Mountain Climbing

"Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2"

 

Mountain Climbing

by Vir



The climb begins with a simple, innocent step
Fair weather and ample company make the early days enjoyable
Words "fun" and "participation" float whimsically through the air at base camp
Your pack is light and the pace is brisk in those early days
You feel progressively stronger every time you lift your foot;
 
But in the days to come a few friends will drop off
They have decided mountain climbing is not for them
After all, they see other kids frolicking in the meadow below
They are having more fun
The days are starting to become a bit more boring and monotonous;
 
The remaining climbers reach the next camp barely out of breath
All are having a great time
A few stragglers from earlier expeditions make for a jovial camp
Together you sit around the crackling fire and tell stories until the early hours of tomorrow;
 
Morning breaks and the once light-hearted mood has now been replaced by a harsh reality
Feeling their heavier packs several say, "I'll rest here another day or two . . . but I'll catch up later”
"Okay," you reply back naively, not realizing this is your parting exchange;

The terrain has become more rocky now
And dark clouds loom ominously on the horizon
"Better get out that jacket," you think to yourself, it looks like rain
Not long after that a soft but subtle rain begins falling across your face;
 
You race to set up your tent at the next camp, never realizing more climbers have dropped off
This night will be your toughest yet
Whipping winds and pounding rains punish your Gore-Tex home 
No one ever told you the climb would be this difficult;
 
The sun fails to rise high in the sky the next morning
Only more wind and rain
Several climbers are attempting to wait out the storm inside their tents
Others are already retiring down the mountain
Not you
You shoulder the heavier pack and zip your jacket clear up to your neck;
 

The higher elevation has begun turning rain to snow and the drifts are getting deeper and deeper 

With each step your legs grow more tired
Leaning on your trekking poles is just as much a physiological crutch as it is a physical one
Your arrival at the next camp fails to solicit a boisterous response
The grizzled veterans there share only subtle nods of the head and solemn handshakes
"Welcome, brother" they say;
 
The next morning you rally your strength for an assault on summit camp
A few other climbers agree to make the push with you
But make no mistake, this is an individual journey
You alone will determine the success or failure of this expedition;
 
Battling worsening conditions you continue to put one foot in front of the other
Nonetheless you periodically doubt yourself
Only on the rarest occasions do you exhibit a cat-like quickness 
Nonetheless, these bursts of energy are few and far between
This is a slow slog, nothing more;
 
Just when you think all hope is lost you see the faint outline of a small campsite up ahead
However, there are no fires, food supplies, or posh amenities at this stop
Only a spartan way of life
All that is missing now is the boiled pig's blood;
 

Huddled in a small tent you tell the other climbers that you plan to summit at daybreak

"You're crazy...quit, you've had a great run," they exclaim in unison
But surrender is not an option, not when you know others have conquered the peak
More importantly, this climb has come to define you as person, both mentally and physically
At first light you are already a few steps into your final ascent
You alone are responsible for reaching the summit.

What Are You Training For?

People who see me lifting at the gym or running on the track often ask, "What are you training for?"  Setting aside their poor English for a moment, I usually just shrug my shoulders and casually respond, “nothing special.”  However, this response is not all-in-all accurate.

The simple truth is I train to test my soul, venturing inward to see if I am willing to accept that day’s challenge.  “Can I add one more kilo to this or that particular lift?”  “Can I shave a few tenths of a second off this or that repeat?”  Irrespective of my day-to-day results, this test, this internal challenge, this search for perfection is what keeps me coming back for more.  I must accept and battle that challenge each and every workout.

Now, I realize most people can’t handle this answer, especially at six in the morning, and the unfortunate reality is that we are all living in a society that is growing ever softer by the day, both mentally and physically.  Nonetheless, select communities give me reason to hope, and I am striving to embody the change I want to see in this world, nothing more, nothing less.

The road to improvement is obstructed by the mightiest of gauntlets so keep testing yourself, folks.  Don't get slow.

 



Leave a Rep

Kirk Karwoski is a powerlifting legend whose highlight reel of competition lifts includes squatting 1,000 pounds, yes, you read that correctly, 1,000 pounds, for a double, yes, you read that correctly, too, a double.  What's even more impressive about Karwoski's feat – not that it needed to be any more impressive – is that he walked it out, squatted it to a depth where his hip crease was below his knee, and walked it back in.  No monolift, "at parallel" here folks, just brutal absolute strength.  I mention this accomplishment only to serve as a backdrop for those readers who have never heard of "Captain Kirk."

In keeping with the interviews of other great athletes, Karwoski's discussion below with Mark Rippetoe is filled with little gems, tiny tidbits of advice that can help a lifter at almost any level. One gem, in particular, has stuck with me for the last several weeks: "leave a rep."  Like all good advice, it is simple to say but difficult to practice.  Nonetheless, I have found it an incredibly helpful concept to remember when squatting.  Some days, most often on Mondays and Fridays, I come to the gym fresh off a rest day and ready to eat nails.  Sets of five across in the back squat be damned, it's game time.  Conversely, on Wednesdays, I come to the gym a little tired from Tuesday's double and not looking forward to my three sets of five.

