adding accessories
Last week we talked about the Jar of Climbing and about how when it's full you feel satisfied and aligned with your climbing.
We also talked about filling it with the "big stuff" (rocks) first and I challenged you to pick 2 or 3 priorities for your climbing.
So let's say your jar is full of rocks, you're feeling good and like you're nailing your priorities. However, you also feel like you have the capacity to handle more.
Well, turns out there IS more room in the jar that you can fill!
If you've got the big stuff dialed, you can start to think about adding auxiliary items to your regimen. In this analogy.. pebbles.
The pebbles represent things that support your priorities. They are items that help fill your jar, but can't fill it on their own.
Last week one example priority was having a project bouldering session to work on limit moves. An auxiliary item to that could support this would be to add strength training to the routine.
While strength training alone won't scratch the itch of climbing at your limit, it can certainly help push that limit.
Come up with a pebble/auxiliary item for each of the priorities you chose. How can you continue to fill your jar?
We've been working from big to small, and the final items you can add to your jar are accessory items: in this analogy, sand.
The sand is nice to have, but certainly not essential. These accessories can fill the small open spaces, but if you put too much focus on these items...
There is no longer enough room for the rocks.
So remember the priorities that you wrote down, and try your best to keep them at the forefront of your climbing and training.
An example of an accessory item, continuing from previous weeks' examples:
Priority: working on limit moves by having one project bouldering session each week
Auxiliary: strength training to increase baseline strength that supports pushing your limit
Accessory: trying a novel exercise that is supposed to support strength training. This exercise isn't the quite the tried and true lifts, but seems worth exploring.
In this example, focusing solely on a novel exercise without either the priority or auxiliary item is unlikely to yield good results in your climbing. However, it's something you can "sprinkle" on top if you have the time and energy to do so.
For this final jar item, think of some sand/accessory items that you would add in to fill the finals gaps.
