Too Weak For Your Sport Project? Here’s What to Do About That.

This article is the third in a series of four. Read article one and two—and check back next Monday for the final installation.

There are two types of strength sport climbers should be aware of: maximum power and power endurance. Maximum power draws from your body’s anaerobic alactic system (learn more about that here) while power endurance—high-intensity bouts of climbing up to about 90 seconds—calls on the anaerobic lactic system. Both types of strength are crucial for overcoming sport-route cruxes and I’ve written about them at length in the link above.

In this article, I will explain how you can train these two vital aspects of your body’s anaerobic energy production. No matter your climbing background, if you’re “too weak” to clip the chains on your project, you can nurture your body to a state of higher anaerobic capacity via a smartly designed training program. So let’s get to it!

Adding strength workouts to your climbing training

I typically recommend that climbers train in a climbing-specific manner max four days a week, and less if also climbing outdoors.

Beginner climbers should focus their gym time on actual climbing, while intermediate and advanced climbers should engage in doses of both climbing and targeted, climbing-specific training. Advanced and elite-level climbers may need to incorporate a couple of “two-a-days” per week—putting in up to six sessions over the four days of gym training per week. (If this sounds like you, please reach out to talk specifics. It is all too easy to overtrain during such an intensive schedule.)

Whether you’re climbing 5.11 or 5.15, focus each gym session on training a single energy system. You should target your weakest energy system with two sessions per week and at least one session per week for the other two energy systems.

Optimizing your training days is complex due to the fact that sport climbing demands physical prowess in all three of your energy systems—you need to be able pull hard moves and cruxes, but also recover at rests and climb through the pump after many moves of vigorous climbing.

Sport climbers should aim for one “max strength” session (anaerobic alactic focus), two “power endurance” sessions (anaerobic lactic focus), and one “aerobic capacity” session (oxidative focus) per week. Advanced and elite climbers who are deep in training mode should incorporate a couple of “two-a-days” per week, enabling them to train each energy system twice per week.

I have outlined a basic max-strength and power-endurance training program below. This is not a one-size-fits-all program—that’s never the case with climbing training. My intention is to present an effective, science-backed training philosophy, alongside some basic workouts to help get you started. To develop a personalized training program, I can’t recommend working with a professional coach enough.

Strength & power workout (alactic system focus):

This session will consist of near-limit movements and exercises, and therefore should always be performed following at least one rest day.

A few things to keep in mind while training the alactic system

1. Complete a proper warm-up before beginning at-your-limit movements
2. Your high-intensity exercises should last between two to ten seconds (up to 20 seconds if engaging in limit bouldering)
3. Give a high-quality effort during each exercise and boulder attempt. Rest for a minimum of three minutes between exercises.
4. End your workout when fatigue forces you onto lower-intensity exercises. Depending on training history, the duration of the actual alactic-focused training could be as little as 30 minutes and up to perhaps two hours. (Note: Performing limit exercises in a fatigued state tempts injury and compromises the effectiveness of your overall training program. Your goal is to consume the minimum effective dose of alactic training, not a body- and soul-crushing maximal dose!)

Examples of anaerobic alactic focused exercises

• Limit bouldering. Using a home woodie, spray wall, system board, or commercial bouldering set, select short, near-maximal problems that you can attempt (or send) in 5-15 seconds. You should not be on the wall for more than 20 seconds.
• Max-weight or minimum-edge hangboard training. I recommend doing either single, 10- to 12-second hangs (with 3 minutes rest in between) or the 7 on/53 off protocol (3 cycles of 7-second hangs followed by 53 seconds of rest) taking a full 3 minutes rest after the 3-hang set is completed. Either way, most folks should limit themselves to just 6 to 9 total hangs.
• No-hang max edge lifts. Consider repurposing some of your hangboard sessions into no-hang training. The training protocols are similar, but the novel strain and training stimulus of no-hang training benefits many well-trained climbers. The ForceBoard gauge by PitchSix is a great digital training device with SmartPhone real-time data and workout tracking.
• Limit bouldering. This session should be a full hour or two, rest well between attempts! For advanced climbers, I recommend the Tension Board 2 at 45 degrees or the Kilter Board at 50 degrees.
• Weighted pull-ups. Hang enough weight from your harness’s belay loop to make doing 5 reps of standard pull-ups challenging. Rest 3-5 minutes between each of the 5 sets. Elite-level climbers may be able to graduate to doing sets of 5 one-arm pull-ups.
• Campus boarding. This is a wonderful training tool if you’re strong and disciplined enough to use it properly. Exercises to consider using (but not in the same sessions!) are “Ladders,” “Touches,” “Lock-offs,” “Switches,” and “Double-Dynos.” Just 2-3 sets of 1-2 of these is plenty. Rest completely between sets—3 minutes at least. Warning: This advanced training tool has injured many climbers. Do not campus in a fatigued state. Do not campus if you’re uncertain of proper campusing technique and training protocols.

“Power-endurance” workouts (anaerobic lactic focus)

Power-endurance training sessions are the most pumpy and mentally grueling of a climber’s gym-training program. Engaging in repeated 20- to 90-second bouts of high-intensity exercise triggers sensations of pain and rising levels of fatigue. When properly programmed and executed, these training-induced stresses will yield gains in anaerobic capacity that really pay off on the rock! Performed infrequently—or too frequently, and in excess—these power-endurance sessions can lead to overtraining syndrome and decreased performance. (If you’ve ever noticed your climbing performance decrease despite “all your hard training,” you might now know why.)

