Eric Hörst's Training For Climbing Podcast

If you’re a passionate climber who works full-time (or in school), then you likely train indoors during the week with the goal of climbing your best outdoors on the weekend. In this podcast we’ll dig deep into the rich topic of things you can do to optimize your weekend climbing. I’ll cover a wide range of things—perhaps a few that you’ve not thought about—you can do to arrive at the crag fresh and ready to send your project, on-sight at a high level, or climb for volume and maximum fun! While this podcast will be most meaningful to weekend warriors who specialize in sport climbing, the many tips I serve up will also be quite useful for boulder specialists and multi-pitch climbers.

Rundown:

0:50 – Introduction

2:50 – Things that contribute to “low-gravity” send days.

4:35 – Tip 1: Arrive at the crag physically fresh and 100% recovered from your last training or climbing day. Easier said than done...

8:40 – Tip 2: Get your sleep and diet right in the 48 hours leading up to your send day. Performance nutrition is especially important for advanced climbers… Listen up for vital tips!

17:45 – Tip 3: Conduct a quality warm-up before getting on your redpoint or on-sight goal of the day. I’ll take you through what it takes to get your muscles warmed up and nervous system turned on.

24:07 – Tip 4: Make the most of your Day 1 freshness…as you likely won’t be 100% recovered for your Day 2 of climbing. There are a few ways to approach this in order to best invest your time Day 1 and 2.

29:12 – Tip 5: Try to master each project route with the goal of nuancing each move, sequence, clip position, and rest to make it as efficient as possible. In aggregate, striving to refine all aspects of your climb will save you energy and increase the odds of a send—and it just might open up the next grade for you!

39:30 – Tip 6: Rest the right amount between redpoint attempts. I’ll give you science-based guidelines that you can employ and modify, according to how you feel.

44:50 – Tip 7: Breathe optimally, not maximally! Many climbers—and athletes in general—don’t know how to breathe properly to maximize oxygen availability to the muscles. The common practice of overbreathing actually lowers oxygen availability! This is powerful information—listen closely, then begin to become a more conscious breather until you do it right unconsciously.

52:30 – Tip 8: Eat and drink in small/modest amounts throughout the day, but be careful not to overeat and/or overdrink! Many climber tend towards eating and drinking too much during their climbing day with the belief that more is better. Ironically, eating and drinking too much can have the opposite effect.

58:55 – Bonus tip: Get your head right before going for the send. Anticipate success, but accept that a failed attempt is okay…because it’s part of the journey of working and eventually sending the route! As you climb, remain in the moment—take on the route one move at a time—and let the outcome evolve organically.

1:03:30 – Special feature! My thoughts on Alex Honnold’s incredible free-solo of El Capitan, and a throwback to a podcast interview I did with Alex in 2008 after his barrier-breaking free-solo ascent of Yosemite’s Half Dome. Though more than 8 years age, this short interview is quite interesting and revealing. If you’ve seen or heard a recent interview with Alex, it’s remarkable to observe that he’s pretty much the same guy today—as a world-renowned rock star—as he was a 23-year-old just getting his started as a pro climber, per this interview. Enjoy!

1:18:50 – Closing comments

Music: Misty Murphy

Climbing is one of the most complex sports on this third rock from the sun, and training for climbing is an extraordinarily complex activity in its own right. While beginners should mainly climb as their training, progressing from the intermediate rank to advanced and elite ability demands an increasingly focused, demanding, and nuanced climbing-specific exercise program. In this podcast I'll provide an overview of how to best structure your off-season (for many of us, winter season) and in-season (when you most often climb outside for performance) training program. While off-season training should be designed and scheduled to produce significant gains in strength, power, and endurance...your in-season training should be programmed and scheduled in a way to maintain current levels of strength/power/endurance while fostering recovery between weekends (or days) of outdoor climbing...so that you can climb your best when you venture outdoors!

If outdoor climbing performance is really important to you, then it's essential that you arrive at the boulders or crag 100% fresh and ready to give your project your best possible effort. Obviously, we're all different--more different than we are similar--so there's no single "best approach" or "best schedule" for training. Your challenge is to suss out the best program for YOU (and not copy what others are doing), and to actively modify your program and workout schedule to account for fatigue, injury, time availability, shifting goals, and changing strengths & weaknesses. This one-hour podcast will hit you with a lot of important information and ideas on scheduling and executing your off-season and in-season workouts to produce the largest gains, while also helping you to arrive at the crag physically fresh and ready to crush on your performance climbing days!

