Bouldering
Maybe We’re Approaching Power Wrong
Tags: Bouldering, Campus Board, Power, Steve Bechtel, Strength
By Steve Bechtel It might be semantics, but it might also be a trap. When we throw around the terms we use in training for climbing, the word “power” gets used a lot. The problem is that although power is a performance metric, we struggle to build training that directly addresses it. Thus, when we…
In-Depth: Power Bouldering / Power Campus
Tags: Bouldering, Campus, Power, Power Training
In-Depth: Power Bouldering / Power Campus from Climb Strong on Vimeo.
Foundational Bouldering (or Why Being a Novice is a Good Thing)
Tags: Bouldering, Bouldering Training, Novice Training
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…
Bouldering Training – Advanced Undulating Program – 4 weeks
Tags: Bouldering, Periodization, Training Plans
The problem with getting good at bouldering is that getting even better gets even harder. An avid boulderer has a pretty steady improvement in strength and ability over the first year or two, and then often falls into a rhythm of getting in and out of shape for basically the same grades over and over….
In-Season Fitness – Logical Progression 1
Tags: Advanced Training, Bouldering, logical progression, nonlinear periodization
The Logical Progression plans are built to function either as stand-alone training with no additional climbing days, or as in-season programs done between days at the crag. This program features lower-volume sessions and is specifically aimed at keeping power and strength topped out for bouldering or crux-based route climbing. This is not an endurance-heavy program,…
Bouldering 436 Plan – Specific Power
Tags: Bouldering, Power, specific, Training Plans
4 week plan – 3 days per week – 60-120 minutes per session This is a 3x per week bouldering plan that last 4 weeks. The training involves a medium-intensity day, a high-intensity day, and a low-intensity day each week. It is best to start this cycle with a good base of finger strength and…
Breaking Plateaus in Bouldering
Tags: Bouldering, Tracking Training, training for climbing, training logging
by Steve Bechtel As much as we like to think we are training when we hit the bouldering gym, most of us are performing or even just exercising. Remember that training is planned and progressed and controlled carefully in order to achieve desired results. Performance is all about showing what your training has produced. In…
The Bouldering Warm-Up, In-Depth
Tags: Bouldering, Power, Warm-Ups
The key to climbing hard comes down to two things, really – holding on to small holds and doing hard moves. We can break these components down into discrete exercises, or we can package them together into the best climbing exercise there is: bouldering. Bouldering, for most of us, should be about going into the…
Quantifying Bouldering Sessions
Tags: Average V, Bouldering, Progress, Session Density, Tracking Training, V-Sum
by Steve Bechtel One of the greatest things about climbing, and I think one of the things that attracts many of us to the sport, is that no two moves are ever the same. Even the very same climbs can be executed differently each time you do them. This is endlessly entertaining for the mind,…
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…