UKC

Hi all,

I'm looking for some tips and advice on training for bouldering and sport climbing off someone in the know.

I've been climbing for about three years now. The first two of which just getting into it and the last year or so, reasonably seriously. I've never done any kind of training, apart from climbing itself.

I currently climb at about 7a sport and boulder at around V5, V6 dependant on venue. Ive just got back from font and managed an f6c+.

I'm looking to start training a bit, to try and push my grade, but don't really even know where to start. I do, very occasionally, do a session on the finger board at the local gym and I have a pull up bar at home that I use periodically.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

In reply to Mostin3:
Lots of variables here, like what sort of shape are you already in, do you have any training style preference, what sort of time can you put in to it etc. I'm a big fan of calisthenics, because I can do it all at home, it seems to work for me, it's free, it's very difficult to seriously overload joints muscles etc, if you follow a programme, and it emulates what happens in many sports, especially climbing, in that you're moving your bodyweight around.
I'm currently using an app. called YAYOG, (you are your own gym) by Mark Lauren, the author of the book of the same name. It has structured routines on it that can be done in roughly 30 mins each session. If you prefer books then try 'Your Body Is Your Barbell' by BJ Gadour. Both of these also offer the opportunity to tailor a programme to your own needs, however, I steer clear of doing that because I've ended up biasing exercises towards what I think I should do, and I believe it's aggravated my tennis elbow. Build up slowly and listen to your body.

In reply to Mostin3:
Having said all that, and having a lot more to say on it, there's a strong case for 'the best training for climbing is more climbing'.

In reply to Mostin3:

Any idea what your goals are? In particular, more sport-focussed or bouldering oriented?

It may be helpful to work out what your weaknesses are. Training your strengths, whilst fun, will probably get you less gains. Projecting (both boulders and routes) is helpful for doing this IMO. E.g. I've recently found some limit bouldering moves shutting me down because I can't keep my shoulder stabilised (ie it feels like it'll rip out its socket on big feet free sideways moves) - cue doing shoulder weights a couple of times a week for a while.

Of course anything you don't train regularly may improve quite easily with training, and in fact is likely a relative weakness. Some quick suggestions for things I've found worthwhile which you could consider adding:
- threshold bouldering: pick 2 or 3 problems at your absolute limit, at a grade that usually take more than a session to get. Work each for 30 minutes, trying all the moves separately, resting plenty between attempts and thinking about what you can do differently in between efforts. Be wary of injury though (listen to your body ...).
- 4x4s on boulders
- circuits on boulders (if you find it hard to set/find circuits, try: up an onsight-level problem, down something pretty easy, up a similar grade problem to the first).
- doing 15-20' core training at the end of climbing sessions
- fingerboarding (try the Beastmaker 5A session, via their iPhone app to start, though stop after 6-12 sets until you get used to it). Always do after a day off and after a good (20-30 minute) warmup.
- weights/ strength training (pullups, negative pullups, offset pullups, rows, antagonist exercises, shoulders). For the main pulling exercises I suggest failure at 4-6 rep range after an easier warmup set or two.
- route 4x4: do the same onsight- level route 3-4 times with 2' rests between. Rest 10-20' while your partner does similar. Repeat 3-4 times choosing different routes each set, for a total of 9-16 routes.

With your bouldering level I'd expect you could redpoint f7b quite quick: tactics, fear of falling, or endurance are the most likely things holding you back. You can probably improve the latter markedly in 4 weeks of focussed training.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

In reply to Mostin3:

Thanks for the replies guys, some excellent advice. I've just downloaded the beastmaker app, and will have a go at this at the wall later on.

In regards to sport climbing, I feel as though it's probably my endurance that lets me down, as well as a bit of the head game bit. I don't think this is helped by the fact that for the past 6 months or so, I've not climbed sport much and have mainly bouldered.

After reading the posts, I'm think I'm going to look at adding some 4x4s to help with endurance, a session on the beastmaker, probably twice a week and two sessions a week of the threshold bouldering mentioned. Also, I will spend 20 minutes at the end of every session doing some core exercises, and see how I get on.

Thanks for the advice given and I'll keep everyone updated.

In reply to Mostin3:

Your question is so general that a decent answer could take up a whole book. Fortunately there are several good books on climbing performance so if I were you I'd invest in one or more to get you started. One of the very best is '9 out of 10 Climbers Make the Same Mistakes' by Dave Macleod. Another very good book is 'Performance Rock Climbing' by Dale Goddard and Udo Neumann (who currently coaches the very successful German Bouldering Team).

Fingerboards and pull ups are great for building strength which is one, but ONLY one, important aspect of climbing harder. However to be worthwhile you need to train progressively and regularly - at least 2 times per weeks, and preferably 3. The number of reps you do should increase as you get stronger and once past say 10 pull-ups you'd be better off adding weight.

Strength gains by just climbing can be difficult especially for less experienced climbers. The reason is that to gain strength an exercise requires a certain amount of intensity. Two barriers to generating intensity whilst climbing are: 1) fear of falling makes you fail before your muscles give out and 2) failure often comes because we fail to work out how to do a move. Every move is different, unlike pull ups where every move is the same.

If you want to get better just by climbing then a good way to generate intensity is to repeat the same routes/problems over and over. By this I don't mean doing loads of laps on a route. Such a route would be probably too easy to gain strength from. Better to choose a route you're not capable of doing in one push. Keep working on it with rests on the rope. Cut down the number of rests and length of rests as you get better.

To me it seems like its better to avoid getting overly pumped on a route you're training on. The reason is that you'll have to rest far too long to have another decent go and you don't want a training session interspersed with 30 min rests because you simply won't get that much climbing done. Finally I should say that this method requires decent route setting and overhanging routes.