'UNDER RESTING'

The theories and methodology of resting to obtain the maximum returns from your climbing.

Any armchair climbers out there will be comforted to hear that resting strategies are as important as training methods when it comes to improving your climbing performance and staying clear of injury. Back in the early '80's when a small and dedicated group of leading British climbers were forced to subscribe their own training methods, the idea of taking a rest day would have been about as popular as missing a dole check. The 'guinea pig' generation' became misguided into believing that the only way to get good was to climb for all hours that God gave and of course, they were right, up until the breaking point. It was this era that wrongly led exercises such as deadhanging and Bachar laddering to be tagged as dangerous. Yet the reason these methods caused serious injury to top climbers like Moffat and Pollit is because they were being used to provide a change from climbing, based on the assumption that this would be as good as a rest.

The problem faced by all serious contemporary athletes is the threat of 'under resting'. This is the term used by coaches as a substitute to what used to be called 'over training'. The latter term lost it's popularity because it had the tendency to act as a deterrent from hard training. The idea, according to Wilf Paish, the Chief coach for the British Olympic athletics team, is to train as hard as is humanly possible but only if this is offset by sufficient periods for recovery and regeneration.

SUPERCOMPENSATION

The underlying physiology is simple. The healthy, desirable stresses induced by overload from intensive training or climbing shock the local muscles and connective tissue into a traumatised state of temporary regression. Our body's natural adapttive reaction is to respond to this by preparing itself to cope with similar stresses so that next time it can do a better job. It does this by means of muscular hypertrophy (growth) and adaptations of the neuromuscular pathways (the link between muscles and the nerves which fire them) as well as a whole host of complex processes which enhance the efficiency of the specific energy systems required for that type of training. So next time you climb you will be stronger, fitter, faster - better. This process of adaptation is known as Supercompensation.

OVER-REACHING

Clearly if we climb hard again before the point of full supercompensation, we will cut short the recovery process and thus we can not hope to reap the full potential benefits of the previous training session. If we climb again at the exact point when we have recovered to our previous pre-training capability level then we will experience neither gains nor losses and hence the previous session merely serves to have maintenaned performance. However if we climb again before we have recovered to our previous pre-training capability then we will actually experience losses and reduced performance. If we continue to do this over time in our eagerness to succeed then the reward at the end of the line will be injury.

The other side of the coin comes when, through cautiousness or laziness, we rest for too long. and our performance again starts to decline. Clearly the answer to making our improvement curve as straight and steep as possible is to time our climbing workouts as close to the point of peak supercompensation as we can. The process of achieving this and hence optimising your performance is known as over-reaching. The crucial question is how do we know when we've reached this fine and arbitrary line?

THE RECOVERY INSTINCT

Unfortunately there are no easy answers here. Despite all the technology and research that is poured into sport today, there is still no means of quantifying the exact point at which an athlete has recovered. Your ability to determine this yourself can only be learnt through experience and an understanding of the background physiological concepts. Top climbers speak of a 'feel' or 'sixth sense' derived from years of being perceptive to their bodies training and resting requirements. Yet there is still more to it than this. The type and quality of your rest and the nature of the training are all vital determinants of the number and duration of your rest units and these will be examined in detail next issue.

THE UNDER RESTING SYNDROME

The problem with under resting and it's associated pitfalls is that they often come at a point when the climber or athlete is 'on a role'. You've been training hard and climbing well so the last thing you want to do is ease off and let things slip. But then you find yourself plateauing and in your frustration you only train harder to attempt to compensate. Now your performance is actually starting to regress and before long, the remaining symptoms start to set in: you are prone to illness, you feel lethargic, irritable, and finally - depression and even insomnia are common. It sounds a far cry from the fun and fair play image of our sport. But climbing does have a nasty habit of possessing people and 'trainaholics' are by no means a new breed.

The important thing if you are finding it hard to rest adequately is to use a simple psychological trick and focus on the fact that it is during the recovery process that the physiological improvements are made and not the actual training. Go easy on yourself. Eat quality food, drink plenty of non diuretic fluids, sleep well and take time out to relax. All these factors will improve the quality of your rest and thus reduce the time it takes for you to recover. This will not only help you avoid the under resting syndrome but it will enable you to train as frequently as possible and maximise your performance as a result.