Priorites

As you have less and less time for training, what activities do you drop from your routine? I imagine climbing is not the last activity to go for some climbers, and I am curious what they focus on when really crunched for time. I am also a little curious what people with more time consider training.

My list of activities I have not done in years, but would consider if I had infinite free time to those that would be the last to go follows:

weight lifting,
cardio,
other sports I am not so interested in (yoga, softball, etc.)
other climbing sports(ice, alpine, etc),
core,
climbing abstractions(hangboarding, campusing, systems boards, etc),
directed climbing exercises(4x4s, ARCing, etc.),
rock climbing,

How many hours a week do you work? Do you have kids? A demanding wife? Why do you have to stop any of those things?

I'm working over 12 hrs a day right now, but still climbing every weekend. I've dropped cycling from my routine. Still kind of maintaining a power-endurance plateau in the gym, and lifting weights a couple times a week.

I work the 9-5, have a wife who is 8 months pregnant, have a kid and frequently visit family who live close by. I've been following the Rockprodigy training cycle since January in addition to finishing my basement and getting everything ready for kid #2. I regularly climb on Saturdays and have a few climbing training sessions during the week. I bike every now and again and don't do any other sports. For me climbing and training for climbing are high priority so to maximize training time without impacting my other responsibilities I've been doing climbing workouts in my garage after the wife and kid are asleep (this included P90x core and cardio workouts at one point). For me, the real challenge is after a long day trying to drag my ass away from the couch and go do something. I'm not climbing as much as I would like, but I think its a good balance with the other aspects of my life.

Ryan Williams wrote:How many hours a week do you work? Do you have kids? A demanding wife? Why do you have to stop any of those things?

I don't have to cease any of these activities. I am not as time crunched as many climbers on this site and elsewhere. I have been wanting to put more time into climbing, and less time into other stuff. That being said, the last few weeks I have felt that I might be climbing more than my body can handle, and I am thinking about what else might be useful. Conversely, I suspect at some point in the not so distant future I may be alittle more time crunched, and some less essential activities may have to go.

Mo climbing!!!!!!!

I find that most can only climb or train specifically (hangboard, 4x4, campus, boulder, etc) for climbing a few days a week. Your skin and forearms will need a rest. Those off days are when I do weight training/cross training. If you are training smart, weight lifting, cardio, and core will be one in the same. Do compound movements with free weights (bars, dumbbells, kettlebells, etc) and vary the weight and reps, providing you with the cardio aspect.

I like your list; I think most folks' lists would be similar. I put yoga/stretching a bit higher on my own list. But I used to have quite poor flexibility, so that's more about working on my individual weaknesses. I also enjoy road cycling, so I'd put that a bit higher as well.

Lifting weights seriously fucks with my climbing recovery. Heavy, compound, strength-building lifts are damn hard on your body. I just don't do it anymore, even if I have the time.

IMO, not having a ton of time to climb isn't much to be concerned about. You can get an excellent workout done in 1.5 hours in the climbing gym, and improve your technique and fitness to really take advantage of those wonderful days outside on the real stuff. I've got time to add more gym climbing to my schedule, but it would put me into the over-training zone and I'd be risking over-use injuries. All these cross-training activities have limited/debatable carry over to climbing, and you need to be concerned about your total training volume. If I had the opportunity to climb almost every day like the pros and road-trippers, I'd have to seriously dial down my daily volume and intensity to make it work