Here is a great question we just received for a climber who purchased our 8 week Ice/mixed strength training plan. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Hi

I recently purchased and started the ‘Ice and Mixed Climbing Strength 8 weeks’ plan. I am finding the workouts very easy. What gives and how do I best use this plan.
Can you please help/advise?

Cheers

Thanks for contacting us and for buying the Ice and Mixed climbing plan.

As you can imagine, especially if you have read our book, Training for the New Alpinism, no stock or generic plan can fit every person’s, individual training status perfectly. To produce a plan like this one we have first and foremost to not injury any user. This is particularly important with only 8 weeks of progression and for a plan intended for beginners to use effectively. As such the plan must start very gradually to assure that basic strength is at an adequate level before beginning more specific strength work.

From the sounds of it you already have good level of basic strength. This leaves you with 2 options: One add resistance to the basic exercises prescribed. The second is that you can progress to the specific strength progression that begins in week 4. If you choose this option then you can continue the progression the specific workouts in the same manner as the are laid out in the plan.

As we go to great lengths to explain in TftNA book, there is no one size fits all or cook book approach to training prescription. That is why we also go to some trouble to explain the theory behind training methodologies. With a working knowledge of those basic principles one can extrapolate and adjust something like this plan to best fit his or her needs.

Without knowing you I can’t make an exact recommendation as to how to proceed but in 90% of cases I would always suggest to increase base strength first before moving to specific strength.

I hope this helps.
Scott