Signal And Noise
In human performance, there are some things that really do work across all domains. These patterns show up in each and every form of training, and are thus considered principles. In all sports and human endeavors, there are also methods. In effective practice, the methods are specific forms of the principles, but we can also have methods that don’t follow principles. In this article, we’ll look at methods that are signal - useful information that will improve our performance, and noise - methods without principle, entertainment, and are one step shy of hucksterism.
There are many ideas on how to improve performance. You can try to focus more, focus less, lose weight, gain strength, follow a pro climber’s training program, or take a class twice a week. Many of these methods can work, but we run into the issue of adaptation - if we don’t do training long enough or at the proper intensity, the training doesn’t work. This is the failure of group fitness classes or “climb 5.13 in 8 weeks” programs - there is no way for the program designer to know where the athlete is starting... and where the athlete starts matters more than just about anything that happens in the next 8 weeks.
The principles of training are pretty boring. There are no secrets. There are no miracles. Just hard work. Here are four of them:
Specificity
Your training should involve movements, durations, and intensities similar to your sport. We see specificity in two distinct realms:
Metabolic Specificity: Training should load energy systems similar to your sport and the training should be done in regard to the durations used in performance.
Motor Specificity: Training should enhance the foundations of movement in the sport. This does not mean that training should simulate climbing, only that it should be done in a way that can be applied to the effort. This can include partial movements (such as campusing) and static holds (such as hangboards).
Training can be either motor or metabolically specific in a given session, and occasionally it will be both. Generally, these values are trained together more frequently as we get closer to times we want to climb well.
Overload
“What got you here won’t get you there.”
If you’re going to get better, you’ve got to overload your body more than you did to get to this level. This means more load, longer sets, more days on, etc…depending on your training goals. This is perhaps the hardest of the principles to push - what we did last time seemed so hard! How could picking a heavy thing off the ground possibly help me lift less-heavy things?
The progress between grades and between weights in the gym and between edge sizes on the hangboard comes slower and slower each time around, but it’s the overload - trying against something that seems near-impossible at first - that keeps us progressing.
It is also a principle that is easily overdone in the short-term and underdone in the long-term. We tend to try to push too fast in a short period, suffer from over reaching / over training, and stay in a bad cycle. Athletes tend to think that if they can just go hard enough in this session, they’ll somehow break through faster. I talk again and again about taking the long view on strength. Once you find that fine line between patience and drive you’ll be on the road forward.
Accommodation
Accommodation is an athlete’s decreased response to a continued stimulus. When one does the same exercises at the same weight / distance over and over (or climbs at the same grade / crag all the time), the body’s response downgrades. This leads to one of the major conflicts in training: an athlete’s need for specific overloads and his need for variability or recovery in training.
Variability
In climbing, you’ll never do the exact same move on two different climbs. Unlike a sport where you perfect a hard skill such as pole vaulting or running, climbing requires you to have a much broader set of soft skills that can apply across a variety of types or movements, holds, and angles. In training, we tend to work just one pattern of a movement, such as a two-hand pull-up with the arms at shoulder width, or a straight-backed standard deadlift.
Variability in training, including occasionally changing the holds you use on the hangboard, the exercises you select in the weight room, the schedule you train, whether you use one limb at a time or two, and so on, is a key to continual progress.
Variability does not mean randomness. Each of your variations of exercise should go through a full cycle of several sessions of overload and progression before being changed. If you don’t repeat an exercise long enough to see positive progress, it can be argued that it is of negligible value.
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Once we have a firm grasp on principles, we can start to apply methods to support them. The real trick is to keep from being derailed by over-emphasizing a single method. Let me give you an example: I get a brand new hangboard and a weight belt for my birthday. I am psyched, so I start to train on it the first day. I get through a whole set of hangs and feel good, so the next day, I add some load (overload principle). I keep adding load each session, and even though my performances start to level off, I persevere. Eventually I get injured or or afraid of injury because my efforts are tougher each time.
In another instance, I might get really into one tool. We see this frequently in the weight room where someone decides they need to use a barbell for every exercise, or a kettlebell, or even a damn physioball.
The problem is that we sometimes fall so in love with a method that we forget the principles originally supported by it. If we don’t take all of the principles into account, we can be derailed by a method. If I don’t pay attention to variability and accommodation, and instead just focus on overload, I’m in trouble. If I try to train “everything” in each session, I am doing well by the variability principle, but am blowing it in specificity and even overload...I’m just not doing enough of any one thing to improve it.
