Most climbers understand that training for a three move boulder problem and training for a 40 meter route require different approaches. With this in mind, here’s an article from the Moon Climbing website that breaks down three training phases for climbing (power, power endurance, and endurance) and discusses how each one relates different types of climbing objectives.
To start, the article breaks down what each one of these phases is by looking at examples of why one failed on a climb:
“Did you fall off because:
1. you couldn’t do the moves? ………you need to work on power or strength
2. you kept on falling off at the top once you’ve done all the hard bit, pumped?……….. you need to work on endurance
3. you could do all the moves but you couldn’t string them together?………. you need to work on your power endurance
These are very clear cut examples but you should be able to relate this to your climbing at some point in the past. Clearly getting up any sort of climb will rely on a number of factors but generally you will be better in one area than another and the weaker area needs to be trained.” – Moon Climbing
Once they have established what each of these training phases are, the article goes on to discuss the importance of cycling between all three phases by reminding us that even the longest endurance pitches require a certain amount of power and that even boulders will need good power endurance to complete longer problems.
To finish, Moon Climbing gives some very important general training advice by reiterating the importance of training with a specific goal in mind.
“Finally, clearly all this points to you having a goal in mind. Just going through these phases aimlessly will be demotivating. Think about what it is you want to achieve and put together a plan which will help you work on your weaknesses whilst topping up your strengths.” – Moon Climbing
While this article does not go into the nuts and bolts about how to train each of the phases, it is a good introduction for any climbers new to the idea of periodized training and a good reminder for climbers of any training history about the importance of not neglecting any one of the phases. Take a look by clicking through below.
Click Here: The Three Training Phases for Climbing
(Photo Credit: Matt Pincus; @mpincus87; Area: Hueco Tanks, TX; Climb: Baby Face, V7; Climber: Edwin Teran)
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