UKC

I was thinking of adding a bit of extra weight to give stamina sessions at the wall a bit of extra impact but I wasn't sure how much weight to add:
What sort of weight would be sensible, I was thinking of adding the equivalent of 1% of body weight and building upto 10% over the course of a couple of months?
Mostly this would be for laps of a moderately overhanging route to failure.

Thanks.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

A weight vest with a couple of kilograms to start and then building up is apparently a good way to go. Ondra trains stamina with 4kg so no more than that probably.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Is doing a slightly harder route not an option?

I'd have thought by 10% bodyweight it will start to mess with your centre of mass and therefore movement patterns if you're not careful

In reply to MischaHY:
I've probably eaten meals that weigh more than Adam Ondra so maybe a bit more than that

In reply to AJM:
Doing a harder route is an option but not always ideal, it just depends on what is available. Plus adding weight will hopefully reduce the "trad rack shock" a bit.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Unless you've added weight before I'd be very cautious. Finger injuries are very easy to come by and adding weight makes it even easier!

In reply to AJM:

Surely 20 quickdraws or a full trad rack would be useful in terms of realism?

In reply to MischaHY:
Good point, although I should add that I have dropped ~8% of my bodyweight since January so was used to a bit of excess.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

In that case you're probably safe enough adding up that percentage, at least to begin with. See how you get on!

In reply to Reach>Talent:

I don't really see the point in adding weight, as you'd be forcing yourself to climb in a different style. I'm sure it makes you more static and throws the balance off. I have only tried it once as an experiment, a friend had a weight vest, and I found it really hard to judge how much to flag to counteract a different weight. I think the earlier example of Adam Ondra doing it is OK, except Adam probably has better technique than anyone on this planet. I think unless you have impeccable technique I just wouldn't bother. Harder routes is probably better.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Adding weight is just another way of modifying the intensity, as is trying harder routes or reducing the rest time between goes.
It’s nice to mix things up a bit, but I wouldn’t stick solely with the vest.

You could try supersets, do you normal stamina route then go and do 10 pull ups or rest off a big campus rung.

In reply to Reach>Talent:


The way to avoid the trad rack shock is never to rack up and then realise you need a dump before climbing.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

What are you trying to train by adding the weight? I can understand adding weight for strength or power, but to me it doesn't make much sense for endurance.
The up-to-date way of training endurance seems to be the energy systems method:

Aerocap endurance = continuous climbing for as long as you can without getting pumped - no benefit to adding weight
Ancap endurance = repeats on long boulders with long rests, getting powered out
Aerobic power endurance = laps on a route/circuit as hard as you can stand for 20-30 moves getting horrendously pumped
Anaerobic power endurance = repeats on hard long boulders getting horrendously powered out

I think for the latter three I could see some use in adding weight to make the intensity harder without using small tweaky holds. But doing lots of reps with added weight will surely mess with your movement patterns?

If I was you I'd take advantage of your newfound lightness and up the difficulty level of your endurance training. Keep the weight vest for max hangs and strength training on basic moves.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

out of interest, anyone know what 'pull' and autobelay exerts? does feel a little bit easier, but some of that is being pulled into the wall which can help with balance and keeping your weight over your feet.

In reply to Max factor:

Autobelays do take off a considerable amount weight off you. I would probably put these in the same category as weight vests in that it has its place but could mess with your technique and judgement by moving your centre of gravity into an odd location.

In reply to alx:


I simply cannot stand autobelays because of the constant jerking and tugging which makes it almost impossible to climb properly. On the other hand, I would have thought that a properly positioned waist belt should not move your centre of gravity at all - just make you heavier.

In reply to Robert Durran:
Any weight vest even if positioned perfectly to maintain the same static c of g would still change the moment of inertia about your point of rotation when you make a move, compared to what you experience without the vest.
To avoid this the extra weight would have to be distributed evenly across your whole body.

Edit: I don't actually think that's a huge problem if you are doing fairly basic training moves, though. I wouldn't personally ever wear one for hard bouldering or routes.

In reply to Si dH:

I think you are wrong about the moment of inertia, which depends on radius *squared* from the centre of rotation. Added weight to a waist belt would be close to the centre of gravity, so would not increase the moment of inertia nearly so much as weight "distributed evenly across your whole body"

In reply to John Stainforth:
That depends on the pivot point. You are right though that evenly distributed extra weight would still change it. But more importantly, this should not be about minimising the change completely, rather about the change replicating well the forces your body sees on a wall, ie the change of load should be similar across a variety of moves.
Extreme example but whose root cause is in effect on every move: with a weight vest, a move where your upper body is static but you need to get your legs high will be relatively unaffected, whereas a move where you need to pull out of a bat hang will be disproportionately harder.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Why not just neck a pint before you start the route?

In reply to Reach>Talent:
I have trained with a weight vest as part of a stamina training program. Purpose was to shock the system and because I was training for alpine, which means climbing with a backpack. I found it hard on the fingers. But also the weight vest really messed with my movement, especially when climbing overhangs.