Training: Part I
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.” — Bruce Lee
This article is the first in a series about how I train for rock climbing. I’ve been climbing on and off for about 4 years — I can climb V10, have on-sighted V8, and in sport climbing I can on-sight 5.12a and I’m currently working on my first 5.13a. For the full introduction, check out https://medium.com/training-for-climbing/intro-236f9a3b4506
Overview
I break up my training into periods of 8–12 weeks. Before a period begins, I set a goal. I structure the training period around that goal, trimming any exercises that seem unnecessary or defocusing. This periodization ensures that I never get bored, and that I don’t plateau.
How do I choose the goal? I look for a project that inspires me — like this one:
Here’s a picture of a climber preparing for the crux move on S.O.S.:
From my goal follows a plan. To craft the plan, I look at my own areas of weakness, and try to imagine how that will play out when I’m tackling my next project. If I continually run out of steam half-way up a hard climb, then I know I need to work on power endurance. If there’s a particular move in my project that I can’t do (even in isolation), I know I need to work on strength.
Is the plan necessary? Absolutely. The name of the game is to use your time effectively and eliminate uncertainty — if your plan is clear enough then it’s just a matter of execution. If your plan is muddy, you’re going to waste time.
Regardless of the goal, every training period has some combination of the following:
- Weights
- Cardio
- Core
- Hangboard
- Sport
- Bouldering
A period may or may not include campus board training, 4x4’s, ring work, etc, and the amount of time spent on each type of exercise is dependent on the goal.
In general, I aim to do weights, cardio, core, and hangboard 2–3 times per week. I usually double or triple these up at the gym, to maximize my time. For example, I might do hangboard, followed by weights and core in a single session. I always do cardio by itself and never combine it with any other exercise.
I track progression in all of these areas, annotating each session with a letter grade (A,B,C,D or F). If I ever get a C or below, I look at the training log to see what went wrong. If I get a C or D, I take 1 or 2 days of total rest. I haven’t gotten an F yet, but I think it would correspond to an intense fatigue and a total inability to perform — if I ever get to that state, I’ll know that I’m overtraining, and depending on the severity of it, it may take up to several weeks to recover from (see the fantastic book “Training for the new Alpinism” for an in-depth discussion of the overtraining phenomenon).
In the following sections, I’ll go through each of the pieces of the training program in more detail. If you’re looking to create a training plan, then this is a great time to pop open that notebook and start writing some ideas down for your goal.
The Goal
“If you’re not sure why you’re doing something, you can never do enough of it.”
What makes a good goal? It should be both challenging, but within the realm of possible. It should be “just out of your reach”.
Ideally, the goal is an outdoor project, so that you don’t have to worry about it disappearing. It will be a constant beacon. Years later in life, you will take your grandchildren to it and point and say “I sent that monstrosity!”.
Not to mention the fact that the outdoors is amazing, and as a climber you have unique access to places that most people would never dream of going…
Admittedly, it can be hard to get outside, and I realize that not everyone has the time or wherewithal to make it happen. If this is the case, then making your goal a certain letter grade is a good fallback — for example, “I want to redpoint 5.12a on lead in the gym”. I might try and make it a bit more specific too, like “I want to redpoint a crimpy 5.12a”, so that you can add a bit more structure to your plan.
The Plan
After I’ve set a goal, I figure out which exercises will best accommodate it, and I lay them out in a spreadsheet — that’s my “plan”. Here’s the one I’m currently using:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12nU_42tvLeKEQG1v4S1aEFDXeXKOiXEM4i7SEYmCRY0/edit?usp=sharing
(This is my real-life, real-time spreadsheet, updated daily. If you’re curious, you can check back on it from time to time.)
I plan a day or two ahead of time at most. I don’t try to figure out what I’ll be doing a month from now, or even a week — that’s unrealistic. I assess how I’m feeling day-to-day, paying close attention to what my body is telling me, and referring to the spreadsheet to see what kinds of exercise I’ve done recently, so as to avoid overtraining any particular area.
I’m always looking for progression, whether it’s weights, hangboard, running, etc.
For example, let’s say it’s Tuesday morning and I know I want to work out today. I look at the spreadsheet and see the last time I weight trained was on Saturday, and I bouldered on Sunday. It stands to reason that I could probably do both today, and so I plan out a goal for the weights session which is a slight progression on the previous (adding more weight, more volume, a slightly more intense rep / set combination, always depending on the goal), followed by a bouldering session.
How do you measure progression in bouldering? Pick a problem that’s “just out of your reach”, of course! If you can only string 2 moves together when you start the project, and next time you are able to string 3 moves together, that’s progression! Make a note of it in your training log. If you’re only doing “comfortable” problems, it’s actually harder to measure progression, and you may become demotivated.
The same methodology applies to sport climbing. Choose a route that will keep you busy. For example, right now I’m working on 5.13a at Mission Cliffs, and I’m seeing progression in terms of the number of moves I can make in succession without taking. Furthermore, I’ve divided the climb into two sections — the top and bottom — and I’m working on them independently. I’ve broken the problem down into manageable pieces, and I’ve made my progress on them measurable. I know that if I keep working at it, there’s an outside chance I’ll get it, and I know if I can do that climb in the gym, there’s a better chance I’ll be able to send my project in Red Rocks. That really gets me excited!
In the next installment in this series, we’ll start adding to your training program. You’ll be able to follow along and craft your very own training plan, tailored to your needs. In the meantime, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook if you have any questions.
Climb on!
Twitter: @gabrielsilk
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