ARC
Third Gear: The Aerobic Energy System
Tags: 4x4s, aerobic endurance, ARC, Endurance, energy systems, Extensive Endurance, short workouts
by Steve Bechtel A few years back, I was asked during an interview how important running is to climbing performance. Somewhat reactively, I said, “Running is as important for climbing as climbing is for running.” Over the years, I’ve received more than a fair number of messages and emails about this statement. Although there…
ARC Training and High-Low
Tags: ARC, Endurance, High Low, Q+A
Q: I have been doing a kind of high low thing recently and was wondering how you have been doing your ARC training? I have mainly been traversing because when I do ups and downs it is hard to keep it chilled enough. How do you do it? Cheers Cliff Hi Cliff, The hardest part…
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….
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….
Endurance 3.0
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Extensive Endurance, Intensive Endurance, Intervals, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
by Steve Bechtel Of all the facets of training for climbing, I think training for endurance is the most controversial and misunderstood. Most of us agree that a hangboard is the best way to build finger strength and that bouldering on an indoor wall is a good way to build power, but what about endurance?…
Another Way To Endure
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Circuits, Intervals, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
By Steve Bechtel Endurance training comes in many forms and it can be argued that any climbing you do that makes you tired makes you better at enduring fatigue. As I’ve said before, most climbers who boulder indoors are, in fact, training endurance when they think they’re training power. Problem is, they are training an…
Introduction to Density Training
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Conditioning, Density Training, Intervals, Load Density, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
By Steve Bechtel You either boulder or do routes, right? So what happens when you want to get ready for routes by bouldering? You end up feeling like you’re not quite training right, and you’re correct. We have several good ways of training beyond the boulder problem, but training with a repeatable workout and definable…
4x4s and Other Variants for Training
Tags: 4x4s, Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Conditioning, Intervals, Linked Problems, Power Endurance, Strength Endurance
By Steve Bechtel It was probably about 25 years ago – we were mid-session in the bouldering gym and someone suggested we do some “4x4s.” At first I thought this had something to do with the lumber of the same name, but in climbing, this is simply four sets of four boulder problems done back-to-back….
Unlearning “Endurance” Training
Tags: Anaerobic Endurance, ARC, Endurance, Intervals, Power Endurance, Pump
By Steve Bechtel I think I’ve been to a dozen different crags where I’ve seen some dude doing toprope laps on a route he’s got totally wired to “train endurance” at the end of the day. The thing is, this guy has been doing the same thing for years, and getting nowhere. It’s not that…