts, with potential no-fall zones. There are a lot of skills that are important for alpine climbing that often are not learned in a typical trad climbing mentor relationship, such as self-rescue, alpine route finding, and depending on your goals, snow climbing skills. There are several ways to learn these skills such as books or hiring a guide. Ultimately, your safety is much more dependent on yourself when alpine climbing. I say this not to scare you away from alpine climbing, as it has been responsible for some of the most amazing memories I have, but it has also been responsible for some of the scariest.

Some books that you might find beneficial:

Climbing Self-Rescue - Just what it says in the title.

Vertical Mind - I found this book useful for improving my head space.

Training for the New Alpinism - Probably the best book to help a climber transition into the backcountry.

[Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills] (https://www.amazon.com/Mountaineering-Freedom-Hills-Mountaineers/dp/1680510045/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=freedom+of+the+hills&qid=1562736585&s=gateway&sr=8-1) - This book is excellent, but probably isn't extremely helpful until you are climbing more serious alpine routes.

As far as advice, just get as much mileage on lead outdoors as you can, with 1-2 indoor bouldering sessions per week. If it doesn't impact your bouldering, you could add a couple strength sessions as well. If you want to get into alpine climbing, or even just multipitch climbing, practice your systems at the top of single pitch routes. Belay your partner from the top, practice building an anchor at the top off of the bolts, set up simple pulley systems. Just spending 15 minutes per session will help you get muscle memory down for when it really matters.

Edit: As you get into more alpine climbing, you should increase the strength training and cardio. Climbing efficiently after four hours walking with a pack full of gear and food is harder than it sounds. Increasing your physical strength will reduce the mental load a lot, allowing you to think more clearly and be more confident.

Thanks for your reply!:)

Oh boy, I think you are in for a treat!

To begin, there is a book entitled better bouldering; although I haven't personally read the book, you can see a sample of the book here and decide if you would like to purchase it!

Better Bouldering

John Sherman has a series of books that I would recommend looking at if you want to improve all different types of climbing!

----Now if you want a book geared towards beginners I definitely recommend this book listed below---

Beginner Guide

So if you are new to climbing this book will help out a lot! However if you have looked up climbing techniques on YouTube, this book probably won't help you too much.

One thing I have noticed is technique is seldom thoroughly discussed especially on this sub, and people don't go in depth when they do discuss technique; another issue is technique is a lot more complicated than most people think. Technique covers a lot of areas and it would be quite a task for just one person write a book about it because technique can get so specific and well— technical.

I would like to contribute more about technique on this sub Reddit but to make a quality guide is quite a difficult task.

I could honestly talk about technique for weeks so if you have any questions I would love answer to best of my abilities!

I hoped I helped, have a great day my friend!

> So, sure, your fingers might be tired, but if you can't hang right because of fatigue, you're just setting yourself up for a different limiting factor, and a different type of injury.

I don't agree that you necessarily need to hang with engaged shoulders to prevent injury. For people with shoulder instability yes. For others with no issues, it doesn't really matter all that much as long as the scapular stabilizers are strong enough.

> Whereas the reverse just means you get a medium intensity workout for both.

That's not the case. The issue is getting correct volume and intensity onto the hands to progress. What matters is the progression, not whether one had a high or medium intensity or not. If someone can make good progress with either or both or neither then it doesn't matter all that much. Of course, you need to specify a particular program to the individual based on strength and weaknesses and overall fitness.

One can conceivably construct a good program to "just climb" and never do hangboard and still progress effectively. The quality of hangboard can suffer some depending on if it is done after than before, but it doesn't matter if the volume and intensity are correct to still produce similar hand strength gains despite the quality of hangboard suffering.

I think Esther has some valuable advice that is good for the general population. But I'm also a physical therapist too, and I've written some books on training. I know what nuances there for different training variables. I've seen and helped people successfully do hangboard before training and after training.

EDIT: Ok, forget what I said because it's kind of dumb.

---

The Principle of Overload video linked a little while ago goes into more detail about MRV. MRV is indeed more closely related to workload, i.e. sets, reps, and load/intensity. The thing I was hung up on is that, within a given phase, only one primary variable is manipulated to increase the workload: for hypertrophy, it's volume (adding sets); for strength, it's intensity (load as a %age of maximum); and for peaking (and here's where my understanding is a bit murky), it's going to be a combination of specificity and intensity.

The following chart summarizes the data presented in the above video:

| Phase | Overload | Intensity | Reps/Set | Sets/Wk |
|------------- |------------------ |----------- |---------- |--------- |
| Hypertrophy | # Sets | 60-75% | 6-12 | 15-30 |
| Strength | Intensity | 75-85% | 3-6 | 10-20 |
| Peaking | Intensity | >85% | 1-3 | 5-10 |

One important thing to callout is that the above refers to the periodization of strength, only. I'm not sure that we can directly convert this into a training program to optimize performance in a complex sport like climbing. But what it can tell you is how to design your supplemental training (including the hangboard) to allow for long-term progress, which will ultimately improve your climbing.

References:

• Scientific Principles of Strength Training (YouTube)
  
• Transfer of Training in Sports (Amazon)

I would sincerely suggest reading one of the Steve House books, either the OG Alpinism one, or the one that just came out. I'd be curious to know if r/Ih8usernam3s is a sports scientist, a coach, or currently an athlete (care to enlighten us?). There's no shortcuts to gaining the fitness you need for alpine missions.

If you want to get fast, you want to get efficient: lots of workouts below your aerobic threshold. My resting HR can be in the low 40's - it certainly didn't get there by doing, "Interval Training", whatever that's supposed to be (seems a nebular term).

If you're getting elbow soreness, then your muscles that work in opposition to climbing are imbalanced.

