All of us have tried different types of training to improve our grade or just feel more fluid in our climbing, I for one have concentrated on many different styles; however there is one that Adrian Baxter recommended that has shown the best results.
Obviously the best way to improve is to climb more often and harder, however this can often lead to grade plateaus and a downfall in your motivation. This process is centred on seeing the benefits of you training without taking away the enjoyment of the sport.
The process is called SMART training; smart is actually an anagram for the training process itself and works with a little as 30 minutes added onto your normal climbing sessions.
Goals
S (pecific) – set your goal to be as specific as possible e.g. 6B on a flat wall or slab.
M (easurable) – Find a slab climb that you want to do and after the training package has been completed attempt an on sight.
A (chievable) – How am I going to achieve this goal? This is normally detailed in cycles of at least 3 weeks or more, that concentrate on a specific training method. E.g. A 1 month cycle of strength endurance or a 1 month of technique training.
R (ealistic) – Obviously we want to push our goals to our physical extremes, but by doing this the period of time it takes is often too long and motivation decreases with the time you spend on it, for this reason keep the achievements more reasonable but more frequent.
T (imely) – Set an overall time scale in tune with your achievable (training) cycles, perhaps 3, 1 month cycles so an overall time of 3 months.
Here is an example of my first training cycle:
S (pecific) – Competent on-sight 6B on an overhang.
M (easurable) – Calshot’s main wall on-sight 6B.
A (chievable) – 1 month cycles of strength endurance, power endurance and then core power.
R (ealistic) – I may need to extend the endurance cycle or repeat it.
T (imely) – 3-5 Months
Jargon explained
Strength or local endurance – is long-term use of moderate strength, such as a long sustained pitch made up of easy single moves for its grade.
Power endurance – Repeated use of high strength, such as a short route or sustained multiple move crux.
Power – Brief explosive maximum strength, such as a boulder problem or a route with a short crux.
Core power – Power gain from high body tension (abdominal strength) this is vital for overhangs.
Training methods
Strength Endurance – carry out multiple climbs of a route 2 – 3 grades below that of your maximum until a pump is achieved. I often prefer to down climb and unclip as this reduces the turn around time on routes and in my opinion provides a better forearm pump.
High repetition on long boulder problems can also be used, down climb instead of jumping off. As a grade reference, the pump shouldn’t be felt for the first 2 times through if it does drop the grade or intensity of the route.
A training example for a beginner would be 3 reps on 2 different routes or 4 reps of a 10 move boulder problem. Make sure you increase the reps as your strength endurance increases.
Power Endurance – An easy route with a roof or short overhang works well for this as it provides the short, but strenuous crux. Another option is a long boulder problem that requires the majority of your strength for each move.
A training example would be 1 or 2 routes where you are struggling but able to top out, each move should require around 50-75% of your maximum strength.
Power – Boulder problems are ideal for this as you can hand pick a route that requires your maximum strength for each move, or just a single move that you can carry out in repetition. Another option is using a campus board or large finger board, although this can cause tendon damage if used for too long or too often.
These problems should require around 90% of your maximum strength, with you ideally failing to complete the last move.
Core power – find a bar to hang from with plenty of free space, then whilst hanging from the bar raise your feet to a spot and hold for 2 – 3 seconds before changing position.
If possible ask a partner to hold out their hands at different positions and then place your feet next to their hands, alternate between single foot and both feet movements to achieve the greatest benefit.
This training should be done to failure and then after a short break (perhaps after your partners turn) the exercise should be repeated.
Interval training – Instead of climbing a long route or a short crux route, to improve your general performance pitch the grade in the middle and do for example 2 reps on that climb then have a break before climbing again. This has been used by the French climbing team with incredible gains.
A training example is to complete a set of 3 different routes then a 10-20 minute rest before completing the set again, continue this cycle until failure on all three routes. Increase the rest period if needed in order to ‘shake out’ your pump fully before starting again.
