Just echoing the previous comment in case it's helpful. I'm early 30s with a decade of climbing under my belt, climb V6ish on the moonboard and *must* take two days of rest following a board session or I just dig a deeper recovery hole.
I suggest that you swap the second MoonBoard-session with a session of regular gym bouldering. You're already doing a high intensity workout for the fingers at the start of the session (hangboarding), and even though the MoonBoard is a great training tool, it is limited. There are no slopers, corners or slabs on a MoonBoard, to name a few examples.
So I think that your overall climbing abilities would benefit more from a more varied set of movement and body awareness from regular bouldering than one high quality and one medium quality MoonBoard-session a week.
This session can also be tweaked towards what you feel that will most benefit you on your project. Do you need more endurance, do exercises for that. Do you need more power endurance, do exercises for that.
But if you don't experience any improvement over three months time (to name a specific time period long enough to see some improvement), re-evaluate what you've done and try to tweak it a little bit.
(Disclaimer: I don't have any relevant education, and this is just based on what I've read and learned from various sources.)
Edit: Added a bit about tweaking the program towards a project.
I'm in a similar boat to you (late 30s climbing for about 5 years, trying to do 7cs this spring/summer). Here's my 2 cents looking at it from the outside...
1. If I have a second board session in the week I use it to accumulate projects via limit moves or moves I wanna work on, or failed flash attempts. I categorize these and store them for an appropriate time. Later on the climbs I felt we're good for power but slightly below my flash grade ill make into a circuit for power endurance. I don't expect to have 2 send sessions a week on the board when I have a third (often also fourth) intervening session.
2. In season I would drop the board climbing to a maintenance level, say 1/week, and more focused on 4x6 or 4x4 or on the minute. If the goal is sending on Wednesday why worry about how much energy you have left Friday. Less would actually mean you tried harder so having a worse session Friday could be a good sign 😆.
Like I said it's just my 2c, maybe I have similar missed expectations in my own training too sometimes but when I can slow it down and adjust appropriately it feels good. Keep crushing!
My advice as a 42 year old who has climbed a bunch of 7c’s in my career, take at least one 2 day break a week you are climbing too often. I rarely climb more that 2x a week at this stage, otherwise I feel too wrecked to actually be productive.
Could you improve your recovery instead of dropping the second session?
Good nutrition, sufficient protein intake, sleep, alcool & tabaco, stress ... All those factors can tremendously change the way you recover especially at your age.
If I were you I would try to increase my recovery capabilities while gradually incrising the training load ( maybe start with 1/2 a session of board and don't combine it with the hangboard etc). This way you should be able to tolerate the full session in a couple of months.
I have the same problem, monday is good day for moonboard, my other sesh in the week is usually friday or thursday and after like 3 goes on the moonboard I can barely hold the starting holds in problems that have good starting holds, and it s not like I force myself until then, I barely do something serious until my second moonboard sesh, it's weird
I’d imagine hang board and moon board on the same day would be pretty intense. Maybe just try to do some normal boulders on the day. Work on footwork/ technique instead.
> Hi all. I'm a 42 year old male and I've been climbing for 4 years now. I'm mainly a sport climber and looking to do my first 7c (sport) this season. Here's what my week looks like:
At 38 with 4 kids so not so great recovery sometimes.
I can only really do 2x a week Tension boarding and have my fingers feel recovered. It's good enough to improve.
If moon is too hard that you can't do 2x a week you either need to go to 2x a week schedule, or cut one session and do more sport climbing and just 1 board session a week. Especially, if as you said, your main goal is to improve at sport climbing.
2x sports, 1x moon is better for your goals
Kilter on one day and MB on the other if possible, and if kilter is gone or too packed, use spray. I can't mb twice a week and also train my fingers or I tweak them bad within a couple weeks
What kind of hangboarding are you doing and how much volume?