Irrespective of these day-to-day feelings, a linear progression-based program is difficult to execute, primarily because the small adds continually require the athlete to be a little stronger than they were the previous workout.  The compounding interest that simply defeats you.  However, by sticking to the rep scheme and resisting the urge to go for  a final set of six, seven, eight, nine, or even ten reps on the final set of five, you buy yourself some much needed insurance, either for those days when are feeling your best or for those final workouts before the deload.

Squatting and deadlifting are incredibly powerful training tools, but their impact on the central nervous system must be respected. Whether squatting to a daily maximum or pursuing a linear progression scheme, do yourself a favor and leave a rep (or in the former case, routinely stop before the squats start becoming a grind).

 

 

Grab your pencil and notebook, class, school is in session. 

The Five-Rep Max

I wrote this poem on my commute home last night.  Hopefully, it motivates someone out there for PR Friday.

"The Five-Rep Max"

By Vir

You stand before the squat rack as if it were St. Peter, himself

The difference matters not, for a true five-rep max might bring you just as close to death

Buried beneath the squat rack, a noble death indeed

But not today

Today you will bounce out of the hole like Peter Cotton Tail on steroids

Today you will set a new PR

Chalk up your hands and take a deep breath, here we go

Tighten your grip on the bar and watch the chalk fall to the floor like a fresh winter snow

The calm before the storm

Retract your shoulder blades to build the shelf, Atlas would be proud

Elbows down, back tight

Three steps back, always three steps

Drive your knees out and descend to rock bottom, as if there is any other way to truly squat

Is there any other way to truly live?

Reverse direction so fast you wonder if you hit bottom

Forget that you still have four more

Let's go, deep breath, fill the belly

The next rep is smooth, but the third rep is exponentially harder

Come on, keep your head in it, one more!

The fourth rep is slower still but eventually your hips come through

One more. No one cares about your four-rep max

Fill the belly one last time and descend a bit faster, hoping the extra speed will carry you

Just past parallel you meet your nemesis -- the sticking point

Hello, old friend, care to dance?

Drive through that sucker with an unbridled fury, release your air in a primal growl

Most people don't know this side of you, but never feel more alive than you do right now

Sit down and relish the opportunity to write two simple letters in your training log "PR"

Cool down and bask in your fifteen minutes of fame

Turn out the lights

See you again next Friday, five-rep max plus two kilos.

 

Straight salt.

Book Review I: Speed Trap by Charlie Francis

Dismissing Francis' training methodology simply because his athletes used

PEDs would be a mistake.



Book Review I: "Speed Trap" by Charlie Francis

No need to put lipstick on a pig here, Francis' book Speed Trap is exceptional, a "must read" for serious coaches and athletes, alike.  While the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) features prominently throughout the book, Francis leaves no stone unturned when it comes to explaining the evolution of his coaching philosophy.  The following topics are covered in great detail: the respective differences between muscular fatigue and central nervous system fatigue, periodization, speed development, and taper schedules.  Many of Francis' ideas dovetail my own, specifically his rationale for limiting a sprinter's "traditional" endurance work.

Aside from the more technical points laid later in this blog post, a few subtleties within Francis' coaching philosophy jumped out at me:

(1) He would do anything if he thought it would allow his athletes to perform better -- and I don't mean simply providing them with PEDs.  He listened to their personal problems, bought them groceries, gave them money to pay rent or travel expenses, and he learned how to expertly massage his own athletes. This last skill was of particular importance, because it allowed Francis to learn how his athletes were responding to training, most importantly the high-intensity speed work.

(2) He never closed the door to any athlete who was willing to put in the work.  Ben Johnson wasn't the most talented teenager on his team, but Francis stuck with him and Johnson ultimately went on to set multiple world records.

(3) He brought on the best assistants, and he did not micro-manage them.  In doing so, he showed them a level of trust not commonly seen amongst coaches at the highest level, and he was subsequently rewarded with their loyalty and best efforts.

(4) He sought advice from the best in his business.  At one point, a conversation with the East German track coach led Francis to abandon his five-day taper schedule and instead adopt his peer's ten-day variation.  This is but one example of how Francis incorporated newer ideas into his training program. Others can be found in all segments of the book.

Now for the more technical discussion:

(1) Differentiating between muscular fatigue and central nervous system fatigue:

"In [the view of Gerard Mach], the muscles were affected by both high- and low-intensity training, but they also bounced back quickly, within 24 hours. The central nervous system, by contrast, was affected primarily by high-intensity work (maximum or near-maximum-speed sprinting or heavy weightlifting), but it also required more time to recover, a full 48 hours." (Pg. 49).

(2) Programming a "double periodization," meaning two different segments of competition: a winter indoor season and a summer outdoor season:

"Within each segment there were three phases: a preparatory phase, a main work phase, and a competition phase, each of which emphasized different training components and varied the proportion of work to rest. Without periodization, an athlete works at the same level year-round and inevitably grows stale, since he will stop improving after six to eight weeks at a given task." (Pg. 51). 

