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

pull muscles) and your body’s ability to sustain exercise near or beyond its lactate threshold. So, while stamina training will have no real impact on your maximum-move ability, it will enhance recovery between climbs, as well as increase your anaerobic threshold and ability to persevere through long, sustained boulder problems or sport routes.
    But before you set out to run five miles per day, remember that high-volume stamina training could be viewed as the enemy of strength and power training of the upper body. Not only would it divert time you could invest more effectively—say, in bouldering—but regular high-mileage aerobic activity results in systemic fatigue that may prevent you from training and climbing up to your potential. Furthermore, excessive aerobic training has a catabolic effect on the muscles of the upper body: That is, the body begins to metabolize muscle during long training sessions.

     
    Indoor lead walls are the ideal platform for interval training. Here Lorin Teres pulls down at Metro Rock, Boston. ERIC McCALLISTER
     

    Let’s examine two popular stamina training strategies: climbing intervals and running intervals.
CLIMBING INTERVALS
     
    Climbing through a timed bouldering circuit or doing timed laps on a route is the most specific form of stamina training for boulderers and crag climbers. This is analogous to a weight-lifting circuit-training program, which research has shown to yield gains in cardiovascular (aerobic) conditioning. In bouldering, the goal is to climb a series of moderately difficult problems with only brief rest intervals in between. Select problems that are a few grades below your maximum ability—the right grade problem should make you work, yet not test you maximally or cause you to fall off repeatedly. When climbing with a rope, the training goal is to climb five laps on a moderately hard route, each comprising three to six minutes of climbing followed by three to six minutes of rest. This is basically the same workout strategy as in training local forearm endurance, so by engaging in climbing intervals you are training both anaerobic endurance and stamina.
    Although this drill can be performed at an outdoor crag, it’s ideal for use at a commercial gym with friendly holds and nontechnical overhanging terrain. The goal is to train the body, not climbing skills or technique—so regardless of whether you are interval training on a boulder problem or route, the moves should not be so hard that you fall off.
    The goal in stamina training is to develop the capacity to sustain moderately difficult climbing activity while avoiding complete muscular failure. If you develop a deep muscular pump, immediately decrease the climbing difficulty so that you don’t shift into training anaerobic endurance. It’s important to have a training plan and stick to it, whether it’s to climb a few laps on a route or send a circuit of ten boulder problems. Decide how long you will rest between each ascent, then stick to a prescribed schedule. Purchase a stopwatch (less than $10 at most sports stores) to time precise rests between climbs. This is a great thirty- to sixty-minute stamina workout!
    Whether you are climbing route intervals or a bouldering circuit, ask your belayer or spotter to join in on the session. It’s of great benefit to have a partner who’s vested in the training—this will enhance motivation and create a training synergy that is mutually beneficial. Take turns timing each other with the stopwatch, and have fun!
RUNNING INTERVALS
     
    Competitive runners view interval training as the gold standard for increasing one’s capacity to sustain moderate- to high-intensity running and race-day pace. These benefits come as a result of an increase in aerobic capacity (VO 2 max) and lactate threshold. The long-term benefits of this training methodology are so profound that all serious medium- to long-distance runners incorporate some form of interval training into their monthly training cycle.
    The physiological adaptations of interval training can also be a boon for serious rock climbers. While the act of running intervals is hardly specific to climbing, its effects on the cardiovascular system are not far different from a long, multicrux route. If you engage in any form of long, strenuous climbing, you can be sure that running intervals will improve your performance, in terms of both improved total stamina and accelerating recovery between efforts.
    The most common