Stop Doing Random Exercises. Strength Exercises are Power Exercises.
This post was originally published on Climbing Magazine here.
For too long now, climbers have assumed that exercises themselves increase power output, regardless of their intention.
Unfortunately, this methodology is a complete waste of an athlete's time.
The most obvious tool to pick on is the campus board, but this article is about non-climbing power training, so I'll hold my tongue.
Why use non-climbing power training at all?
Simply put, non-climbing power training is more objective and reproducible than climbing power training. But remember, climbing power training is just climbing at a particular (in this case, high) power output. It is practicing your sport, which is different from training your physiology for your sport.
Because every climbing movement is unique (body position, power output, range of motion, etc.), non-climbing power training movements are essential because they are simpler to reproduce. And when I say simpler, I don't mean easy. But they are more stable (solid surfaces, not unstable ones), easier to modify (intensity and range of motion), and measurable (literal power output as measured by load and velocity).
The simplest explanation for power, move quickly.
Non-climbing training movements should be as fast as possible, even heavy ones. A brief caveat is that when I say as fast as possible, I'm not referring to the exercise's tempo (how long it takes to get all the reps done). I am referring to the concentric (muscle-shortening) portion of the exercise. In the bench press, pushing the bar away from the body; with the squat, standing up; and the pull-up, pulling the chin over the bar. Each of these movement directions represents the concentric portion of the exercise. That portion should have the intention to be as fast as possible.
You see, every movement has a power output. The heavy loads (85+% intensity) will be in the .17-.35 meters/second range, and the lighter loads (40-60% intensity) will be in the .65-1.0 meters/second range. Even if the load is heavy, it still has a power output. But if an athlete spends all of their training time at a power output (.17-.35 m/s) that is slower than their sport, the less likely their adaptations will transfer to their sport.
What are the adaptations to power training?
Let's stop right here briefly. If that needs to be clarified, read my previous article titled How Strength Training is Misunderstood by Climbers first. It's a piece created to help you understand how the adaptations we get from exercises are specific, not the exercises themselves. It will help you understand how we can gain strength and power.
The previous article discussed the following adaptations to strength training programs.
coordination with the exercise
voluntary activation (muscular recruitment)
antagonist coactivation
hypertrophy (muscle size)
lateral force (dispersing load to adjacent fibers)
tendon stiffness (increasing capacity)
I want to cover the same adaptations to power training in this article. The good news is that we need to highlight only a few significant differences. And if you're following along so far, you've already realized that it's all about dropping the intensity and increasing the movement velocity. We must get in that 40-60% range for the adaptations to be optimal for climbing.
Donut (pun intended) change the exercise.
Movement coordination is the biggest reason changing the exercise in your power phase is a mistake. We previously discussed that you must become coordinated in the exercise before you can gain muscular recruitment (actually gain strength) from it. Here we must highlight the importance of being coordinated in the exercise before using it to increase our power output. That is, at least, at the approximate power output of climbing.
For example, I change the coordination by switching between a weighted pull-up (strength training phase) to a bodyweight muscle-up (power training phase). Even though the movements look the same, they aren't. Even though the intensity might be appropriate for the pulling portion of the muscle-up (many climber's body weight is around 60% of their max), the muscle-up has no deceleration at the bar and uses more of the legs to "kip" into position. Conversely, doing bodyweight pull-ups with concentric velocity would be more appropriate. All we have to do is move our chin over the bar as rapidly and intentionally as possible. By changing the coordination demand of the exercise, we lose the adaptation that we're trying to gain, coordination at speed.
The good news for recruitment, large fibers are naturally fast.
In our new youth climbing coach certification (link here), I emphasize the well-established idea that the strongest athletes are rarely the best athletes. The athletes who apply force quickly, slow down quickly, and move through space efficiently are the more successful athletes. Part of the issue is that proper strength training methods (high intensity) are naturally slow (low velocity). If we spend too much time only strength training, we aren't coordinating the large motor units (type IIx) at their natural speed, which is fast. We will essentially "slow down" the athlete. This makes little sense for sports performance.
Again, if I change the exercise between my strength and power phase, I'm not necessarily coordinating the large motor units at that speed. I had to gain coordination and voluntary activation (recruitment) of the pull-up exercise using progressive overload (adding weight). Once I've gained that adaptation and plateaued, I want to train the same movement at a lower intensity and focus on doing the concentric repetitions as quickly as possible. Adding more leg kicks and accelerating through the top (essentially learning a new skill) misses the point. The strength article suggests that recruitment is the most transferable adaptation between a training exercise and a sport.
Don't stress the antagonists anymore.
Regarding antagonist coactivation (what is happening on the opposite side of the joint), we know that it is best trained at sporting speeds. This means optimizing power output requires me to train the muscles on the opposite side to relax at the same speed as the agonists (prime movers). If I hammer away at "antagonist" strength training year around, I'm likely reducing movement efficiency and, thus, power output. Modifying your exercise method (lighter and faster) will account for what's happening on the opposite side of the joint. Don't try and make them even.
Your muscles won't continue to grow.
If you gained a little muscle size in your strength training routine, don't fret, It will reduce slightly once you move to a power training phase. This is because there will be less total time under tension for the exercises in this phase. The same goes for lateral force transmission. Because there will be less need for synergy between fibers (heavy loads), you won't get as much force dispersing to the side before going down the muscle. So, power training methodologies are not typically used for muscle hypertrophy adaptations. No sweat there.
Tendon stiffness doesn't change. It stays the same.
