For many climbers, travel is an essential part of the sport. Not only do you get to experience new places and cultures, but you also expose yourself to different climbing styles and rock types which is an essential part of becoming a more well-rounded climber. When you make the investment to go on a climbing trip, you want to be trained up and in top form to make the most of it.
The most effective way to do this is to plan ahead and execute a well thought out training program. However, sometimes life gets in the way of training or last minute trips get planed. To help you still prepare for a climbing trip in a limited time frame, here’s an article from Rock and Ice by British coach and trainer Neil Gresham in which he outlines some last minute training techniques.
“The main way to prepare is simply to climb more volume at grades below your limit in the preceding weeks. The usual reason to get shut down at the start of a trip is that we suddenly switch from training for two hours three times a week to climbing every day. To reduce the shock effect, try to fit in a minimum of four sessions a week. If four aren’t feasible, make the sessions as long as possible. Always, though, come off the gas the week before, with two or three light sessions to recuperate fully.” – Neil Gresham
Climbing Trip Tune-Up
The strategies Gresham outlines in this article are meant for route climbers and as a result focus on training endurance. Gresham splits the training into two categories (strength endurance and long endurance) and gives you a handful of different workouts to train each energy system.
Gresham also outlines how to tweak the structure of the workouts to account for the different demands of sport climbing and trad climbing.
Obviously, the best way to get ready for a climbing trip is still to follow a longer term training program. However, if you have a trip coming up and are not feeling fully prepared, Gresham’s strategies are definitely better than not training at all. Click through below to see all the workout details and try them out yourself!
Full Article: Climbing Trip Tune-Up with Neil Gresham
(photo courtesy of rockandice.com)
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