Nice nice! Feels good to be vaxxed up. I’ve been heading to the gym at off hours myself but can only do that very rarely.

Guess I better at least log the first two days

AM Apartment gym
3x Flat DB bench 18,10,9x45’s
2x Cable flys 14,10x30
1x Tricep push ups 11xBW

PM Climbing gym
3x cable upright rows 20,12,8x40
2x DB side raises 15,14x10’s
3x leg press 11,10,7x180

45min bouldering. Flashed two new V4-V6. I’d rate one a V1+ and the other a V4. Sent a third of the color grade that’d I’d call a V5 after a handful of attempts.

Climbing for me right now is simply a good mental break. I’m not trying to improve just enjoying it and breaking a sweat.

W1D3

Overhand pull ups and 11,9,6xBW (~3 RIR)
Band supported 1 arm pull up to non supported negative 2x1xPurple
Underhand chins 10xBW (~3RIR)
L sit holds 3x10sec
DB calf raises 25,21,17 x25’s

W1D3 rest

W1D4

Underhand chins (3 RIR) 13,9,8 xBW+10
Band supported one armer to unsupported negative to one armer 2x1xPurple
Overhand chins (3 RIR) 8xBW
1/2 lever hold 3x8sec
DB RDLs 12,9x25’s
Single leg calf raises 2x10x25

W1D6

AM- Apartment gym (2-3 RIR)
3x High incline DB bench 14,8,7x40’s
2x cable flys 16,10x30
1x Tricep push-ups 11xBW

PM- Climbing gym
3x cable upright rows 25,18,15x40
2x DB side raises 18,14x10’s
2x Leg Press 18,10x180

30min bouldering. Sent four additional V4-V6 in the gym. Can do 11/17 of the current set. Really happy with one, super crimpy and went first go today after struggling on it a few previous sessions.

Psyched to see that you are back climbing!

How difficult are the 1 arm negatives for you and what do you think your 2 handed pull-up max would be?

Have you sent the purple holds orange tag under the middle of whale yet?

While I still have my Summit membership I’ve only been 2x since last March. I’ve been going to Oso since I can lift and climb. I will say I miss the summit crew. Great atmosphere and people. I really don’t like the feel of Oso tbh. Some of that is the masks I bet, which I’m 100% on board with but really kills the community/social aspect of gym climbing.

So perfectly fresh I can conservatively do the lowering portion of a one armer for
10+ seconds. Prevailing wisdom would be to add weight to get them closer to a controlled fall. However I’m usually doing them as my 2nd or 3rd exercise which gets me much closer to the preferred speed. If you’ve seen any new way of thinking on this from the science driven folks please let me know as I’m still thinking about this in ways I read about early last year.

I would guess my underhand chin max is closing in on BW+100. I’ve stayed away from overhand weighted chins as they contribute greatly to elbow tendonitis but I did test to start 2021 and I smoked BW+75 and stopped there as I’m limited by the amount of weight I have at home.

This is the year to do a one armer. If it doesn’t happen now it’s never happening.

From my limited understanding, it looks like your progression is on the right track. Negatives and assisted one armers seem to be the suggested route. It sounds like you are not too far away from doing one. Maybe 6-12 months?

A month back I did BW+80 for a 2RM at a BW of 155. I cannot hold a lock off at 90 degrees for more than a few seconds. I also cannot do a one arm negative without assistance. What do you make of that? My guess it is probably scapular weakness as opposed to pulling strength?

I was in the same boat last year, few things seemed to really help me. I basically went from struggling to hold a lock off to shocking myself at my current state.

First of all whether or not they’re correlated I’m sure is up for debate but finally fixing my elbow tendonitis did wonders for me on lock offs. Idk if you have any lingering non muscular issues (scapula like you mentioned) but for those of us who aren’t blessed in these movements I bet fixing that cannot hurt.

Secondly I’ve increased my focus on chest hypertrophy (and thus strength) which I think has a non obvious but definite positive impact on the ability to do both lock offs and negatives. If you really focus on the relationship between your chest and lat area I found that can help you stick the position.

