Recovery Weeks

Watch: Integrated Strength

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Everything about training for climbing is complicated. It is an exercise in compromise – focus on power and you lose endurance, too much time getting your fingers strong, and your redpoint grade drops. Over the years, there have been many creative solutions proposed to solve this problem. Many programs are more or less stolen from…

Watch: Goal Setting Part 2

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The majority of climbers have goals, but not many have a framework that will lay out a path to succeed at ambitious, long-term objectives – even though almost all of us have them! In this video Alex discusses how to structure your goal setting so you have have a clear pathway to your short term,…

Watch: Goal Setting Part 1

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The majority of climbers have goals, but not many have a framework that will lay out a path to succeed at ambitious, long-term objectives – even though almost all of us have them! In this video Alex discusses how to structure your goal setting so you have have a clear pathway to your short term,…

Watch: Foundational Mental Skills Part 2

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Training of mental skills is often overlooked by climbers but they are incredibly important to unlock an athletes full potential, along with cultivating a healthy relationship with your climbing. In this video Alex discusses the final two principles of Foundational Mental Skills: Productive Thinking and Self Confidence. Click here to watch Part 1. Want To…

Watch: Foundational Mental Skills Part 1

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Training of mental skills is often overlooked by climbers but they are incredibly important to unlock an athletes full potential, along with cultivating a healthy relationship with your climbing. In this video Alex discusses the first two principles of Foundational Mental Skills: Motivation + Drive and Self Awareness. Part 2 will address Productive Thinking and…

Active Recovery

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Sleep and nutrition play the biggest roles in recovering from training or hard climbing, but there are other variables you can leverage to recover more efficiently on a short or long term basis. In this video Steve discusses tools for recovery in between redpoint efforts, on your rest days, and on a larger scale within…

Justin Iskra, Zach Snavely Demonstrate the Brettzel Stretch in Climb Strong Class, B&W

Recovery Points – Challenging Youth Athletes to Recover Well

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by Steve Bechtel A little while back, I wrote an article about Recovery Training, where I tried to underscore the idea that you should take your recovery as seriously as you do your climbing and training. We all love to add and add and add to our training in hopes that somehow the throttling will…

Charlie Manganiello spots a child as she climbs in the climbing gym

Revisiting Bouldering Training for Novices

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by Steve Bechtel One of the most powerful tools we can acquire for getting better is to figure out how much getting better there is to be done. I first wrote the Novice Bouldering Program in 2010, re-released it a couple of years back, and am revisiting it again now. Why? Because it is one…

Ouray Ice Climbing Location Unknown

Advanced Strategies for Progress: Volume Variability

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by Steve Bechtel All you have to do is read the title to know that this isn’t one of those lovely “simplify it” articles. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of simple plans – yet sometimes, at the very tippy top of your ability, things need to get complicated when you try to move…

View of Climb Strong Classroom, Airdynes, Rowers, Systems Boad, Campus Board, Photo by Mei Ratz

Cycling Your Training

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by Steve Bechtel We all love a good story, especially the ones we want to be true. One of my favorites is that of Milo of Croton, a Greek wrestler who lived in the 6th century BC. Milo, was, by all descriptions a very strong and talented athlete, so much so that his legend outlived…

Bouldering Toe Hook

Training Programs for Bouldering – Advanced

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By Steve Bechtel I was reluctant to release this training plan, and here’s why: I don’t think more than a handful of the climbers that will read this plan really need this plan. I have released training plans for novices and intermediate level climbers and I believe these plans are better plans for almost every…

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