UKC

If you had a gym at work and could get in it for an hour a day, 3 or 4 days a week, what would be your training plan?

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Work your weaknesses.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

20 minute run

20 minutes of body weight exercise, e.g. push ups, leg raises, bar dips, hangs, levers, planks etc.

20 minutes of stretching

In reply to Dave Heaton:

You could get pretty strong 3-4 hours a week if you ignore cardio and just focus on strength. I currently only go to the gym 1-2 hours a week (plus around 6 hours cycling, 1 hour running, 2-4 walking each week, plus a 4-hour climbing session once every few weeks). So I'd start with my existing workout which includes whatever I fancy from the following:

Pull-ups
Dips
Hanging leg raises
Dumbell chest presses on a swiss ball
Dumbell shoulder presses
Cable machine (not sure what the exercise or machine is called, but basically making a arm flapping motion where the downward part is opposed)
Horizontal pull-up using suspension trainer, plus any other climbing-like movements I can devise
Bicep curls
Overhead tricep extensions using weighted ball

Yoga-based stretching moves for hips/back/legs

If I doubled my workouts, I"d probably consider adding more leg and core work.

Dave Heaton:

Calisthenics workouts seem to work well with climbing.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Depends what you want out of it. Lose weight, Gain strength?
And depends whats in the gym

Personally, I'd do two sessions of cardio (run, bike, rower)
A weights session
And then a one with a mixture of both

In reply to Jimbo C:

Don't go running in the gym. It's boring, all you get to look at is a wall or someone else's arse, and it's rather costly.

Conversly, outside is free and looks nice.

In reply to ianstevens:

Depends who's arse it is.

As it's a gym at work, I'd assume it's free for the OP anyway

In reply to Dave Heaton:

An hour is too long. Do 40m max no more than twice a week.
Upper body arms shoulders, back, neck.
Don't over-use or over-strain.
Then go climbing.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Core! Over the last year I have hugely developed core through going to trapeze classes, and it has made my climbing much better.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Go out for a run and use the gym shower on the way back.

(I accept that isn't quite what you meant, but it is what I'd do! )

Neil

In reply to goose299:


Dug my own hole there I suppose... and didn't consider that. Outside is still nicer for running!

In reply to Dave Heaton:
What are your goals? Sport specific strength, fat loss, flexibility, rehab, prehab, aesthetics, functional goals, gpp, aerobic fitness? A combination of these?

It might sound trite, but you need an objective(s), to get appropriate advice.

In reply to ianstevens:

Agreed. A run outside and then into the gym for the remainder of the hour. Never liked gyms much to be honest.

In reply to Jimbo C:

No, and I've never seen the point of the treadmill (as above) or cycling machine - if you own a bike, go outside - again, it's far nicer.

I do appreciate the need for a warm up, and as you've said, eithe run to the gym or do something you can't do otherwise. The rowing machine (unless you own a boat) or one of those things that's meant to simulate skiing (if you live outside of the highlands) make sense, as you generally can't do these outside.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Thanks for the responses everyone.
A bit of background: I have free access to a gym so might as well make the most of it on a lunch time as I have a new born baby at home and don't get the same amount of free time in the evenings as I used to! I want to shift about 8lbs off my belly and I have had to stop running outside due to knee pain. I love cycling but I have reduced the amount I was doing because I felt as though it was putting on too much unwanted leg muscle.
At the moment I tend to do more bouldering than routes so I'd like to increase my strength a little for that but I'd also like to improve my stamina/fitness for trad multi-pitch when I get back round to doing it.
I'm not looking to put on much muscle, just maximise my strength to weight in 2 or 3 short gym sessions a week. I'm not looking to replace climbing with the gym, it just seems to make more sense to go to the gym at lunchtime than sitting in my office.

Thanks for the advice.

In reply to Dave Heaton:
I spend about an hour in the gym three times a week. Sometimes a bit longer if I have a weekend session. I am 55, keen to stay as fit as possible in order to pursue caving, climbing, walking and skiing, but if I run I tend to get knee or ankle problems.

I do a little core pilates type work, then go on about six weight machines. Typically I would do bicep curls, quad leg presses, pull down thingies, rowing type movements, shoulder presses and chest presses. I go for three sets of reps with 30 second intervals. I don't increase the weight much as I get stronger, but the number of reps: I'm going for endurance, not bulking up the muscle. Then I would spend 30 minutes or a little more on an intense cardio workout on a low impact machine. My favourite is the summit trainer, which mimics the effect of walking steeply uphill, but has handles too. Do that three or four times a week and you will lose the weight, maintain good cardiac fitness, and be ready for action when you get the chance to go outdoors. And keep the risk of injury low.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

I'm not looking to put on much muscle, just maximise my strength to weight in 2 or 3 short gym sessions a week.

https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/531-how-to-build-pure-strength and some core work

I've done quite a lot of gym training over the years and a lot of it has made bugger all difference to my climbing. Recently I've been doing things a bit different, focussing on climbing-related top end strength/power improvements, and it's made a difference.

