"GREASY EGGS"

Obj: Metabolic Conditioning/Strength Endurance

Warm up: 1x lap, 30-ft climbing wall

Training:

(1) Tag Team Workout
P1 - 2 laps on 5.8 auto belay climbing wall
wearing 25# pack.
P2 - Alternate 5x push ups/5x situps until P1 done.
P3 - Alternate 5x Burpees, 5x Squats until P1 done.
5 Rounds

(2) Tag Team Workout
P1 - 1 lap on 5.9 auto belay climbing wall
P2 - 1-handed swing with 12kg kb (switch hands every
10 reps) until P1 done
P3 - Hang out on climbing wall until P-1 done
3 Rounds

(3) 3 Rounds
1 minute traverse on bouldering wall
30 sec rest

Comments

I recently watched a video of Patagoina-sponsored climber Kelly Cordes outline some of the aspects of his training approach. In the video he is seen trail running, and blasting through intervals on an airdyne.

In the interview, he emphasized the importance of being able to move fast over moderate terrain in the overall success of alpine-style, super light ascents.

I've been wanting to do a training session with my mountaineers down at the Enclosure climbing gym here in Jackson, and used Kelly's focus to guide the event Wednesday afternoon.

The Enclosure has a couple auto-belay devices set up, which really lend themselves to interval-type training. I chose the easier of the two - 5.7 or 5.8 for the first circuit of training. My goal for the first circuit was not so much grip/forearm conditioning as it was using easy climbing as a technical metabolic exercise. I wanted my athletes winded before they got on the wall - hence the burpees. Also, Andy, Neil and Will are all accomplished climbers, so I loaded them with a 25# backpack to increase the difficulty.

At the top, they would simply release from the wall, and the auto-belay would quickly drop them to the ground for their second lap.

I urged them to move fast up the wall, and used competition to spur them on, by timing the ascents. I wasn't interested in safety, looks or prudent climbing here, our focus was on conditioning.

This worked well. By the final round, I would have the climber drop the backpack for his second ascent up the wall.

We moved to the more difficult auto-belay for the second block of training. Here I wanted the focus to be on the grip/forearm training, limited by choosing a climb easy enough to scale fast. Each of the exercises - the climb, swings, and "hanging out" worked forearms, and combined with the previous block of training, 3 rounds was enough.

We finished with some strength endurance traversing intervals. By the end, Andy, Will and Neil had Popeye-pumped forearms.

I'm a real rookie to the whole climbing gym scene and understand that for many people, the gym is a social event more than anything else. But the bulk of the training I observe going on there is more technical-based. This is needed, of course, but so is metabolic and power/strength endurance training.

We know the importance of sport-specific focus built on top of the elite general conditioning achieved in my gym. No matter the outdoor sport, this sport-specific focus will have two components - mode conditioning and technical.

A rock climbing gym is another "artificial" training environment, but it certainly more sport specific than my gym, and doing metabolic intervals on moderate terrain isn't waisted time.

I hope to explore this resource and training modality more and more in the months ahead.

- Rob Shaul

Will suffers before his time on the wall.

Niel lunges between climbing bouts. We found lunges not taxing enough, and switched to burpees.

Will "hangs out" waiting his turn on the 2nd auto belay - pre-exhausting his grip.

Andy races up the easier of the auto-belay routes. Note the pack.

Meanwhile, back at the gym, Connie and Hunter in the midst of 20 suicide sprints.