Structuring your boulder sessions

This is how I structure my bouldering sessions. There are some principles, applied flexibly. My book on training for climbing: www.davemacleod.com/shop/9out...
My Patreon: / davemacleod

[@patostars88]

Dave: the first thing yo do is have a quality good sleep Me: 3: 30

[@juanandresquintero2535]

same D:

[@ejl74]

Can I please come live with you? I will cook all your meals. All jokes aside I love your videos.

[@xalingding]

This video couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, I just finished my board last week and found route setting is much harder than it looks especially when you have to make all the holds out of a block of wood but this definitely helped inspire me!!

[@steelmacecontinuum8696]

Video about rings training would be awesome!

[@DunkelBrauer]

You are so right. I think you cannot underestimate the factor of having fun. I was taking the total wrong approach to defining problems for years and ended up not using my wall. My "fixed" idea was to first set inspiring hard projects and then being motivated to work on them. But the problems were either way too hard or way too easy. Only recently it finally clicked in my head that for me the other way around is better. Just making up on-the-fly fun problems without any intensions except for having a quick fun session. But some of those problems sometimes turn out to be so inspiring that they become long-time projects. So for me not intending to define those "perfect" projects finally did the job of getting variety and fun and - inspiring projects.

[@Ilbriccodellorsosat]

Thank you Dave. Perfect timing for this video. Great and very well explained content as usual.

[@herbert5727]

We need more climbing youtubers like Dave! Great content!

[@apoorvpro]

I see Dave's video, I open it and first I hit like. Then I watch, and then I watch again, and then some more. Such great content!

[@chillpurr275]

Great video, thank you. Sitting here at 4am watching your video I feel you with the circadian rhythm part. Lack of sleep is one of my worst enemies. Even though we don't agree on diet, you are still one of my all-time all-round climbing heroes. Since I don't have a personal climbing wall, I started to enjoy bouldering on my office table, this can be fun as well for everybody that does not own a climbing wall. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@robmellor3378]

I really am starting to like this guy. I've been watchin his stuff quite regularly for just over a year now & he really does speak sense! It's inspirational too, like he's said on other videos if you really are going to commit to climbing harder then making bigger changes (eg moving house, building a wall, etc etc) are realistic options. Until he said (something similar to) that I just ruled it all out but now I'm working towards it. What's life for if not for realising potential & working towards dreams.

[@theopinson3851]

Awesome! Super timely and helpful.

[@quarantineclimber5316]

Yes Dave! Another great vid. Definitely agree with setting hard problems to really push yourself (and be inspired). My strength has improved for sure since putting up my beam problems and having countless sessions of struggling and getting shut down, which is part of the fun :) Still need more (quality) sleep though...

[@juanbenjumeda3989]

man those one arm pulllups on those crimps and those exercises on rings impressed me a lot!!! i didn't know you were that strong!!!

[@lawsong6663]

Dudes climbed 9a and 8C

[@yevgeniymelguy2771]

Dave, you have a lot of videos on training and how you structure your sessions, but I would be curious to hear what your rest days look like - please make a video on this if you can find the time. Cheers!

[@adrienescaravage509]

Hi just wanted to say that you are really inspiring, you really make me want to climb right now. Personally I just put a lot of hand built/found wooden holds on the ceiling of my garage so I have a hard time having a variety of different problems. But whatever really enjoyed your vid good luck

[@dmm4133]

I just want to thank you Dave. Those videos and your personality are just so motivating. I don't know why but even if we never talked or never met, i feel like you're my friend and i feel you so close to me. I love you Dave!

[@dmm4133]

@Jonathan Krzesniak you can love someone like a wife, like a parent or like a friend. But yeah i probably didn't express what i wanted in the best way.

[@ontheballcity71]

Thanks for this I should get the plywood next week, then I can climb again!

[@vixeno]

Please, do a video or a series on nutrition. Im starting to follow Eric Horst guidelines from is book and online videos. It would be great to see what you different and/or similar and the whys. Thanks for another great video.

[@DreadedHol]

Fab points… I find that it‘s so easy to get too engrossed in what I‘m trying to achieve that I actually forget to enjoy it… and probably don‘t get enough recovery time either. That‘s where I use training plans. They‘re not to make sure that I‘m training enough, but more to make sure that I‘m resting enough!

[@LukeRockCimber]

Psyched, watching this at 1am and Dave just starts going in about sleeping and putting the screen away... Dave, I know your right but I feel so attacked right now..

[@zolbly]

Thanks again Dave, as always very useful advice. Having a board is powerful I am using mine so far to rehab my finger injury, it's going well so far.

[@helmickproductions9605]

What are your favorite hold sets you have on your board?

[@Schyluer]

Hey Dave! Just became a subscriber. Love how easily you explain things. In your book do you talk about nutrition?

