High Intensity - Low Volume
Level: Intermediate
Focus: Power and Problem-Solving
Style: Bouldering
This session is geared towards increasing your power output and enhancing your ability to tackle complex movements. The careful selection of problems and extended rest periods minimize the risk of acute injuries, such as strains or pulls, while still pushing the your limits.
High Intensity - Low Volume (Power and Problem-Solving Focus)
- Structure: Select 3-4 boulder problems that include dynamic moves, requiring bursts of power and complex problem-solving.
- Holds: Smaller holds and volumes, with a focus on crimps and pinches to challenge grip strength and precision.
- Volume: 3-4 problems, with 3-5 attempts per problem, prioritizing quality of attempts over quantity.
- Rest: 5-10 minutes between attempts for full recovery, allowing for mental preparation and physical readiness.
- Grading: Problems at or slightly above your max, challenging your limits in a controlled manner.
- Session Duration: 1 to 1.5 hours, with significant emphasis on warming up properly with dynamic stretches and light climbing, followed by a focused cool-down targeting muscle relaxation and flexibility.
Overview
This type of session targets the development of anaerobic power, critical for overcoming short, intense sections of climbs that require bursts of strength and dynamic movements. The emphasis is on quality over quantity, with a focus on executing each move with maximum effort and precision.
Structure
Total Problems: 3-4 boulder problems.
Attempts per Problem: 3-5 attempts.
Sets: Each boulder problem is considered a set, given the high intensity of the attempts. The session is comprised of multiple sets, each focusing on a specific type of movement or technical challenge.
Balancing Attempts and Sets
Attempt Definition: An attempt in this context is a focused effort to solve or complete a boulder problem, with each move performed with maximal power and precision. The limited number of attempts ensures that each try is executed with optimal energy and focus.
Rest Between Attempts: Extended rest periods of 5-10 minutes between attempts are crucial. This allows for:
- Full physical recovery, ensuring that you can maintain high intensity for each attempt.
- Mental preparation, giving you time to analyze your previous attempt, strategize, and mentally prepare for the next effort.
Rest Between Problems (Sets): Given the session's intensity, a longer rest period after completing all attempts on a problem (before moving to the next set) is essential. This rest should be enough to ensure full recovery, both mentally and physically, typically around 10-15 minutes.
Focus on Power and Problem-Solving
Power Development: The session is designed to improve explosive strength and power through dynamic moves, such as deadpoints, dynos, or complex sequences requiring high levels of force output in a short duration.
Problem-Solving Skills: Each problem is selected to challenge your ability to read the route, experiment with different beta, and apply complex movement strategies. This fosters mental agility alongside physical prowess.
Why This Balance?
The balance between attempts and sets in a High Intensity - Low Volume session is strategically designed to:
- Maximize the development of anaerobic power by ensuring that each attempt is performed with a nearly full recovery, allowing you to give your maximal effort.
- Enhance problem-solving under fatigue, preparing you for the mental and physical challenges of difficult climbs.
- Reduce the risk of injury by limiting the volume of high-intensity efforts and ensuring adequate rest, crucial when engaging in powerful and explosive climbing.
This session format is particularly effective for pushing your limits in a controlled environment, where the focus is on executing a few problems with high intensity rather than many problems with moderate effort. It simulates the demands of challenging projects or competition settings, where you must often perform difficult moves at their limit. Integrating these sessions into a training regimen can significantly improve a your power output, technical execution, and mental fortitude, essential components for advancing in climbing.
As volume increases so does stress on your tendons and ligaments. Introduce de-load weeks to minimize risk of injury. A common used structure is 3 weeks of climbing, 1 week of de-load.