The overarching issue is that there is too much information available. There are too many possible ways to train, so it is easy to drift from method to method and never see any significant results. I read a book and start week one of a program. At the end of the week, I talk to a friend who is doing Moonboard sessions every Saturday, so I decide to add that to my program. A week later I hear a podcast about someone training finger strength 5 times each week. My program only calls for two, so it must be for a weaker climber, right? Because I really want results, I kick up to five.
I stick with this “Taco Town” program until I just can’t handle it, then I start with a clean slate. Maybe even hire a coach...and then what? Unless I get a handle on my inputs, I start the whole thing over again.
When deciding to do anything in training, it’s good practice to start with asking “why?” Why do I need to add Moonboard bouldering on Saturdays? Why won’t two days of hangboarding be enough? Why do I have to use a kettlebell for this exercise?
The bigger questions then become about principles. Does two days of hangboarding follow good principles? Is there overload enough to gain strength? Is there sufficient recovery between sessions? Is there enough variability to avoid an overuse injury?
Probably the biggest question of all, which is the foundation of all training, is “Can I do this exercise for enough sessions in a row for my body to make a change?” This is the hardest part of it all, but the one we should care about the most.
Stay the Path
The first week of a training program is fun. New exercises, a feeling of fatigue in some muscles we haven’t been using, and the thought of possibility. Week two can be good. We see gains over last week. We are getting in the groove, and the psych is still really high. As the plan clicks on, the feeling of progress slows. We can go whole weeks without getting any better at any of the exercises. We’re not sore anymore. This point becomes the crux of training plans for all of us: when we’ve been training a specific thing for a few weeks and we aren’t seeing progress, we overanalyze, panic, or double down. We really should just keep grinding on.
We start to worry. We wonder if we shouldn’t add another day. Should we change our sets and reps in our exercises? Should we do some more easy laps at the end of the day? We’re really looking for something to change in order to “feel” the training again.
These days, there is a lot available. Every week, the average climber is subject to podcasts, IG stories, Magnus videos, and more. Each time, they are given a glimpse at a part of someone’s preparation, and think they are missing the boat.
Anything that is outside your current plan is noise. The best practice is to ignore media altogether until you set aside time to plan your next series of training sessions. Take notes for later. Research things you see but don’t understand. Don’t make a change just because you saw someone better than you doing an exercise in a video.
In mainstream media, there is even more noise. There are health cleanses, fat loss methods, “secrets” of fitness, and any number of toys and tools you can buy. If there is one thing that has become abundantly clear in the era of Instagram fitness, it’s that there is no lack of people willing to take your money in exchange for handing you bullshit.
This leads us to the classic Triangle of Constraints. One of the most effective ways to appeal to frustrated athletes is to promise them something they’ve as yet been unable to realize. In the health and fitness industry, clever salespeople will promise a product or program that’s fast, inexpensive and effective. The problem is that it’s impossible to optimize all three factors in any one product or program. Instead you’re stuck with three different options, none of which appeals to us quite as much as having it all. The options are as follows:
1. The product/program can be fast and cheap. Think about the “8-minute Abs” program, or a 30 minute workout program you’d receive when purchasing an exercise ball. The initial outlay of money is very low, the time commitment is low, but the bottom line is that the chance of seeing desired results is very low, too.
2. The product can be cheap and effective. This can be illustrated by a climber taking up hanging on her bedroom doorjamb or buying a barbell set for the basement. There’s really very little cost to get going, and given enough time, these can be very effective tools. But time is a precious commodity, and we’re an instant gratification group. Do we really want to wait a year to see results? Not likely.
3. The product can be fast and effective. In climbing, this would most likely involve hiring a dietitian and a coach, or joining a climbing team. By hiring experts to help you and providing yourself with facilities and support and structure, you’re more likely to reach your goals. The problem is that this doesn’t happen for free.
When entering any new endeavor, it’s important to keep this triangle in mind. Each combination of two attributes will eventually get you to your goal, but each one comes with its own compromises.
What is signal, then?
It’s accepting the reality of the job ahead. It’s usually not very exciting. It doesn’t promise you anything within six weeks. It probably recommends you change something you’d rather not change. Keep doing the same thing over and over for a few more weeks. Add one pound to an exercise. Climb one more pitch this week. Pay attention and write down what happened in your session.
I’d be a terrible fitness salesman or supplement influencer. I’ve seen too much. Struggled too hard. The only way out is through.