[@Colin_Barnes]

legend

[@sbxphil]

Hi Dave, thank you, as a route/trad climber who is trying to spend a bit more time training via bouldering this is incredibly helpful. A question, what are your thoughts on systems boards (in my gym, a tension board) for those without much of a bouldering background? What appeals to me is not having to worry about problems being reset, and that the movement patterns are a bit more similar to outdoor problems. However, as more of an entry level boulderer, I don't know if my time would be better spent elsewhere. Would love to hear your thoughts, cheers.

[@fabiopalma4429]

If I didn't watch this video (which I discovered before bed), I wouldn't know I shouldn't watch videos before bed in the first place 😅

[@Sanitoeter666]

Hey Dave! my problem seems to be the opposite of what say in the beginning. I am overly motivated and tend to go beyond my body's ability to regenerate, especially my joints and tendons. Are there any ways to harden your tendons and joints so that they can keep up with my training load?

[@ThinkingThomasNotions]

Let me preface my questions by emphasizing that I absolutely concur with essentiality of sleep. So said, here are my two queries Often I have found the following circumstance: I show up to the gym and feel sufficiently tired that wonder about whether postponement might be advisable, yet then end up having very productive session. What do you think might be happening here? Secondly, my schedule is nigh nocturnal in character, and really has been my entire life. Do you have any thoughts on the tensions between "morning" and "evening" schedules, or, to put it more colloquially between "night owls" and "larks"? Many thanks for all of your grand videos, and your conversational style of presentation!

[@edwardoakley8659]

What's the track at the start?

[@dvdsct]

Liked it a priori

[@DavidSamuelOwens]

Did Dave just say that he doesn't plan / record his training days?! 17:43

[@teaclimbing]

When you set your board do you set a spray and then find problems in the chaos or do you just set loads of overlapping but independent boulder problems? I'm guessing it's the second?

[@driklol]

A while back he made a video where he actually took all the holds down and reset them, I believe he covered his setting strategy during that video but I cant remember 100%. Either way that was a fun one to watch.

[@cameronmaclean4014]

He sets problems and circuits round the outside of the board

[@LucasWildTheeWildBoy]

Dave, what are the dimensions of your wall? I know your wall is 45 degrees but how wide and how far from the ground (Not pad) is the top of your wall?

[@stefan-hartmann]

Would also interest me :)

[@martinfinnie9567]

Hi Dave, You mentioned in one of your videos that 3 years after starting climbing you could climb Font 7C and 8a on bolts. These are pretty good grades today, never mind back in the day! You've mentioned in blogs how hang boarding and diet really helped you achieve the top grades but what do you think were the key factors that enabled you to progress pretty quickly early in your climbing career?

[@davidpleydell3522]

Pretty sure he's said this elsewhere... Dumbarton rock.

[@tpstrat14]

I love climbing a lot, but slacklining is a deeper more pure love for me. I just love getting on the line and challenging myself day in and day out. It's as simple as that. I could make a video about the so-called structure of my sessions and you might think oh ok THAT is how you get good at it. Nope. It's just the way I did it by simply loving it. So I like that Dave finishes the video with simply "I go bouldering and try to enjoy myself". Amen. Find your own path like Dave did! Love for the sport is the only way to do it!

[@longb1913]

can u summarise it in the descriptoin or something

[@simplyaverage6025]

Hey Dave, I really enjoy your videos but I wonder if you experimented with a blue light filter like f.lux for working late infront of a display. Without thinking about it to much it seems like a really easy solution, but things are normally not easy so i would love to know your opinion on it.

[@climbermacleod]

I've used f.lux for many years but these days I tend to just use blue blocker glasses in the evening to block out all blue light. Its subjective but I feel like I see a marked improvement in sleep quality and feeling of restedness the next morning when I use the blue blockers.

[@theclinician3786]

Hi Dave, amazing content as always. May I politely ask...if your project route has 3 cruxes all very different to each other (say a dyno move, a pinch grip move and a shouldery Gaston move) would you replicate all 3 moves in one session on the board? Or would you dedicate a whole session to pinch grip moves, a whole session to Gaston moves etc? Be really interesting to hear your views

[@climbermacleod]

I'm not sure there would be any benefit to separating them, except if the models were so hard that you couldn't have quality tries on each.

[@theclinician3786]

Dave MacLeod Thank you and thanks for all the work you put into our sport. Hugely appreciated

[@GabrielCharette]

Hey Dave, do you still structure sessions on your board when outdoor is available daily? Or is climbing outdoors as much as possible still best? I'm wondering whether I should keep indoor training now that outdoors is reopening here (and I live 15 minutes from the cliff). And if so, how to structure that to allow plenty of climbing and plenty of rest? Thanks, love your content, currently reading Make or Break, good stuff!

