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

minutes. You can then repeat the Tabata with two to five other gripping positions—a heck of a forearm endurance workout!
    One important safety tip for Straight-Arm Hangs: Maintain tension in your shoulders by consciously contracting the muscles surrounding the joint—this will help protect the shoulder from injury.
FINGERBOARD MOVING HANGS
     
    This exercise allows you to work the board continuously for several minutes, much like climbing a long sustained sequence on the rock. Doing this requires somewhere to place your feet while your hands circulate around the board using the grip-relax repeating sequence (GRRS). The best way to do this is to mount your fingerboard so that it’s set a foot or two out from a wall onto which you have mounted a few small footholds. Another possibility is to hang the board above a doorway, then position a chair or stool a couple of feet behind the board. Either way, you will be able to use your toes for support as you circulate your hands around the fingerboard.
    Perform a twenty- to thirty-minute warm-up comprising some aerobic activity, stretching, and some pull-ups and easy hangs on the fingerboard. You should break a light sweat and feel a slight pump in your arms.

     
    Fingerboard moving hang with feet on wall.
     

    Mount the board and then place your feet on footholds or on the edge of a chair. Begin moving your hands around the fingerboard, changing hand positions every three to five seconds. After a minute or two, you will begin to develop a pump in your forearms. Move both hands on to the largest handholds on the board, and shake out each arm for about thirty seconds in an attempt to recovery a little. After this brief shakeout, continue moving your hands around the board for another minute or two. Once again, move to the large holds if you need to shake out and rest your muscles a little. Continue in this fashion with the goal of staying on the board for a total of five to ten minutes. Dismount the board, and take a rest of about ten minutes before proceeding with a second and third set.
BOULDERING AND ROUTE CLIMBING INTERVALS
     
    This is one of the most effective exercises for building forearm endurance, and it should be a staple of every serious climber’s workout program. As the name implies, climbing intervals involves repeating laps on a moderately difficult boulder problem or climb. The training protocol is to alternate climbing burns with rest intervals, much like the interval training performed by runners. The rest phase should be roughly proportionate to the length of the climbing phase. Therefore, if your climbing phase involves sending a ten-move boulder problem (which might take about thirty seconds), you’d want to take a rest of only thirty seconds to, at most, one minute between burns. A longer climbing phase, such as lapping a steep sport climb or moving around your home wall for four minutes, should be followed by a similarly long rest. The climbing-to-rest ratio should be between 1:1 and 1:2.
    Select a boulder problem or route that will be strenuous, yet at a level of difficulty that you will be able to successfully ascend several times. It’s also important that the route is void of tweaky holds or severe moves that might be injurious when climbed repeatedly and in an increasing state of fatigue.
    Climb the route, and then begin a rest period that’s about equal to the length of time you were climbing. Resting any more than double the length of the climbing phase will diminish the training effect. Use a stopwatch so you stay within these guidelines.
    After the rest period, begin your next interval. Climb the boulder problem or route and then take the prescribed rest break. Continue with these climbing intervals until you can no longer complete the boulder problem or climb. If you can successfully perform more than five intervals, then select a slightly more strenuous climb for your next workout.
    A most important training aid is a climbing partner to join you in this workout—your partner will climb during your rest breaks, and vice versa. The camaraderie and encouragement will help you hang on through the increasing pump and pain of interval training.
HIT OR SYSTEM WALL INTERVAL TRAINING
     
    The HIT Strip platform or a specialized System Wall can also be used to train anaerobic endurance via an interval-training strategy. This requires an approach that’s completely different from the HIT maximum-strength workout described earlier. The goal