Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

strategy will allow you to train much longer (compared with performing the lock-off on the same side, as in the strength-training strategy earlier) and therefore train anaerobic endurance in the crucial lock-off muscles. Your training goal is a total of twenty to fifty lock-offs, which will result in between one to two minutes of exhaustive exercise. Use larger hand- and footholds or a less overhanging wall if you cannot do at least twenty total lock-offs.
    Take a rest break, and then perform a second and third set. The length of rest to take will depend on your level of conditioning. For initial training sessions, take up to a five-minute rest between sets. As your conditioning improves, reduce your rest to as little as one minute—an elite-level anaerobic endurance workout!
SYSTEM WALL TRAINING
     
    System Wall Training is one of the best comprehensive training methods available to climbers. While it’s not the best method of training absolute finger strength, it does provide a highly specific workout of the entire body—from the fingers to the toes—that will develop functional strength in the crucial muscles of the arms, upper body, and core. The efficacy of System Training results from its ability to fatigue a specific combination of grip and arm position while you perform actual climbing movements up a steep wall. For instance, you can lap a System Wall using only the undercling arm position and the open-hand grip position, or you could climb the wall using identical side-pull arm positions and half-crimp grip positions. On a well-built System Wall, there are many other possibilities.
    The base wall for System Training should be at least 6 feet wide, 8 to 10 feet in length, and at an angle of between twenty and thirty degrees past vertical. Still, it’s the type and arrangement of holds that make System Training work. You need to obtain (or make) a large number of identical holds that can be mounted symmetrically to enable training of all the different finger and arm positions (introduced earlier in this chapter). The best bet would be to purchase eight to twelve system holds that can be mounted in pairs side by side and at shoulder width going up the wall. You could also use matching modular holds or cut different-size blocks of wood to create a variety of routes up your wall. Regardless of the hold type, space the identical pairs of holds about 15 to 20 inches apart so you can move up and down them in a ladderlike sequence. Complete the wall with a variety of small footholds scattered about—again, the ideal setup would possess perfect symmetry of both hand- and footholds.
    There are many creative ways to train on a System Wall, but the most fundamental is to climb the wall while isolating a specific combination of grip and arm positions. As shown in figure 7.2, there are many possible permutations of grip and arm positions to train. One training strategy would be to do a single set (one up-and-down lap) using each grip- arm couplet. Another strategy would be to do sev-eral sets that train a specific grip-arm pair that’s either a known weakness or common feature on some project you are working.

     
    Figure 7.2 System Training Permutations
     

    In System Training it’s important to leverage the knowledge you gained in reading chapter 5. If you lack anaerobic endurance, for instance, use larger hand- and footholds that will allow you to lap the System Wall a few times (in other words, shoot for twenty to fifty total hand movements). To train pure strength, however, you would want to climb on smaller holds and with more difficult arm positions that produce failure in ten to twenty hand moves (five to ten per arm). Rest between sets for at least two to three minutes. Finally, keep a training log in which you detail the exact positions and holds used, the number of reps and sets, and the amount of rest between sets. This will help maintain motivation as well as quantify your strength gains.

Complex Training
     
    Complex training is a cutting-edge training method used by elite athletes in many sports, including most power-oriented Olympic events. Applied to climbing, the complex training protocol described below is one of the most advanced strength-training concepts available. Since introducing complex training in the first edition of Training for Climbing in 2002, I have heard from countless climbers around the world who have leveraged this technique to increase their grip strength and upper-body