This is a repost from Brian Weaver’s blog, fullpsycheahead.wordpress.com, about his process of getting back into shape post knee surgery.

This article proves what dedication to training hard, eating really well, and getting enough sleep can do for you as an athlete and climber.

As Brian tells it:
“I’ve been going through a long process of rehab after a knee surgery last year and in the process I’ve gotten married, gone on honeymoon (gained 10% body weight) and decided that it was enough. So first of January, I started training… Hard.
Normally, I’m a 5.14- climber and I’ve never thought of myself as particularly strong or talented. Most of my progress comes from hours of hard work, usually alone in my room on my boards.
 
Over the last month I bouldered 5 times indoors, did 27 hangboard sessions, 16 gym session and realized a new level of focus. I’ve taken 3 rest days and I’ve lost all the weight I put on in one month with the help of a dietician and my training program….
 
Out of all of this, I created a training log which has some pretty cool ideas for training exercises.”
Brian’s training program is super impressive. Read the article in full below, and be sure to check out his training log. Thanks, Brian!

Enter Brian….

The Return of the Masochist: Full Psyche Ahead

Today is the 1st of February. When I started writing this post about a month ago, I thought that it was going to be a bit funny at first. I had some photos of myself that are a bit embarrassing for me. I’m still feeling the effects of my knee surgery so things are still a bit harder than usual but I’ve spent the last month pushing myself harder than I ever have in the past, I have trained 27 of the last 31 days; of the 27 days I trained twice a day for 20 of those!

I’ve also been seeing a dietician and have been going to bed early so that I can get up for my early morning hangboard session every morning. So what was it that actually brought about this radical change in my attitude and behavior? What brought about this month of pure masochism?

It was the time I spent overseas and then the month of December which certainly didn’t help. Before our trip, I was really good about not eating too much, even in Germany I didn’t gain weight. Unfortunately for me, we went to Austria and there were 6 course meals every night, massive buffets for lunch and for breakfast, plus I couldn’t exercise so it was all a big problem.

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Yeah, no comment. 76 kgs

 

When we got back I didn’t think too much about the matter, I wasn’t training yet so wasn’t worried. The worries started towards the end of November and the middle of December when I started trying to do a bit of training again.

At that stage I’d picked up a few kgs but it didn’t quite stop there… At my worst I was 76kgs, up from my normal 69. That’s a 10% increase in just a few weeks as I was 70 when I left for Germany.

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Two weeks in

As a New Year resolution thing, I decided to take on some serious training. I also decided to focus on my nutrition because all the training in the world won’t help if you eat crappy food. Drinking lots of wine doesn’t help either so I’m definitely going to take it easy on that too, even though we have some one the Cape’s best one the rack!

I’ve been focusing on eating every hour or two. For breakfast around 6:45 I’ll frequently have two pieces of fruit before training. Immediately after training a 50g serving of Future Life High Protein, or muesli with yogurt and cottage cheese. I’ll train till around 8:15 / 8:45 depending on the intensity of my session. Then at 11:30 a carrot or an apple. Around 1 o’clock I’ll have a meal: a serving of protein, a cup of steamed veggies and 1/3 a cup of rice, or 3 Provita crackers.

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Good breakfast!

During the afternoon I’ll munch on another 2 carrots, apples, plums or whatever I have available. Somewhere in the mix will be a handful of almonds and cashews. By 5 or 6 o’clock I’m usually at the gym. 7:30 I cook dinner. Usually I’ll steam veggies and either chicken or fish, sometimes a pork fillet, and 2/3 a cup of rice or sweet potatoes.

Yep, that’s a pretty typical day for me.

I came across an article on climbhealthy.com indicating that in a study conducted in the USA, it was determined that athletes recovered 26% more effectively during the night if they ingested protein 30 minutes before bed time. So sometimes I’ll have a protein shake right before bed if I’m worried I’ll be really stiff the next morning.

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Healthy lunch time meal

10 January:

I started writing this about a week into my mixed gym and hangboarding sessions. My hangboard sessions are in the morning, usually before work, so they have to be quite short. Kris Hampton has