Hi-
I’m glad the training plans have been working well for you.
Regarding bouldering/dry-tooling, here are my thoughts:
1) I stopped this a long time ago because I feel too often and got too hurt. The primary problem with drytooling on a artificial wall is that you fall unexpectedly (as with most dry-tool falls) and I just got too banged up. So I moved back to regular bouldering – using my hands – and adding a little specific work with ice-tool hangs. That’s how the ice-tool-hangs as we prescribe them came about. With ice climbing “every grip is a jug”, which is true, but what gets a lot of people is actually technique. They over-grip on the swing or don’t know where to swing or how to get their body in the right position to swing efficiently, this is climbing technique and the best prescription for this is to go wear out some picks and crampons.
What I do do is use a Treadwall (rotating climbing wall, yes I own my own, just set it up!) with the ladder rungs installed. This lets me do volume, basically a really specific form of base training, on an overhanging wall hooking ladder rungs. I never slip off and I can wear any shoes to do it, boots are best as you get the abs and core working too. Will Gadd has some kind of wooden structure that he leans agains a tree that does the same thing, is much much cheaper and works in much the same way except you have to downclimb or jump from the top. I don’t have a photo of it but I bet there are some online somewhere. When I use a treadwall (the public gym in Ouray Colorado has one) I vary the length of the pull (reach) and the angle depending on what I’m doing. You’d be surprised how hard it is to stay on the treadwall set at dead vertical for 100 meters of climbing! Don’t want to go to failure, this isn’t (typically but can be) muscular endurance training, at least not at first, but with the treadwall it’s easy to turn it into this.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you have to be able to progress whatever you do in a controlled way. Remember that random exercise isn’t training, it’s well, exercise. Again, back to the boring, but quantifiable ice tool hangs. It’s a solution, and a very simple one that checks all the boxes.
If you want to boulder, I’d check out the “dry ice tools”, google them, it’s a wooden leashless tool with half of a fan-belt bolted to the top. The fan belt hooks onto the holds. They slip a lot less than steel picks and so are safer. Hope that is helpful. Steve
