[SeanBaek]

Just a quick question. I want to gauge everyone’s thoughts on this. I am beginning Scott and Steve’s 24 week mountaineering plan to better prepare myself for some objectives in the near future. I also enjoy rock climbing immensely, and typically climb 3-4 times a week. Sometimes in the gym, sometimes outside. It really just depends on partner and work availability. My question is this: Do I need to scale back my rock climbing due to the demands of the 24 week plan or can I keep my training volume? Questions for clarification are welcome. Thanks!

Topic

[Thomas Summer, MD]

Thomas Summer, MD on July 20, 2021 at 11:41 pm #55886

it depends;-)
– on your fitness level
– what you trained before you start the 24 week plan
– on your goals
– on how hard you climb
– if you want to change some workouts of the plan to climbing (maybe the core!?)
…and more!

it’s a very individual question, but if you want a short answer: if you increase the stress on one side you probably have to reduce it somewhere else. So if the training from the plan is more than you have been doing, you should probably scale back on climbing. But as I wrote above: it depends!

hope that helps!?
Thomas

[SeanBaek]

SeanBaek on July 21, 2021 at 8:43 am #55887

Yeah, you pretty much said what my gut was telling me, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself. My fitness is pretty good, but my training volume has been primarily focused on climbing. There hasn’t been a whole of the aerobic activity in my regimen. Thanks for your input.

[Jon44]

Jon44 on July 22, 2021 at 5:50 am #55909

I don’t want to encourage risk of overtraining, but my experience of being at that level of activity was climbing (especially at the gym) felt more like a stretch than a high stressor. (The general wisdom was always that it really mostly depended on muscles from your elbow to your fingertips, so not something that taxes the aerobic or other central systems very much.)
To that extent that gym climbing exercises your core muscles (say, with overhangs and the like), I’d just say those muscles have incredible endurance (see guy who finished the Vasaloppet ski marathon just double-poling).

[SeanBaek]

SeanBaek on July 22, 2021 at 7:56 pm #55919

Thanks for the reply Jon. I think to an extent I see where you’re coming from. It does feel like a stretch as opposed to a high stressor. I think I am less concerned about specific muscle fatigue and more concerned about an overall overloading of my body. I think that if I approach it systematically I should be okay, but at first I might need to scale back some as my body is acclimating to the demand of the training plan and then ramp it back up as I go. I could already tell from climbing today that I didn’t have as much in the tank as I usually do. I would imagine it might be from those runs earlier in the week.