23 April 2015

Matilda Söderlund gains 50 % strength through X-force training

Björn Alber, Dr 8a, reports from some successful training with Matilda Söderlund, #6 in the world championship 2012, the year when she was also the best female climber for onsights. The 177 cm Swede has had some injuries but she is back in full training since last summer. She has been undergoing Dr 8a's X-force program last autumn with the aim to get some extra strength on the bigger muscles groups. "Matilda Söderlund is a particularly tall and slender world-class climber with finger strength, technical climbing skills and tactics at the very top of the game. An obvious flaw however was core, shoulder and arm strength furthermore gluteal strength and extra stability to the knee was called for. A special program was developed for this on the X-Force series training machines. The X-force machines have, apart from a true biomechanical excellence, also a mechanical addition of 40% extra weight on the eccentric part of any movement. The extra eccentric load will give a faster and larger muscular response and will stimulate the FT (fast twitch) muscle fibers better than any other training regime The scientific research behind this claim can be found in the publication and references on the x-force web site). The training consisted of an average of 40 minutes once every 10 days from September through December. The gains are remarkable and will most certainly have an effect on climbing performance the coming season. The most important increases in strength is noted for 1-arm pull-down, 50% (from 30 to 60kg, eccentric part) and for abdominals 61% (50 to 90 kg, eccentric part). Most important: the climber herself feels stronger and feels more confident in roofs and high reaches. We will not press on with the basic strength training (hypertrophia) now but instead by adapted exercises transfer this strength to the climbing (training with Gimme Kraft).
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