Once upon a time, there were no climbing gyms. There were good climbers, among them my friend Todd Skinner, who did a fair amount of hard training off the rock. During the late 1980s, Todd and some friends developed a freestanding “box” of slats with several different sizes of wooden edges attached to them. Later called the “Skinner Box,” this was a primary tool these climbers used to develop finger and back strength.

Although a device like this is no longer necessary (a steep cave in a climbing gym serves the same purpose), the training program that they wrote nearly 25 years ago is still valid, and REALLY hard, today.” -Steve Bechtel

This is an article from Steve Bechtel’s site ClimbStrong.com (Steve is also the author of Strength: Foundational Training for Climbing).

In this article Todd Skinner shares some of the workouts he used to do and, as Steve says, the training value still applies and is still very tough.

As Todd says:

This is a workout that we developed after talking to trainers and sport physiologists, and is our winter program. It is used at a time when performance is less important than strength and power gains. “

Todd shows what a week of training consists of and with the intensity of the workouts he emphasizes the importance of rest on rest days.

Check it out…..it looks HARD.  And that’s good:)

CLICK HERE: The Todd Skinner Workout

(photo courtesy of climbstrong.com)

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