Novice needs advice re: limiting rock climbing

[SquareOne]

I'm new to this, I hope it's the right forum.

I'm a 61 year-old novice, male, 6', 200 lbs., struggling with the lifts, starting to realize firsthand the importance of recovery and of limiting extraneous exercise in order to progress, especially at the beginning, especially when you're older.

About three years ago, before I discovered Starting Strength, I started rock climbing - mostly in the rock gym (though doing more outside is the goal) and I've tried to climb about twice a week.

I'm a klutz at climbing, and finger/grip/forearm strength is my Achilles heel, and I don't want to lose whatever I might have gained in terms of those. Once I took 2 months off and swore I'd never do that again.

But now I'm walking around with two layers of soreness, muscle fatigue, and occasional minor injury from two very intense full-body activities from which I have to recover to make progress. If I go to the rock gym the day after squats I feel like I'm interfering with recovery from them; if I do squats the day after the rock gym, when legs, knees, etc. feel tired and sore, I feel like it's interfering with the squats. Also important: a single session at the rock gym can mean 4 or 5 hours of time, what with the drive, resting between climbs (lots of resting), and world class gossiping with belay partners. Add to that three days a week of SS - and my sessions tend to be long, because I rest a lot - that's a lot of time.

Rock climbers, please don't stop reading this in disgust when I say that right now SS has the greater priority. I am struggling SO much with the squat (after many weeks I can only squat work sets of 110 lbs max), that I want to do whatever I can to progress, including giving up other stuff. (For the record I'm in contact with an SS coach about having my first session at the end of the summer, when our schedules open up.)

Here's what I'm thinking of doing, at least for the first, maybe, 6 months of SS, and rock climbers, or any one else, any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated:

1) Limiting trips to the rock gym to once a week or even less. This would normally mean no progress, or backsliding.
2) Trying to maintain or strengthen only the peculiar rock-climbing specific factors of finger, grip, and forearm strength by getting a hangboard (never done it, really) and doing that at home regularly. Maybe I'd even get stronger than I would with just casual climbing!
3) I would probably include pull-ups as my only add-on to SS, because they're supposedly good for climbing, but mostly because I'm very attached to them since a year ago I couldn't do one and now I can do several.

I'm convinced SS will adequately strengthen the major muscles used in rock climbing, and might even improve those muscles' contributions when I go back, though that's not the main goal - SS for its own sake is now the main goal.

Long post, I know, but...Opinions? Especially regarding how important it might be to give up such a competing activity for now - and, rock climbers, opinions on the effectiveness of the hangboard to increase or maintain strength in the temporary absence of much climbing would be greatly appreciated.

[Michael Wolf]

I wish Rob Miller posted here cause I bet he'd have some good advice for you here, but alas. You're stuck with little old me.

Given you're only squatting 110x5 after "many weeks" I would say getting your form ironed out is probably very important. While you wait for that in person session in a month or two, post to the technique forum, or get verified and post a video here, so you can at least get a little help and improvement in the meantime.

In terms of programming, I'd say to cease altogether through the end of your properly run linear progression. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how much stronger you are when you do that properly, WITH good form. At 6' and 200 lbs, you're already rather big for a climber, and at 61, you're not going to gain muscle mass as quickly as a 25 or even 40 year old, so don't go crazy and gain a lot of weight here. Get 200g of protein a day, and you should be able to add weight to your lifts in a properly run LP for 2-3 months.

After that, reintroduce climbing once a week for 4-6 weeks, then back up to twice, and you'll need to program around it. Hiring a coach for that may be a very good idea, given the competing resources for recovery, and your age.

Expect to be sore and disappointed the first 1-3 times back climbing, but once you're back in the swing of things, I would be surprised if you don't start noticing some solid benefits, provided you didn't do something stupid and try to gain 50 lbs on your LP like a 140lb kid needs to.

[SquareOne]

THANKS, AND ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROWLER AND DROPPING THE BAR:

Thanks for the awesome post Coach Wolf. Great advice which will eliminate a lot of waffling I've been doing about the issue.

Speaking of eliminating stuff, especially during the LP period - so still sort of on topic - I have been doing okay so far with getting rid of all kinds of other things like curls, triceps extensions, abs, jogging, even the 30 mins on the Stairmaster which I was doing after the SS lifts because I felt guilty not doing any cardio. But I just found out my gym has a Prowler, and I know you guys love that thing and I did it twice and I love it too. Even after squats and deadlifts I feel like that blast of HIIT rounds things out nicely. So I like the idea of a session with the Prowler maybe two times a week just after the lifts, but if you think it would interfere with the initial LP I'll try to stop that too. I know at least one of the books addresses this briefly, but any additional opinions would of course be great. (Maybe I should post this question as another thread - oh, and do a forum search first.)

Also, Coach Wolf, I will definitely post a video to the forum. And I think that another thing besides technique struggles that has held my squat LP back is being nervous that after I increase the weight, or have to decide whether or not to do another rep, I might fail and be stuck down there. So last session I: 1) practiced dropping the bar on the rack's safety bars after a couple of warm-up sets to demonstrate to myself that I'd be just fine and 2) instructed my ego that it can survive my doing that now and then on work sets even though it might be with less weight than anybody else in the gym is lifting. It seems that in order to gain strength or muscle mass you sometimes have to reduce ego mass.

[Michael Wolf]

It seems that in order to gain strength or muscle mass you sometimes have to reduce ego mass.

A very true point, especially when it comes to learning technique.

Technically don't do other stuff during LP. But if you really can't help it, do the prowler once a week trough your LP and first month after LP, and then add a second day after that. Do 20 seconds of work followed by 2 mins rest x6. Over the course of about 2 months, take the 20 seconds from "kinda hard" to "sprint" and the 6 intervals to 8. But start with 6x kinda hard and just make it a little more each week, by adding speed or weight, but keep in mind this isn't supposed to be your "leg workout" so don't ever make it so heavy that you're going slow. These should be runs, not heavy slogs.

[SquareOne]

Thanks a ton for the very specific and helpful info!