Endurance Training

What have you found to be the best ways to train for better endurance when climbing?

I like to traverse for 15-30 minutes at a time, even if at times I get a no hands rest or am on 5.easy ground. I feel like I get into a different mode after 10 or 15 minutes that's closer to climbing a long pitch. Partially mental but that matters too, and it helped me. My favorite circuit was to climb up and down a hand crack, maybe 25' high, then traverse about 40' across and back and do it again.

Another favorite was to string together boulder problems several grades below my max climbing up and down.

If you can't tell, this was training in a bouldering gym. If you've got routes you might not need to bother. I recommend the long times on the wall though, especially at the end of the day. I was usually pretty soaked in sweat, and its fun.

There's a ton of more scientific and detailed information out there, Steve House, Eric Horst, a new one called The Rock Climbers Training Manual, etc.

depends on what and how much or how long you plan to endure...

the answer would be to increase your anaerobic and aerobic threshold.
anaerobic - being an amount of work that you cannot maintain, or keeps you out of breath
aerobic - being an amount of work that you can sustain, and breathe thru

working with resistance or climbing at a level that you cannot sustain, will increase your capacity for immediate stress, thereby increasing your anaerobic threshold. simply put, you'll be able to hold on to increasingly difficult holds, longer, as they become less difficult.

working within your limits for increasingly longer periods of time, will increase your capacity for work over a given time or distance, thereby increasing your aerobic threshold.

sounds like you want to be stronger and climb longer. so the basic answer is to climb hard and long. and you don't necessarily have to do these at the same time.

I get on the autobelay at my gym and climb up and down for 45min to an hour. I keep it low effort, which typically for me means climbing 5.8 - 5.9 moves for that whole time. I do this a couple times a week and also do 1-2 days with limit bouldering.

If work and school aren't demanding, I sometimes cycle into power endurance and do linked bouldering circuits (4x4s without getting off the wall), but those fucking hose me and I need to go home and nap afterwards. They are tremendously effective, but should be used in moderation (I think).

Nick K wrote:I get on the autobelay at my gym and climb up and down for 45min to an hour.

So you're the guy who's been hogging the autobelay so I can't work on my 5.7 proj!

Most people train to climb really easy routes. The long traverses, the autobelay, etc. Those don't train you to complete a hard route at your limit. They don't really train you to do anything other than deal with sore hands.

From a climbing perspective, endurance is more akin to three 90 second bursts of absolutely maximal effort with a jug to separate each effort. Or 10 minutes of submaximal effort but close to the threshold with nowhere to get any rest. It can even mean increasing your bouldering limit from a 6 move V5 to a 6 move v6.

What are your goals regarding endurance? Something at the Red? Indian Creek? Just in general? There are a lot of people here who are a lot more knowledgable than me on the subject. If you get specific, they'll chime in.

I'll just leave this here...

Part 1:

nicros.com/training/article…

Part 2:

nicros.com/training/article…

and just in case that wasn't enough

nicros.com/training/article…

nicelegs wrote:Most people train to climb really easy routes. The long traverses, the autobelay, etc. Those don't train you to complete a hard route at your limit. They don't really train you to do anything other than deal with sore hands.

I disagree. At least, don't discount it out of hand. Endurance on the easier parts lets you recover between cruxes, I felt that improve greatly for me with long traverses. Got pretty solid at onsighting low 12s, and I never did anything harder than a 12c, kinda weird. I definitely agree that increasing your top line strength helps, again just going of my own anecdotal experience, I think that's the ceiling I hit.

Like it was asked before, the big question is what kind of endurance are you looking for. Do you want to increase your endurance so that you can finally send your 40 foot project, where you can climb every move quite easily but can not connect them, or do you want to climb the nose.
Do you predominantly climb on continous routes with not good rest, or do your typical climbing route where the difficulty varies alot.

Personally i do most of my endurance work by climbing interval routes. A typical exercise for me is 10 traverse routes, with 3-5 min rest. I usually start quite easy in the 5.9 range (My max onsight level in the gym is low 5.11 and my max red point level is 5.12a/b) and progress to the 5.11a range. Usually i only do 2-3 routes in that grade and then do some easier stuff. The routes are always physical, medium to strong overhanging, with no decent rest position. At the end of this excercise i am usually quite pumped but not extreme pumped.