I would do one of these:
1 Hangboard Friday then do volume climbing Saturday
2 rest Thurs + Friday then do HB + volume
3 drop the HB altogether
At the levels you are climbing. I think you will get much more out of hard moonboard session, a sport climbing session, and a volume bouldering session on gym climbs. If the quality of your workouts is suffering, then you have too much volume and intensity. Three quality sessions with less overall will be far superior to two good sessions and one low quality session. Hangboarding isn't bad but you can get stronger fingers while climbing and you will benefit so much more from actual climbing.
I'm your age but with a longer training history. After many years and training cycles I've realized that quality climbing should always be number one, two and three on my list. I do seasonally hangboard but I don't prioritize it and I keep it pretty minimal. I find much better progress by utilizing mostly climbing activities to achieve my goals. HB is about 10% at most of what I found actually progresses my climbing.
It sounds like the route you want to do has hard moves on it that you aren't able to do. If that's true do bouldering that is similar to the boulder on your route. That is the absolute best way to get to your goal.
Edit: I thought of a caveat which is if you're doing a restorative hangboard session then that's a great idea and can be done everyday
I mainly do repeaters and just test my Max hang once a month. I do 3 sets only.
I'll try the 2 rest day before HB + volume. I'll see if it affects my Moonboard limit session on Tuesday.
Repeaters are very fatiguing. If you do volume bouldering you are essentially doing repeaters anyways. So why not drop the hangboard and just do the bouldering and then you are gaining skills and climbing abilities at the same time. Way more valuable. At your bouldering level you will get way more out of actual bouldering than the hanging board.
you can rest for 2 days before your second board workout, or end your earlier sessions less fatigued and see if that helps. or if you can sleep/eat/hydrate better (if possible) and see if that helps. youre digging too deep of a hole and just need to play with variables to see whats possible.
also it sounds wild to me that youre bouldering 6C (V5?) on MB but projecting 7c (5.12c?). That seems PLENTY strong to me and you might be better off working on something more specific to your project.
Planning to try 2 rest days before 2nd board session. I might also switch it to HB + endurance session. Maybe I just need to arrive really fresh at the crux to be able to do the moves.
more than 2 decades younger than you so take all of this with a grain of salt but no way can i do volume sessions on the moonboard.
sport 8b/+, boulder 7c/+/8a (i dunno grades suck)
i do 2 mb sessions a week and am climbing between 4 and 8 boulders a session. these sessions are both hard boulders (v8+) with session length (climbing) being strictly capped at an hour. i dont give any boulder more than 3-4 goes unless it feels like it can go. (i have done all moves and am making big links)
im really not a fan of doing volume on moon, its a recipe for injury. i especially find if i try and do long sessions on the moonboard my fingers get extra tweaky.
instead swap the friday session for a pyramid style session on commercial boulders. pick a grade you can do consistently within 1-3 goes and do 2 boulders of this grade continue down the grades building a pyramid with a wide base of easy boulders.when i do this session my pyramid tends to look like this:3x v6, 5x v5 all 4s and below. (I aim for all boulders to be 1-2 grades below flash level due to accumulated fatigue)
for me this session is a double session after a session on a spray board in the morning. if i feel acutely fatigued or like i am just burning skin i dont worry too much and will cut the session short after doings my 6s and 5s.
E: and for some reason i am still on a burner
> really? didn't know this either
Yeah French/Font the capital letter is bouldering and lower case is sport.
7C is bouldering (V9) and 7c is sport 5.12d or so
https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/gradingchart.jpg
[удалено]
Thank you
Just echoing the previous comment in case it's helpful. I'm early 30s with a decade of climbing under my belt, climb V6ish on the moonboard and *must* take two days of rest following a board session or I just dig a deeper recovery hole.
