Woah! Yesterday's gym session was a physiological punch in
the gut, and an undeniable example of the SAID principle. The SAID (Specific
Adaptation to Imposed Demands) principle is one of the foundations of exercise
science. Essentially, you only increase your capacity to perform a certain
activity by engaging in that activity or something similar. Additionally, if
you trained for an adaptation in the past, but then neglect to continue
imposing demand for that adaptation, your performance will decrease to your
baseline levels (a process called ‘de-training’). For example: If someone spends all their time climbing
powerfully on very steep terrain, they’re probably pretty good at it, or at
least better at it than they might be at
technical face climbing (if they rarely or never practice that style of
climbing).
You probably
know someone who feels comfortable climbing on vertical walls, but as soon as
there is a roof or the wall starts to kick back, they flail. The most common
reaction to this is “I can’t do overhangs, they’re too hard” and they go right
back to the vertical climbs. Seemingly in the hopes that, on some magical day,
overhangs will become “easy”. Unfortunately that magical day does not exist. If
it did I imagine it would be called “Awesome Day”. The only way to get better
at what you are bad at, it to practice what you are bad at. When you practice
what you are bad at you get better at it faster than when you get better at
what you are better at when you practice what you are better at (I know I could
exercise my vocabulary, but I like how that last sentence is almost a tongue
twister). Why? Because it is pretty easy to go from being Terrible to being
Mediocre, but relatively much harder to go from being Mediocre to being
Awesome. You probably went from not knowing how to drive a car to knowing how
to get from point A to point B without killing yourself pretty quickly. You may
have backed into a few dumpsters, hit a cat, or rear ended that fool who
slammed on the brakes even though the light had only just turned yellow, but
hey that’s what happens when you’re learning. Anyway… You are probably a pretty
mediocre driver. The vast majority of us are. Now go youtube some rally car
race footage. Comparatavely, how much time, practice, and dedication do you
think it took to go from navigating the grocery store parking lot to tearing it
up through the forest and drifting hairpin turns without crapping your pants at
the prospect of certain death? A lot more time than it took you to pass your
drivers test. Even if that took a few tries. Moral of the story: work on your
weaknesses (but don’t forget your strengths)!
Now back to that gym session I was moaning about at the
beginning…I got my butt handed to me at the gym yesterday. I got pumped at the
3rd bolt of a route. Grabbed a draw on an easy route (shameful). Got
pumped on a BOULDER PROBLEM! And could hardly pinch anything. I felt so weak.
Like a kitten. meow.
“How could this be!?” you might say (and I definitely said).
“Didn’t you just climb some fairly hard routes? How come you suck?”
Answer: The SAID principle.
In the past 6 weeks I have climbed on only 10 routes. 3 were
warm-ups I flashed. 1 was a warm-up I did everyday before trying my second
project. 1 was a ‘project’ I did 2nd try. 3 were projects I didn’t
send and didn’t try very many times. Which leaves 2 hard projects I actually
sent. One took 1 week (and 3 years of work prior) and the other took 2 weeks of
dedicated tries. What I’m getting at is the fact that I spent most of my trip
trying to adapt to only 2 routes. When you are really trying to redpoint
something hard, you only get a few tries before you are too worn out or the
skin is too thin. So after 6 weeks of only tying in to the rope @3 times a
day/4-5 days a week, I lost a lot of muscle. Evidenced not only by my weak gym
performance, but also by my post-trip weight of 149lbs (at my strongest
bouldering I weighed about 155-160lbs). I adapted to the demands I was placing
on my body. When climbing thin technical pocket routes it is really helpful to
be light and rely more on footwork, technique, and endurance. Once I took those
adaptations back into the gym, I was obviously out of place. I don’t have the
strength or the power to crush my way up pinches and edges anymore.
And now I have a choice: Continue to focus on technical
face-climbing (a type of climbing my body naturally excels at) or get back to
work on my weaknesses and become a more skilled climber. Option 2…duh. For me
this isn’t even a question. I love working my weaknesses. Honestly I think that
is the only “gift” I have as a climber. I love to work hard. So to work I go.
You can make the same choice: Specialize in your strength or
work on your weaknesses. Neither decision is right or wrong and both take hard
work.
A recent post by training guru Steve Bechtel on his website
climbstrong.com contained this nugget that I absolutely love:
“Developing your
ability as a climber is about compromise, not balance.”
It is impossible to train up all the facets of your climbing
to the same high level at the same time. You always peak certain traits at the
expense of others. The key lies in making the right decisions about what to
compromise, when, and to what degree in order to achieve your goals.
Climbing is hard… so work harder.
I just realized that my idea of hard work might not be in
line with yours. Hard work doesn’t always mean sweating it out in the gym. More
often, hard work means: eating right, resting properly, adjusting your internal
dialogue about your performance, being aware of how your body is moving,
staying hydrated, making your training fit into your everyday life, and riding
the constant ebb and flow of psyche and performance.
Go forth and crush.