Finally I’ve done a much better job with progressive overload and deloads to allow for adaptation. Sounds simple enough but giving your body time to recover and adapt may be be all you need to do the movements once. I bet once you actually get the positions down without assistance you will be shocked at how fast you can improve.

W2D1

Overhand chins (2 RIR) 12,8,6 xBW
Band supported one armer to unsupported negative 3x1xPurple
Underhand chins 11xBW
L-sit holds 3x10sec
DB RDLs 17,11,9 x25’s

W2D2

AM
Apartment gym (2 RIR)
3x Flat DB bench 17,9,8x45’s
3x Cable flys 17,8,8x30
2x Tricep push-ups 12,7xBW
PM
Climbing gym
3x cable upright rows 30,16,9x40
3x DB side raises 20,14,10x10’s
3x leg press 18,10,8x180

Bouldering 1 hour

Flashed a V6-V8 I’d call it a V3. This new gym typically doesn’t set softly but this one was ezpz (although I saw a lot of people struggle but their beta sucked).

Sent another V6-V8 really crimpy on a 30ish degree overhang. Had planned on projecting this one a bit but it went first really try today after a few falls last session. I’d call it a rock solid gym V5.

Flashed a new V4-V6 and fell on a few other V6-V8’s. Climbing is improving just by getting a little more fit and going more than 1x a week. Nowhere near early 2020 form but it’s nice to see improvement each session.

Thanks for typing up the solid advice! In your opinion, what sort of chest strength is needed so that it is not a limiting factor? I could likely do a set of 5 on dips with BW+30 attached. No idea if that is sufficient. I definitely feel my chest working when I do lock offs and negatives.

I actually managed a 4-5s negative with my right arm this week. I still need a decent bit of assistance with my left. It just isn't nearly as strong as right since I hurt it last year. I'm doing a decent bit of scapular work, so hopefully that gets ironed out over time.

Lmao you sandbagging sonofabitch, 5sec negative is slower than a controlled fall already. Other arm could be the injury, or for me it was proprioception as my stronger arm was worse at negatives and lock offs until I felt the right position.

Re:chest strength. I can’t do dips due to shoulder issues but that does not seem like a stellar 5rm tbh. Also could depend on form as dips can vary wildly from person to person. Either way at a 5sec negative you’re in an incredible spot and much further along than you portrayed last time. How are you going to program going forward? That’s the hard part to me is what to do after you can do a controlled eccentric.

W2D3
Underhand chins 10,6,6 xBW+35 ~2RIR
Band one armer to negative 3x1xPurple
Underhand chins 8xBW
Frog levers 3x12sec
Single leg calf raises 2x11x25

I had been using the jug on my hangboard to do them since I have more space there and a pulley setup. I decided to try them on my doorway pull-up bar and it made huge difference. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to matter when I do 2H pull-ups using a jug or a pull-up bar.

Right now, one day a week I am doing 3x5 wide grip pull-ups and the other I am doing 5x3 one arm negatives. I also doing a few sets of 2H scapular shrugs and one arm engaged isometrics once a week. I'm not really sure how to progress into a one arm though. I assume I'd need to get to around BW+70% on my 2H pull along with the one arm training?

Pull strength is not a huge priority in my training this off-season, though. It isn't a limiting factor for the grades I'm climbing. Granted, it would be super cool to be able to do a one arm by the time I am 40 (3 years). I am just not quite ready for it to take away from more climbing specific work. At least, not yet.

W2D4 Rest

Yes this was a revelation I had as well. I was doing mine on a ring and when I went to a pull up bar, boom instant lock off and controlled negative.

Your volume is very low but of course your training priorities are different than mine. You’re trying to be the best climber you can be, I’m focusing on how I look at the pool and what cool party tricks I can do.

I would think about how you can get more volume in while not hampering recovery. This might just be where isometrics make a lot more sense. You can train specific positions without the extra damage from taking the muscles/joints/tendons through a fuller range of motion. Likely less systemically fatiguing as well when conducted at the proper intensity/RPE ranges.

