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dellochef
Apr 2, 2007, 12:30 PM
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I boulder a lot and i hear more and more ofter of an excercise called 4x4. Does it mean doing 4 hard problems 4 times. Does not sound very sophisticated. Can anybody give me a more exact description.
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dharmatreez
Apr 2, 2007, 12:49 PM
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we have found here in the states that it is hard to convince a park ranger that a ball bat is for anything other than working over a boulderer, so we have switched to 4x4's to thump them. this gives us the option of telling the rangers that the 4x4 is for filling in the gaps below our pads for support between nasty landing zone rocks, but stills allows us to carry our "monkey sticks"
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rockjock160
Apr 2, 2007, 1:42 PM
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I think there are a lot of variations, but the way I have always done them is like this:
Pick 4 problems that you can do FAIRLY easy
(exp. if you climb v5/6, pick some v3's or 4's)
Do all four problems as quickly as you can while keeping an eye on the clock.
After finishing your first set, rest for as long as it took you to climb all four climbs.
Repeat 4 times (4x4)
Be carefull to not include problems that have a high propensity towards injury (mono's ect) as a fast climbing pace + exhaustion usually leads to sloppy climbing
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jto
Apr 2, 2007, 2:18 PM
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4x4 is a workout plan for anaerobic endurance (AE). I think it´s better to think it more through time and not boulderproblems done.
Anyway the idea is to do a set of boulders back to back and keep the set time between 2-3 minutes when stressing the strength end of the anaerobic endurance system or between 5-6 minutes when you want to train the endurance end more. I think the set volume can alter too around 4-6 sets.
Climb normally for redpoint simulation or slower than usual to simulate onsight climbing. Anyway don´t speed climb them. You wanna train your AE system, not speed. Rest as little as possible between boulders or even downclimb an easy route to the start of the following boulder.
The rest between sets are usually kept as the same as the set length. So if your set takes you 3½ minutes to do you rest 3½ minutes. It´s better to make the grades harder when you progress rather than making the sets longer or add them. I think some creativeness could be done in that area too. You could add sets or cut rest a bit just to make a certain grade feel easy before progressing on them.
An example progression in four workouts (1½ - 2 weeks):
1. 4 x 3 minutes @ V4 / 3 minute pauses
2. 5 x 3 minutes @ V4 / 3 minute pauses
3. 5 x 3 minutes @ V4 / 2½ minute pauses
4. 6 x 3 minutes @ V4 / 2½ minute pauses
then make the boulders harder and start from the workout one again. of course stabilizing a certain AE grade could take you much more or much less but this is just an example.
I put only one grade up there to make thing easier to read but of course the boulders can be of different difficulties like a set of V4, V5, V3, V4 instead of just 4 x V4. this has a lot to do with why you want to train your AE system. for a certain route or for general AE. the hold types are very important here too.
HTH
cheers.
(This post was edited by jto on Apr 2, 2007, 2:24 PM)
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dellochef
Apr 2, 2007, 3:02 PM
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thnks for your answers. I just spent a day outside and realized that my endurance lacks quite a lot after all the bouldering. I will achive with prolonged traverses in the gym.
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overlord
Apr 2, 2007, 4:54 PM
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well 4x4 is a power-endurance (local anaerobic endurance, to use the correct term) excerise.
in its basic form, it means doing 4 boulder probs about 2 v grades below your max level in a quick succesion, then having about 3-5min rest, then repeat. you can offcourse modify the difficulty of the probs, like doing 2 easy ones, one 2v grades lower and on 1 grade lower or at the limit.
'doing' doesnt mean 'sending' in this excercise. the goal is to climb. if you fall before the halfway point of a prob, start it again (but only once), if you fall just before the end, move to the next one. you can also have the spoter help you a bit so you dont fall off if you dont have to. remember, the goal isnt really sending all 4 probs (you should be ALMOST or BARELY able to do it), the goal is to get a really good pump. and i mean a good pump. i usually scream in pain after the last set.
if you do mostly bouldering, this excercise will help you with your onsight capabilities as youll have more time to figure out the sequence before pumping out, but it wont really help you with redpointing. on the other hand, it is a cruical excercise for a sport climber.
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sidepull
Apr 2, 2007, 5:00 PM
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Usually when JTO posts it's good stuff - that's the case here, follow his advice.
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