Rock Climbing Training - The Training Journal
Learn to Improve Athletic Performance by Keeping a Written Record
Feb 11, 2009
Keeping a training journal might seem like an onerous task, particularly for those who don’t like writing. However, a training journal doesn’t require much writing, and it can help improve climbing performance. By keeping track of goals, climbing workouts, competition/outdoor climbing results, and a person’s general state of being every day, the training journal can become an indispensable resource in creating and maintaining a smart climbing training program.
Recording Goals in a Training Journal
As explained in Rock Climbing Training - Training the Mind, setting goals encourages rock climbers and all athletes to work harder toward realizing improvements in sports performance. Writing down goals (short, medium, and long-term) makes them more concrete, and this is the first function of the training journal. These goals give the climber (or athlete) specific and tangible objectives to aim for. They can also serve as motivation when a workout feels tough.
Keeping Track of Climbing Workouts
Use the training journal to record every detail of every climbing workout. This might sound like a lot of writing, but it doesn’t have to be. A simple list of routes climbed at the gym (or boulder problems), along with any supplemental training (weightlifting, pull-ups, campus board workouts, stretching, etc.) should suffice. Try to write down how much total time is spent working out. Record rest days, too.
Recording Competition/Outdoor Rock Climbing Results
Whether a climber is training to improve athletic performance in climbing competitions, or simply to improve climbing performance on the rocks outside (or even in the indoor gym), the training journal is the perfect place to track progress. Write down what was accomplished and compare it to what the goals were for the day. If they are quite disparate, try to determine whether the goals were unrealistic or the performance was sub-par.
Over time, recording the results of sports performance days can help a person discern whether his or her training efforts to improve at climbing are working, or if adjustments need to be made. Keeping results in a training journal can also enable a person to adjust his or her goals as needed, in the event that the goals set are either too easy or too difficult.
Ranking the Day in the Training Journal
Give each day a ranking from 0 to 5 (0 being so sick that a person can’t get out of bed, and 5 being that incredible feeling of tiptop athletic performance). This makes it possible to see trends in the body’s natural rhythms as well as alerting the climber or athlete to more alarming trends. These include several weeks of days ranking below 3 or 2; in such instances, it’s likely that overtraining is occurring.
Too often, rock climbers and other athletes who are training hard interpret declines in athletic performance as indicators that they’re not doing enough. In fact, such declines often mean quite the contrary: that they’re doing too much and not resting enough. The training journal ranking can assist the climber in recognizing when more rest is the key to improving climbing, instead of training harder for climbing.
The Training Journal: An Essential Component of Training for Climbing
Keeping a training journal for climbing is simple and doesn’t involve much writing. It’s even possible to use an online fitness journal service such as FitDay to keep a training journal. After setting goals, the climber simply records basic details about climbing workouts, climbing competitions/outdoor performance, and his or her daily state of being. The rock climber can then review the journal to observe how training for climbing is going and what changes might be in order.
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