[maxf]

maxf on March 29, 2020 at 3:43 pm · in reply to: Creaky knees #39969

Thanks guys.

Have been googling and already started foam rolling quads. (vastus lateralis seems especially tight)

Will try to hip abduction exercise too. Can anyone recommend a favourite exercise?

Max

[maxf]

maxf on November 26, 2019 at 2:54 pm · in reply to: Pre-hab routine #32825

rocking bridges is probably not quite right name.

maybe “thrusting reverse table top”

You do a “reverse table pose” from yoga (with hands forward, nice stretch for front of chest and gets the back of shoulders firing)

Then drop your bum to the ground. Then thrust up to reverse table top again. then repeat for 15-30 reps. I find this great to warm up shoulders prior to climbing.

PURVOTTANASANA (REVERSE PLANK) is also good maybe slightly harder variant

The other one I like but takes a lot of flexibility is pushups in full bridge. as per this link

[maxf]

maxf on November 26, 2019 at 2:40 am · in reply to: Pre-hab routine #32713

For shoulders: I do the following stretches usually quickly/ easily before workout/climbing to loosen up and longer hold after or on off days for flexibility (hold for 60-90 sec)

Shoulder extension: Puppy pose / puppy pose with arms flexed
For lats – hang on bar with one arm and feet partially supported, then move feet away to stretch lat / side of hanging arm
Front of chest / pec: lie face down arms extended at 90 deg then roll towards each side
Posterior shoulder / capsule stretch: lie face down with one arm crossed under the opposite armpit. can use opposite knee bent to increase stretch

For more strength / mobility I am a big fan of rocking bridges to open up the chest and get the posterior upper back muscles working. I also try to do I Y T type exercises with a light dumbell and some shoulder dislocates both with theraband to warm up and with light weighted bar to develop shoulder strength and control.

Finally – I have no evidence this is any good, but I am really enjoying handstands as a simple way to balance all the pulling of climbing, and to force me to open up my shoulders, plus they are a fun party trick!

(any of these that dont make sense i can probably find some examples)

[maxf]

maxf on February 28, 2018 at 3:26 pm · in reply to: Training plans, Basic Fitness Test and Weight Loss #8330

No reason not to train and lose weight at once. Get consistent with your training, then gradually increase your volume, sort your diet and losing the weight will happen.

Toubkal is a great peak and not too challenging. I can’t speak for Elbrus.

[maxf]

maxf on February 28, 2018 at 3:22 pm · in reply to: Constant hours of training #8329

Have you always trained at 10 hours? Never trained at 10 hours?

If you have been training 8 hours a week and you up it to 10, you should progress.
If you have been training 4 hours per week and you up it to 10, you will break.
If you have been training 20 hours a week and you start training 10, you will get less fit!

Im not sure I understand the question – but surely 10 hours a week is plenty of training for all but the most competitive amongst us.

Why not start with 6hr/w for a while, build till 10h/w, then sprinkle some intensity once the body is used to 10 hours of consistent volume! – easy periodisation 🙂

[maxf]

maxf on January 18, 2018 at 11:15 am · in reply to: 24 weeks training plan, number of hours? #7685

I am currently doing the 24 week plan.

You end up stabilising at about 10 hours a week in the base. A little less toward the end of the plan but the sessions are more intense. These numbers include 1-3 hours a week of strength training.

I add climbing on top of the plan. Also worth bearing in mind a lot of the uphill workout only include uphill time, so if you need to hike down from your hill that will add some hours of easy on top.

I think its a great plan. I thought I was doing more volume, but actually I was doing peaks and troughs. When you do 10 hours in a week and its day in day out 90 min run, 2 hours run, 3 hour hike etc, the training effect adds up!

[maxf]

maxf on January 7, 2018 at 1:01 pm · in reply to: Screaming Barfies #7494

As follow up to this, I spoke to an anaesthetist today, who suggested it might be due to a vagal (parasympathetic nervous system response) response to intense pain. It is not uncommon for persons experiencing intense pain to pass out, but I’m surprised to hear the hot aches can do it though.

[maxf]

maxf on January 7, 2018 at 4:45 am · in reply to: How slow is too slow? #7490

Interesting reply Scott!

And yes of course, my numbers wont match someone else. I guess I was just trying to illustrate that within ‘slow’ I will typically train at a few different paces through the week, depending on the length of the workout.

[maxf]

maxf on January 6, 2018 at 4:04 pm · in reply to: How slow is too slow? #7485

No idea if this is what you are ‘meant’ to do, but…

I estimate my top of z1 around 140, z2 around 150.

I typically run one z2 60 min session around 140-150

Another 2 or so 60-90 min or so at around 130-140 (hills dependent)

Then I try to do a longer effort 2-4 hours which usually is more walking and ends up around 120-130. Hikes typically go way lower especially when walking downhill, but its all time out on the legs I

recovery runs/ cycles etc try to keep about 100-120

[maxf]

maxf on October 15, 2017 at 11:55 am · in reply to: Questions for 24 week plan #6396

Thanks for the replies:

one more question –

I have a spare week from where I start my plan to where I head off climbing in April. I was thinking to use it in December where it nicely fits between the 8 weeks transition period and 8 week base period. It also nicely puts my rest weeks where I want them and keeps the high volume weeks where I have trips etc.

