Starting Strength for Bouldering?

[mipegg]

Hey.

Im a 17 year old male. 5 ft 11, 70 kilos. I decided that I wanted to get serious about my training for bouldering at the start of the summer and after research decided that starting strength was the best program for a noob in my position to build a decent base to work off later on down the line.

Now 2 1/2-3 months on and only 2 months until the competition season begins I'm beginning to think about how to actually help my sport, I am still seeing gains from SS (albeit smaller gains than before) but it seems that now the strength gains seem to not be feeding into my bouldering. You're only as strong as your weakest point and that's gone from being the power in my legs/strength of my core (2 things SS improved massively) to my pulling strength and general static strength (somethings which are not really being worked by it so much)

So here is my question, am I better seeing SS through until I truly stall then move onto something else or is there a way to modify the program* to better suit my needs

Greatly appreciate any time taken over this.
Thanks


*Yes, I know if it gets modified its no longer SS

[Mark Rippetoe]

You need to be skinny to do competitive bouldering? Perhaps I don't understand the sport.

[ZenMonkey]

I used to be a competitive speed climber so perhaps I can be of assistance. I think SS would be fine but you need to consider that something like Yoga a few days a week and climbing a few days a week should be how you train. You could organize SS on Monday and Friday (A/B) and then choose a couple days for a combined climbing and yoga session. Maybe even doing Squat, OH Press, DL one day a week and choosing 2 days to climb and 1 day for yoga. Youre really going to have to gauge how your body responds to different variables. When I was at the top of my climbing game I was organizing my climbing like Texas Method (Volume, Recovery, Intensity) and doing yoga on Recovery day and the day after intensity day.

My 2 cents

[JLascek]

Not to disparage ZenMonkey, but I'd have to hear a pretty compelling argument to accept that yoga provides a valid performance gain in any physical quality.

mipegg, how long does a bout of bouldering last? How many bouts are typically in a competition? How much would conditioning factor into this? I wouldn't imagine it's a whole lot (especially when you are stronger), and I would assume you would just need to have specific practice in the activity of bouldering in addition to your strength training. In such a case, you'd figure out if adding in x number of bouldering sessions would require you to remove a strength workout. I wouldn't think this would be necessary, but I suppose this would depend on your skill in bouldering. But, I'm assuming a lot of shit.

Don't be afraid to eat though.

[mipegg]

For climbing adding additional unneeded mass is a little bit counter productive, means your having to put extra pressure on the holds which results in more of a tax on the forearms and losing grip strength quicker. Im just interested to see if there's any way of actually altering SS to be more functional for my sport as currently its not contributing much to my main weaknesses.

As for Zen monkey, that does sound like a pretty good idea. At the moment Im like this:

Monday: workout A
Tue:light boulder for fun
Wed: workout B
Thurff
Fri:Workout A
Sat:heavy boulder session
Sun: off.

[tikuane]

Interesting. I would have assumed that weighted chins/pulls would have been meat and potatoes for you? Did your skill training provided sufficient strength by itself?

[Mark Rippetoe]

For climbing adding additional unneeded mass is a little bit counter productive, means your having to put extra pressure on the holds which results in more of a tax on the forearms and losing grip strength quicker.

This assumes that the added mass is fat, that you haven't increased your upper-body pulling strength, and that you would have no control over the amount of weight you gain. In general, you're thinking like an endurance athlete: you think a bigger motor slows down the car.

[jgrube]

Just add 3 sets of 5 reps of weighted pullups to workout b. Adding weight 2.5 lbs at a time to a dip belt when you can get the 5 reps for all 3 sets. Your pulling problems are fixed.

And I also agree with mark's above post.

[ZenMonkey]

Not to disparage ZenMonkey, but I'd have to hear a pretty compelling argument to accept that yoga provides a valid performance gain in any physical quality.

mipegg, how long does a bout of bouldering last? How many bouts are typically in a competition? How much would conditioning factor into this? I wouldn't imagine it's a whole lot (especially when you are stronger), and I would assume you would just need to have specific practice in the activity of bouldering in addition to your strength training. In such a case, you'd figure out if adding in x number of bouldering sessions would require you to remove a strength workout. I wouldn't think this would be necessary, but I suppose this would depend on your skill in bouldering. But, I'm assuming a lot of shit.

Don't be afraid to eat though.

Yoga is highly beneficial. You need to be able to have serious body control and be able to hold positions for an extended period of time. What do I know though, I only got paid to do it and won most of the SE speed climbing meets from 2004-2006.

[mipegg]

This assumes that the added mass is fat, that you haven't increased your upper-body pulling strength, and that you would have no control over the amount of weight you gain. In general, you're thinking like an endurance athlete: you think a bigger motor slows down the car.

Isnt adding unused muscle just as bad as fat? Triceps etc.

I am aware that I do need to add mass and extra muscle isnt anything to complain about. I am extremely interested in trying to improve my upper body strength but more over power, is there any way to increase training for these attributes whilst on starting strength or, would the volume just be too great?