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STRENGTH TRAINING METHODS FOR ELITE CLIMBERS

 

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STRENGTH TRAINING METHODS FOR ELITE CLIMBERS
Date: March 09, 2008

Juan MartĂ­n Miranda
The increment of the sport mastery (M) depends mainly on two factors: the increase of the athlete's  motor potential (P) and their ability to take advantage in an effective way  from that potential in trainings and competitions (H). The greater the athlete his specific motor potential and make use of it effectively, the more his performance will improve.
Now, the increase of the sportsman's  motor potential (P) and, therefore, the progress of the sport  mastery (M) demands a constant increase of the training stimulus (C) in the organism, since they are necessary higher training loads of to get improvements.
This is the fundamental law of the process of formation of the sport mastery . The complete content and the organization of a long term training should be focused toward the creation of the reasonable conditions for the execution of that law.

1-    the mechanism under the development of the process to reach the sports mastery during many years of training consists on the steady raise in the motor potential of the body and the improvement of the sportsman's ability to use it effectively in training and  competitions.
2-     The increase in the key motor functions in the process to reach the mastery slows, and its stagnation in the high level athlete requires that the intensity of the training increases
3-    The increase in the sportsman's motor potential throughout many years of training is based on a very concrete morpho-functional specialization of the organism.

The functional specialization of the organism throughout several years of training it is manifested in two ways.
-    First, explicit adaptations / alterations are achieved in those muscular groups and physiologic systems that mainly assure the capacity of the sportsman's work
-    Second, the functional improvement of the body is expressed by the development of those specific motor abilities which are indispensable for the success in a given sport activity.

Thus, the key item is the specialization of the organism or the organs on one hand, and the motor ability on the other.

As we have seen, as the sport mastery increases it is necessary to intensify the training loads  to be able to produce changes in that organism motor potential, for it the traditional methods don't reach, and it is necessary to begin to use more intense methodologies to achieve it.
The professor Yuri Verkhoshansky proposes two SUPERMETHODS for the physical preparation of the high level athlete. These methods are exclusively for those sportsmen that possess a very high motor potential, and the capacity of taking advantage of the influences of this type of training.
These methods for some are known, they are based on the forced (compulsory) intensification of the regime of working: the shock method and the stimulation method.

The shock method

The essence of this method consists on using the stretch reflex generated by a kinetically energy accumulated allowing the body to fall from a certain height.
When a muscle contracts immediately after a stretching (fall) it increases the force and the power and the energy expenditure is smaller.
But when this happens, the coupling time from the stretching (amortization) to the shortening (when we contract the muscle) should not be longer than 300 ms., over that period of time the stretch reflex gets lost transforming into a common contraction.
The tool that we can use for this work type in relation to climbing is the campus, but we should study a lot the use of it and how to apply it, since most of the information that we find in the bibliography is referred to the use of this methodology to improve the power of the legs (the jump). In a study mentioned previously (www.marvinclimbing.com/malasuerte.pdf), we have seen that the time of  force application in a in campus dyno (without previous fall) is superior to 600ms., that would indicate that it is a movement with a wide joint range and that  would prevent to take advantage of the accumulated energy.
But however they can be carried out exercises with small fallen, maintaining limited elbow joint angle (Schmidtbleicher denominates stretch shortening cycle short), and there we would be inside the temporary margins for this type of force manifestation.
At the moment I am designing a device to measure the of the force application time in different campus exercises, measuring the joint range of those movements. Data without publishing confer that the two hands jumps in big campus rungs (2”) maintaining the elbow joint near to 90 degrees would allow the use of this methodology.
The height of the fall and the power of the flexor musculature of the forearm over the arm are the obstacle. In very trained climbers it is possible to be allowed to fall from a rung to another from 20 cm approximately and to exert an effective contraction, but in most of people it reaches with the impact that produces the fact of jumping from a rung to the next one in an ascent way.
However this type of training applies a great stress in the fingers and elbows joint structures, to make this training possible it’s imperious to make a previous training to adapt the implicated structures (ligaments and tendons)
It is very important to emphasize that this method should not be included in the training of children and low level climbers.
Check some campus exercises at://www.marvinclimbing.com/campus.html

The stimulation method
 
The idea of this method it is to use the hyper-excitability of the nervous system created by a brief powerful muscular tension (maximum or almost maximum), to enhance the subsequent specific work.
This method consists on two muscular successive activities. The first, carried out in a tonic way, slow with a lot of resistance and few repetitions (for example weighted pull ups) and the second consistent in an explosive activity with little load and an optimum amount of repetitions (for example campus jumps in or several explosive boulder problems).
The execution of the first exercise leaves a path in the central nervous system that last certain time after having culminated the exercise. This path has a significant effect in the following activity, in particular the magnitude of this activity increases.
The coupling time of the two exercises should be from 3 to 5 minutes to obtain the best results, later to it the path gets lost.
This method is developed to stimulate the ability of the nervous system to generate a stream of impulses to the muscular periphery.

These methods are exclusive of the training of elite athletes cause they affect deeply to the organism, and they should be carried out in specific periods of concentrated strength loads, and they should not be applied with a lot of frequency, and not more than twice per week with appropriate rest among sessions.

References:
Schmidtbleicher, D., 1992. Training for power events. In: Strength and power in sport. Blackwell Science. pp. 381-395.
Siff Mel, Verkhoshansky Yu., 2000. Superentrenamiento. Ed. Paidotribo.
Zatsiorsky Vl.. Science and practice of strength training. Human Kinetics. 1995
Verkhoshansky Yu., 2007. Supermethods of special physical preparation for high class athletes. Journal of Sport Strength Training Methodology.
Verkhoshansky Yu., 2008. Resistance exercises as specialized means for physical preparation of athletes. Journal of Sport Strength Training Methodology.
Verkhoshansky Yu., 2002. Teoría y metodología del entrenamiento deportivo. Ed.Paidotribo. España.