Podcast Rundown:

2:30 - Introduction to structuring annual training program

4:00 - Philosophy of off-season vs. in-season training

4:00 - Philosophy of off-season vs. in-season training

9:00 - Overview of off-season (for most of us, winter season) training goals and strategy

14:00 - Benefits of a largely polarized approach to off-season training

17:00 - Targeting specific energy systems -- when best to engage in ultra-pumpy anaerobic lactic energy system training

20:00 - Addressing injuries in the off-season; Training around bouldering competitions in the winter season

21:20 - Winter training tips for beginning climbers wanting to improve most quickly...and develop long-term climbing mastery

23:50 - Intro to scheduling of in-season training

26:00 - The importance of impulse control and self-awareness to effective in-season training

34:20 - The best training program for you is....

36:20 - Long-term improvement--how many years can you expect to improve at rock climbing?

40:50 - In-season tips to get your mid-week training "right"...so that you arrive at your project fresh on the weekend....and can climb your best

42:40 - Importance of targeting each energy system at least once per week during your on-season

46:30 - General structure of mid-week training for weekend "roped climbing" (sport or trad routes)

52:40 - Structure of mid-week training for weekend bouldering outings

57:05 - The importance of quality sleep and nutrition in training results and performance outcomes for advanced & elite climbers

1:00:00 - Wrap up and closing comments

Music: Misty Murphy

Copyright 2017 Eric J. Horst

Training For Climbing, LLC

A question I'm often asked is how much time—or attempts—should  you put into a project route, before taking a break and working on other climbs. My short answer (with a few caveats) is that it’s best not to get bogged down by long-haul projects—you will improve as a climber faster by sending lots of routes just below your limit, rather than hanging all over (and repeatedly falling off) a single project route that's beyond your limit.

In this podcast I'll detail my "10-4 Rule" of projecting, which gives guidelines and solid reasoning to keep your projecting efforts brief...to around 10 attempts over 4 days. (Personally, I halve these amounts and, thus, limit myself to a total of about five attempts over two days.)

Podcast rundown:

00:55 - Introduction: How much time should you spend projecting limit routes?

3:12 - The "10-4 Rule" for effective projecting and steady improvement

12:55 - Caveats: When to break the 10-4 Rule

16:20 - Bonus: The "80-20" guideline for outdoor climbing time

20:48 - Ask Eric!

21:22 - Can someone who gets into climbing as a young adult progress to climb at a world-class level?

27:00 - "Last minute" training advice for a slightly out-of-shape route climber going on a climbing trip in one week?

29:50 - Final remarks.

Podcast #11

Training: The Past, The Present, The Future

This episode is more of a free-form podcast rather than  single-topic focused, as in the previous podcasts. I hope you enjoy it!

00:15 - Introduction to Podcast #11

00:46 – The breakthrough climbing achievement of the year….Margo Hayes ascent of La Rambla, the first consensus 5.15a redpoint by a female.

3:05 – Similarities between Margo Hayes and Alex Megos – Smart training with a long-term perspective.

6:55 – Feature topic: Training for climbing….the past, the present, and the future.

9:25 – Comments on Eric’s 40th anniversary in climbing…and 30 years as a coach, researcher, and author. Insight into Eric’s sources of inspiration…and quest for innovation in training for climbing.  

11:10 - Training for climbing….The Past: John Gill – The Father of Training for Climbing. Did you know he climbed V9/5.13+ moves in the 1960s!

16:10 – Training for climbing….The Present: The training information glut of 2017. But can you distinguish the good from the bad (advice)?

19:45 – Training for climbing….The Future: I predict a revolution! New testing and training technologies, more effective training protocols and programming, and the path to 5.16a!

27:25 – Question & Answer: “Ask Eric”

27:38 – Question 1: How do I determine my optimal body weight…in the quest of gaining a higher relative peak finger force (strength-to-weight ratio)

28:00 – Question 2: What do you think of one-arm hangboard training…with the free hand gripping a helper sling?

37:10 – How to submit a training question to Eric

38:20 – Closing comments

Music: Misty Murphy

Photo: Bruce Wilson

Download all the monthly training podcasts for free by subscribing to the "Eric Horst's Training for Climbing" podcast on iTunes. Please leave a review on iTunes!

In terms of physical attributes, increasing relative peak finger force is central to taking your climbing to the next level—think of this as the finger force you can apply to a rock hold in relation to the body mass the fingers must support.  Improving this finger strength-to-weight ratio is possible by increasing the numerator (greater finger strength) and decreasing the denominator (lowering body mass).

