Started by dgibbons, August 22, 2008 · 5 Replies · 3,136 Views
I am training 5-6 days/week for rock climbing. The nature of it is fairly similar to gymnastics practice I think. Short bursts of power at times, "sets" that last up to several minutes.
Currently, I am not doing any easy work, or cardio. Do you guys generally recommend mixing in light jogging to lower cortisol and recover from these strength workouts? Does easy/recovery work have a place in a strength/anaerobic endurance oriented sport?
Unless you want to jog, I wouldn't reccomend it. Jogging for 20 minutes at a light pace is not really going to burn much fat.
Your regimen is more than likely fairly intense. Producing levels of lactic acid trigger the body into a hormonal state that stimulates gH and burns fat.
Recovery is one of the essentials to strength/endurance gains. If you need to do some jogging or walking or biking to mentally relax or recover, go for it.
In case You haven't found it already, try reading Eric Horst's articles on trainingforclimbing.com, he pretty much covers the subject 
Yeah, I have read his articles. I think he is good for helping beginner climbers get up to a decent level. I think he falls short for climbers that are training for more serious routes.
You might want to look into Mark Twight's writings and documentation of his training for some ideas and inspiration. I'm not sure if you're doing Grade V big walls, alpine routes, or looking to *just* free El Cap and Half Dome in a day, but he's got some great info on training -- http://www.gymjones.com and http://www.marktwight.com.
Oh yeah, Mark Twight is the man. I love the gym jones website.
Im a sport climber, so the training is much different. My "event" is routes typically between 50-100 feet. They usually take 5-20 minutes or so.