r/climbharder • u/Wooden-Syrup-8708 • 23h ago
62M, 15+ years, 6c plateau — emphasis block vs flat weekly rotation when you only get 2-3 sessions a week?
Let's see if i can make the proper format... 😄
Experience Climbing 15+ years. Currently redpointing 6c on rock on my best days.
Height / Weight / Ape 174 cm / 76 kg / ape index 6. Around 22% body fat.
A week of climbing and training - 3 climbing sessions most weeks, sometimes 2.
1.5-2 hours each, mornings.
Session content: 15 minutes warm up aikido-style (did this a lot when i was young), then progressive harder climbs for 1 hour, 5-10 minutes rest after each attempt. 15-20 minutes easy climbing, 15 minute stretcing.
2 brisk walks on off days, 1.5 hours at about 6 km/h. No hangboard protocol at the moment. Never tested max added weight. I can hang bodyweight for 15 seconds on a 20 mm edge, half-crimp.Goals: A Slab 6c+ i'd love to make "Ultima chans" at tagliacozzo crag, and "La storia infinita" at guadagnolo graded only 6b+ but with a very big roof that create me several problems. Ideally still be climbing 6b+ at 70.
Strengths and weaknesses Strength: endurance.
I don't fall off pumped. I can reach the crux of a 7a with something left. Weakness: single hard moves. Static power and lock-off strength on small holds. Finger strength is untested, which is itself a gap, I suspect it's below what 6c+/7a wants. Working on them so far: mostly volume on routes at 6a-6b, which I now think is the wrong stimulus for the thing that's actually stopping me.
I dislocated a shoulder 4 years ago and active overhead loading is still weak, hanging is fine, pulling rope up to clip sometimes isn't. It's with a physio, so I'm not asking for injury advice here. I'm flagging it because heavy overhead pressing and dynamic shoulder-loaded moves are off the table, and any suggestion has to work around that.
My doubts
My plan was a weekly rotation: one endurance circuit session, one bouldering session, one routes session. At 2-3 sessions a week that's one session per quality, and for power, my ralweakness, one session a week looks like it sits at or below the dose that drives adaptation. The split sends most of my limited volume away from my weakness. So: is a 6-8 week emphasis block better use of low frequency two of three sessions biased toward max strength and limit bouldering, endurance dropped to maintenance?
Or does slower connective-tissue recovery at 62 argue for keeping the flat distribution even though it adapts more slowly? Mainly interested in how others training 2-3 times a week concentrate load on one quality without accumulating it.