We build all of our training plans to work for real people. Built on 4-week cycles, our plans can be assembled to address almost any training goal. Whether bouldering, big-wall climbing, redpointing, or just getting generally stronger, this is your starting point for getting better.
3-TIER PLAN: 2023 REVISION
Tags: 3-tier, climbing training, in-season training, redpoint climbing
The 3-Tier Plan is more a structure or philosophy than an actual training program, and could be better described as the “get out of your rut” plan. It underscores the idea that we truly do need to create a base of “persistent” training factors, then build fitness specific to our goal, and then go out…
Hang Fire
Tags: beginner training, Hang Fire, home training, Jacob Carr, Level 1, Route Climbing
by Jacob Carr Training programs, like a lot of things, are important to keep you on track to stay in line with your goals. They work a lot better than going to the gym and doing 20 minutes of abs, a few hangs, and then chatting with your friends in the bouldering gym. Not that…
Long Haul – In-Season Maintenance Plan – Rock Climbing
Tags: in season, long haul, Peaking, strength maintenance
The Long Haul plan is built as a supplement to a regular climbing schedule that takes place for extended periods of time. In essence, it is written to keep athletes strong and explosive, and should be flexible enough to fit within the constraints of a normal climbing week – which can be all over the…
Alpine Base Fitness II
Tags: Alpine Training, big wall, cardiac output, mountaineering
by Steve Bechtel Contrary to popular belief, the level 2 type programs are not “better” than level 1 programs, it’s that they are aimed at more specific fitness adaptations. Like day trading versus just investing in a diversified fund, the needs of most climbers will be best met by simpler (and easier-to-implement) programming, as in…
Route Climbing: Late-Season Fitness – Logical Progression Style
Tags: in season, logical progression, maintenance, Route Climbing
by Steve Bechtel What do we do in the latter stages of a performance phase? Usually, we just hold on to hammering against our project, slowly losing fitness in the hopes of being fresh for each climbing day, until we run out of time, energy, or fitness to do the climbing at all. I know…
Alpine Base Fitness I
Tags: Alpine Training, big wall, cardiac output, mountaineering
by Steve Bechtel I’m not known for my alpine climbing accomplishments, nor for building a training company around getting people to the top of peaks, but more and more often, we’re seeing athletes that have ambitions of climbing in the mountains coming to us for training advice. The majority of training programs for alpine climbing…
Aerobic Capacity Program 8:3 (Level 2-3)
Tags: aerobic endurance, capacity, Endurance, Steve Bechtel
by Steve Bechtel A better way to look at endurance in climbing is to understand that unless you’ve totally neglected it, you probably have some kind of general endurance for climbing. I’ll also preface this by saying that if you never try (nor plan to try) routes or long boulders, you might not really need…
The Full Tilt Bouldering Plan
Tags: Advanced Training, Bouldering Training, full tilt, Intermediate Training, Strength Training
I wrote the Full Tilt Redpoint Plan for myself a decade ago. I had little kids, was super busy at the gym, and wanted to get the most out of my sport climbing with the limited time I had. Since then, we’ve programmed dozens of variations to this plan for climbers seeking all kinds of…
Juggernaut: An all-around climbing training plan
Tags: redpoint, Strength Training, Training Plans
This didn’t start out as most training plans do, it sort of “just happened” as I tried to maintain some level of fitness for climbing through a busy summer and early fall, and I wasn’t getting as much climbing as I’d like. I was only training a couple days most weeks and sometimes three, and…
Cycled Strength/Power 20D – 8 Week Bouldering Performance Plan
Tags: 8 week plans, Bouldering Training, cycled plans, Power, Strength
This training plan is a 3-day-per-week plan that features two 4-week blocks of training. For sake of simplicity, we will call phase 1 the Strength phase and phase 2 the Power phase, although both phases feature a mixture of both. This plan differs from previous versions in both the volume of training and in the…
Five New Hangboard Sessions – Fall 2022
Tags: Finger Strength, Hangboard, programs, Strength, workouts
Five New Hangboard Workouts – Fall 2022 by Steve Bechtel Trying to decide between doing repeaters and max hangs is like living in Paris and trying to decide between eating at McDonalds or Subway. Not only are there other options out there, some of them might actually be better. Hell, I can’t blame the average…
8-8-8 Endurance (12 Weeks)
Tags: aerobic power, alactic intervals, Endurance, High Low, Power Endurance, Stamina
by Steve Bechtel The 8-8-8 Plan is a 12 week program aimed at making a long-term improvement in endurance capability. So often people go looking for a plan that will get them “in shape” for endurance, but only ever realize an endurance peak that takes them back to the same level that they previously attained….