Training for rock climbing can be addictive: put in some hard training work, see some gains, send your project.
This is the process that we all want and is the reason we are willing to suffer through training sessions that aren’t strictly speaking “fun.” While this certainly isn’t a post against training, it is important to remember that there needs to be a balance between getting out to enjoy climbing and focusing on hard training.
To highlight the importance of this balance and just how hard it can be to find, here’s an interview from Rock and Ice and a video from EpicTV with professional climber Jonathan Siegrist about his recent successes in Spain and how he changed his approach to train for this trip differently.
“I let go of my hard training ambitions this spring in the name of just climbing. It felt risky to come back to such a hard route without preparing like I had in the past but mentally I was just so much more level and content.”
“For the last three years I’ve been training and trying my hardest projects nonstop and it was nice to just trust the work I’ve done and give myself the chance to relax and enjoy the climbing. I am still trying to figure out exactly what the balance is for me—as we all are—but this has been an awesome learning experience.” – Jonathan Siegrist
Jonathan Sietrist Pachamama Video:
Click through below to read the full Rock and Ice interview with Jonathan. It’s a great read for any climbers who ever think about trying to balance training to get stronger and wanting to get outside to simply climb.
Also, to give this discussion some more context, be sure to watch this video of Jonathan battling with what he considers to be the hardest route he has ever climbed: Pachamama in Oliana, Spain.
Full Interview: Rock and Ice – Jonathan Siegrist on Three 5.15s in Three Weeks
(photo by Matty Hong; courtesy of rockandice.com and Jonathan Siegrist)
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