Posts
Work Capacity – Climbing Hard All Day Long (part 2)
Tags: Alpine Training, Endurance, Fitness, Stamina, Work Capacity
By Steve Bechtel “Work is never fun, especially when you’re measuring it in watts per hour.” – The Man In part two of this article, we’ll talk about contrasting work capacity (WC) with your normal strength training (ST), and why you really can’t maximally train both. In WC training, it’s all about tolerating a high,…
Limit Bouldering Definition
Tags: Bouldering Training, Limit Bouldering
I’m trying to make sense of what, exactly, “limit bouldering” actually is. According to your plans, limit problems should require a handful of tries to complete, but according to the Anderson brothers, limit boulders should actually take a handful of months (if not longer). Obviously that means you could go several/many training blocks without actually…
Improve Your Hip Mobility And Core Strength For Better Climbing
Tags: Core Strength, Flexibility, Kettlebells, Mobility, Movement, Stability, Strength, Stretching
by Charlie Manganiello SFG II Does your butt sag and feet pop off on cave problems? Ever try a dyno or thrutch for some reachy move and struggle because you can’t get your foot high enough on the hold you need? How about those times you go to make the big move and you end…
Keeping a Good Base of Endurance
Tags: endurance training, sustaining endurance
So I was wondering how most people are approaching sustaining extensive endurance through out a long periodized program specifically if you are following a typical block model, (endurance>strength>power>power endurance). What has proven a good method for keeping endurance at a decent level when it gets to performance time? Ex: Once a week after power climbing,…
Training Programs for Bouldering – Intermediate
Tags: Accumulation, Alternating Linear, Bouldering, Cycling Training, Intermediate Training
by Steve Bechtel This is the second article in this series. The first, on training for novice boulderers, should be read before this one, training programs for bouldering-intermediate. As I wrote in the last article, we often like to think of ourselves as being more advanced that we are. I tend to do this…
Chris’s Climbing Endurance Plan
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Endurance, Fatigue, Intervals, Linked Problems, Strength Endurance
By Steve Bechtel It’s hard to write a specific plan for any facet of training, especially if you’re trying to target more than one athlete. There are just too many variables. A few years back, I wrote a short article on endurance training (Endurance 3.0) that explained how we look at training endurance for climbers….
Progressing Endurance Training II
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Intervals, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
by Steve Bechtel You’ve tried ARC training and you’ve done your share of 4x4s, so why do you still come peeling off the wall just before you reach the anchors? What is it about your energy system development that isn’t working? It might be that you aren’t progressing your sessions, or it might be that…
Advances in How We Look at Density Training
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Conditioning, Density Training, Intervals, Load Density, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
by Steve Bechtel When you look at intensifying training, there are really just a few ways to make it happen, each having a different result. You can increase the volume of training, such as doing more total pitches in a climbing day. You can increase the intensity of the training, such as trying to do…
Progressing Endurance Training I
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Intervals, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
By Steve Bechtel The email subject line read “Help!!” Opening it, I saw no fewer than 20 paragraphs describing how the sender wasn’t sending despite “religiously” following one of the plans I’d put together. There was no doubt, the climber was training. It was clear she was training hard and adding difficulty to her sessions….
Sessions For Any Climbing Gym
Tags: 4x4s, Boulder Links, Bouldering, Circuits, Linked Problems, Power Endurance, Power Training, Strength Endurance
By Steve Bechtel One of the biggest barriers to effective progress as a rock climber, ironically, can be training sessions in a commercial climbing gym. Oh, sure, there are good gyms around, but they’re rare and many lack certain very useful things. These things can range from lacking a good hangboard, to limited hours, to…
Volume-Driven Bouldering Plan
Tags: Bouldering, Intensity, Planning, Power Training, Volume
By Steve Bechtel Here is what a bouldering session looks like for probably 90% of all climbers everywhere. Show up when friends suggest showing up. Warm-Up by doing some “easy” problems. Start working some “hard” problems, rest as needed. Finish up with some more “easy” problems. As silly as this looks when you see it…
Revisiting Bouldering Training for Novices
Tags: Accumulation, Bouldering, Cycling Training, Linear Planning, Novice Training, Recovery Weeks
by Steve Bechtel One of the most powerful tools we can acquire for getting better is to figure out how much getting better there is to be done. I first wrote the Novice Bouldering Program in 2010, re-released it a couple of years back, and am revisiting it again now. Why? Because it is one…