UKC

Hey!

I’ve been climbing for around 2/3 years and looking to ramp it up a notch! I currently Boulder around 7a. 
 

I’m an arborist so my body already gets alottttt of exercise throughout the day and I’ve been doing 100 body weight squats, 100 pressups and 50 pull-ups a day to try and keep things balanced a bit. I’m bouldering 3/4 times a week but I’m going to change one of the days for some lead climbing as I really want to get some more experience with that in. 
 

Do you think keep things as I am? Focus more on improving technique (definitely room there lol)? Or something more structured?

Cheers.

I did tree work for a couple of years while training and climbing. I found that I really had to budget my energy, and cut out anything that wasn't really useful training for my goals.

I'm struggling to see what benefit you might be getting from doing 100 squats after a day of being on your feet, climbing trees, dragging brash etc. In fact, I'd think about what you're trying to achieve by doing 100 of anything every single day. Pull ups and push ups are great, but  for maintaining or gaining strength you want to be doing the bare minimum work with as much rest as possible. Do some research on strength training, but as a starting piece of guidance: use more weight and do way less reps for strength, and rest a couple of days between sessions.

Bouldering and finger boarding are both great in terms of using your energy budget effectively. I'd advise thinking about weighing your weaknesses against your goals and choosing what you do based on that. 

Massive generalisation, but on top of all you do, I reckon finger strength and technique would be my prioritisation.

Definitely technique.  You sound pretty strong, though I bet you've seen people down the climbing wall who are nothing like as strong as you sending stuff that's looks crazy hard?

By all means continue training (especially fingers) but I'd guess that it's your technique that has the potential to improve the most.

Find a good coach who can do some movement and technique sessions with you, I can guarantee it'll make you improve way faster than making a change to your !already pretty rigorous) regime.

Cheers guys, kind of what I expected to hear deep down lol! I feel pretty strong right now and know that my technique has a lot of room for improvement. What kind of drills would you recommend and how often?

I think I’ll keep up this routine for a couple more weeks just because I had my head set on it and wanna finish what I’ve started then I’ll look to switch it up. Maybe more rest. As well as climbing a lot, I like to keep generally fit so maybe I’ll add some runs etc. 

It's impossible to know what you need to work on without having seen you climb.  If you can find a good coach (and there are plenty, as well as some f*cking awful ones, so ask around!) and they'll be able to look at your climbing, find out what your goals are and give you the drills, techniques and strategies to improve.

If you want to do some reading in the meantime you have a look at The Self Coached Climber (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Coached-Climber-Movement-Training-Performance...) there's a lot of technique theory in there to keep you going.

Watch people who climb things well and try and copy them, or ask them to help you solve a problem. Find problems that require skill over strength and try those. Or when you've done a problem, try doing it again, but a different way. Go to Fontainbleau.

If you want to get better at climbing specially running is unlikely to be of any benefit, but will use up your energy. 

finger strength, technique and flexibility (and core)

I found having an objective helps, otherwise it’s just training for the sake of it. Pick something that looks cool, and is a grade harder than you climb. Work out why it’s a grade harder than you can climb. Finger strength? Stamina? Head game? Then focus your training around that for a 10-12 week cycle.

I used Eric Hörst Training for Climbers after reading the HVS-E4 Article on here. Whilst I’m definitely not climbing E4 or hard Sport grades it’s got me started with training.

THIS sounds like a great idea. I love projecting hard stuff so maybe I’ll try project something my style but way harder than I think I can climb.

Your instant enthusiasm for projecting is a good argument against projecting!

Seriously, if you're worried about your technique then you'll improve that by doing lots and lots of climbing at a slightly lower level than your max, and across a variety of styles and rock types. It might be the case that the lure of projecting is that it keeps you away from ego-busting struggles on "easy" climbs that reveal your weaknesses in a stark light.

In case you think I'm being harsh, everyone does this and I'm no exception; it's just easier to see when someone else does it.

You could be right sir! My weakness is definitely techy/balance slabs and slopers so I should probably spend some time perfecting these. I’m living in Germany atm and met some climbers last night that I can definitely learn a lot from too so that’s handy. 

I'd swap out one or two of the BW sessions per week for general gymnastic ring ones in order to develop more 3D strength integrity. The progression on rings is far more functional than that of 'closed chain' stuff like bar pull ups and floor push ups, even swapping out for those goes a long way.

'What kind of drills would you recommend and how often?'

Get this - 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rock-Climbing-Technique-Practical-Movement/dp/1999...

You might really enjoy the Eric Horst podcasts. Call it a vibe thing....