Program Design
Fundamentals of Program Design
Tags: Periodization, Planning, Program Design, Programming
It has never been a better time to be a performance-oriented rock climber. In the past few years there has been an explosion of good information on training, and a huge number of great tools to help you train. From better handhold designs, to improved hangboards, to ingenious tools such as the Tension Block, we…
Fat Loss and Weight Management for Climbing (Part 1)
Tags: Carbohydrates, Nutrition, Paleo, Planning, Program Design
By Steve Bechtel Your fat roll is killing you. OK, as a climber, and especially one who is reading an article about training, I’ll bet your body fat percentage is pretty low. On the flip side, though, you are reading an article about weight management. Chances are you’re holding the same weight you usually hold,…
Fat Loss and Weight Management for Climbing (Part 2)
Tags: Carbohydrates, Nutrition, Paleo, Planning, Program Design
By Steve Bechtel There is a war going on, and it’s not the one you think. The war is not between the right way to eat and the wrong way to eat, it’s between what’s right and what’s “righter.” Should we go low carb? Low fat? Paleo? Vegan? In the end, it doesn’t really matter…
Breaking Free of the 7-Day Week
Tags: Bouldering Training, General Training, Indoor Climbing, Planning, Program Design, Tactics
By Steve Bechtel The structure of time, of the calendar, and of months is incredibly useful in society, but is often more a problem than a solution for athletes. Even though we live on a 24-hour schedule, and most of us work or go to school for five days followed by two days off, our…
Brick Programming
Tags: Density Training, General Training, Periodization, Planning, Power Endurance, Program Design, Tactics
By Steve Bechtel Going bouldering is not training. If you’re one of the lucky few, you can hit the gym a couple of nights a week and continue to get strong, avoid injury, and enjoy the sport. Most of us, though, will reach a plateau where progress is no longer possible on the “whatever” plan,…
Training Considerations for Older Climbers
Tags: Aging, General Training, Nutrition, Older Climbers, Planning, Program Design, Recovery, Tactics
By Steve Bechtel Climbing is a lifetime sport. Unlike, say, gymnastics or football, you can expect to climb and climb well for many many years. Due to the multifaceted nature of the sport and training considerations for older climbers, you can improve factors such as technique and endurance even with the natural decline in strength…
Organizing Your Cragging Program
Tags: Cragging, Planning, Program Design, Project Climbing, Pyramids, Redpoint Pyramids, Redpointing, Tactics
by Steve Bechtel Training is more popular than it’s ever been in the sport of climbing, and it warms my heart to see people actually training in the gym rather than just hitting another bouldering session. The word is out that a focused attention to improvement really works. At the crags, though, it’s another matter:…
The Hierarchy of Training Programming
Tags: General Training, Indoor Climbing, Planning, Program Design, Tactics, Templates
by Steve Bechtel LEVEL 1: Anything Goes I remember working out out in the huge weight room in the basement of my high school. It was dimly lit, had a track around the outside, pegboards on the wall, and dozens of machines designed to help make us “better.” We’d go down there for “weight training”…
Concentrated Loading
Tags: Advanced Training, Bouldering Training, Concentrated Loading, General Training, Planning, Program Design, Tactics
by Steve Bechtel It doesn’t really matter what I write. It seems that within two hours of putting an article up, I get a “yeah, but…” email explaining how whatever I wrote just won’t work in x program and could I please explain how one might do y… Clearly, most of us have all the…
Cycling Your Training
Tags: Planning, Program Design, Recovery Weeks, Tactics, Training Cycles, Volume Variability
by Steve Bechtel We all love a good story, especially the ones we want to be true. One of my favorites is that of Milo of Croton, a Greek wrestler who lived in the 6th century BC. Milo, was, by all descriptions a very strong and talented athlete, so much so that his legend outlived…
Advanced Strategies for Progress: Volume Variability
Tags: Bouldering Training, General Training, Indoor Climbing, Planning, Program Design, Recovery Weeks, Tactics, Volume Variability
by Steve Bechtel All you have to do is read the title to know that this isn’t one of those lovely “simplify it” articles. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of simple plans – yet sometimes, at the very tippy top of your ability, things need to get complicated when you try to move…