by Jacob Carr
I get the hunch that most climbers, if they were asked, would rather not train for climbing. Ever. If they could, they would be the best version of themselves on the rock by just climbing, no hangboarding—only redpointing flawlessly. If you’ve read anything by Steve Bechtel you’ve probably heard him say, “If I didn’t have to train I wouldn’t, but I like what training affords me.” Training allows you more freedom: freedom to do more, try harder, and redpoint more frequently. I am introducing a 3 part series on the idea of execution, how we can plan and visualize the future, and how that can produce a better version of ourselves. I believe that the first step in becoming the best version of the climber you aspire to be starts with performing the small things day in and day out.
The idea of execution as a facet or skill that needs to be developed may have never crossed your mind. The definition of execution is the carrying out or putting into effect of a plan, order, or course of action. In my experience, this may be one of the most important and possibly overlooked facets of climbing. The more I coach and train athletes of different backgrounds and experiences, the more I realize that the habit of strength training and executing a plan to the best of their ability is the easiest part to complete. This leaves room to train the harder parts of getting better at rock climbing: mental facets, tactics on the wall, skill practice, and nutrition to name a few. In light of this, how do we get better each time we train and why does strength training have anything to do with executing on the rock? How can you train execution and be better at redpointing when the time comes? How does this look in a long-term progression?
For many of you, the first step in practicing and preparing to execute is completing a monthly training program. Your first instinct might be that this is far too large to be the first step. However, it allows for much more flexibility than a daily or weekly program. If you have a general outline for your programming for the month it will allow you to create a habit of execution while you begin the process. As you get better and more consistent with the program you can make it more specific and add small complexities.
This can be in the form of how your workouts are structured or even something as simple as announcing an intention or goal for your climbing day. You can then start making weekly plans and when you get consistent with those things, you can add variation, frequency, and intensity to the mix. Before you know it, you have begun the practice of execution. You have been executing a monthly, weekly, and possibly even daily practice of your training program. You have been announcing intentions and goals for your day at the crag and have slowly been checking those boxes. Execution has been happening right underneath your nose!
A once-empty calendar can start with specific challenges and targets you can work toward. At the end of each month, you can look back and see all that you have accomplished. By the end of the year, you can have a great habit of executing specific tasks of varying degrees of intensity. Not only does this give you an understanding of where you have come from, it gives you a heading to where you want to go from there. This will also give you a sense of accomplishment and confidence in your abilities to continue to execute and succeed.
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I want to explore the idea of a monthly program. I think most of the readers of ClimbStrong’s material may be used to the word programming, program, or other similar words. Instead of thinking of this as a program, let’s think of it as a schedule. Your appointments on your schedule give you a time frame, a general overview of the purpose, and maybe an action step relating to the purpose. Regardless of the details of the appointment, you can extrapolate why this appointment is important and how you will execute the appointment. In this same way, we can look at our training in this way and structure it similarly. If the schedule has an appointment to perform lower body exercise you will have a general understanding of what that looks like, a general plan to execute the exercise, and an understanding of the importance. Luckily, appointments always have time constraints. So, our schedule for a month at the beginning of our training development can look something like this.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Week 1-5 | Boulders 60 min | Yoga 20min | Lower Body 30 min | Hangboard | Yoga 20 min | Climb | Climb |
The next 5 weeks might look more specific.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Week 6-12 | On-Sight to On-sight +1 Boulders 60 min | Upper body Yoga 20min | Hinge and Squat 30 min Skill Bouldering 30 min | Hangboard Half Crimp and Pinch | Hip opening Yoga 20 min | Climb on my project | Climb 6 Pitches |
Once we gain a little momentum with this schedule, we start to learn what we are good at, and what we need to work on to get better. Instead of molding nebulously to whatever your buddy at the gym does, you can marry the social aspect of gym climbing with your specific needs. With having a more and more specific schedule you can understand what is serving you and what is not. In the long term, you are developing a system by which you can continue to improve. In the short term, you are building a habit to help you stay consistent. A schedule is nothing if you don’t follow through with the appointments and nothing will be accomplished if you don’t stay on a consistent schedule.
Now that you have a framework by which you can improve, the idea that a better person makes a better climber may still be in the back of your mind. I’m not talking about morality or ethics here although those may apply to what “better” could mean. What I mean in the context of self-improvement and climbing better is that “better” means, disciplined, purposeful, confident, and self-sufficient. You don’t become something by wishing it to be there. Hope is not a strategy. I’ll come back to this later. Start small, generic, and non-specific. Once you can accomplish the general outline with regularity, introduce more specificity. Once you accomplish the more specific aspects of your schedule, introduce variability, volume, or intensity to the specifics. Continue to refine, reflect, and improve.
Always Forward,
Jacob
JACOB CARR
Jacob has a dual master's degree in Strength and Conditioning as well as Sports Nutrition. He is also a Certified Personal Trainer with the NSCA. Jacob started his Climb Strong journey as an intern with us as part of his education. He arrived just two weeks before we were forced to close for COVID in March 2019. Jacob kept in touch and is now with us full time as a climbing coach as well as taking on a personal training athletes at Elemental. He has worked in a Physical Therapy setting in the past and has interest in functional movement training to ensure athletes move well for their lifespan. He loves climbing, mountain biking, and surfing.
Tags: climbing training, execution, Goal Setting, Jacob Carr, Planning, Scheduling, Strength