Juggernaut

This didn’t start out as most training plans do, it sort of “just happened” as I tried to
maintain some level of fitness for climbing through a busy summer and early fall,
and I wasn’t getting as much climbing as I’d like. I was only training a couple days
most weeks and sometimes three, and I really wanted to do the best I could with that
time. As far as what I was addressing:

1. I only had time for maybe 90 minutes, 2-3 times per week. It constrained what
I did, but it also is plenty. Much more and I wouldn’t be recovering enough to
train as hard as I planned.

2. I wanted to get better at hard moves, and maintain some amount of route
endurance. Thus, the climbing focus ended up being on the power end of the
spectrum.

3. I wanted to address overall strength, both because of my age (injury

prevention and power maintenance), and because I am doing other activities. I
don’t want to go out for a short ski day and end up sore from it.

4. I wanted to have a plan that slowly built several facets of fitness, rather than a
more focused plan that would ramp up just one or two.

by Steve Bechtel

CLIMB STRONG
© 2022
Lander, Wyoming, USA
The 12-session sequence.
This is aimed at 2-3 days per week of training, so will take most athletes 4-6 weeks.
1. Pull / Squat 2. Push / Hinge 3. Pull / Squat
Explosive (4-6 reps at 50-60%) Max Effort (1-3 reps at 90+%) Rep Method (6-8 reps at 65-75%)
Boulder Limit Boulder Links Hard Boulder (Volume)

4. Push / Hinge 5. Pull / Squat 6. Push / Hinge

Explosive (4-6 reps at 50-60%) Max Effort (1-3 reps at 90+%) Rep Method (6-8 reps at 65-75%)
Strength + Static Dynamics Boulder Limit Boulder Links

7. Pull / Squat 8. Push / Hinge 9. Pull / Squat

Explosive (4-6 reps at 50-60%) Max Effort (1-3 reps at 90+%) Rep Method (6-8 reps at 65-75%)
Hard Boulder (Volume) Strength + Static Dynamics Boulder Limit

10. Push / Hinge 11. Pull / Squat 12. Push / Hinge

Explosive (4-6 reps at 50-60%) Max Effort (1-3 reps at 90+%) Rep Method (6-8 reps at 65-75%)
Boulder Links Hard Boulder (Volume) Strength + Static Dynamics
 Introduction
Move first. Then worry about getting stronger.

As elemental complexity is increased, the complexity of the program required to improve

fitness is reduced (in other words, the more elements you train, the simpler program
organization you can train). This is why general fitness training (strength, endurance, and
mobility included) can sustain steady increases in fitness longer and use simpler
programming than any model of single-element training.

- Lon Kilgore, Fit

There are many good ways to stay fit for climbing, but most importantly, we need to move. In
this plan, I spent roughly 60% of my time bouldering or doing circuits, and then the rest of
the time with strength and flexibility. This breaks our 75/25 rule, but when I moved back into
going rock climbing, things shifted right back into that zone.

I have mapped this out as a series of 12 sessions. For me, this ends up being 5-6 weeks of
training, for others, 4 is perfectly possible. The big x factor is how much other training you are
doing. If you’re climbing hard outside 2-3 days per week, you might be able to hold on to some
fitness by just doing one of these per week. If you’re locked in for a Sheffield winter, 3 per
week might fit the bill.

I plan these as combined sessions. You lift weights and you train for climbing. I know this
doesn’t work for everyone, so these sessions can be split. Do both on the same day. If you
physically can’t handle it, you lack the work capacity for this plan and should do something
with more low-intensity training until you can handle it.
2
 Movement Patterns

I didn’t want to spend big sessions just moving weights. We can have full hours of weight
training sometimes and get something out of it, but I really wanted to do just enough to stay
strong. With this in mind, I switched from total body training each session to training two
main patterns and some midsection work each session. Thus I had a “Pull/Squat” day and a
“Press/Hinge” day. Naturally, you can change this around, but with the varied loading
programmed, it pays to keep it pretty simple.

These look like this:

Pull/Squat
Vertical Pull
Squat
Core Integrative
Horizontal Pull
Core Flexion

Press/Hinge
Horizontal Press
Hinge
Core Rotational
Vertical Press
Core Integrative

Detailed recommendations on exercises are covered later.

 Methods of Resistance
Also known as the “Westside
Method” because it was
When most of us hit the gym, we go in and do standard tempo
devised by Louie Simmons of
reps. We move the barbell up for a second or so, and then we
move it down. We do five or eight or ten reps to some level of Westside Barbell gym in
local fatigue, and then we rest. This works pretty well. The Columbus, Ohio, the conjugate
problem is that if you’ve done this for a while, you are probably training system has its roots in
not getting a lot out of it anymore.
powerlifting. However, the

