If you are looking to improve your route climbing, then building endurance should be one of your top priorities.  One of the best ways to do this is through capacity work like ARC training.  Doing long duration intervals will help your forearms adapt to holding on for extended periods of time.  This will help you be able to keep climbing longer without getting pumped.  However, the key to effective ARC training is progressively increasing the load so that you are giving your forearms the the stimuli they need to adapt.

To help you plan your ARC training so your aren’t just endlessly traversing for no reason, here’s an article by Spanish training guru Eva López in which she outlines exactly how to schedule ARC training into your overall program as well as how to progressively increase the intensity as your fitness improves.  This is a very in depth article that will give you a solid idea how to effectively add a capacity training element into your program.

“After looking at the methodology in the previous post, I would like to end this series about Training Capacity (also known as ARC) by presenting some examples of load progression: a) from a microcycle or week to the next (in the same mesocycle) and b) from a mesocycle to the next (between consecutive groups of weeks) or from a macrocycle to the next (groups of mesocycles, spanning several months).” – Eva López

ARC Training Periodization:

As with all types of training, how you fit them into your overall training program is extremely important for maximizing their effectiveness.  ARC training is no exception.  If done incorrectly, ARCing will simply add up to a bunch of wasted laps.  However, if you program your capacity training correctly, you can expect to see some serious endurance gains.

To help you do so, here are the periodization topics Eva covers in this article:

• How many days per week you should train capacity
• The place of capacity training in a session
• Where to include capacity in a macrocycle
• How long should you train your capacity for?

ARC Training Load Progression:

It is important to note that Eva does not give you exact workouts to follow.  The reason for this is that it is really important that you customize the training load to your individual ability level.  What Eva does do is give you a frame work of exactly how to progressively increase the load as you move through a training cycle.  Here are her general load progression guidelines:

• Set the total volume you want to reach.
• Choose a set duration that is “manageable” (interval method) or that you will climb in one go (continuous method).
• During the first 2 to 3 weeks of the mesocycle, start with a reduced volume and then increase the number of sets until you reach the volume you established in point 1; the 3rd or 4th week will be for recovery, halving the number of sets.

Click through below to read more about how to effectively incorporate ARC training into your overall training program.  As with all her articles, Eva is very detailed in explaining the science and methodology behind her ideas.  If you are a route climber looking to improve your endurance this article and the rest of her articles on capacity training are a great place to start.

Full Article: Periodization and Load Progression for ARC Training

(photo by Javipec; courtesy of en-eva-lopez.blogspot.com)

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