Indoor Climbing Training 101

Warm-up, 4x4s and Variations, and Cool-down

Pat Guillen

7 min readDec 15, 2021

QUICK OVERVIEW:

WARM-UP
9 Dynamic stretches
4x4
VARIATIONS
COOL-DOWN
Injury Prevention Resources

WARM-UP

Raise ❤
Activate and Mobilise
Potentiate

Raise ❤

The goal of this stage is simply to raise your heart rate. This can be anything from running or cycling to rehearsing your favorite dance routine. It really doesn’t matter too much so long as the cardiovascular exercise lasts between 5 and 15 minutes and your heart rate increases.

Rowing: This is a great one to warm up if your gym has a rowing machine. The movement pattern mimics climbing brilliantly (retraction in the arms and extension in the legs). You can also start off at a low level and build it up to something a bit more intense if it’s one of those really cold days.
Jump-Roping (Skipping): Try a weighted skipping rope while warming up. So long as the weight isn’t too much then it is still a good warm-up. That extra bit of weight helps strengthen the shoulders while you’re doing your essential warm-up.

Jump-Roping(Skipping) and rowing have also both been shown to help IMPROVE SHOULDER STABILITY.

Personal Circuit: No equipment? No problem! Do a quick little circuit of bodyweight exercises to perform. Squats, push-ups, burpees, lunges, and running on the spot. Do a minute of each with a minute rest afterward. 2 sets of that and you’ll be ready to take on the world. And you don’t even have to go crazy hard, it’s a warm-up.

Activate and Mobilise — Limber up Buttercup

Dynamic Stretches: A form of stretching where, rather than hold at the limit of muscle extension (static stretch), we want to carry out a motion that sweeps through the whole range of the muscle.

9 Dynamic stretches

Photos and Reference:: From 99Boulders.com

Potentiate

4x4 💪🏼

4×4’s — What They Are & How To Do Them

The point of 4×4’s is to increase your ability to climb through a pump and improve your general fitness.
You’ll want to pick 4 hard boulder problems — problems that are a couple of grades below your max but still challenging.
How often should you do 4x4s? twice a week when starting, resting 48 to 72 hours in between. Three to Four times progressing. Listen to your body.

4x4 Variations

Rules of 4x4: After warming up, pick 4 boulder problems or routes that are about 2 to 4 grades below your max. Pick problems you are not falling on and can execute proper technique. Rest period 4–5 minutes.

If V0 or V1 is your max, add feet or hands to your problems to make them easier. Problems or routes should not be tweaked, and you should ideally know them well.

If you fall off before the halfway mark, try the problem again or pull back onto the route from where you fell off. If you fall from more than halfway up, move on to the next problem or route.

If you can’t finish all 4, pick easier problems or routes for the next round. You want to be able to just barely finish the circuit.

Variation 1 Example:

Choose 4 problems ABCD
Perform each problem 4x each. → ABCDx4, rest, ABCDx4, rest, ABCDx4, rest, ABCDx4, rest
Try to climb all 4 within 5–6 minutes (10–15 min if you’re climbing routes).

Variation 2 Example:

Choose 4 problems ABCD
Perform each problem 4x each. → Ax4, rest, Bx4, rest, Cx4, rest, Dx4, rest

Variation 3 Example:

Choose 4 problems ABCD at different difficulties
Perform each problem one time and then move to the next, repeating the sequence four times. → V4x4, rest, V3x4, rest, V2x4, rest, V1x4, rest

Variations

The 4×4 is a great workout, but it’s not the only tool in the box. Here are a few variations that might work better for your specific needs:

6x2s

These sessions are done by repeating the same problem back-to-back with about 5 minutes rest between.

The problem you choose should be just at your onsight limit, and should “flow” well. You better enjoy it — you’re going to do it 12 times.
This is a great education in the value of repetition; your efficiency tends to improve as your physical resources are diminished.

Up-Down-Ups (2x-4x links)

They tend to be safer and more engaging than the 4x4.

“2x” efforts (up-down-up)
“3x” (up-down-up-down-up)
“4x” efforts (up to four problems and down three).
Adjusted down in difficulty depending on the length of the set.
Try to aim for 85% — an intensity that would allow for a bit more climbing at the end of each set.
Getting pumped is not the goal, getting better at climbing is the goal.

Problems on the Clock

This workout is simply done by repeating efforts at regularly spaced intervals.

A normal effort might be 15 problems, doing one per minute for 15 minutes. Harder problems did, say, every three minutes for 45 minutes offer substantially more on the strength-endurance end. The shorter your rest period, the easier your problems must be.
To reiterate, the key to really increasing your climbing ability is to regularly repeat efforts and slightly increase the difficulty.

COOL — DOWN

You can use the exact same exercise (or dance routine) as you did for the warm-up but the intensity should be lower. We want to be doing this cardio at a very low intensity for 5 to 15 minutes.
Static Stretches: They will increase the flexibility of your muscles.

