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In personal experience as a dedicated rock climber (traveling full time for half of the last 15 years), I can easily conclude that bursts of intense exercise ac

In personal experience as a dedicated rock climber (traveling full time for half of the last 15 years), I can easily conclude that bursts of intense exercise accomplish a lot more for health and fitness than prolonged, more gentle workouts. Intensity readily builds muscle mass and coordinates muscle fibers, while fostering feelings of clarity and joy. It’s just the easier pathway to “being fit.” Climbers train for intensity. One can easily convert high-intensity fitness to low-intensity but prolonged fitness. The other direction does not happen. High-intensity and short-burst fitness is more malleable, capable of becoming any type of fitness. Ie, a climber with bouldering fitness transitioning to sport climbing will take just 2-3 weeks to attain good results, while a sport climber transitioning to bouldering will take at least two months. Boulderers and sport climbers can instantly perform on multi-pitch routes, without a transitional period. The intensity gradient from intense/short to gentle/prolonged is bouldering -> sport climbing -> multi-pitch. However, I have never been at peak climbing fitness without daily walks. The assumption I have always held is that walking resolves problems (much like what sleep accomplishes for tissues, immune responses, emotions, memory, and cognition). You’re walking, blood is flowing, the whole body is coordinated, you’re breathing through your nose, you can think… it’s integrative. Humans are designed to walk.

nmca 4y ago
Isn't this just a different thing? Bouldering builds peak strength, not really intensity in the sense it's meant here? Max hangs do not translate to watts you can do for a minute on a bike, right?
- geraldwhen 4y ago
  Bouldering requires leg strength and max effort output over a minute timespan. Heel hooks, slab, arete, bat hangs are all going to tax your lower body, and a good boulderer can put themselves in hell for a limited timespan, as it’s required for many problems. Climbing is so much more than pull up and grip strength.
TheAlchemist 4y ago
This may work in climbing, but as far as I know, it doesn't really work in cycling or running. Yes, you should do a bit of high-intensity, but also ~80% of your training in those disciplines should be rather low intensity. Basically one does not work without the other.
- Fricken 4y ago
  A practice amongst Olympians across many disciplines is to spend the first year of their 4 year training cycle focused exclusively on building a foundation of strength.
- dkarl 4y ago
  > Basically one does not work without the other. This is true for high-level competition, but it's overly absolute for the rest of us. They both definitely work to some extent. I think for the general public, the balance of high and low intensity training has to take into account how much time people are willing to dedicate to it. A friend of mine and I backpack together, and we both dedicate much more time to exercise than the average person, but much less time than a dedicate amateur. Call it three hours per week on average. My friend does exclusively low-intensity endurance training, because he dislikes anything else, and I do mostly strength and high-intensity training, for the same reason. I think it's plausible that given the limited hours we're willing to put in, my high-intensity training prepares me better for long-duration, low-intensity activity. The data we have about endurance training comes from studies and dedicated athletes. A lot of people fall into the middle ground: not sedentary, and willing to put in more time than a study participant, but also not putting in 10+ hours of training per week like a competitive endurance athlete.
saiya-jin 4y ago
> One can easily convert high-intensity fitness to low-intensity but prolonged fitness. This ain't truth even though I get where you are coming from. Otherwise ie best sprinters would be automatically best ultra marathon runners. Guess what - they are not even trying to compete there, its just different sport, their bodies are simply not accustomed by training for that and they would be pretty bad at it. Climbing, however good sport that is (apart from people dying from time to time mostly due to human errors but not only), ain't the best indication of this - if you are an elite climber, you don't go out and do ie 10-hour continuous hard scramble/easy climb. No, you focus on those hard routes, ie on project for a week or month. Yes you have decent endurance on those easy climbs but that comes from overall fitness that top climbers simply must have
fransje26 4y ago
Maybe the walks had the same contribution to your fitness as light "recovery training" days have? Where the low intensity effort actively helps your body & muscles to recover from a previous training in a more efficient way than a training-free day would?
fingerlocks 4y ago
Going to have to disagree. I’ve bailed from a few Yosemite big walls because a partner lacked the endurance to climb 16-20 hours straight. These were 5.13 sport climbers that were too bonked to jumar the rope. Nope, you can’t run a climbing marathon unless you train for it.

nmca 4y ago

Isn't this just a different thing? Bouldering builds peak strength, not really intensity in the sense it's meant here? Max hangs do not translate to watts you can do for a minute on a bike, right?

geraldwhen 4y ago
Bouldering requires leg strength and max effort output over a minute timespan. Heel hooks, slab, arete, bat hangs are all going to tax your lower body, and a good boulderer can put themselves in hell for a limited timespan, as it’s required for many problems. Climbing is so much more than pull up and grip strength.

TheAlchemist 4y ago

This may work in climbing, but as far as I know, it doesn't really work in cycling or running. Yes, you should do a bit of high-intensity, but also ~80% of your training in those disciplines should be rather low intensity. Basically one does not work without the other.

Fricken 4y ago
A practice amongst Olympians across many disciplines is to spend the first year of their 4 year training cycle focused exclusively on building a foundation of strength.
dkarl 4y ago
> Basically one does not work without the other. This is true for high-level competition, but it's overly absolute for the rest of us. They both definitely work to some extent. I think for the general public, the balance of high and low intensity training has to take into account how much time people are willing to dedicate to it. A friend of mine and I backpack together, and we both dedicate much more time to exercise than the average person, but much less time than a dedicate amateur. Call it three hours per week on average. My friend does exclusively low-intensity endurance training, because he dislikes anything else, and I do mostly strength and high-intensity training, for the same reason. I think it's plausible that given the limited hours we're willing to put in, my high-intensity training prepares me better for long-duration, low-intensity activity. The data we have about endurance training comes from studies and dedicated athletes. A lot of people fall into the middle ground: not sedentary, and willing to put in more time than a study participant, but also not putting in 10+ hours of training per week like a competitive endurance athlete.

saiya-jin 4y ago

> One can easily convert high-intensity fitness to low-intensity but prolonged fitness. This ain't truth even though I get where you are coming from. Otherwise ie best sprinters would be automatically best ultra marathon runners. Guess what - they are not even trying to compete there, its just different sport, their bodies are simply not accustomed by training for that and they would be pretty bad at it. Climbing, however good sport that is (apart from people dying from time to time mostly due to human errors but not only), ain't the best indication of this - if you are an elite climber, you don't go out and do ie 10-hour continuous hard scramble/easy climb. No, you focus on those hard routes, ie on project for a week or month. Yes you have decent endurance on those easy climbs but that comes from overall fitness that top climbers simply must have

fransje26 4y ago

Maybe the walks had the same contribution to your fitness as light "recovery training" days have? Where the low intensity effort actively helps your body & muscles to recover from a previous training in a more efficient way than a training-free day would?

fingerlocks 4y ago

Going to have to disagree. I’ve bailed from a few Yosemite big walls because a partner lacked the endurance to climb 16-20 hours straight. These were 5.13 sport climbers that were too bonked to jumar the rope. Nope, you can’t run a climbing marathon unless you train for it.