I also have a weekend free where the extra week lies, and was hoping to go away winter climbing that weekend. This could be a nice mix of aerobic work and technical training.

Obviously it depends but any rough guide to the maximum volume one could do on a weekend like this, if you took a few extra easy days either side of it?

Obviously its not ideal from a continuity point of view, but equally you gotta go climbing when you can every now and then.

So it would look like:

Transition week 8
Extra week (climbing trip on weekend)
Base week 1 (modified to probably take the first 3 days as recovery)

[maxf]

maxf on October 8, 2017 at 10:03 am · in reply to: A cautionary tale, and advice for starting over #6352

Apologies my beautifully formatted weekly log didn’t quite work out once posted…

[maxf]

maxf on October 8, 2017 at 10:01 am · in reply to: A cautionary tale, and advice for starting over #6350

Update after 3 weeks:

I last posted after 2 weeks of taper for a race that I decided not to run as I was fighting off a cold and had had a summer of intermittent training due to stomach problems while travelling in india.

I decided after the 2 weeks of taper (almost no training) to start back with a very gentle progression based on a scaled down version of the transition weeks in the 24 week plan with my weeks looking like this:

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
W1 Rest 45str 40-Z2 easycycle 45str 1h Z1run easy hike
W2 Rest 45str 45-Z2 easycycle 45str 1.15 Z1run climb
W3 Rest 45str 50-Z2 easycycle 45str 1.30 Z1run easy hike
W4 planned easy str 30 z1 easy/off easy str 1h z1 run off

I feel great 1 month back into structured training without overdoing it. I have bought the 24 week plan (as it fits perfectly for my next planned trip in april) and was considering using it as an outline but perhaps slightly reducing the hours. I am absolutely ready to back off at the first sign of overtraining after my experiences over the summer.

A few questions with the 24 week plan:

1) Each week has 3 main aerobic workouts called “Run/Hike”, “Aerobic Threshold Run/Hike” and “Hike on hilly terrain” – Should I be aiming for any difference in intensity between these workouts? Is it ok to push into Z2 in one of them?

2) For the “Hike on hilly terrain” should I carry any weight? If not and I have the choice between running / hiking, is it preferable to run? When hiking my heart rate is typically well below AeT except on the uphills, whereas running I can hold a higher heart rate downhill.

3) lastly my local hill is only around 150m high, it has lots of terrain though and a typical 1.5 hour run will include 750m of up and down. Is this “Hilly” enough? 1.5 hours is about the most boredom will allow on this hill although it does seem to involve more elevation my other option

Alternatively nearby are bigger hills which I can access at weekends suitable for up to 4-5 hour runs. here a 3 hour run/hike gets around 1300m up and down. Is this suitable for the sunday “Hike on hilly terrain”?

For any of the “Steep uphill hike” later in the program should i do laps on my hills, or suck it up on a stairmaster?

[maxf]

maxf on September 17, 2017 at 1:14 pm · in reply to: Stacking workouts #6098

Hi Robert,

I realise these are probably aimed at the authors, but I’ll hazard a guess…

Your first question has been asked previously, if I remember correctly the answer was they are the same and it was a typo.

Re: climbing – the answer seems to be – count it, but 4 hours at the wall is unlikely to be equal to 4 hours running. I think as long as your consistent in logging it doesn’t matter. Personally I tend to log about 1/3 of the time at the wall/gym. I keep meaning to calculate actual time moving but haven’t yet done it.

I’ve always seen it recommended to do max strength before muscular endurance. Or strength before aerobic. Interested to hear the “official” answer on this.

I had good results doing bouldering sessions followed by a few sets of squats or box step ups and maybe some weighted pullups if there was anything left in the arms.

[maxf]

maxf on September 17, 2017 at 7:04 am · in reply to: A cautionary tale, and advice for starting over #6092

Scott, many thanks for taking the time to reply.

I’ve just gone through my last 2 years of training logs, and it’s pretty clear that since April it has been peaks and troughs of volume, but nothing that could be described as consistent training. That said the 6 months previously from October – April produced great gains and I am very keen to see what is possible applying the same approach without getting carried away!

The last two weeks of 30 – 60 min easy runs have felt good, but I am glad I decided not to attempt the 6 hour race again (which would have been yesterday). It was very tempting to race anyway, which would probably have necessitated several more weeks of recovery. It’s amazing how the ego tries to get in the way of sensible decisions.

Having felt good the last 2 weeks I will gently ease back into training. Looking at last years 430 hours, some of it was achieved in peaks and troughs (a big trip, then an idle week, rather than consistent weekly volume). So I will see how a similar set of hours goes with more consistency.