While there are many different fingerboard training methods/protocols/programs (some good, some bad) in the public domain, this podcasts will present four evidence-based protocols that work. Experienced climbers, with no recent history of injury to the fingers/elbows/shoulders, can employ one of these maximum-grip-strength protocols on a twice-a-week basis as supplement to time spent climbing. Aggregate number of climbing and finger training days per week must not exceed four—resting the fingers a minimum of three days per week is essential for neuromuscular recovery and finger tendon remodeling. Break this rule and you’ll likely end up “broken”….in one way or another.

Podcast Rundown:

1:14 - Review of 5 reasons why stronger fingers are central to taking your climbing to the next level

4:24 - Intro to maximum finger strength training on a hangboard

4:50 - Importance of "Relative Peak Finger Force"

10:10 - 3 Hangboard training modalities

13:33 - Training protocol 1: "Minimum Edge"

19:14 - Training protocol 2: "Maximum Weight 10-second Hangs"

25:20 - Training protocol 3: "7-53 Weight Hangs"

32:00 - Training protocol 4: "7/3 Repeaters"

41:00 - How to fingerboard with good technique...to protect & strengthen your shoulders.

45:05 - Hangboard training program design - How to integrate your with your other workouts and performance climbing.

53:00 - Closing comments

Music: Misty Murphy

Download all the monthly training podcasts for free by subscribing to the "Eric Horst's Training for Climbing" podcast on iTunes. Please leave a review on iTunes!

While climbing is, first and foremost, a mental and technical skill sport, long-term improvement—and pursuing your genetic potential—demands getting stronger in a number of climbing specific ways. Numerous research studies have confirmed that elite climbers, compared with non-elites, have higher grip-strength-to-mass ratio, greater forearm endurance, and a higher rate of force development in the finger flexors. Therefore, assuming that you have solid technical and mental skills, training for stronger fingers is paramount to taking your climbing to the next level. In this episode you'll learn 5 reason why strong fingers matter--this will set the stage for the next podcast which will cover effective fingerboard training techniques.

0:15 - Intro 1:00 - Research on Finger Strength of Elite Climbers

1:42 - Reason #1 Why Strong Fingers Matter - They Can Grip Smaller Holds

3:00 - #2: Stronger Fingers Can Endure Longer

9:10 - About Zlagboard

11:55 - #3: Strong Finger Can Rest on Smaller Holds

15:25 - #4: Strong Fingers Have More Stamina

18:15 - #5: Strong Fingers Make Climbing More Fun!

18:50 - Summary

20:10 - Closing Comments

Tune in next month for detailed coverage of effective fingerboard training for stronger fingers!

Music: Misty Murphy

Download all the monthly training podcasts for free by subscribing to the "Eric Horst's Training for Climbing" podcast on iTunes. Please leave a review on iTunes!

Welcome to the launch of the new Training for Climbing podcast! This is one full hour of rich training-for-climbing content, so you may want to take notes or listen twice! Here's an outline of the show:

1:00 - Podcast overview 8:30 - Topic #1: Training program design 9:45 - Beginner-training program tips 14:20 - Effective training for intermediate-level climbers 17:45 - Advance & elite off-season program design 22:15 - Periodization schemes 30:00 - Topic #2: The importance of getting stronger during the off-season 32:20 - How stabilizer-muscle training can make your fingers stronger 34:50 - Overview of hangboard and campus training for maximum strength and power development 36:30 - The "7/53" hangboard training protocol 39:20 - Weighted pull-ups training 41:00 - Complex training 42:50 - What about endurance training? 48:00 - Topic #3: How to make the most of your gym training time 53:30 - Two MOs of gym climbers 56:10 - 4 Tips for effective gym training 58:00 - What is "junk training"? 1:00:00 - Closing comments

Listen closely. Apply. Send!

Music: Misty Murphy

Download all the monthly training podcasts for free by subscribing to the "Eric Horst's Training for Climbing" podcast on iTunes. Please leave a review on iTunes!

In this episode we’ll examine two of the most common fears among climbers--the fear of falling and the fear of failure--and I’ll arm you with several strategies for managing, and perhaps even eliminating, these fears once and for all!

Music: Misty Murphy

You've spent the winter and spring training hard in the gym...yet for some reason your new physical prowess isn't translating into better performance outside. If this sounds familiar, then this podcast is for you! Climbing is, first and foremost, a mental and technical skill sport, so climbing your best demands that you refine your mental and movement skills, in addition to getting stronger. This podcast will detail 8 things you can do--both on and off the rock--to climb better this summer...and break through to the grade level!

Music by: Misty Murphy

In this podcast we’ll take a look at the most fundamental aspect of effective climbing: risk management. After all, if you get hurt—or worst—then all your time spent training and climbing is for naught. This is critically important and potentially empowering information, so please listen in!

Music by: Misty Murphy

Photo by: Eric McCallister