Another good endurance exercise is to try to climb as many medium difficult boulder as possible in 1-2h. For me this consist of 15-20 Problems in the V3-V4 range (my max level is V6).

I totally disagree with the folks saying low effort endurance isn't important. It's not the only thing to do to raise your endurance, but it's definitely important.

Read the Rock Climber's Training Manual, Training for the New Alpinism, 9 out of 10 climbers, the Power Company Blog, the Rock and Ice training series they publish, all of them use ARCing as part of their routine in some form. It's essentially aerobic base for climbing, and I'd venture that every single major sport (who've put millions of dollars into this sort of research) considers aerobic base an indispensable part of their training. Shit, Olympic sprinters typically still log a base mileage in the area of 60-80 miles a week.

So, for max results, ARCing seems non-optional, how you choose to layer other strategies on top of it isn't.

Whether you want to periodize, use a high/low type strategy or do something else is a matter of preference/lifestyle.

And yeah, I'm definitely the guy blocking your 5.7 proj on the autobelay.

I wrote my comment with the assumption that the OP isn't a beginner and is also in decent shape for harder projects.

I'll admit, I have next to nothing to base that off of.

My thought process is as follows: He wants endurance > he probably has a project or area that requires it > he's been climbing long enough to recognize endurance is a problem > he's probably got the miles in.

Therefore, traversing is waste of time to help him achieve his goals (which I invented in my head).

I'd not suggest a noob or someone off the couch go straight into power endurance training or projecting a route. OP if you're a n00b or straight off the couch, give yourself a couple months of gradually increasing sub maximal climbing before going full on.

Remember though, one of my detractors mentioned in his comment that he's plateau'd with his training, even though he suggest you train the same way.

I think Luc is going to the Red

mountainproject.com/v/climb…

Isn't summer a pretty desperate time there?

I'm with Nice on this one- I never see the best climbers at the gym doing ARC traverses. Might be useful for some folks, but doesn't seem obligatory at all levels.

If I was going to train for the Red, I'd get Kris Hampton's endurance program

trainingbeta.com/8-week-end…

or try Bill Ramsey's Kill Bill routine. (Which probably would kill me)

redriverclimbing.com/viewto…

Ha!!

Sponsored climber doing 5.14's. How to get better, traverse!!!

I haven't read everyone replies but the VAST majority of climbers who think they need endurance because they pump out actually need strength. Endurance isn't even really a topic until you reach 20 minutes minimum, and I challenge you to find a climb where you don't get to rest your hands for 20 minutes. Even the "enduro corner" only takes a few minutes, not ture metabolic endurance.

Hand/grip strength: just focus on strength. (there's not really such a thing as forearm endurance in climbing unless you're a professional ladder climber). If you're stronger and working under your maximum you will last longer and recover quicker. Recovery isn't muscle specific anyway, it's systemic, so it's not like you have to work on forearm recovery.

Core strength, on the other hand, will need endurance because you may very well have to keep body tension for long periods of time. Even on approaches. And working on endurance and aerobic exercise for your core will help every part of your body recover more quickly.

Mark E Dixon wrote:I think Luc is going to the Red mountainproject.com/v/climb… Isn't summer a pretty desperate time there? I'm with Nice on this one- I never see the best climbers at the gym doing ARC traverses. Might be useful for some folks, but doesn't seem obligatory at all levels. If I was going to train for the Red, I'd get Kris Hampton's endurance program trainingbeta.com/8-week-end… or try Bill Ramsey's Kill Bill routine. (Which probably would kill me) redriverclimbing.com/viewto…

Kris Hampton advocates ARCing, it's even mentioned in the preview snapshot of the link you posted. He's the guy I first learned about the high/low approach from on the Power Company blog.

Bill Ramsey mentions pyramiding with a base of subjectively low effort work when he's talking about the treadwall stuff. There's still a large volume of low effort climbing involved in that plan too.

Even if you want to call it your warm up and your cool down, if you start a workout with a 15-20 minute warm up of continuous climbing, and end it with a similar routine (as the Mikes advocate in Rock Climbers Training manual), you're still doing a high volume of easy climbing in each workout.

That's the thing, everyone calls it different things, all the pros putting out training plans advocate it, but everyone is doing some sort of it. But it seems like most people climbing for fun gloss over that sort of thing, and skip straight to interval training, which comes at the end of all of the periodized training cycles.

