Train Smart, Not Hard...

What!! The man is mad you may say. Now I'm not saying that there is no substitute for hard work and perseverance. The quote "No pain, No gain" doesn't come from nowhere. However the idea of this principle is very sound, tactical training over hard slogging. Beasting yourself every day God sends is a better way of getting injured than improving. Train smart not hard is a tried and tested training philosophy in many sports. Many a time I see young climbers cranking hard day after day and wondering why their A3 pulleys are shot!!

In laymen's terms, the basic principle of this training philosophy is to create a cycle of training over a period of time before your red-point attempt. We aren't talking days here; this kind of change can take anything up to a year, depending on the type of training you're going from and to. This cycle will enable you to develop at a natural pace, allowing your body to adapt to the training you are putting it through, therefore reducing the risk of injury and fatigue- both very bad things in my book.

The smart bit refers to the planning and preparation of your training and staying clear of that young gun mentality of pull harder get better. You may have come across the phrases macro and micro cycles. These basically are the cycles in which your body works. A macro cycle is a one that is spanned over a larger amount of time. This could be a month, a quarter, or even a year, depending on what change you are trying to induce. Micro cycles are what the name suggest smaller versions of a macro cycle. This can be week by week, day by day or even a break down of the session. This is also dependant on what you are trying to achieve.

A typical micro cycle is what training you have planned for the week, with regards to your macro cycle. Or how many sessions you get in during your macro cycle. Getting complicated now, as everything depends on something else and if one is wrong the other can't work efficiently. The further you look into tailoring your program the more complex it becomes, often it's better left to the pro's (another plug, I know, I know). See training programs>>

This, as you can imagine can be tailored for any individual dependant on their ability and their goals as a climber. This is the basics of train smart not hard, plan your session, plan your weeks, months even your year, if you're that obsessed. Do this and training will not only be easier it will also be more effective and more enjoyable. Anyway now you're all suitably confused, I'm going to love you and leave you, check out the blogs next month for the next instalment where I will be looking at rest, the greatest thing since sliced bread and some figure board training for all you crimp monsters out there...