So you've achieved your goal and successfully made it up a v4! Congratulations! I'm sure you noticed the jump in difficulty. V4 and up is where it starts to change, climbs seam harder than before, even a v4 to v5 can seem like an impossible feat. Don't worry we will work through it together and build on our core foundation we built back in part 1. So let's dig in and climb a v6!

Starting and making goals is going to be a little easier now that we have a good solid foundation. We are still going to ask the same three questions: What is my end goal? When do I want to achieve that goal/need to achieve that goal? How am I going to hold myself responsible? Only this time we are really just updating the goal and the plan, the foundation will stay the same. We are going to focus more on the climbing aspect of training in this section. At this point I'm going to assume you have built up to climbing regularly about twice a week or so and working out in the gym as well. We are going to be keeping the same core foundations we've built in part 1. The focus now is going to be adding things to our sessions, but we will try to keep the time about the same, we will modify our core exercises as we add. The main things we will be adding to our sessions are: core, fingers and working on techniques. Let's start with fingers as this can be a little complicated, and the one that can injure us if we aren't careful. So at this point I will assume you've been noticing that as climbs get harder holds get worse and smaller! Which is why we are going to be working on building the ability to hang on small holds for longer with our fingers. I will start by saying that it is important to understand that you can injure yourself here if you're not careful. Make sure you are still taking breaks, and not doing multiple finger sessions in a row. I like to use rest days and gym days to break up my climbing days. I find that it is important to train in a way that works for you, this is why I said that it is important to listen to your body. An example of this is my current schedule, I climb and train 3-4 days a week, though I don't hold myself to certain days, I just base my sessions on how I feel. There is going to be less talk in the rest of this part. I feel like the most difficult part when looking for training information is all this talk and no concret exercise. So I am going to leave you with all the exercises I use, feel free to integrate them into your sessions. If you would like to get more information please reach out!

My typical warm up will look something like this:

Warm up:

Dead hanging on edge 15 sec on 10 sec off repeat 4 times

Active duty stretching with resistance band shoulders (doing a fly type motion start with arms straight out in front and open fully) 5-10 reps 15 sec rest repeat 4 times

Bar stretching shoulders I use a light bar and hold in a wide grip overhead then slowly move to the either side and hold.

Rest 10 minutes while stretching

5-10 min work on weakness climbing ( you should be climbing 3-4 grades below your max here) the goal of this section is to work on technique and form on easier climbs. Tips to focus on during warm up climbing:

Climbing with extended neck, long neck like giraffe, don't bunch up shoulders

Engagement of glutes through movement, use body position to better and more effectively reach and pull through moves. Don't hang your self and pull in with your arms use your legs and hips to more effectively move through holds.

Quiet and accurate feet and hands, try to accurately place your feet and hands and not readjust.

I have a few different Climbing and workout sets I do depending on time, how I feel and the routes at the gym, and if I want to boulder or lead climb. If there is a new set or I have a few routes I want to work on I will project. If there are no new routes or last session I felt a bit weak on certain moves I will focus on that weakness with a training session on a board. Again I try to focus on how I feel and what I want to do. I find that this helps keep the fun in climbing, as when we start training hard we can lose the fun aspect of it. Below I have laid out basic guidelines for each of different workouts from climbing sets to more exercise focused training sets. Use and adjust them as you see fit and again feel free to reach out with questions!

Climbing session:Project Set

Project a few or one problem at your max level. I usually aim for 30-45 minutes on one climb, and about one to two hours on max level with adequate rest in between attempts. Do what feels good, we want to climb until fatigue but don't want to aimlessly throw ourselves at the wall. We still want to be climbing with good technique and form.

Climbing Session:Board Sets

For my board set I try to focus on movements or sequences I feel weak on. You can use a moonboard, a kilter board, tension board or even a spray wall. Whatever you have available. If you don't have access to any of the following use a section of the wall but don't climb up a certain route. The goal of this exercise is to do and work on movements and positions we feel weak in. I.E if you feel like you need to work on deadpoints find climbs do those types of moves. I use this set a lot as a simple change up. Maybe there are a few hard routes I am working on and I feel defeated. I will use a board session to change it up and integrate more hard routes and reset that fun factor! Like I have said multiple times it is all focused on how we feel mentally and physically.

Workout set:No Climbing

This is my no climbing workout set, I use this when I need to give the skin a break. There is no climbing within this set; it is free weight and bodyweight exercises. I usually start with a warmup set of stretching and pull-ups, get the blood flowing and the muscles warmed up. I will then typically do one of the following core workout sets:

Foundation strength workout set:

Set one: pull ups and deadlifts.

5-10 pullups.

5-10 deadlifts with good form.

Rest for 30 seconds in between sets, do 4 sets of each 2 minutes and repeat for the next exercise.

Set two: squats and bench press.

5-10 squats

5-10 bench presses

Rest for 30 seconds in between sets, do 4 sets of each 2 minutes and repeat for the next exercise.

I will then do some finger workouts or abdominal workouts. For my finger workouts I typically use a tension block, and do a deadlift type movement with one head hold for ten seconds and repeat for times.

For abdominal workouts I will do between 4-5 workouts in sets of 20 with 30 sec rests in between workouts I will repeat this 4 times.

Lastly is my stretching set, this is done after every set, climbing, or non climbing. However you see fit and depending on what feels good, stretch for twenty minutes. Hope there is some useful information in this post. I will put links to some of the resources I use at the bottom of this article, and if you have questions feel free to reach out!

Resources:

This is Neely Quinn’s podcast, one of my go to podcasts, not only is the podcast full of information but she has a website with a ton of awesome resources and information!

https://www.trainingbeta.com/

Training for Climbing by Eric Hörst is another resource I am constantly using. His podcast is a great resource as well. He also has a ton of information and videos on his website too!

https://trainingforclimbing.com/