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

people undoubtedly climb a lot. Sure, the drudgery of working on weak points isn’t fun, and at times it can be discouraging. But if you really want to climb harder, you must train smarter. That means knowing where to best invest your time to get the most output for your training input. For the majority of climbers, the best investment is on further development of climbing skills and strategy (see figure 1.5).

     
    Figure 1.5 Relative Gains
     

    Elite climbers may have less to gain from practicing familiar forms of climbing. These expert climbers are way out on the learning curve near their ultimate skill potential, so fitness (and the mind) becomes the crucial factor in performance. Hence, we commonly see magazine articles about these rock stars that describe seemingly lethal or disastrously stressful strength-training regimes that would surely send the ordinary climber into a state of overtraining, the doctor’s office, or self-defeating over-reliance on strength training as the key to improvement.
    Focused fitness training is of greater importance for all climbers after a layoff, whether due to injury, winter, or some other reason (see figure 1.6). The rapid loss of strength that occurs when training or climbing ceases for a period of weeks or months is best counteracted by several weeks of dedicated fitness training (fortunately, you largely maintain climbing skill once the motor programs are well established). While this short-term training focus helps in regaining your old form, the long-term and most significant improvements in climbing ability will still result from effective skill practice until late in your career. Only at the lofty grades of 5.12 and above does sport-specific strength become a major limiting factor.

     
    Figure 1.6 Performance Losses
     

Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID)
     
    Serious climbers would be wise to train and climb in accordance with the cornerstone principles of the field of exercise science. For example, knowledge of the SAID Principle (specific adaptation to imposed demands) can be leveraged to maximize the effectiveness of your training for a specific climbing goal or dream climb.
    The SAID Principle explains that a certain exercise or type of training produces adaptations specific to the activity performed and only in the muscles (and energy systems) that are stressed by the activity. For instance, running produces favorable adaptations in the leg muscles and the cardiovascular system. But the muscles and systems not stressed show no adaptation, so even heroic amounts of running will produce no favorable changes in, say, the arms. Of course, the adaptations that result from running do transfer somewhat to other activities that depend on the same body parts and systems (such as mountain biking or hiking). Bottom line: The SAID Principle demands that effective training for climbing must target your body in ways very similar to climbing (body position, muscles used, energy systems trained, and so forth).

     
    Figure 1.7 Continuum of Specific Adaptations for Various Subdisciplines of Climbing
     

    Similarly, your body adapts in a specific fashion to the specific demands you place on it while climbing. If you boulder a lot, you will adapt to the specific skill and strength demands of bouldering. If you climb mostly one-pitch sport routes, you adapt to the unique demands of zipping up, say, 30 meters of rock before muscular failure. If you favor multipitch routes or big walls, your body will adapt in accordance to the demands of these longer climbs. Or if your outings are alpine in nature, your physiological response will be specific to the very unique demands of climbing in the mountains.
    The vitally important distinction here is that while all these activities fall under the headline of “climbing,” they each have unique demands that produce very specific physical adaptations. Therefore, the training effect from regular bouldering will do very little to enhance your physical ability for alpine climbing. Figure 1.7 shows that the specific demands of sport climbing are much closer to those of bouldering. Consequently, the adaptations incurred from frequent bouldering will largely carry over to sport climbing (especially short sport climbs) and vice versa.
    Due to the SAID Principle, your practice and training on the rocks should be spent mostly on the type of climbing in which you wish to excel. It’s no mistake that the best boulderers in the world rarely