Inspirational Training Story:

Timy,

I live in Northern Alabama. I have just gotten serious about training in the past year. I had been climbing for about 10 years but had gotten out of shape (5’9” about 206lbs w/35%bf). I have gotten down to 130lbs w/5% bf and have maintained that for over a year. In that year I have went from struggling up 5.10 face routes to pulling 5.12d/5.13a, with no true training, I also don’t do any hangboard or campus training at this point. My training has consisted of climbing 4-5 days a week to get my base level of climbing fitness and mileage up. I have however been supplementing my climbing with some ring training.

I currently feel my weakness is in my power endurance, because on the 5.13b/c projects I am working, I am able to do all the moves in very few hangs, however on RP burns I’m running out of gas. I was thinking about adapting my home wall into a makeshift system wall using the modular holds I have but that is only so good. The wall is about 37 degrees but is rather short about 8’ ft tall with 10’ developee. Since I am limited by the height, I would have to run laps up and down the wall on a particular grip position until just before failure.

Your tiles are the best looking product I have seen for building a system wall. How many sets and reps would you recommend per workout and once the reps get easy, would you add weight, use small holds, steeper wall or a combination of the above. I have been focusing on about 5 sets of 5 grip positions (25 total sets) per workout trying to cause failure around 30-40 moves (about the length of the proj. I’m working), I choose holds that mimic those on my project. and if I’m climbing more than the desired moves, I add weight and or use smaller holds. I typically only use one foot at a time to get max core contraction and will hold each grip for 3-5 secs before grabbing the next hold. Do I need to refine how I am system training.

Nathan