(3) Balancing speed work with volume:

"When I realized my runners were fatigued by our volume of speed work, I cut back from the year before -- from three times to twice a week, with a weekly total of 1,500 meters, a little less than a mile." (Pg. 61).

(4) Implementing weekly "special endurance" runs:

"To further reduce the stress on my sprinters' central nervous systems, I shifted some of their speed volume from short sprints to weekly 'special endurance' runs, from 150 to 300 meters. I conducted all speed work at 100 percent of my runners' capacity -- and since my runners always had adequate recovery periods between workouts [Francis prescribed speed work only every other workout], their capacity was consistently high. My theory was simple: Sprinters needed to train at race pace, both to imprint the higher speeds on their muscle memory and to acclimatize their muscles and tendons to the demand of racing. My athletes would run only two special endurance segments once a week and would rest up to a half-hour between the two, but I asked them to go absolutely all out every step of the way . . . I cared only about the quality of the runs. The quantity was almost irrelevant." (Pg. 62).

 (5) Adopting the East German 10-day Taper:

" . . . sprinters ran their last full-speed workout-outs 10 days before their meets -- an unheard-of gap in the West. There were more surprises. During the last maximum work-out, Hille's women sprinters performed about as much speed work as mine did, but at an even higher intensity -- in some cases at world-record paces. Hille's athletes would run four 30-metre starts, with seven-minute rests between them. They then took a 15-minute break, followed by an 80-metre sprint; then a 20-minute break and a 100-metre sprint; then a 25-minute break and a 120-metre sprint; finally, a 35-minute breaK and a 150-metre sprint. These were extraordinary rest periods -- my own sprinters had never paused longer than 15 minutes between speed runs at those distances, and most coaches allowed for rests of five minutes or less." (Pg. 107).

Bang. Bang.

PEDs or not, Linford Christie, the 100m Olympic champion from the '92 Barcelona Games, was straight yoked.  I mean . . . seriously?

 

I can still vividly remember my first year-round swim coach telling me at age ten "there is no substitute for yardage."  Gary was a great coach, as evidenced by his Crimson Aquatic Club produced several New Jersey state champions in the mid-90s, and he understood that while smart programming is important, athletes ultimately need to perform a certain amount of work to drive adaptation and reinforce proper technique.

Many weightlifters and their coaches also place a high emphasis on volume, especially for beginners – Nick  Horton, Glenn Pendlay, Caleb Ward, Jon North and Donny Shankle, just to name a few.  In the June 24, 2012 edition of "Weightlifting Talk," Shankle, North and Pendlay discuss this very concept in some detail.  Similarly, great powerlifters like Mark Bell, Brandon Lilly and Dave Tate often speak of "time under the bar" as a simple way of stressing the importance of volume.

 

As far as incorporating these ideas into my own programming, I have been performing a higher volume of snatches of late, with a lesser focus on cleans, jerks, and squats (that being said, I still perform these other three movements daily).  Most of this work has been done on relatively short rest intervals, anywhere from thirty to sixty seconds; rest intervals for clean and jerks are between seventy and ninety seconds.  Surprisingly enough, I have been consistently hitting lifts upwards of 90 percent, I have even made a few personal records following this approach.  The small 3- or 5-kilo jumps in snatches and cleans, respectively, have also helped me find a rhythm to these lifts.  Bang, bang – bar connects with my hips, feet slide out to the receiving position.  Bang, Bang.  Each lift the same, regardless of weight on the bar.  Bang, bang.  Don’t a wimp, perform a sufficient amount of volume.

 

Conversely, the problem I see most often with other lifters, especially those individuals coming from a Crossfit background, is that they take an attempt, make it/miss it, rest three minutes, take a ridiculous jump, miss it, rest three minutes, take another attempt, miss it, get upset . . . you get the point.  There is no rhythm to their lifts, and they’re simply chasing PRs, as opposed to developing consistency with a relatively high, i.e. 80-90, percent of their max. 

 

I’m still trying to figure out how, if at all, these same lessons might be applied to squats . . . stay tuned.

Don't Fall Into "The Power Trap"

It's old.  It's rusty.  It's no dice.

One of the mistakes I made recently in my own programming was incorporating the power variations, i.e. the power snatch and power clean (collectively referred to herein as "powers"), too frequently.  While powers do offer some advantages over the full lifts, a longer pull and easier recovery, they also have the potential to introduce bad habits into the full lifts, namely rolling onto the forefoot too early.  Powers mask this mistake by allowing the lifter to jump forward slightly with sub-maximal loads; however, the full lifts are far less forgiving and maximal loads require a greater degree of technical proficiency.   As I can attest, correcting these bad habits and regaining confidence in the bottom position, especially in the snatch, is frustrating.  Do not make this same mistake, I beg you.

In order to expedite these corrections, I am ditching the fancy programming concepts.  Snatch.  Clean and jerk.  Squats.  Pulls.  The meat and potatoes of weightlifting.   Percentages, you ask.  Ain't got time for percentages, baby.  Attitude Nation, Jon North, salute.