UKC

What do we know about periodisation? 

How long is a period? 

I am currently focusing on strength work as it fits nicely with isolation. 

How long should I stick with it before moving onto something else? 

Keep going until a plateau? 

Generally 12 weeks spilt into 3 lots of 4 weeks. Each block of 4 weeks working on a different aspect with a reduced training load on the 4th week. 
Then 4 weeks of reduced training after the competition or event you’re training for. 

What I aim for with periodisation (under normal circumstances) is 4 week blocks of the tried and tested: ARC/base fitness/endurance, Strength, Power, Power Endurance and Performance phases followed by a rest. These phases can overlap.

My thinking is that in that 4 week's you go through initial increase in gains (largely neuromuscular adaptation) and as this diminishes and gains are harder to come by you move on to the next phase.

The order compliments each phase perfectly. ARC increasing your training capacity, increasing strength before increasing power, then utilising that progress in power to power endurance ready to perform. 

This can be endlessly adjusted if your goals are boulder/trad related, or adjust to they type of route/goal. 

It's certainly not a one size fits all method. it relies very much on being able to time your performance phase down to a few weeks, which I personally struggle with the fickle weather/conditions we have in the North of Scotland! 

Cheers, the tricky thing is what/when am I training for. Thankfully I got a couple of trips in pre corona (1 only just) the latter of these I had trained specifically for. This has left me quite fit so I am hoping to monopolise on it for the eventual release. 

Strength is fairly easy to train at home, endurance less so, there are only so many circuits of an 8x8 board you can do. 

So I guess long enough for your body to have adapted to that particular stimulus. Strength and Power training can produce quite rapid gains (especially in the untrained) - so on the order of 4-6 weeks? This usually would include a couple of rest weeks.

The Aerobic system requires longer to adapt - with climbing I guess we're talking about capilliarization in the forearms, there's some research which suggests untrained individuals require at least 6-8 weeks to see improvements. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-016-3419-6)

Of course, individual mileage may vary

Nowt

About 7 days every 28 days

I was waiting for that one. 

I'm nothing if not predictable, glad to be of service.

I have realised the benefits of a wk off before (super compensation) in a strong increase in performance.  

Training for Climbing describes this reasonably well by dividing Trg into:

3wks Str,, 2 was Pwr End, 1 wk Taper/Perform then rest). 
 
Manny the Monkey describes it well in a few videos on YouTube.

Someone above mentioned Neuromuscular realisation and I think Manny does too as ‘Powering up’ and I think this indicates the benefits of training on real rock or projects (finger strength for me). Obviously different for every level of climber but probably apparent to everyone.

theres also the problem of whether it’s possible to maintain gains or as Manny advocates ‘ let them go’. 

I think the difficulty in realising periodisation is writing an accurate training programme (trg ratio, time, goals, maintaining overload etc) and I think   Professional help is the best way to learn - Lattice  (a friend has and is happy with the trg pgms he gets and his climbing has improved alot) but there’s also good coaching to consider (lattice again or just someone good at asking questions???).

Best of luck.

Part of my job used to be providing the financial returns for my department each month. Processing the invoices was a pain which made me grumpy for a few days. I would refer to it as "manstruation". 

I will Don my tin hat and duck before collecting my coat. 

How do you don a duck?