It's been thought, and I've espoused the idea myself, that increasing movement speed naturally increases connective tissue stiffness. We know now that this is not the case. Moving heavy loads quickly (at least intentionally) is the most accepted method for increasing connective tissue stiffness. As discussed in the first article, this is one of the most important reasons for strength training in the first place. Building stiffness to the connective tissues of the upper and lower extremities is protective for athletes.
So, how do we move faster if power training doesn't increase connective tissue stiffness? This concept is where "the rubber meets the road" and is likely the most critical paragraph of this article. If we properly use strength training for the required timeframe for our athletes, the connective tissues will gain a stiffness adaptation, and the high-threshold motor units will be coordinated. After gaining stiffness in the connective tissues (a result of high muscle activity), we need to increase the movement coordination at speed, and we will automatically increase power to the working muscles and movements. It is that simple.
A simple analogy works well here.
Imagine pulling a rock a third of your body weight with a 10' dynamic climbing rope. The rock will move at the speed of your muscles after it takes up any slack in the rope. Now imagine you're moving the same rock with a 10' static rope with no stretch. In the second scenario, the rock moves at the speed of the pulling muscles, including the beginning of the movement. The second example is faster because no energy is lost (less stiffness) in the static rope. In this example, the muscle's force development rate defines the power output (movement velocity).
If you've ever heard the adage, strength before speed or strength training automatically makes you powerful. That is true for the most part. Strength training will increase power through recruitment gains for athletes with less training experience (youth athletes). The trained athlete likely needs a more nuanced approach with distinct phases.
Simple power training
Use the same handful of exercises in the strength phase and change their intention (intensity, range of motion, velocity, and coordination/power loss). The strength training article discussed modifying the exercise for variation and continued adaptation. In the context of isometric exercises, or partial ranges of motion, we should eliminate those options in the power phase. The full range of motion will be more insightful and trackable, especially when measuring movement velocity. The following principles should be followed with power training.
Use a full range of motion - The body, bar, and handle must travel a certain distance to track power output. Coordination loss is also more detectable with a full range of motion.
Lower the intensity - Keep the intensity in the 40-60% intensity range for the exercise. Make it easy for yourself and say 50%. A quick example, my pull-up strength is twice my body weight. That means I can do a 1-arm pull-up, and my body weight is 50% of my max with two arms. For most adult climbers I've tested, their body weight is in the 50-70% range.
Reduce fatigue - Fatigue is the biggest limiter for power output. If you train power when tired, the velocity will be off, and the rep-to-rep quality will reduce. By tracking the velocity of every rep, we can easily see when the power drops. If you don't have that option, pay attention to the speed and coordination of every rep, knowing that every set will have a rep or two less than the previous set.
Build capacity - If we have a fixed load (50%), the right intention (movement velocity), and keep the fatigue low, we can sit back and let the body adapt over 6-10 sessions. Remember, building better power output (capacity) is the goal of non-climbing power training. It's designed to target a movement pattern we use in our sport. The goal is to build the capacity for more powerful climbing practice.
What movements make sense to train?
Pushing - Barbell bench press or push-ups. (video example)
Pulling - Pull-ups or inverted rows. (video example)
Triple extension - Deadlifts, kettlebell swings (if you know the skill), or box jumps. (video example)
Fingers - powerful climbing movement practice.
Simple power training progression
Choose three exercises and progress the volume over time. 2-3 times per week is a good target for most athletes. Two times per week for a month should be plenty of time to gain a power adaptation. Once familiar with the stimulus, you could power train off the wall before every season or climbing trip. Here's a simple progression.
2-3 x / week for 3-4 weeks. All three movements in each session. If done on the same day as climbing, it must be 4-6 hours later. If you're new to training, do it on a non-climbing day because you'll be sore at first.
4-5 sets of 4-10 reps/set at 50% intensity for 4 weeks. The broad set and repetition range gives the athlete potential to adapt. In the first session, do no more than 5 reps each set, rest medium (2 minutes), and try and hit the same, or one less rep again every set after at the same velocity. This method keeps the power high and the fatigue low.
Do not try and complete a pre-determined rep number. Remember, you're trying to maintain your power output. Naturally, as you get tired (which is inevitable), you will lose power (reps) as you do more sets. That's normal. Eliminating junk reps is the intention. If you come into each session recovered, adequately fueled, and remember the intention to move powerfully, you will naturally do more volume.
Here is an example of a power progression with 4 sets at 3 weekly sessions. That would be appropriate for a sport climber at 40% intensity. Boulder-only athletes would be better off with twice weekly at 60%.
Week 1, sessions 1-3.
Session 1 (reps), 5, 5, 4, 3 = 17 reps
Session 2 (reps), 5, 5, 4, 4 = 18 reps
Session 3 (reps), 6, 5, 5, 4 = 20 reps
Week 2, sessions 4-6.
Session 4 (reps), 6, 6, 5, 4 = 21 reps
Session 5 (reps), 6, 6, 5, 5 = 22 reps
Session 6 (reps), 6, 6, 5, 5 = 23 reps
Week 3, sessions 7-9.
Session 7 (reps), 7, 6, 6, 6 = 25 reps
Session 8 (reps), 7, 7, 6, 6= 26 reps
Session 9 (reps), 8, 7, 7, 6 = 28 reps
Week 4, sessions 10-12
Session 10 (reps), 9, 7, 7, 6 = 29 reps
Session 11 (reps), 9, 8, 7, 6 = 30 reps
Session 12 (reps), 10, 8, 7, 7 = 32 reps
As you can see, even though the intra-set volume decreases each session, the total powerful repetition number (capacity) slowly s over weeks.
When athletes use a power meter (like Vitruve, use code C4HP), we see that each set has the same approximate peak power, but the average power goes down. This methodology is power training at its finest and can be applied to any exercise, including climbing training (for another article).