High Intensity - High Volume
Level: Beginner
Focus: Power endurance
Style: Bouldering
Looking to build power endurance? This challenging session combines the demands of high intensity with a significant volume. It's excellent for preparing you for competitions or projects where endurance at near-maximum effort is key. The risk of overuse injuries is higher due to the session's demanding nature, necessitating careful attention to rest, recovery, and ensuring that such sessions are not too frequent within the training cycle.
High Intensity - High Volume (Power Endurance Focus)
Focus: Simulate competition or project conditions where sustained effort at high intensity is required.
Structure: 2-3 hour session, 15-20 problems in sets, focusing on maintaining high intensity over volume.
Holds: Diverse, including small crimps, slopers, and volumes to challenge all aspects of climbing.
Volume: High, pushing both mental and physical limits.
Rest: 3-5 minutes between problems to partially recover, extended rest after sets to manage fatigue.
Grading: Problems designed to be challenging but doable, simulating a 'redpoint' session.
Additional Aspects: Incorporate interval training aspects, such as 4x4s (four problems four times with short rest in between) to enhance power endurance. Nutrition and hydration strategies should be emphasized to support recovery and performance.
Overview
This program integrates the demands of both high intensity and high volume, challenging you to maintain power output over a larger number of problems. The goal is to develop power endurance—the ability to perform powerful moves in a fatigued state—critical for sending hard climbs and succeeding in competition settings.
Structure
The session is organized to push you to your limits while ensuring you can recover adequately to maintain intensity throughout:
Warm-up (20-30 minutes): A comprehensive warm-up phase that includes cardiovascular activities, dynamic stretching, and easy climbing to prepare the body for the rigors ahead.
Power Endurance Problems (1.5-2 hours): The main part of the session focuses on 15-20 challenging problems. These problems are designed to be at or near the your limit, requiring both power and endurance to complete.
Cool-down (10-15 minutes): A cool-down phase consisting of stretching and mobility exercises to aid in recovery and reflect on the session's progress and areas for improvement.
Balancing Attempts and Sets
Attempts: Each problem should be approached with full effort. You are advised to rest for 2-3 minutes between problems to allow for partial recovery of physical and mental focus. This rest period is essential for maintaining the quality of each attempt despite accumulating fatigue.
Sets: The problems are organized into 3-5 sets, with each set comprising 4-5 problems. After completing a set, you should take a longer rest period of 10-15 minutes before moving on to the next set. This extended rest allows for more significant recovery, helping to manage overall fatigue and maintain performance across the session.
The Focus
The primary focus is on building the your ability to sustain high levels of effort across an extended session. This includes developing the physical capacity to perform powerful moves when fatigued and the mental resilience to push through the burning sensation in the muscles and the desire to rest.
Why This Balance
The balance of attempts and sets in this program is carefully chosen to:
- Enhance Power Endurance: The high volume of high-intensity problems pushes you to maintain power output over an extended period, directly targeting power endurance.
- Mimic Competition Conditions: By structuring the session with multiple high-intensity sets, you can simulate the demands of competition climbing, where the ability to recover quickly between attempts and perform under fatigue is essential.
- Promote Recovery Management: The structured rest periods between sets are critical for managing fatigue over the session. This teaches you how to effectively utilize rest, an important skill during climbing projects and competitions.
- Build Mental Toughness: The challenging nature of this program not only builds physical endurance but also mental fortitude. You learn to push through fatigue, a valuable skill for overcoming difficult sections on climbs.
The strategic organization of this program ensures you not only build the necessary physical capabilities for high-intensity, high-volume climbing but also develop the mental strategies needed to perform under pressure and fatigue. This comprehensive approach prepares you for the multifaceted challenges of advanced climbing and competitions.
Prioritizing recovery sessions in to your training allows you to include near-maximum climbing in your training plan, which will improve your power endurance.
