Strength Training Plateau

This is a re-post from another forum specifically related to the rock prodigy training method. I thought I'd post it here as well to get some other insights:

I'm on my 6th season of hangboarding, and I've made the following observations: As many of you have noticed, it becomes progressively harder to make gains beyond ~workout #6 or so. However, until my 5th season, I was blasting away and had no problems making plenty of gains over previous season's highs (10-15 lbs or more). However, the last two seasons have been much harder. I routinely fail on a hold for up to 3 straight sessions (or more), and I'm barely squeaking by with matching or barely exceeding previous season's highs. Of course, this could just be typical and something to expect after the initial adaptation to training. I know I've seen it mentioned that a gain of 5-10 lbs year over year is considered successful in highly trained individuals.

Another point worth making is that I started adding in fairly heavy deadlifts (currently 1.5x body weight) the day after a HB workout as additional supplemental training, starting last season. I wish I could do these immediately after the HB workout with my other supplemental training, but I HB at home and don't have the Olympic bar set-up there. So, I do these on my first "rest day" 1-2 times per week, assuming that they are not going to tax the fingers as much. I've found them very beneficial to my climbing, so I'd like to continue with the deadlifts, but perhaps this activity is cutting into overall recovery. I put 72 hours between HB sessions.

Finally, what do you guys think about switching the HB protocol once a plateau starts to develop post HB #6 or so? Steve Maisch mentions something like this in his Training Beta podcast. I've really been interested in seeing what I can do with very heavy hangs and different timing protocols. I don't have the answer, but I know from other sports that one method of breaking through a strength plateau is to change the TUT/rest timing protocol. For me, I think this would be adding weight, but increasing rest between reps. Any experimentation out there?

I haven't done as much hangboarding as you but I found that often I was failing due to 'pump' from previous sets so I increased the rest time between sets to 4 minutes and have made much bigger gains (18kg difference between 1st session sloper compared to last session sloper!).

Also found it beneficial to switch the order of the grips. Completely by accident not having had my morning coffee I got two grips switched around and set a new one-set max by 5kg and maintained the prev PR on the other grip.

As an aside, some of my best fingerboard sessions have come when I have had much longer rests between sessions and filled the gap with either route-climbing or not-max bouldering, and then continued fingerboarding. My feeling is my fingers take alot longer to recover than most peoples. I really don't think even 72 hrs recovery is enough when I'm fingerboarding at my max, but that long a rest period with no activity at all seems worse than medium activity.

When I hit a plateau, here's how I analyzed the options-

1) continue on with the same program and accept (maybe very) slow steady progress. Has the benefit of predictability (i.e. whatever worked before is likely to keep working albeit more slowly and likely won't hurt me worse than it already has.)
2) Increase intensity in the same program to stimulate further growth. For example, if doing 6/4 by 6 repeaters, increase to 7/3 by 6. Or add a second or third set to program, or more grips. Should predictably help but may take more workout time, stress recovery and risk overuse injury.
3) Switch to a similar program with different parameters. That is, do max hangs instead of repeaters, or a beastmaker style HB workout with lockoffs. Less predictable results, but adds variety, may not need to add a lot of time to workout, maybe less risk of overuse injury.
4) Do something completely different- heavy finger rolls, or just go climbing. Totally a wild card.

FWIW, I switched from strictly repeaters to an emphasis on max or 2RM hangs this winter with some supplemental repeaters and have enjoyed it and improved more than I expected. YMMV.

Mark, did you switch to Max hangs completely, or midway through your strength phase? What I envision is doing my standard 7/3 repeaters through about session #6, then switching to more of a heavy max hang or similar protocol for the next 4 sessions. Steve Maisch does something similar, doing max hangs until a plateau and then switching to repeaters, if I remember correctly. I also think he does a longer strength phase, which I can't stomach. 4 weeks in my basement is enough!

For what it's worth, I did decide to finish up the phase with my standard protocol. I wrote the original post after session #9, which was a disaster. I did end up succeeding on 4 of 6 holds on #10, and exceeded previous seasons' highs on all but 1 hold. For that hold, I matched my previous record. So Mark, I agree, this approach probably will continue to deliver results, but the days of 10-15 lbs season-to-season gains are probably going to be few and far between. Also, I found introducing a 2.5 lb weight plate to be helpful when my body wasn't quite ready to jump the full 5 lbs.

the last several HB cycles that i went through, i went up by 5 lbs each workout for the first 6 and 2.5 lbs per workout for the last 4. this worked really well.

having gone through quite a few seasons, you will have seasons where you don't make new personal bests (or even match previous personal bests), but i have found that the overall trend keeps going up.

one thing that i feel really helped my HB cycles was campusing. yes, you read that right. i would toggle back and forth between my HB cycles and power cycle where i campused maybe 6 times in the month. my blue collar theory is that campusing helps wake up lazy muscle fibers.

another observation that i have made - i have still climbed very well when i had HB seasons that weren't that great. over time, other parts of your game will get better and help compensate. tactics, in particular, is an area that i had a lot of improvement.

evan h wrote:Mark, did you switch to Max hangs completely, or midway through your strength phase?

I doubled the length of my HB sessions this winter by doing sets of 1 or 2 RM hangs followed by sets of repeaters. Totally against standard practice, but I feel like it worked for me.

So for the first half of the season I did my max hangs as two sets of 8 sec on 4 sec off 8 sec on, then rest 2 min 40 sec, then repeat for second set each grip. Second half I switched to single max hang 6-8 sec followed by 1 min 50 sec rest, repeat for total of three sets for each grip.

Later the same session or day, I did a repeater set. First third of the season 7/3 x 8, rest 2 min 40 sec, one set of each gip. Second third 7/3 x 6, rest 3 minutes, one set each grip. Final third of the season, I was planning to switch to 7/3 x 3, but felt like I was already getting enough intensity in the max hangs and just stayed with 7/3 x 6.

Total workout takes about two hours.

I'm not trying for a narrow peak phase. Just gradual progress I can sustain.

I like starting with a repeater type workout and then after about 4-6 sessions moving onto near max hangs (8-10 seconds, full rest (at least 3 minutes)) for the next 4-6 sessions. I don't think there is any reason to accept a plateau. My current HB cycle looks like this:

1) 3sec, rest 30 sec - 1 min, 6 sec, rest, 9sec, rest (2-3 minutes rest/sets for 3-4 sets/grip type)

Ill do this with increasing intensity (added weight) and volume for 4-6 weeks of 1-2 session per week

--4-5 days rest--

2) 10 sec, full rest, 10 sec, full rest, 10, sec full rest (1 set per grip type with added weight)

-I use the Eva Lopez "effort level" so the weight I am holding for 10 sec I can probably hold for about 13 seconds before failure.

Ill do this for the another 4-6 weeks

I don't think you necessarily have to switch to near max hangs after doing your repeaters. There are plenty of other possible protocols and I think as long as you are switching the stimuli you have a good chance of avoiding a plateau.

i have switched it up in the past similar to czd and it worked pretty well. this is a good program if you don't have a campus board or good limit bouldering/system board setup nearby. for example, if you lived somewhere without a decent gym, this would be a good program.