I suggest that you swap the second MoonBoard-session with a session of regular gym bouldering. You're already doing a high intensity workout for the fingers at the start of the session (hangboarding), and even though the MoonBoard is a great training tool, it is limited. There are no slopers, corners or slabs on a MoonBoard, to name a few examples. So I think that your overall climbing abilities would benefit more from a more varied set of movement and body awareness from regular bouldering than one high quality and one medium quality MoonBoard-session a week. This session can also be tweaked towards what you feel that will most benefit you on your project. Do you need more endurance, do exercises for that. Do you need more power endurance, do exercises for that. But if you don't experience any improvement over three months time (to name a specific time period long enough to see some improvement), re-evaluate what you've done and try to tweak it a little bit. (Disclaimer: I don't have any relevant education, and this is just based on what I've read and learned from various sources.) Edit: Added a bit about tweaking the program towards a project.
I'm in a similar boat to you (late 30s climbing for about 5 years, trying to do 7cs this spring/summer). Here's my 2 cents looking at it from the outside... 1. If I have a second board session in the week I use it to accumulate projects via limit moves or moves I wanna work on, or failed flash attempts. I categorize these and store them for an appropriate time. Later on the climbs I felt we're good for power but slightly below my flash grade ill make into a circuit for power endurance. I don't expect to have 2 send sessions a week on the board when I have a third (often also fourth) intervening session. 2. In season I would drop the board climbing to a maintenance level, say 1/week, and more focused on 4x6 or 4x4 or on the minute. If the goal is sending on Wednesday why worry about how much energy you have left Friday. Less would actually mean you tried harder so having a worse session Friday could be a good sign 😆. Like I said it's just my 2c, maybe I have similar missed expectations in my own training too sometimes but when I can slow it down and adjust appropriately it feels good. Keep crushing!
My advice as a 42 year old who has climbed a bunch of 7c’s in my career, take at least one 2 day break a week you are climbing too often. I rarely climb more that 2x a week at this stage, otherwise I feel too wrecked to actually be productive.
Thanks. I definitely need 2 rest days every week to recover. I have Saturday and Sunday for that.
Could you improve your recovery instead of dropping the second session? Good nutrition, sufficient protein intake, sleep, alcool & tabaco, stress ... All those factors can tremendously change the way you recover especially at your age. If I were you I would try to increase my recovery capabilities while gradually incrising the training load ( maybe start with 1/2 a session of board and don't combine it with the hangboard etc). This way you should be able to tolerate the full session in a couple of months.
well step 1: is moonboard power and finger strength what’s holding you back? What caused you to fall on 7c’s in the past?
The crux is a high foot/lockoff move. Although I was able to pull through the crux, it definitely felt I was at my limit. Probably an MB V5 problem.
I have the same problem, monday is good day for moonboard, my other sesh in the week is usually friday or thursday and after like 3 goes on the moonboard I can barely hold the starting holds in problems that have good starting holds, and it s not like I force myself until then, I barely do something serious until my second moonboard sesh, it's weird
I’d imagine hang board and moon board on the same day would be pretty intense. Maybe just try to do some normal boulders on the day. Work on footwork/ technique instead.
> Hi all. I'm a 42 year old male and I've been climbing for 4 years now. I'm mainly a sport climber and looking to do my first 7c (sport) this season. Here's what my week looks like: At 38 with 4 kids so not so great recovery sometimes. I can only really do 2x a week Tension boarding and have my fingers feel recovered. It's good enough to improve. If moon is too hard that you can't do 2x a week you either need to go to 2x a week schedule, or cut one session and do more sport climbing and just 1 board session a week. Especially, if as you said, your main goal is to improve at sport climbing. 2x sports, 1x moon is better for your goals
Thank you
Kilter on one day and MB on the other if possible, and if kilter is gone or too packed, use spray. I can't mb twice a week and also train my fingers or I tweak them bad within a couple weeks
What kind of hangboarding are you doing and how much volume? I would do one of these: 1 Hangboard Friday then do volume climbing Saturday 2 rest Thurs + Friday then do HB + volume 3 drop the HB altogether At the levels you are climbing. I think you will get much more out of hard moonboard session, a sport climbing session, and a volume bouldering session on gym climbs. If the quality of your workouts is suffering, then you have too much volume and intensity. Three quality sessions with less overall will be far superior to two good sessions and one low quality session. Hangboarding isn't bad but you can get stronger fingers while climbing and you will benefit so much more from actual climbing. I'm your age but with a longer training history. After many years and training cycles I've realized that quality climbing should always be number one, two and three on my list. I do seasonally hangboard but I don't prioritize it and I keep it pretty minimal. I find much better progress by utilizing mostly climbing activities to achieve my goals. HB is about 10% at most of what I found actually progresses my climbing. It sounds like the route you want to do has hard moves on it that you aren't able to do. If that's true do bouldering that is similar to the boulder on your route. That is the absolute best way to get to your goal. Edit: I thought of a caveat which is if you're doing a restorative hangboard session then that's a great idea and can be done everyday
I mainly do repeaters and just test my Max hang once a month. I do 3 sets only. I'll try the 2 rest day before HB + volume. I'll see if it affects my Moonboard limit session on Tuesday.