Fartlek training – is where the intensity of the training is varied without an actual rest period. An example of this is to play ‘stick’ with a partner; this involves your partner guiding you around the training/bouldering wall by pointing at the next hold and nominating a hand. If your partner adds in rest holds before and after a sustain cycle of movements. Both strength and power endurance can be improved dependent on the amount of moves before failure, below 20 is aim more for power endurance training whereas 30 – 40 moves is used for strength or local endurance training.
Isometric training – this is used primarily to increase power, by turning a negative movement into a positive movement.
An example is using a campus board to drop from a high rung to a lower rung catch it and simultaneously explode back up to the original rung, thus spending as little time as possible on the lower rung.
Technical training – By consciously using flags and rockovers, toe/heel hooks your brain creates motor engrams for use in your subconscious. These engrams are then called upon when the brain realises the situation is similar or the same as one previously carried out.
The easiest example of this is walking, at one point in everyone’s life walking is a hard task to master however months later it is no longer a conscious movement and occurs naturally this is due to the motor engrams.
Training Timing
For good results, add a specific 30 minute training package onto your normal climbing session.
The Collingwood Climbing Team aim to carry out 2 of these packages a week using the walls as craggy island, Guildford, Fort Purbrook, HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan and most will testify that the system works.
Specific Move Problems
I often find that the problem with certain routes is not the overall grade but simply one move; I have found certain ways to overcome this problems.
Ask a friend – by asking a 3rd party to watch you carry out the move, allowing them to constructively criticise as they will see what your body is doing more than you can visualise. This allows them to suggest different techniques such as trying a toe hook on a nearby hold, bring your feet up and rockover instead of stretching, an inside instead of an outside flag.
Identify – It may be a combination of reasons, but try and identify the primary reason you fell off may it be balance, flexibility, leg strength, lock-off strength or technique to name just a few. Once this has been identified you can actively work out the problem, if it is balance concentrate on routes that are made up of careful balance orientated moves, lock-off strength can be improved by doing pull ups and then releasing one hand to simulate a one armed lock-off.
NB: I had a problem with slopers, so for a month I forced myself to complete at least 1 route made up of several or all slopers, now I can climb most routes made up of slopers.
Boulder – Recreate the move on the boulder wall, I use slightly ‘nicer’ holds to get the movement correct and then interchange the holds gradually for ‘nastier’ holds, trying to stay as true to the actual move as possible.
Remember to exaggerate the move (make it a longer reach or use smaller holds) as you wont be ‘fresh’ when your reach it on your climb. Another option is to add the move to a previous boulder problem to simulate your physical state you will be in when you reach the problem.
Improve your climbing using other sports
It is not always possible to isolate the move or get to a wall for specific training, thus some climbers use other sports to concentrate on areas of their climbing they wish to improve.
Anaerobic training – such as running is used to increase your body’s energy stores, this may be used for someone that has trouble completing long sustained routes.
Gymnastics – This sport is based around balance, flexibility and strength, factors that are also vital to climbing. If your weaknesses are based around these points then perhaps joining a gymnastic club would benefit your climbing as much as trying to improve your weaknesses on the wall itself.
Free weight training – Used to increase your core muscle groups for extra power. Although a worthy training cycle, be careful not to extend the cycles time period because, whilst free weights are a fast way to increase power, it does not increase the stabilising muscles in equal proportion to that of the core muscles. The trick is to mix your free weights sessions with some climbing sessions to prevent losing some of your stabilising muscle strength.
Martial arts – much like gymnastics is based upon controlling your body movements, by taking up this hobby you will increase your stabilising muscles as well as balance and flexibility which are bound to aid you in improving your grade.
Summary
These are some of the techniques I have used or simply read about to improve my climbing ability, it is prudent to remember you will only get out what you put in and the biggest tip I ever received was to “fall off climbing up”.
Make sure you give ample time to enjoy your climbing; as performance is linked directly to motivation, if you don’t want to be there then your training wont do any good.
If you have any other ideas for training in this complicated and precise sport please e-mail Lee Packer |