15 STATIC STRETCHES

Photos and Reference: 99boulders.com

**PECS**: Lie face down on the floor and extend one arm out to your side palm down. You then roll your body over the shoulder of the extended arm. Throughout all of this, you must think about twisting the inside of your elbow into the ground. This will open up the shoulder which keeps it in a much healthier position and really allows those pecs to be targeted.

**Rhomboids:** This is one you might not have heard of before, but it’s great for stretching those *muscles in between your shoulder blades* if you get a very **tight back**. Hold one arm up in front of you with a 90° bend. Then cross your other hand under the elbow and try to bring it up so your palms are touching (they don’t have to be). You should begin to feel a strange new stretch at this point. If you push your elbows out and roll your arms around the motion they are capable of, you will start to **target the different parts** of your trapezius and rhomboids.

**Lat Wall:** This is a very simple stretch. Just find yourself a jug on the wall a bit higher than your head, grab it, and then begin to **lean away until a stretch is felt**. You can then rotate around and find a particular plane where your muscle stretches the most and hold it there. Remember, *keep the shoulder activated!*

**Lat Chair:** Just begin on your knees, put your palms on a chair in front of you and then lean down into a stretch with straight arms. This stretch will *open up your shoulders*, which you should get excited about because tight shoulders are *the reason everyone is better at yoga than you.*

**Forearm Flexor 1:** Simply place your palms on the ground with your *fingers facing away*. Begin to lean forward over your wrists until you feel a stretch.

**Forearm Flexor 2:** Place your palms on the ground with your *fingers facing towards you* and then begin to lean back and away from your wrists. This stretch will **also get your biceps if they are tight too.**

Forearm Flexor 3: You do the exact same as the first but you don’t lean as far forward and instead attempt to lift your palms off the ground. Some people are much more flexible in this plane than others, but everyone should be able to notice a stretch.

Forearm Extensors: Kneel and place your hand on the ground, palm up. Now ball your hand into a fist. Place your other hand on top of it, and lean forward while keeping your arm straight until you feel the stretch on the top of your forearm.

**Wide Squad:** This is one stretch you can also do before a climbing session to limber up if you just flow through the positions rather than hold them. First, get into a wide squat position with your knees around 90°. From here the idea is to just *feel around the range of movement* you have and see where you’re tight.

Hip Flexors: To do this stretch, go down on one knee, put your hands on your hips with thumbs facing forward, and then attempt to rotate your hips backward so that imaginary bucket is now pouring water out the back. When doing this stretch, make sure that you are in a vertical position and the stretch is coming from hip rotation. If you lean forward you will change the stretch to the quadriceps compartment instead which will not catch the deep iliopsoas muscles you want.

**Groin Stretch: The more you can open your hips the more you will be able to hold your center of gravity above your feet** and reduce the load on your arms. It’s an integral part of climbing footwork. Everyone also knows about your basic groin stretches but as **it’s so important in climbing we want to take it a bit further.** In this variation, you go onto hands and knees and straddle your knees apart. Then fall down onto your forearms and attempt to press your pelvis towards the ground. You should definitely feel a stretch here!

**Hamstrings:** Sitting on the ground with legs stretched out on either side, you want to begin to lean forward towards the ground. The trick here is to **think about your belly button moving towards the ground rather than your arms or head.** That way you will keep your *back straight and focus the stretch on the important parts*. You can grab your feet to push further into it if need be. I find I can sink significantly further into this stretch after holding for a minute or so. Take slow, deep breaths and sink down as you exhale. If your hip flexors are very tight it often makes stretching your hamstrings redundant so **make sure you’re having a go at both!**

**Pigeon:** From your knees, move into a sitting position with one leg bent in front of you and the other extended behind you. Then attempt to lean forward over your bent leg. If this is a bit easy then you can *straighten your front leg a bit to deepen the stretch*.

**Glute Wall:** Begin by lying on your back with one foot up on a wall so that your knee has a 90° bend. Then you can put the ankle of the other leg against that raised knee and feel a *stretch along the outside hip.* To deepen this you can push your knee towards the wall slightly or shuffle inwards so the foot on the wall has a bend of over 90 degrees.

**Tennis Ball Massage:** Be aware not to get carried away though! It takes a couple of days to recover from a full sports massage so you’ll not be doing too well if you give yourself one of those every day. When massaging your muscles like this, it’s much better to limit your time on a knot to no more than 30 seconds and focus on doing it more often.

Injuries and Prevention Resources

REF: Beale, Alex. 2016. “Bouldering Training 101: The Complete Guide (2021 Update) — 99Boulders”. 99Boulders. https://www.99boulders.com/bouldering-training.

REF: https://www.climbstrong.com

REF: https://rockclimberstrainingmanual.files.wordpress.com