Climber September/October 2017

Exercise 2 –
On-sighting
Secondly, we’re going to look at a
power endurance exercise that is
good for improving your on-sight
grade – especially on endurance
style routes that have no singularly
hard move.
The important part of this
exercise is that you are very strict
with the rest and climb times and
that you work this consistently over
a period of eight weeks for some
really good gains.
• You should feel VERY pumped on this exercise.
• You should only be failing on the last few reps in this exercise.
• Your ‘resting time’ should always be exactly equal to your ‘climbing time.’
1. Warm up.
2. Find a route that is around your on-sight grade and work a section that
takes you 60 seconds to climb.
3. This section should feel around 50% of your maximum i.e. on your first
few reps, you aren’t getting too pumped.
4. Attempt to climb your 60-second circuit 10 times with 60 seconds rest
between each climb.
5. This means you climb for 10 minutes and rest for 10 minutes in total.
It doesn’t sound like too much, but it’s a superb exercise.
If you get this exercise correct, you will
feel extremely pumped by your sixth
or seventh minute of climbing and be
fighting very hard to complete the eighth,
ninth and 10th minute.
If you find you are failing too early,
then reduce the grade of the route you
are attempting. You should NOT lengthen
the rest times, as this will start to take
you more into stamina training.
So to summarise your power endurance
training on circuit boards, you should
always try and bear the following points
in mind.
1. The climbing intensity is high (around
your on-sight level or just above), and
the overall number of moves is
moderate 100-250.
2. You should aim to get VERY pumped.
3. If you are not getting pumped
because one move is causing
failure, add in extra holds so that
the climbing is easier and more
sustained.
How to fit into your
training plan
The key to structuring and ordering the
power endurance training that you do
each year is to make sure it is used as
a ‘fine tuning’ tool only at the very end
before you go away on a climbing trip,
want to try your project or are headed
off to a competition. This means that it
is key that you complete this type of
training only in the final eight weeks or
so before you head off on a climbing trip
or take part in a competition. There are
still many climbers who think they can
boulder, campus board and fingerboard
for months on end and then only do the
endurance (or power endurance work)
as a final back-up plan.
In my experience this is a mistake, as
to create excellent power endurance (the
ability to endure the strength that do you
have) for any individual they will need to
have established an excellent endurance
base and then only build the power endurance
at the end. If the climber tries to
exclude ever working the power endurance
or that they think they can work it
all year long, they are very wrong.
The individual who ignores the power
endurance work will only be good on ‘very
easy’ or ‘very hard’ ground and fail on the
mid intensity and the climber who works
power endurance for more than even a
few months risks burn-out or injury.
During your power endurance
preparation phase, you can train this
aspect of your climbing from one to two
times per week as a F6a-F7b+ climber
and two to four times per week if you’re
climbing above those grades and have at
least three years of consistent training
experience. As you approach the trip,
project or competition that you are
aiming for, reduce this by at least 50%
and add in a little bit more power-based
bouldering work to get the recruitment
of the forearm muscles working in your
favour. n
Timing both rests and
climbing time is crucial.
Photo: David Simmonite
Tom Randall and Ollie Torr are from
Lattice Training who provide systematic
analysis and training services to climbers
around the world. The team has developed
a unique insight into analysing climbing
performance and optimising training using
their Lattice Board. This tool has been used
as a method for collecting performance
profiling data across hundreds of climbers
and could possibly be the next step in taking
climbing to another level. For more info
go to www.latticetraining.com
66 Sep–Oct 2017 www.climber.co.uk