Strength

MOVE: RDL

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MOVE: The Turkish Get-Up

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Are We Assessing the Right Things?

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by Ken Klein, NASM, PCC   This past August we were winding down the Climb Strong training camp in Lander, WY and Steve Bechtel said something that really stuck with me. A participant asked about assessments and Steve replied that if we piled all of our physical assessment numbers together we probably wouldn’t be able…

Kevin Wallingford Dead Lift b&w

Full Combination Strength

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by Steve Bechtel Strength is fundamental to athletic performance. Many climbers get it, and they hit the weight room regularly. The problem with most weight training is that it only addresses one speed of movement, and most of us select bilateral exercises for most movements. By training in such a narrow path, we miss out…

Shifting Goals in Lockdown

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By Kathryn Perkinson We are not living in an alternate reality. This world– a global pandemic, quarantine, no access to climbing– is reality. If you stay stuck wishing for what was or hoping for what will be, you’ll certainly miss this opportunity and make yourself miserable. How will you fully accept our new normal and…

Melding Strength and Power

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by Steve Bechtel Too frequently, we try to over-categorize our training. Long-time athletes and coaches learned about training for climbing by reading about and practicing training that came from other sports. We all understood that strength and power and endurance were different entities, some of us going so far as to train all of these…

Weight Training: What it is and is not.

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As humans, we all tend to use categories and observations about groups of things to understand the world.Puppies are cute. Fruits are sweet. Scarpa shoes are awesome. Categories. It gets dangerous. Women are crazy. People with dark skin are dangerous. Liberals are weak. We learn through our culture, our parents, our schools that individual observation…

Foundational Bouldering (or Why Being a Novice is a Good Thing)

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One of the great blunders of training is over-complication. It goes like this: You get interested in getting better so you go to the gym a bit and you get a little stronger and you get psyched and so you read about training and you get inspired to try some more stuff and you keep…

Foundation Strength: What You Do All The Time

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When people train, they generally fall into two categories: The ones who get in shape a month or two before “the season.” The ones who “train” all the time at about the same intensity. It’s likely the most effective program is in some sweet spot in between. We are learning that there are certain things…

Alex Bridgewater Pinch Block Hang, Photo by Mei Ratz

Developing General Grip Strength

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In the old days, training “specifically” for climbing was almost unheard of. You either just climbed or you were one of the few climbers who trained in the weight room and did some door jamb pull-ups. Over the years, things changed. As climbs got hard and more physically challenging we sought out ways to beat…

Integrated Strength

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Combining Hangboard and Weight Training for Maximum Climbing Strength   Introduction Everything about training for climbing is complicated. It is an exercise in compromise – focus on power and you lose endurance, too much time getting your fingers strong, and your redpoint grade drops. Over the years, there have been many creative solutions proposed to…

Jordan Jack Demonstrates a Push Up in Climb Strong Class B&W

Variations on Integrated Strength

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We’ve been training strength for a long time. For years, I struggled with just how to fit all the hangboard training, general strength training, and supporting exercises in a normal climber’s week. Many of us try to get by without the extra work, opting to just go climbing instead. A look at the big picture,…

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