We need the ability to generate high force and high power. Enter effectiveness of this program
Westside’s methods. At Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio, extends well beyond the world
they train powerlifters. Although powerlifting has little to do
of powerlifting.
with what we want as climbers, their methods for cycling
strength methods is useful to any athlete. They use three
primary methods in their training.
1. The Max Effort Method. In these sessions, we aim to take
one or two exercises to a super-heavy rep or two. Since
there are five exercises in each of the workouts, the other
ones will be done just for reps. These are still hard
efforts, but not true maximum lifts. On the max
exercises, you’ll warm-up, then work up to a heavy few
reps (3-4), then up to a lift that you can only do for 1-2
reps. For example, you might do a couple of sets of
pull-ups at bodyweight for 6-8 reps. Set 3 would be done
for 3 reps at +50#, Set 4, 2 reps at +65#, and set 5 an
attempt at +75#. We rotate the focus exercise each
session, so in a given 12-session cycle you’ll only top out
one exercise one or maybe two times.
2. The Explosive Method. I love this method for climbers. In
these sessions, you’ll do a normal strength exercise, but
at only 50-60% of your 1-rep max for that lift. At this
lighter load, each rep is done as explosively and quickly
as possible, and then lowered at a normal pace. If my
bodyweight is 175 pounds and my 1RM pull-up is 175+75
(250), I might do the explosive pulls at around
bodyweight -50 pounds. For these, we do three very fast
reps, and generally do 5 sets. Again, only 1-2 of the
exercises should be done in this way, and the rest can be
done for 4-6 reps at normal tempo.
3. The Repetition Method. This is “normal” weight
training. In these sessions we aim to work at 65-75% of
our max load, but look to complete 6-8 reps. On the Rep
Method day (day 3 of the cycle), you plan for three sets of
each exercise. On the explosive or max days, you can do
up to five sets each. A vital part of this program is to keep
aiming to get stronger. Thus, on the final set of each
exercise on Rep Day, you do as many good reps as
possible. If you can do more than 8 reps, the loads must
be increased next time.
When it comes time to program the specific exercises, I like to follow a few rules. Depending on
what we are training, some exercises are better than others.

The table below shows the recommended exercises for each of the three resistance training
session types:

Max Effort Method Explosive Method Repetition Method

Press Bench Press Power Push-Up Ring Push-Up

Military Press Bench Press TRX/Ring Fly
Medicine Ball Chest Dumbbell Bench
Pass Press

Pull Pull-Up Power Pull-Up Inverted Row

Dumbbell Row Clean Ring Pull-Up
Muscle Up Landmine Row

Hinge Deadlift Box Jump Lever

Romanian Deadlift Kettlebell Swing TRX Leg Curl
Medicine Ball Scoop KB Romanian
Toss Deadlift

Squat Front Squat Sled Sprint Goblet Squat

Split Squat Step-Up TRX Bulgarian Split
Back Squat Single Leg Jumps Squat

Core Ankles to Bar Medicine Ball Ab Wheel

Knees to Elbows Rotational Toss Core (Pallof) Press
Plank/Pull

In general, the Max Effort days should be very stable exercises that you can load heavily. This is
essential to developing high levels of muscle fiber recruitment and synchronization. The whole
idea is to overload your body’s ability to generate force. On the explosive days, you want to use
exercises that you can do quickly, and even to the point that they “require” high speed. For
example, we can do Medicine Ball Chest Passes, which, when done slowly, are no different than
dropping a ball on the floor. Think high speed, medium loads these days, and do things like
Power Push-Ups, Box Jumps, and Medicine Ball work. Finally, on the Repetition Method
exercises, I tend to aim more toward stability-challenging exercises such as ring and TRX
work, as well as single-limb movements. This category of exercise helps us bridge the gap
between high force, stable movements and the sport specific movements of climbing.
 Climbing Sessions

I try to keep these sessions pretty flexible, as sometimes I can’t get on the Grasshopper wall, or
the setting crew is on my circuit wall, or I am at home and training in my garage. That being
said, the sessions are targeted at specific needs, and cycled through the program Logical
Progression-style.

Limit Bouldering. I warm up with 7-10 problems of progressively harder difficulty, then
almost every session I move to the resistance training for about 20 minutes. After that, I go in
and hit the hardest problems I can for another 20-30 minutes. Some boulderers go way longer
on the limit work than I do, but I find my power starts to crap out sooner than I’d like.

Boulder Links. This is a threshold endurance workout. I start with 5-8 boulders, and
then typically do the resistance training like I do with the limit problems. After that, I do 5 sets
of 2 problem links, usually both problems are about the same difficulty, linked by an open hold
downclimb. I rest 4 minutes between. After the 5th set, I rest 10 minutes, then do 3 sets of 3
problem links. Totally unscientifically, I try to make the three problems add up to the same
grade total as the 2-problem links done earlier. For example, If I do 2 x V4 problems in the first
part, I try to do a combo of 2 x V3 and 1 x V2 in the second. Honestly, it just keeps me from
going too easy on myself at the end of the session by doing a bunch of V1.
It is wildly tempting to me to make this workout harder by reducing rest between sets.
Don’t do this. Progression should be only achieved by making your link problems HARDER.

Hard Boulder. For me, hard boulders are ones that I can’t onsight, but that I can
typically do in a session. Once I am warmed up, I start into these, doing a combination of
repeated boulders from last session and some new ones. I have a grade range, say V5-V8, and
keep track of total sends and attempts. Over the course of the 12 sessions, I try to do more total
volume here, and don’t worry about pushing grades higher.

Strength + Static Dynamics. In this session, I do the bouldering warm-up of 5-8

problems, then my weight work. After that, I hit the hangboard for 20-30 minutes, and do
some campus board lockoffs and a bit of laddering. I end this whole thing with a set of Static
Dynamics, and try to progress the time on these by 30-45 seconds per session.
 And Then What?

Well, you can certainly switch to performance, but as with most

plans, I think that ramping up and ramping down climbing is the best
way to increase performance. This training is probably OK to do for 3 or 4
months (switching the primary exercises every 12 or 24 sessions).
Honestly, I have not run a bunch of athletes on this one yet, but as we
wade deeper into whether people like it and whether it works, I’ll keep
adding to the site.

- Steve Bechtel
climbstrong.com