I'm not saying everyone needs monster blocks of continuous climbing, we're not all training for the same things. But having some significant amount of subjectively low effort climbing is something that's incredibly useful and often overlooked.

nicelegs wrote: What are your goals regarding endurance? Something at the Red? Indian Creek? Just in general? There are a lot of people here who are a lot more knowledgable than me on the subject. If you get specific, they'll chime in.

I'm an Arkansan climber climbing in the 5.13-5.14 range getting ready for a trip to the Red. I'm used to routes at a max of 60 or so feet but need to get ready for 85-115 foot routes. I really need to work on power endurance, climbing at my max limit for longer periods of time.

Mark E Dixon wrote:I think Luc is going to the Red mountainproject.com/v/climb… Isn't summer a pretty desperate time there? I'm with Nice on this one- I never see the best climbers at the gym doing ARC traverses. Might be useful for some folks, but doesn't seem obligatory at all levels. If I was going to train for the Red, I'd get Kris Hampton's endurance program trainingbeta.com/8-week-end… or try Bill Ramsey's Kill Bill routine. (Which probably would kill me) redriverclimbing.com/viewto…

I'm used to worse humidity and heat here in Arkansas. As a high school student, its my only chance to go out there due to school.

MalcolmX wrote:Like it was asked before, the big question is what kind of endurance are you looking for. Do you want to increase your endurance so that you can finally send your 40 foot project, where you can climb every move quite easily but can not connect them

I'm fit that description perfectly, I'm working 60 or so foot routes where I can work every move and do the cruxes individually, yet struggle to link routes.

limpingcrab wrote:I haven't read everyone replies but the VAST majority of climbers who think they need endurance because they pump out actually need strength.

I really need to be able to keep the pump away, and I need to keep stronger longer, I think my finger/forearm strength is pretty sufficient as I'm climbing pretty difficult routes, I just need to keep it longer to be able to link a 50-115 foot route.

Luc Ried wrote: I'm fit that description perfectly, I'm working 60 or so foot routes where I can work every move and do the cruxes individually, yet struggle to link routes.

In your case i doubt that will you profit much from low intensity base endurance workouts. Instead i would focus on specific strenght endurance. Try do many routes of a similar length like your goal routes with short breaks in between (guideline is that the breaks should not be longer than twice the climbing time). Your training routes should be hard enough to get you pumped, but not so hard that you struggle to send them on the first tries.

Also keep in mind to not only focus on endurance, but also work on your maximum strenght. Here is a quite interesting interview with Adam Ondra, where he talks about his training for the lead world championship this year and how he tried to get better on power endurance routes:

eveningsends.com/climbing/a…

"For a long time, I thought I could gain better power-endurance simply by climbing a lot of routes. But it didn’t really work. I was getting better, but there seemed to be some kind of barrier that I could never overcome. No matter how hard I trained, I couldn’t hang on any longer on the wall.

I began to understand that if I increased my power, I could make the moves feel easier and I could rest better on the route because all the holds felt bigger. This is why my training for lead included a lot of explosive campusing and bouldering—because I knew I needed it"

MalcolmX wrote: In your case i doubt that will you profit much from low intensity base endurance workouts. Instead i would focus on specific strenght endurance. Try do many routes of a similar length like your goal routes with short breaks in between (guideline is that the breaks should not be longer than twice the climbing time). Your training routes should be hard enough to get you pumped, but not so hard that you struggle to send them on the first tries. Also keep in mind to not only focus on endurance, but also work on your maximum strenght. Here is a quite interesting interview with Adam Ondra, where he talks about his training for the lead world championship this year and how he tried to get better on power endurance routes: eveningsends.com/climbing/a… "For a long time, I thought I could gain better power-endurance simply by climbing a lot of routes. But it didn’t really work. I was getting better, but there seemed to be some kind of barrier that I could never overcome. No matter how hard I trained, I couldn’t hang on any longer on the wall. I began to understand that if I increased my power, I could make the moves feel easier and I could rest better on the route because all the holds felt bigger. This is why my training for lead included a lot of explosive campusing and bouldering—because I knew I needed it"

Thank you! Gonna try that next time I'm out at my local crag. I just installed a campus board, so maybe that will help like Ondra said. I appreciate your responses.