The book Climb Injury Free can help you address your elbow issues, as well as ward off common finger and shoulder issues.

Even pros don't usually climb 5 days on - and if they do, they recognize that intensity is diminishing. 2 days on, 1 day off is reasonable. 3 days on, 2 days off can also feel really great. Make sure you include time to do exercises that help those parts of your body you're not exercising while climbing, too. It will make your elbow feel better.

Try moves that increase the flexibility in your hamstrings. I know thats pretty vague but its a giant tendon that is responsible for a lot of movements. Take a look at "Stretching", by Bob Anderson. Probably the best book for just stretching IMO, even has climbing specific stretches.

Check out the book Simply in Season. It's full of easy recipes made with basic ingredients that (mostly) be found along the edge of the grocery store. It's not a magical diet, and makes no claims as such--it's just a basic recipe book, but provides a great blueprint for "eating like an adult."

Yes, it will give you an idea on how to structure your climbing sessions to be more productive. He operates on a 75% of your time spent in the gym should be climbing with a focus on practice, only 25% on supplementary work. You're at a similar level where technique is likely the limitation over pure strength.

If you want specific information on the strength training portion his text on that is worth a read also: https://www.amazon.com/Climb-Strong-Strength-Foundational-Training/dp/1495201538

The Rock Warrior's Way by Arno Ilgner is pretty popular.

Espresso Lessons From the Rock Warrior's Way is also by Arno Ilgner.

Vertical Mind by Don McGrath and Jeff Elison is a newer option.

it all just depends what you are working on, and its important to alternate exercises. these are all good, but there are so many different combos that you cant really go too wrong. the 'hang 10, rest 5' is based on a time ratio that is proven to show results in all sports. I read about it in an Eric Hoorst book. This not only has great exercises for gym and hangboarding, but explains why they are good and how they should be utilized. it even helps you design workout schedules to target your weaknesses. great stuff

I’m 140lbs 5’ 6” and I climb v7-v8 so your weight isn’t the problem. I would recommend getting the book “Training for Climbing”. It has tons of great information that has helped me on my climbing journey.

All scientific papers by the authors of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Mountaineering-Routledge-Research-Exercise/dp/1138927589

I'm waiting for them to release it. Very excited about it. Their research papers are intriguing.

Yep. strictly bouldering.

which falcon guide? link1 vs link2

You wont loose much finger- and upper body strength, but you can really focus on your core. There are a lot of exercises with bodyweight. You are your own gym

i was talking about this kind of stuff: https://www.amazon.de/Rothenberger-Industrial-RoFire-L%C3%B6tbrennerset-Gaskartusche/dp/B0002YYQCC/ref=sr_1_3?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1479743229&sr=1-3&keywords=Bunsenbrenner

TL;DR Eat more fat. Eat a long-term, consistently good diet instead of going through "crash" weight-loss phases.

I've got to say that I don't agree with some of what the book had to say about weight management. In particular, I disagree with the authors' emphasis on a low-fat diet, and on trying to starve yourself in a crash diet. They even talk about trying to distract yourself from your hunger by staying busy.

The book Always Hungry? by Harvard obesity researcher David Ludwig talks about the importance and value of fats. Fats increase satiety. Unfortunately, the scientifically flawed low-fat movement has given fats an undeserved bad rap. Evidence indicates that increasing the proportion of fat (and protein) in your diet at the expense of carbs (especially simple and refined carbs) helps decrease the hormonal triggers of hunger.

A lot of people can cut calories and lose weight in the short term, but keeping that weight off long-term is far easier if you're not battling hormones that are driving you to hunger and directing much of your calorie intake to fat storage.

According to Dr. Ludwig, the key problem is not that people are eating too many calories, but that they're eating too many simple carbs. Those carbs trigger a hormonal response that causes your fat cells to pull calories out of your bloodstream, actually starving your muscles and brain of calories to store them as fat. Your brain's state of "starvation" makes you feel tired and hungry (the ol' post-meal carb crash) even while you get fat.

Cutting out simple carbs like RCTM recommends is one part of the solution, but replacing them with complex carbs isn't as beneficial or satisfying as eating more fats. Throw some olive oil or butter on your veggies. Eat nuts, eggs, and cheese. Forget the bland, "lean" proteins like skinless chicken breasts. Fats add flavour and fill you up. And no, they won't make you fat.

------------

Also, calorie-restrictive cycles (cutting/bulking phases) are very detrimental to long-term weight management. Studies show that athletes such as bodybuilders who cycle through diet phases end up changing their metabolism so they burn fewer calories and gain weight.

>As a dieting phase progresses, such adaptations may threaten dietary adherence, make further weight loss increasingly difficult, and predispose the individual to rapid weight regain following the cessation of the diet.

In other words, stop yo-yo dieting and cutting phases if you don't want to be even fatter later on. Eat enough calories so you're not starving yourself — just make sure those calories aren't carbs that go straight into fat storage. Again, eat more fat and protein, and get your carbs from fruits and vegetables. And do it consistently.

-------------

Finally, it is possible to lose weight and gain strength at the same time. Studies show you just need to increase your protein intake while exercising a lot.

Once again, ditch the cutting/bulking phases.

No offense but this is frankly a shit post. You've asked the most generic question ever without doing any homework yourself like reading the side bar. It's the equivalent of asking us how do YOU go about going from climbing 5.10 to 5.11. No one can answer that because no one's seen you climb. No one has any idea what your weak points are and what you are lacking. Hell you're not even self aware enough to describe any of the above in your post.

At this point in time we might as well tell you, you should just buy Horst's book: https://www.amazon.ca/How-Climb-5-12-Eric-Horst/dp/0762770295