[@climbermacleod]

It depends what you are optimising for. I climb primarily because I like rock and mountains. So if the weather is good I go climbing. For sure if I go trad onsighting or endurance sport climbing all summer, I will get weaker. So you can balance this with powerful bouldering and/or some basic strength work indoors depending on your climbing goals. It does not take much work to maintain strength on the hangboard, campus board, body strength exercises while you go outside and train technique, tactics and endurance. The details of how you schedule this depends on what you want to climb. I have 26 years experience of a lot of climbing on rock, so I can 'get away' with a bit more time away from rock before technical performance really suffers. But for sure my first task as soon as lockdown is released is to get out and sharpen my technique with lots of movement on rock.

[@GabrielCharette]

@@climbermacleod makes sense, I'm in it for fun on the rock too. Assuming I did want to maintain/improve strength too while climbing on the rock multiple days per week. Would I hangboard same days or off days, before or after? If I understand correctly you want to be fresh when hangboarding so it's a trade-off between being fresh for the training or fresh for the rock since you also want full rest days rather than spreading it thin across all days?

[@Goofygreyhoundgoober]

I often find myself surprised at how strong I feel the day after a bad sleep, which is odd for me, as I am a person that generally requires a lot of sleep. When you say the training the next day is hopeless, is it because you feel weak, or unable to tap into the real try hard?

[@gordonneverdies]

That was true for me too until I reached 30. Now not so much. Lol

[@Smellyhobo10101]

I've heard that is due to stress hormones.

[@dsmeier6270]

Dave, would love to hear about your diet. And any thoughts on running to lose weight/keep weight down during Covid lockdown?

[@climbermacleod]

Will do this soon. Assuming a normal heathy body fat percentage, it should not be necessary to run to prevent weight gain. It is worth addressing what could be disrupting normal appetite regulation. If weight loss is needed, exercise is a poor method on its own - as soon as you stop, changes are reversed. It is useful as an adjunct to a diet protocol that allows you to maintain a healthy body fat percentage while eating plenty of good quality food.

[@Schyluer]

@@climbermacleod Super looking forward to this. Hope to also hear about diet in relation to improving strength to weight ratio and minimizing your body fat while increasing strength at same weight. I find this really tricky, how to get stronger without putting on needless muscle.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

@@Schyluer Eat more meat fish and eggs. Period.

[@ramiblackwell7558]

Another great video, thanks Dave. I've got supplies arriving to build my own board this week, unfortunately due to space constraints it has to be a slab/very minimally angled traverse (8ft high by 12ft wide). Do you have any suggestions for how to train higher intensity/max power on a slab board? Thanks again, love your videos.

[@dasK1nd]

tiny footholds. You can buy 5-10mm hardwood, cut it to pieces and make screw-on footholds out of it.

[@ramiblackwell7558]

@@dasK1nd Does this help mainly because of the increased demand on the fingers/shoulders/arms?

[@ramiblackwell7558]

@@krakenattackin7617 Got it, thanks!

[@dasK1nd]

@@ramiblackwell7558 you automatically have more weight on your fingers with decreasingly smaller footholds. So intensity goes up. However replacing truely powerful moves is hard, as the type of movement is limited on slab.

[@thebusko]

Your videos are a sweet treat! Also, if I may critique (only to do things right and prevent injury), the exercise you were doing on the rings, skin the cat, remember when you're coming down backwards to turn the rings out. Anyways... bye!

[@michaelmacdonald170]

Dave, it would be interesting if you could debunk some dogma around appetite and exercise. What is "normal"? How much of a factor is self control? Satiety after exercise and food choices.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

Meat, fish and eggs provide full satiety and full nutrition for full regeneration.

[@edmunek]

good choice of a car :) S-Max Vignale :) Maybe one day I will upgrade mine one to the bigger one (problem is.. I don't really need it as I don't have a big family with which I would be travelling so it may take some time until the personal situation will create the need to have this car :D )

[@climbermacleod]

As soon as I can afford it I'll be getting an electric car. The S-max is great though.

[@clementclement9559]

I miss your videos ! You look more relaxed than usual, what are you eating 🧐 ?

[@juanbenjumeda3989]

5:43 God no tablecloth...

[@bucktoothable]

I always climb better when I fast. I will have a decent-sized meal the night before and let that fuel me.

[@gezzapk]

Less weight makes sense

[@SirCharcoal]

"Without good sleep, training will make you worse". Bollocks! I don't think Jerry was getting good sleep when he was freezing his arse off in the wood shack in Sheffield. But he was getting stronger. Maybe for someone already near their genetic max this is true, but not in normal cases. You won't get worse, you just won't get better as quickly.

[@terraflow__bryanburdo4547]

Sounds like you have it all figured out lad. Why not go do Rhapsody on a few hours/night and show us how it's done?

[@gezzapk]

@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 he’s right. You won’t get better from not training and sleeping a lot then training a lot and sleeping poorly. He could’ve said that it will only make your performance much slower.