W2D5

Overhand chins (2 RIR) 11,7,7xBW
Weighted one arm negatives 3x1xBW+10
Underhand chins (2 RIR) 12xBW
L-sit holds 3x12sec
DB RDLs 19,12,8x25’s
Single leg calf raises 14,9x25

W2D6

AM
Apartment gym (2 RIR)
3x incline DBs 19,9,9x40’s
3x cable flys 19,9,9x30
2x triceps push-ups 11,8xBW
PM
Climbing gym
3x cable upright rows 25,14,11x55
3x DB side raises 22,14,10x10’s
3x leg press 20,11,10x180

30min bouldering. Super low energy, probably should have just called it after the gym session.

Good to see you back.

Do you recommend weighted chins/pull-ups? I sporadically do them, but I'm not very good (I think my 1 RM for pull-up is + 20 kgs). I tend to do unweighted for max reps more frequently, but I'm at 20 reps for pull-ups now, and I'm not sure it is transferable to bouldering or not.

W2D7 Rest

Thanks man!

I would recommend weighted chins for the following:

Back hypertrophy
Pulling strength

If those are two or your goals then you are easily at a level of unweighted chin ups where you could start slowly adding weight.

As far as it improving your bouldering, I don’t think it’s necessary at all. From your past videos I’d keep working on the drills from Catalyst and really dial in your footwork and body positioning. Couple this with some hangboarding and you’ll get a much higher ROI than weighted chins.

W3D1

Underhand chins (1 RIR) 15,9,7xBW+10
Band one armer to unsupported negative 4x1xPurple
Overhand chins (1 RIR) 8xBW
1/2 lever hold 3x9sec
DB RDLs 20,10,10x25’s
Single leg calf raises 16/16,9/9 x25

W3D2

AM
Apartment gym (1 RIR)
3x flat DB bench 19,10,8x45’s
3x cable flys 22,14,11x30
3x tricep push-ups 11,6,5xBW
PM
Climbing gym (0-1 RIR)
3x cable upright rows 21,12,9x60
3x DB side raises 17,15,14x10’s

Bouldering 45min another meh session

3x leg press 21,10,8x180

W3D3

Overhand chins (1 RIR) 11,9,7xBW
Band one armer to unsupported negative 4x1xPurple
Underhand chins (1 RIR) 10xBW
1/2 lever holds 3x9sec

Completely revamped my overhand chins this mesocycle. Lowered my reps a ton but much better mind muscle connection and accompanying pump/soreness. Happy with the outcome on these.

What are your thoughts on the best assistance exercises for the OAC/OAP? Most of the progressions I see online mostly use eccentrics or assistance OACs. It seems like hammer curls would be useful?

I can see why hammer curls would come to mind but I really don’t know if they’re a more useful exercise than the tried and true methods or assisted and eccentrics/isometrics. Everything has a trade off, adding in hammer curls means less volume in other movements. Is it a net positive to add them in while possibly putting other exercises on the back burner for a cycle or two?

Couple questions come to mind:

Can you load them heavily enough to make a difference?
Is the portion of a OAC you struggle with what the hammer curl trains?

Let’s use an example of a powerlifter trying to improve their bench press. If their sticking point is the last 20% of the range of motion they probably should do heavy triceps work. If their sticking point is getting the bar off their chest then you’d wonder why they’re programming heavy triceps work vs maybe something like paused bench.

However, unlike heavy triceps work how can you load hammer curls at a high enough intensity? Why not train the top 50% of the OAC with assistance instead?

For me, it’s pretty easy to tell the bottom 25% of the range of motion is where I’m weakest on the one armer. I don’t see hammer curls helping me individually.

W3D3 off

W3D4

Schedule required I break these into two mini sessions

AM (1 RIR)
Underhand chins 11,9,7xBW+35
Band supported one armer to unsupported negative 4x1xPurple
Overhand chins 10xBW

PM
1/2 lever holds 3x9sec
DB RDLs 22,14,9x25’s
Single leg calf raises 14,9,9x25