Climbing Tip: Endurance

I’m starting my 30th year of climbing. Over the years, many aspects of climbing have improved; one is how to train for climbing. Early on in my futile quest to get on the cover of a climbing magazine, I did 200 pull-ups a day. How useless! You do need some pull-up strength climbing but contact and core strength are so much more important.

The best part of training today is the understanding of the different phases – endurance, power and power endurance. In this Climbing/Living Tip and then the next two, I will be giving you concepts on these three phases that will help you to be a stronger climber in 2008. I encourage you to put these lessons into practice in your climbing gym – doing each for at least a two-three week period (longer if you are out of climbing shape) for a total of 6-9 weeks of phase training cycle.

Also, as we start, I am not a certified personal trainer nor have I taken any formal training on physiology or kinesiology. However, I do read and apply what I have learned. The concepts presented will be recommendations. So, if you disagree with some of the information presented here, or if a drill should cause you discomfort, please stop. Getting injured is always a bad thing. I’m also assuming you are doing general cardio-vascular training outside of climbing workouts.

Phase training centers on the concept of going from one level of climbing to the next higher one. Depending on a number of factors, the main one being how close you have been to your maximum ability in the past, will determine how big that step can be. Most will strive to move up 2 to 3 grades – i.e. move from 5.9 being your hardest red-point to 5.10b or c. A cycle through each phase is designed to be completed followed by a return to normal training and climbing. After you have had a period to assess your gains, the whole process can be repeated. Many do this once annually after taking a break from climbing.

The first phase is endurance. Endurance can be defined as the ability of your muscles to contract at less than maximum level for longer periods of time. The endurance phase puts in a foundation to build upon and will be quite a bit different than “normal” gym sessions.

It works like this. Find routes that require 40-100 placements of your hands on a hold. My gym has a rotating wall, auto-belayed routes that can be repeated several times and long traverses for me to do that many moves. The idea is to stay in contact with wall for 5 to 15 minutes – creativity may be required. I have found as a general average that I do about 10 hand placements every 1 minute. You should do two to four burns, resting at least the amount of time you were on the wall. At the end of each burn, you don’t want to be totally spent. That means all the moves will need to be easy for you. Do this at least 6 sessions (even if it takes longer than two weeks) before you move onto the next phase.

Here are few more tidbits in the endurance phase. Is resting on a route OK? Yes, as long as it requires you to grip at least one hold. Note that if you are feeling flamed, your route is too hard. Be systematic - write down the number of moves on a route and how much time it took you. With this info it will make increasing each burn by 2% to 5% (either in the number of holds or time) easier to do. Finally, a warning here - endurance is mentally the hardest type of training. It’s boring, hurts and keeps you from hanging out with your friends in the gym.

Personally, I have already started my endurance phase. Am I expecting an advance in my climbing level? Yes! Practically living out the words of Paul quoted earlier, “godliness has value for all things,” climbing has always been set aside for more the important things of children, spouse and ministry. Therefore, I feel I have long way to go to get close to my maximum ability.

BONUS MATERIAL: In 2005 while doing my original research on this topic, I did a series of pod casts for Pobclimber.com. You can find links to these casts on this page. Thoughts on the endurance phase are found in the first three sessions.

Living Thought: Phases of

The lyrics from the U2 song "40" are:

I waited patiently for the Lord, And He inclined to me and heard my cry, He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, Out of the miry clay

And He set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm, He put a new song in my mouth, A song of praise to our God Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord

I waited patiently for the Lord, And He inclined to me and heard my cry, He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, Out of the miry clay

I will sing, sing a new song, I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song, How long to sing this song How long, how long, how long, How long to sing this song

It’s pretty obvious that Bono’s lyrics were inspired by words from the Bible. Actually, it comes from a portion of Psalm 40. One great things about the Bible is that is doesn’t gloss over the difficult phases of one’s life. Rather, those harsh times are often laid bare.

Later on, in the same poem (that’s what a psalm is), King David wrote this: “For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.” We don’t know the underlying circumstances of these words but most certainly it wasn’t a fun phase. What do you do when you feel like David?

The psalm ends with these words, “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, ‘The LORD be exalted!’” It may seem odd but in the tough phases of my life – even when I don’t understand it all and don’t feel like, I make a choice to rejoice in what God is doing in my life. It’s not easy and kind of messy. But when I do, I find encouragement to move forward.