After completing a thorough, progressive warm-up, your power-endurance training session should take between 30-90 minutes depending on your training history. Perform 1-3 of these exercises or climbing protocols described below.

Examples of anaerobic lactic focused climbing protocols

• 30/30 Intervals. This protocol is 30 seconds of all-out, max-intensity climbing (Rate of Perceived Exertion, or RPE, 9-10) followed by exactly 30 seconds of rest. Do 6 of these 30/30 intervals back-to-back, being sure to stick to this precise rest/climb interval protocol (use the timing app on your phone to get it right!). Then, take 10-15 minutes of rest, before firing into your second set of 6 30/30 intervals. Well-conditioned climbers can complete up to 4 sets of 6 30/30 intervals; elite climbers should consider wearing a 5-pound weight belt. Important: Do not climb set boulder problems. Instead, climb intuitively, “open-hold” style, on a spray wall, home woodie, or system wall. Use the smallest holds possible without falling off the wall. As you fatigue, use bigger holds and smaller arm moves to avoid reaching muscular failure before the 30-second interval is completed.
• Bouldering 4x4s. These offer a slower-paced and less-intense interval workout than the 30/30s. Begin by picking out 4 different boulder problems 2-4 grades below your max. For example, if you’re a V8 boulderer, pick out a couple V5s for this exercise. Here’s how to do it: Lap the first boulder 4 times in a row with a brief shake out and rechalk between goes. Your rest should roughly equal the amount of time you spent climbing, then hop back on the wall for the next lap on the same problem. After you’ve sent the boulder 4 times, take a 5- to 10-minute rest. Repeat this process on 3 more boulder problems, for a total of 4 ascents of 4 different boulders. Be sure to adjust up or down the grade of the boulders you climb—they should be challenging, but doable without falling. Tip: Interactive climbing boards (i.e. Kilter, Tension, etc.) are perfect platforms for 4×4s because of the ease of switching to a new problem within the proper target grade.
• 1’/4’ Intervals. This is another all-out protocol, similar to the 30/30 intervals detailed above. The difference here is a longer climbing interval (1 minute) which makes it more lactic (and pumpy). The 4-minute recovery between climbing burns allows partial, but not complete, recovery, so expect the fatigue to build over the course of doing 10 total 1/4 intervals. Be sure to make this physically hard, but technically straight-forward. Use the smallest holds and biggest arm moves possible (9 out of 10 RPE), but, like the 4x4s, toggle down the difficulty as you fatigue. Perform 1/4 intervals on a spray wall, system board, Treadwall, or bouldering wall.
• 20-move circuits on spray wall. I recommend this protocol to advanced sport climbers who need the physical capacity to do many hard moves in a row (as a simulator of long crux sequences in outdoor projecting). The key is to produce a limit, 20-move circuit that will really test your mettle. You can get as creative as you like with it—even mimicking the moves and sequences of your current project—but the circuit needs to totally power you out. For advanced climbers, I recommend adding a weight belt to drop the difficulty of individual moves without reducing the intensity. This way, the 20 moves are still hard, but also higher percentage. Do 3-5 sets of this 20-move circuit with a complete rest (>15 minutes) between burns.
• Route intervals. Once thoroughly warmed up, your goal is to give a few all-out efforts on two or three near-limit sport climbs. Pick routes that you’re not likely to flash, but have a good chance of sending on your second or third go. It helps to have a motivated partner (and good belayer) to take turns with. Rest at least 15-20 minutes between each attempt. Block out 2-3 hours for this session; you should aim for 4-8 quality attempts. Important: If a particular route is “shutting you down” or feels tweaky, immediately move on to another route.

Examples of anaerobic lactic focused exercises

• EMOM pull-up intervals. EMOM stands for “every minute on the minute.” In this exercise, you will do 5 pull-ups EMOM for 20 minutes. This makes for 100 total pull-ups. If you find this amount to be easy, then do 6 pull-ups EMOM for your next session! Increase as needed to make this protocol grueling.
• 7”/3” hangboard repeaters. Pick 3-7 grip types to train. In addition to the half-crimp and open-crimp grips, select a few others such as open hand, two-finger pocket (middle pair or inside pair), wide pinch, and narrow pinch. You will perform 1 (entry-level) to 3 (advanced) sets of repeaters with each grip position. Each set consists of 6 hang-rest intervals consisting of a 7-second hang and 3-second rest. Therefore, each 6-hang set will take about 1 minute. Add weight, as needed, to make each hang challenging but yet not so heavy that you can’t complete a set of repeaters. Rest 1-3 minutes between sets (limiting to 1-minute rest between sets will make this more lactic and grueling to perform).
• Campus board up-and-downs (large holds only). Using the largest rungs on a campus board, ladder up and down the board (using every rung or more every-other-rung) continuously for 20-60 seconds (hard). Rest 3-5 minutes before contemplating another set. Do 2-5 total ladder “up-and-downs.”

Looking forward

Now that I have walked you through various strength, power, and power-endurance protocols I challenge you to apply these concepts into your goal-directed training. In the fourth and final article, I’ll share how to train your aerobic energy system for resistance-style routes, and how to recover faster between boulders and routes. Until then, hit the gym, and try out a few of the power-endurance protocols detailed above!

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