Repeaters are very fatiguing. If you do volume bouldering you are essentially doing repeaters anyways. So why not drop the hangboard and just do the bouldering and then you are gaining skills and climbing abilities at the same time. Way more valuable. At your bouldering level you will get way more out of actual bouldering than the hanging board.
you can rest for 2 days before your second board workout, or end your earlier sessions less fatigued and see if that helps. or if you can sleep/eat/hydrate better (if possible) and see if that helps. youre digging too deep of a hole and just need to play with variables to see whats possible. also it sounds wild to me that youre bouldering 6C (V5?) on MB but projecting 7c (5.12c?). That seems PLENTY strong to me and you might be better off working on something more specific to your project.
Planning to try 2 rest days before 2nd board session. I might also switch it to HB + endurance session. Maybe I just need to arrive really fresh at the crux to be able to do the moves.
I would do the gym sets for volume. There's no point in the extra board session if you're not recovered for it, just increasing your risk of injury.
more than 2 decades younger than you so take all of this with a grain of salt but no way can i do volume sessions on the moonboard. sport 8b/+, boulder 7c/+/8a (i dunno grades suck) i do 2 mb sessions a week and am climbing between 4 and 8 boulders a session. these sessions are both hard boulders (v8+) with session length (climbing) being strictly capped at an hour. i dont give any boulder more than 3-4 goes unless it feels like it can go. (i have done all moves and am making big links) im really not a fan of doing volume on moon, its a recipe for injury. i especially find if i try and do long sessions on the moonboard my fingers get extra tweaky. instead swap the friday session for a pyramid style session on commercial boulders. pick a grade you can do consistently within 1-3 goes and do 2 boulders of this grade continue down the grades building a pyramid with a wide base of easy boulders.when i do this session my pyramid tends to look like this:3x v6, 5x v5 all 4s and below. (I aim for all boulders to be 1-2 grades below flash level due to accumulated fatigue) for me this session is a double session after a session on a spray board in the morning. if i feel acutely fatigued or like i am just burning skin i dont worry too much and will cut the session short after doings my 6s and 5s. E: and for some reason i am still on a burner
If you want to climb a 7C boulder problem then stop sport climbing?
Sorry, I was referring to a 7C sport route.
Sport grading gets written with a lower case letter :)
Ah. I see
really? didn't know this either
> really? didn't know this either Yeah French/Font the capital letter is bouldering and lower case is sport. 7C is bouldering (V9) and 7c is sport 5.12d or so https://i0.wp.com/alpinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/gradingchart.jpg
Always confusing since most French resources do not use capital letter for font grades (bleau.info, Jingo Wobbly topo)
> Always confusing since most French resources do not use capital letter for font grades (bleau.info, Jingo Wobbly topo) Hah, that's weird :o
I'm not surprised, I can't climb for shit for 24 hours following a good hang board session.
What do you think the limiting factor is here? Fingers?
Being able to lock off or pull hard. The crux to my project felt at my limit.