You should easily be able to maintain your cardiovascular gains on 2 days per week.

Strength maintenance should require one day a week of maximal training.

do you have references for these

No, I just made it up, of course.

This is apparently what has been determined in studies of both aerobic and anaerobic training over the years. You can ask my prior professors of ex phys and strength training about specific study references, but I figure they did their legwork appropriately.

fresh,


Strength maintenance should require one day a week of maximal training.

Could you give us an example of what this one training day might look like without charging a hundred dollars?

When a 17 year old asks you for references, you give them, that's the rulz.

BTW, can you recommend any pre climb stretches to warm up with?

Could you give us an example of what this one training day might look like without charging a hundred dollars?

= Maintenance

i mean, can ronnie coleman maintain his mass with one workout per week? seems like when you get that huge it might take more.

OK, so I do want to stay in shape for the low-level alpine climbs that I want to do, so I might start getting up early again. But I'm interested to hear if anyone's had any similar experiences. Does it pay off to work out only, say, twice a week? Are rest days (i.e. do-nothing days) normally this beneficial?

I said to maintain strength, not mass. There's a difference, and it's about maintaining the same level of neural recruitment.

it all depends on how you define "training". a lot of strong climbers dont 'train' in the sense that you see it. clmbing at your max level (like 12a onsight for you) can be more effective then doing x number of sit-ups or deadhangs. a lot of climbers have a system set up that includes a period of muscular, aerobic, and aneorobic training (power workouts, circuits, laps on routes, four by fours, etc etc) followed by a period of max level performance (trying to redpoint or onsight your hardest). the training prepares you for improvement, but the period of max level climbing builds up your syke and pushes your body in newer, harder ways, allowing even more improvement. to me it seems like you're following this system - if not purposefully - and it probably explains your sudden improvements.

my advice to you is to do training cycles of 2-4 months, depending on what you have time for, and then when you feel you reach your peak do max level climbing until you feel like youre plateauing. then after that, 1-3 weeks of rest, depending on how worked you are, then time to start the cycle again!

hEdited to add: the key to reducing one's aerobic training yet still maintain the same levels of fitness, you must only reduce either FREQUENCY or DURATION by 1/3 to 2/3 and you must keep your intensity absolutely the same as before, plus keep the other variable the same as well. Ergo:

Intensity (same) + Frequency (same) + Duration (less) OR

Intensity (same) + Frequency (less) + Duration (same)

= Maintenance
(I also remember hearing that you can decrease both Freq and Dur by up to 2/3 simul and still not suffer losses, so, that may in fact be the actual case.)

BUT

Intensity (less) + Frequency (same) + Duration (same)

= Decreases in fitness

Likewise, resistance training requires MAXIMAL effort of all muscle groups to maintain existing strength on one day per week.