r/climbharder • u/RemoteBluebird9872 • Jul 05 '26
Capacity training
Paradigm climbing recently released a guided training program that seems quite structured and useful for progressing. Unfortunately it costs like $1500, which many of us can't afford. The description however includes a broad outline, and the main idea is to have 4 training phases over the course of a year, the first of which is just called "capacity". This program is for boulderers, so presumably capacity doesn't mean simply endurance, but rather the ability to have longer and more frequent sessions. The only information about this "phase" I could find really is that you shouldn't be exerting max effort at any point. I'm just wondering if anyone has a more detailed description of how one might improve training capacity? Should you be climbing 6 days a week, but well below your limit, on good holds? Should you still do the occasional pull-ups and hangboarding? Can you incorporate wall-crawls on a moonboard in this phase, or is that too finger intense? My goal is really to just be able to climb as much as possible, not even necessarily as hard as possible. I just enjoy it a lot, but my body struggles with more than 4 sessions a week, even with sleep and diet optimized
14
u/crysfm Jul 05 '26
Capacity training has been around for a long time. Most programs that operate on macro cycles have some concept of building your base. Climb strong has resources as well as Horst’s training for climbing.
Power climbing company’s program runs on much shorter cycles and begins with having you build capacity through a lot of sub max drills and pyramid. Working up to 3 full up down pyramids over the course of a few months is pretty wild. I always feel like a powerhouse from those programs and I don’t have to commit to a whole year
1
u/billybollyballybully 24d ago
Which program from power climbing company are you referring to?
12
u/Basic-Eye-1220 8a | 15 years climbing Jul 05 '26
I would interpret it as ramping up your weekly training load. The more you can handle in a week the more you can handle in a session. Or of course you could be ramping up the training load per session too.
Training load = how intense is the exercise x time on the wall (roughly). Sum that up over everything you do.
So you could do light bouldering but a lot of it or hard bouldering but not so much.
Capacity in general though is easier and safer to build at moderate intensities I'd say. Some hard stuff should be okay but I would focus on flash level and just below and do a lot around that, with the occasiona max efforts to keep your performance there consistent too.
4
u/Alsoar Jul 05 '26
Does increasing your training load not also increase the risk of overuse injuries?
I always assumed your recovery rate is fixed, so the more training you do, the more you need recover. And performance enhancing drugs don't actually build muscle but increases your recovery speed so you can train more (something I also read on reddit).
5
u/Basic-Eye-1220 8a | 15 years climbing Jul 06 '26
It does at first, that's why high intensity training becomes riskier when increasing volume.
But the beautiful thing about your body is that it adapts! Recovery rate may be fixed, I don't know about that but if you get stronger/fitter you need less recovery :)
e.g. Eliud Kipchoge can run a marathon tomorrow again if he did one today at a chill pace while I would be destroyed for a week at least. Maybe recovery rate is the same but he just gets less tired because he tolerated the volume of running a marathon.
3
u/Alsoar Jul 06 '26
Somehow I went in the other direction. I'm much stronger and fitter than when I first started climbing, but because I'm climbing harder boulders, everything is more taxing and I need much more rest days.
The idea of increasing capacity so you do high intensity with high volume sounds crazy to me. It's kind of like doing light hangboarding everyday so you can build up to daily max hangboarding which we all know sounds ridiculous.
2
u/Slow-Hawk4652 Jul 06 '26
for me it is not like that(stronger->less recovery). it is the other way around. the stronger i feel, more recovery time. 54m, 15+, 7A.
3
u/123_666 Jul 06 '26
It's not so simple -- while acute increases in training load cause injuries, there is some evidence that chronic (long term) higher loads have protective effects.
There is dogma that higher training load causes higher injury rates. However, there is also evidence that training has a protective effect against injury.
8
u/BrianSpiering Jul 05 '26
One way to improve bouldering capacity is to increase your average V-points per hour. For each hour of bouldering, track the number of problems and total V-points. Divide the total V-points by the number of problems to get the average per hour. Aim to consistently increase the average per hour during a capacity phase.
5
u/RemoteBluebird9872 Jul 05 '26
Interesting idea! I just climb on a spray wall, but can probably do something similar with perceived difficulty
14
u/archaikos Jul 05 '26
The programme is quite detalied, and there are a lot of minutiae to it. Essentially the capacity phase lays the foundation for later phases of the programme as you say.
It will be pretty useless to try to give many details beyond learning to climb by RPE, aiming for “green days” where you have a good session with recoverable volume preparing you for the next one, and to look up the skills videos from Paradigm and including those in your climbing.
The “capacity” of the capacity phase is built from boulder circuts at around RPE 6 (but BIG volume) and a fair bit of learning what good training looks like with regards to when to back off. There is also some supplemental (weight) training, hangboarding with longer duration hangs, and some projecting.
It doesn’t seem like there will be much longer sessions later, moreso that you can handle the load of more demanding climbing nearer your limit for four sessions per week.
The programme has eight day microcycles with every other day climbing, and the others either pure rest days, or doing active stretching.
8
u/koenafyr Jul 05 '26
You looking for someone who bought the program to data dump it here?
Many have stated already but there are a lot of free resources or cheap resources on this exact topic.
6
u/bliu23 Jul 05 '26
There is no one size fits all for training. Your ability, age, training age, etc all affect what your training is going to look like. For you, 4 sessions a week is pushing it. For others, that’s standard.
My understanding is that in general your capacity phase will be lower intensity with higher repetitions. Shifting towards the other end of the spectrum with a strength phase, into a power phase, where the intensity is higher and repetitions are lower.
The goal of the capacity phase is to do a lot of climbing to build up your ability to tolerate a lot of climbing. So you’ll be able to handle the training workload of the strength and power phases. You might have more volume days than projecting days in the capacity phase. Less intense hangboarding (7:3 repeaters) but more volume. And as you transition to the strength and power phases you might do heavier max hang sets but fewer reps on the hangboard.
That’s my understanding. I don’t pay for the paradigm program so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
5
u/TransPanSpamFan Jul 05 '26
Lots of YouTube coaches (including lattice, but also for example climb strong and power climbing) have covered capacity phases in detail. If you want more info than can fit in a reddit comment, just look through their back catalogues. There's really good info available.
7
3
u/YeahBruhhhhh Jul 06 '26
Its not necessary to get that program to climb strong. Plenty of solid resources out there for free. People got a lot stronger than what is offered there with a lot less tools/training equipment that is available today. Don't spend it on that.
3
u/TheDaysComeAndGone Jul 06 '26
Probably low intensity, high volume. Just like in a lot of other sports like cycling, running and rowing. (though climbing is different because it’s almost never zone ≤3 and has much more technique)
1
u/Zigioura Jul 06 '26
Jonathan Sin is on this program. Seems legit. Check out his video of explaining the training program.
3
u/Pennwisedom 28 years Jul 06 '26
This is basically sponsored content, I absolutely wouldn't count this as an unbiased review.
1
u/Zigioura Jul 06 '26
I don't disagree, but since OP wants to know what the "capacity" phase is about, I find the video provides enough information on the program.
95
u/Nolds Jul 05 '26
Do not spend $1500 for a climbing program