Finger Strength
Contrast Load Hangboard Training
Tags: Bouldering Training, contrast loading, Finger Strength, Hangboard, Ladders
The Plan The debate rages whether to load your hangboard training with added weight or to go to smaller holds. Whether to hang one arm or two. Whether to train multiple grips or just one. The answer, and you won’t like it, is all of these are right, at a certain time. The only error…
Base Strength 2
Tags: Finger Strength, General Training, Off Season, Simplest Hangboard Plan, Training Plans, Weight Training
The Plan Base Strength 2 is obviously the next phase behind Base Strength 1. For the most part, you can stick with Base Strength 1 for 2-3 cycles before you need to make a change. This phase uses the same basic framework, but the set progressions change slightly. Each of the sessions features six movements, as…
In-Season Strength – Program Minimum
Tags: Finger Strength, Hangboard, Performance, Programming, redpoint climbing, Resistance Training, Route Climbing
These days, climbers are well aware of the need to gain strength in the off-season. Many climbers I hear from spend much of the winter allocating time to the weight room and the hangboard. Where the system can break down is when someone quits strength training cold-turkey to switch to climbing full-time. There’s no arguing…
Route Climbing Strength 1
Tags: Finger Strength, Hangboard, Ladders, redpoint climbing, Training Plans
The Route Climbing Strength plans are built to increase finger strength, core strength, and overall body tension, with the longer efforts of full routes in mind. This plan is appropriate for boulderers looking for a bit more capacity as well as trad climbers, though the plan emphasizes finger strength at a level that is not…
Level 1 Hangboard Progression
Tags: Bouldering Training, Finger Strength, Hangboard, Training Plans
The Plan We do a lot of hangboard training with our athletes. It is a tool we use primarily as a strength builder for the fingers and hand, but also as a way of preventing injury. Ironically, though, many climbers new to using the board get hurt when they first start using it. This is…
Bridge Season Training
Tags: Conditioning, Finger Strength, Linked Problems, Peaking, Performance, Route Climbing, Training Plans
A “bridge” is a high-intensity training program that links two close-together peaks of fitness. Frequently, we see climbers ramp-up for the summer season, only to see fitness drift off after a month or so. This comes as no surprise to coaches and physiologists, as it is simply a result of too much intensity too soon…
Superpower
Tags: Bouldering, Explosiveness, Finger Power, Finger Strength, Power, Rate of Force Production
By Steve Bechtel We like to talk about power in climbing, and we like to think of ourselves as training “power” when we boulder, but is that really what we’re doing? The most powerful athletes in the world compete in activities lasting fewer than ten seconds. The athletes I am talking about are Olympic lifters…