What is your opinion on the Treadwall?

Hey guys and gals,

Recently i came across a picture of a Treadwall. I have never used one let alone seen one in real live and was wondering what they are like. Are they any good for training or fun to use? Don't they get repetitive? Is it hard to set a route on one? Just curios about your opinions on the product.

Thanks in advance

They are good for training endurance. You can set couple different problems, abd do a circuit climbing through one, then the other, then the first again, etc.  Repetitive— sure. But your goal on a tread wall isn’t to do a 200 unique moves. It’s just to stay on the wall, and kept going. Just like your goal on a treadmill isn’t to see beautiful sights along the trail while you are doing your 5-10 mile run.

Ultimately, you don’t need them. You can do up/down climbing on a bouldering wall. Or traversing. But if you have access to one, it’s nice to have. I think they were a hot item for a short bit, and then the trend passed, but many people successfully use them to train. 

I've been using one occasionally for the last few years. For like four days a week I'll get up early and do the a tread wall for 20 mins and it hardly detracts from more performance oriented climbing but after a few weeks I feel that like "end of a road trip fitness". In the summer I use a homewall with an ARC'ing circuit.

Without a dedicated circuit it's hard to dial the intensity that low, the second 10 mins should feel no harder than the first 10 mins. And, 20 mins is about the minimum ammount of time but it's sooo boring. I need to set up a podcast or something. I tape my fingers to deal with the jug rash.

Edit to add: It's a great way to get that base fitness if you don't have time to go outside and get mileage.

I used the heavily set treadwall at my gym when I was first teaching my body how to move for ice climbing. It was overhanging, and I simply set it to the slowest speed with a stop each move. Used anything on the wall, since it was the movement pattern I was after. It helped a lot!

I've not used it since, but I've not done squat for training lately, except buy ice cream yesterday. 

Best, Helen