In reply to Rob Greenwood - UKClimbing:
> Hey Tom,
> Here's my current predicament...
> My strength tends to come and go in fairly significant peaks and troughs. This is accentuated by the fact I tend to do a lot of trad/sport over the spring/summer (thus I get fit and weak) followed by bouldering throughout the autumn/winter (where I get strong and (in theory) powerful).
> Clearly there’s a somewhat painful transition phase and my question is based around that: what am I best doing to recruit back the strength I’ve lost? I'm conscious that there's no cutting corners, but have always been amazed how fast you can 'get it back', but I've never actually seen any precise figures regarding the timelines.
> Cheers!
Ok so this is a very common predicament and also a great question! It comes down to that whole statement of "recruiting back strength I've lost".
If we're talking about the recruitment element of strength, this it's an "easy come, easy go" scenario because recruitment is relatively quickly to achieve but unfortunately quick to go. Therefore, you really have to be objective and accept this (if you stop training/stimulating it) but you also have to be positive that it's quick to get it back when you do train it!
Thus to get that recruitment back as quick as possible:
1. Train with recruitment style fingerboard protocols (max hangs, very short, very high intensity with low time under tension for whole session)
2. Boulder at max intensity for shorter sessions than usual.
3. If you're a high level adult climber, look at doing some campus work