EP 70: Steve Maisch — How to Structure a Bouldering Trip, the 85% Rule, and Hueco Debrief

Steve Maisch is a training legend and has been pursuing improvement in rock climbing for more than two decades. Jon Glassberg credits Steve’s training methodology for his recent send of ‘The Nest’ V15. We talked about Steve’s background in climbing and how he became interested in training, how he helped me add structure to my Hueco bouldering trip, and the 85% rule.

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Show Notes:  

http://thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/steve-maisch

Nuggets:

5:10 – Ballet class

6:20 – Steve’s beginnings in climbing, grad school, training breakthroughs, and first bad finger injury

13:00 – Becoming interested in quantifying training, and observing the elites

16:50 – How Steve and I connected, the Hueco training plan idea, and addressing individual needs in training 

23:38 – Climbing strength

26:33 – Underperforming vs overperforming your finger strength

28:53 – The bouldering pyramid 

31:40 – The 85% rule, and the strength sweet spot

46:45 – Train your weaknesses and perform in your strengths, and battling Free Willy

51:50 – Breakdown of the Hueco training plan, and antagonist training

59:46 – Scapular lock-offs

1:05:06 – How much we should be climbing, and making sense of different climbing schedules

1:11:25 – Climb more days, or higher intensity?

1:17:38 – Reconciling Daniel on Return of the Sleepwalker

1:20:48 – Efficiency and muscle memory

1:22:18 – The deload week, and getting stronger when we rest

1:26:18 – The key elements of the boulder pyramid 

1:29:16 – How to build up the pyramid season after season

1:31:43 – How to maintain bouldering power during a sport climbing phase

1:34:20 – Whether to maintain endurance during a boulder phase 

1:38:26 – Gaining endurance through increasing strength

1:40:06 – The plus/minus (+/-) system

1:49:10 – Training on the boards, and designing different workouts  

2:00:16 – Balancing training and performing

2:06:51 – The Remond food bank

2:13:14 – Injuries, Steve’s climbing goals, and rebuilding his pyramid

2:19:55 – Preventing injuries, a foundation of lifting, and the benefit of building muscle in the right places

2:26:10 – Gratitude