Power

Bouldering 436 Plan – Specific Power

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4 week plan – 3 days per week – 60-120 minutes per session This is a 3x per week bouldering plan that last 4 weeks. The training involves a medium-intensity day, a high-intensity day, and a low-intensity day each week. It is best to start this cycle with a good base of finger strength and…

In-Depth: Training “Starting Strength”

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Total Body Power – 6 Weeks – Cycled Volume

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Power training is a harsh mistress, and can destroy you as easily as it can build you up. High loads and high speed make for ample opportunities to make mistakes, and we tend to overdo it in these workouts…especially when we’re jumping from hold to hold. This training plan is built with two firm goals…

In-Depth: Campusing Isn’t The Best Choice for Power

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The Bouldering Warm-Up, In-Depth

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The key to climbing hard comes down to two things, really – holding on to small holds and doing hard moves. We can break these components down into discrete exercises, or we can package them together into the best climbing exercise there is: bouldering. Bouldering, for most of us, should be about going into the…

In-Depth: The Kettlebell Swing

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In-Depth: The Kettlebell Swing from Steve Bechtel on Vimeo. We use this exercise with almost all of our athletes, almost all the time. The kettlebell swing is a great exercise for lower body power development and integration of movement. Start with the ‘bell on the ground a foot or more in front of you, then…

Box Jump

Training Power in the Weight Room

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“Power,” said Hassan Saab, “If you’re talking about it, you ain’t got it.” In hard climbing, power is everything. When we reach our limits, whether they be 5.11 or 5.15, we start having to use speed and momentum to get between the holds. Most climbers recognize this and train for it specifically – buy using…

Power Bouldering Training Plan 2

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This training plan has been our most-downloaded plan for over five years. It’s pretty basic, but it delivers results. The version here is updated from the original 2007 program to reflect changes in our programming. This training cycle is set up to allow a little more leeway in an athlete’s training. It is a repeating…

Power Bouldering Training Plan 1

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The Power Bouldering plans are built to help you maximize power production in boulderers and route climbers. This training plan incorporates bouldering (indoors or out), campusing, and resistance training. This is a simple Level I plan, appropriate for climbers who have been training very little in the past 12 months, want a very simple program,…

Alex Bridgewater on Campus Board, Photo by Mei Ratz

Superpower

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By Steve Bechtel We like to talk about power in climbing, and we like to think of ourselves as training “power” when we boulder, but is that really what we’re doing? The most powerful athletes in the world compete in activities lasting fewer than ten seconds. The athletes I am talking about are Olympic lifters…

power bouldering, image courtesy of Butora USA

Strength and Power Sessions for Bouldering

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By Steve Bechtel Training for bouldering is a little bit different than just bouldering. I submit that just bouldering itself is great for getting good at the sport, just as going running is a good way to get ready for a 5k. As you know, though, top runners don’t “just run.” In order to develop…

Brad Hilbert Bouldering, image courtesy of Butora USA

Introduction to Training for Bouldering

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By Steve Bechtel Bouldering is exactly the same as rock climbing, except that it’s way harder. In an attempt to do this way harder sport, we often employ rock climbing training programs, yet they don’t quite work. This article is intended to highlight these differences, provide an introduction to bouldering training, and suggest an alternative…

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