Sessions: Integrated Bouldering
Combining work in the weight room and bouldering gym
Once in a while, we see these crazy training plans from athletes that seem to have been created by Dr. Seuss. At the core, it probably started as a good plan, but then the athlete added and added and added more “training” to the week, seemingly without ever removing anything from the schedule. As their performances plateaued, they’d add in more work sets. If their bodyweight wasn’t what they wanted, they’d add in a run or two. Eventually, every single one had hit a wall and sought help. The main issue? Quantity over quality.
I keep harping on the first principles of training, which are consistency and progression. If we can’t achieve both of these, something is off in our training. Even though the changes needed to restart progress might not be that fun—often doing less of something we really like—we can restart progress every single time with good programming.
One of the hallmarks of a modern training program in climbing is the presence of intense practice (hard bouldering) as well as intense supplemental training (campusing, hangboard, weights) in the same training cycles. It makes sense: we have to keep our edge by trying hard movement, and strength seems to sprint away from us every time we turn our back. Since most of the climbers I run into are highly driven and tough, we often see way too much hard stuff happening in any given week.
One of the solutions to addressing the intensity-on-and-off-the-wall issue is to take a week of, say, two bouldering sessions and two strength training sessions (4 hard days!) and to combine them into just two sessions. To achieve this, we need to have a decent weight room in the same building as our bouldering. We also need to be willing to switch gears from our habit of just sitting in front of the Tension Board for hours between burns.
In the Integrated Bouldering sessions, we combine high-level bouldering with intense, low-volume weight training. By building sessions like this, we can reduce the total number of hard sessions in a week, and, I argue, get better results.
Intended Result: Increased strength, increased skill development
Who is it for?: Intermediate and advanced athletes, climbers who struggle with positioning or generating tension
How to advance it: Add load. Increase rest.
We use strength-focused boulder problems in these sets. A strength-focused problem is one where difficult holds, hard body positions, or tension are the limiters. Avoid power-oriented, balance, or excessively long problems. Steeper walls with small holds rule here. Remember, the idea is to continue to develop finger strength and upper body strength.
This is an excellent time to train specialized resistance. I like the following three forms of exercises:
Unilateral Strength: Exercises done with one limb or side at a time. These are typically more core-intensive than bilateral exercises and help develop balanced strength.
Isometric Strength: Holding static positions under load. Holding a difficult position is a great way to build strength quickly, but ideally you’d do just one or two isometrics per session. 5-10 seconds holds are a good place to start, and a drive to exert maximum force is key to progress.
Concentric-Only Strength: In climbing, we are often pulling down hard under load, and then reach up with an unloaded arm to grab the next hold. This is a different load than we apply when doing typical exercises. An example of training this in the gym would be to do a pull-up, but instead of lowering from the top, stepping off onto a box. This is less taxing than a full up-down cycle, but strength gains are similar.
A typical Integrated Boulder group looks like this:
2x Strength-Focused Boulder Problems
Unilateral, Isometric, or Concentric-Only Exercise
Mobility or Flexibility Drill
The session set-up would look like this:
3 sets of each group, done circuit-style:
A1: 2x Strength-Focused Boulder Problems
A2: Deadlift with Drop, Mid-Thigh Pull, or Single Leg Deadlift, 2-5 reps
A3: Hip Mobility, 60 seconds
B1: 2x Strength-Focused Boulder Problems
B2: Single Arm Push Up, Isometric Bench, or Single Arm Overhead Press, 4-6 reps
B3: Shoulder Mobility, 60 seconds
C1: 2x Strength-Focused Boulder Problems
C2: Pistol Squat, Step-Up, or Squat Hold 4-6 reps
C3: Hip Mobility, 60 seconds
All told, you’d complete 18 boulder problems throughout the session. The climbing and the switching of shoes, not to mention the moving around the gym takes some time. If your sessions are limited to an hour or so, you can shorten these workouts by dropping from 3 sets of each group to two.
The Integrated Boulder Session Progression
This is a ten-session progression built on an A/B format. This means that there will be five A sessions and five B sessions that are alternated in the training. The typical prescription is to do one of each per week, but an athlete with high capacity might be able to do ABA week one and then BAB week two. This choice is incumbent on whether the athlete can continue to make progress at this level of volume.