I think an hour is nigh on ideal. What I do:

1. Warmup. 5-10' on rower. Sometimes quite easy steady state. Sometimes after 3 minutes easy, do intervals: max out for a minute then slow row for a minute, x 3.

2. Pulling stuff w upper body. Obvious, but this is #1 priority so do it fresh. Couple of *easy* sets of pull-ups to warm up. I can do 12 and I generally do 2 sets of 6 to warmup. Now power, choose a couple of: (a) weighted pullups w weight so you can do 4 or so reps (b) one armers with other hand on rope (or not! But again at least 4 reps or use more assist) (c) negatives - add more weight than you can pullup and jump into top position, lower SLOWLy, jump up again, choose weight for 4+ reps (d) typewriter pullups (e) bent over dumbbell rows. Do each exercise 3 or 4 times but rest 3' plus between sets until totally recovered and give 100% to sets 2-4; I treat first set more gently as a partial warmup to the movement pattern to avoid injury. Don't let form slip ... Injury.

3. Either core or shoulder stability. Alternate these between sessions:

(i) For core the usual planks sit-ups leg raises; plus push-ups; do multiple exercises back to back with no rest as they all use different bits; when busted take a 2' rest and repeat exactly the same; keep repeating until your number of reps drops off or you can't finish.

(ii) For shoulders it's about injury prevention but also those big sideways moves. I like to do a pyramid of increasing weight shoulder presses overhead w Dumbbells w longish rests for strength. Then a circuit of (light) antagonists: side raise, front raise, reverse fly on incline bench, external rotations (cable xover machine or better a theraband), reverse wrist curl, perhaps flyes; rests as short as possible but no dropping of form; 2-3 times through for that lot; I go for 15 reps but some sessions heavier and 10-12 and others lighter so 20 reps. Weights will be light, try w 3 kgs and see how you go.

To maximise gains I reckon youshould have a day off between each gym session of this type. I've seen great gains in strength over the last few months with this much shorter and heavier workout, than the zillions of exercises I used to grind myself down with over 2.5 hours in the past. The modern way seems to be to stop whilst still strong; for whatever reason this seems to build top end strength more. I believe there's some theory about types of muscle fibre, and how endurance and strength training together only leads to endurance gains; but whatever, from an objective point of view this training has got me stronger at age 40 than all the other things I've tried over the last 15 years or so.

Lastly, it's not quite ideal - my gym is also a bouldering wall and I add campusing or finger boarding into the session I describe above. It's hard to know how omitting those will impact your climbing gains. Also if your doing 3+ sessions it makes sense to make one of them more cardio based (intervals/circuit training/ steady state if you must); you could still do the shoulders or core on top of that.

In reply to Siderunner:

For strength? Warm up/mobility and then 3 sessions a week doing the 5 x 5 Strong Lifts program, with each one finished with some ab work. I've just started a 10 week cycle of it after a big cycle of running.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Flirt outrageously with the office hotties.

In reply to Dave Heaton:

Your goals are quite diverse, from a physiological point of view: weight loss, strength gain and stamina / cardio improvement. You may find you get the best results by focusing mostly on one specific aspect for a given period, then switching emphasis. That doesn't mean entirely neglecting the other aspect: your schedule of 4 days training/week works in perfectly at a 3:1 training ratio.

For real-world strength training, it's worth reading this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Starting-Strength-Basic-Barbell-Training/dp/0982522...

As this regime is concerned only with the development of genuine and absolute strength, it uses only the barbell. As many aspects of barbell movement are highly skilled and not intuitive, it's worth reading up on the techniques you'll use to ensure both efficacy and safety (or even better, you could seek instruction from a reputable powerlifting coach). 12 weeks or so on this or a similar 5x5 regime will be tiring, but will certainly translate to improved strength and power for bouldering, with the bonus of a massively improved core.

For CV, I'd highly recommend the indoor rower. Like you, I've had to stop running thanks to ongoing knee pain: I've used the rower as my sole 'cardio' for 4 years now, hugely improving endurance and remaining injury-free. Again, worth taking the time on learning safe technique:

http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/technique-videos

As for weight loss, you probably know that this is largely mediated via diet as opposed to activity; as such it's simply a case of lowering calorie intake over time. However, during any period where you're working to build strength, you will find the process easier with higher-than-normal levels of protein in your diet, and with running a slight calorie surplus. It's easier to remove pudge after such a phase than it is to gain strength while being calorie-restricted (although it's not impossible if you're really determined). As such you'll find weight loss easier if you choose to pursue it during a CV development phase.