Climbers typically think that endurance can only be completed in a few ways; on a route, a circuit board, horizontal traversing or some kind of sub maximal fingerboard protocol. In a way, this belief and practice is a function of what works best and also what tools climbers typically have at their disposal. Some of you however, may only have access to system boards (homemade, Moon, Kilter, Tension Board etc) or bouldering walls that don’t easily allow for a lot of terrain to be covered at the right intensity. In a nutshell, if you complete more than a couple of minutes of climbing on this terrain you’re going to be close to failing! We certainly don’t want this for endurance sessions…
This is where we get Ollie Torr to step in and explain how we do things!
1. Feet on the ground “French traversing” is our favorite, simple way of reducing the intensity. Yes, it may look a bit silly, but it’s REALLY effective! It works well on anything from 20-60 degrees overhanging.
2. Beef those holds up! Get a nice selection of bigger holds on your wall or if you’re in a commercial wall choose the sections of wall with the largest holds.
3. Aerobic Capacity training in an “high intensity interval” style, where you break your climbing down into much shorter blocks and run multiple reps/sets of them. You’ll have less issues with metabolites building up in the forearm and you’ll be able to complete much more volume in your session by using this. The key is in keeping the work blocks short… you really must stay away from intervals too much longer than 1 minute if unfit or the intensity relatively high and up to 2 or 3 mins if you’re fit and the intensity is lower.
Find out more about our Lattice Training Plans here: https://latticetraining.com/plans/
Lattice Training provides systematic assessment and training tools for climbers. Founded by Tom Randall and Ollie Torr, they share many great training tips with the world.
