Articles - Neil Gresham's Masterclass:Stamina Training (Leading)

Moving on from power endurance in this Training Easy series, it’s time to look at stamina training for longer sport and trad climbs. Don’t fool yourself that by doing routes on the average indoor leading wall that you’ll be developing the right type of fitness for bigger pitches – a sprint up most wall routes might take between 2 and 4 minutes whereas you could be hanging in there on a long sport route or a short trad pitch for anything in excess of 15 minutes. In comparison, the moves on this terrain will be much easier but you’ll be tolerating a long, slow and continuous pump. The test will be your ability to spot the rests and make use of them by shaking out to recover. The only way you can develop this type of endurance on the leading wall is by going up and climbing back down routes that are much easier than the ones that you do individually for power endurance training. So for those who are in need, I’ve outlined three basic structures that you can take to the wall and get pumped on.

Session Plan

The following sessions will take approximately 2.5 hours including a warm-up. As usual, do 2 or 3 easy ‘climb-arounds’

on the bouldering wall interspersed with stretching before you get started. When selecting the combinations of routes, be sure that they are the right angle and that they are fairly sustained without any major cruxes or hands-off rests. Those who climb F5+ to F6b as their maximum onsight grade should train on routes that are no steeper than vertical. F6b+ to 7a climbers may train on gently overhanging walls and those above this level may use walls up to 30 degrees overhanging if they’re feeling confident! Clearly though, if it’s too steep, you won’t last the pace. The examples given for the second two sessions are for a climber whose maximum onsight capability for 1 route is approximately F6c+ (or E4) so clearly you’ll have to change the grades to match your own standard. This takes some practice, but with some experimentation you should be able to replicate each structure almost perfectly.

1. CONTINUOUS THRESHOLD

This session maintains the same intensity throughout the session which means that it should feel easy at the start and desperately hard by the end! Simply go up a route that is approximately 4 grades below your maximum onsight capability, then climb down a route that’s a grade or two less (on the same line), then go back up the first route. Lower off after the second upwards climb and take 10 mins rest between each stint.

Targets

Session 1: Do 4 repeats

Session 2: Do 5 repeats

Session 3: Cut the rest time to 8 mins and do 4 repeats

Session 4: Do 5 repeats with 8 mins rest

Session 5: Do 6 repeats with 8 mins rest.

2. INTENSITY PYRAMID

Here, the climbing starts more easily than in the previous structure, but it builds to a higher level at the midpoint of the session. From here on, it gets easier again, although you won’t notice it because of the effect of cumulative fatigue. My favourite stamina session.

(Example for a F6c+ climber)

Up, down, up F6a x 1

Up, down, up F6a+ x 1

Up, down, up F6b (equivalent to hard F6c?) x 1 peak set

Up, down, up F6a+ x 1

Up, down, up F6a x 1

Take 10 mins rest between climbs, although less rest may be required after the first easier climb.

Target

Session 2: Do 2 peak sets

Session 3: As for session 2 but cut rest time to 8 mins

Session 4: As for Session 3 but do a new peak set in between the two original peak sets:

Up, down, up F6b x 1 (old peak set)

Up F6b+, down F6b, up F6b+ x 1

New peak set (equivalent to hard F6c+)

Up, down, up F6b x 1 (old peak set)

Session 5: As for session 5, but do two of the new peak sets.

3. DURATION PYRAMID

This time the intensity (or move difficulty) of each climbing stint decreases as the duration (or climb length) increases until the midpoint of the session. This pattern is then reversed according to a pyramidal structure. In other words, the overall grade of each climbing stint should be roughly the same (and approximately a grade below your maximum onsight capability on long routes outside. This session is likely to expose your weakness for longer or shorter stamina climbs.

(Example for a F6c+ climber)

Up F6c (Rest 8 mins) x 1

Up F6b+, down F6b (Rest 10 mins) x 1

Up, down, up F6b (Rest 15 mins) x 1

Up F6a+, down F6a, up F6a+, down F6a, up

F6a+ (Rest 20 mins) x 1

Up, down, up F6b (Rest 15 mins) x 1

Up F6b+, down F6b (Rest 10 mins) x 1

Up F6c x 1

Targets

SESSION 2: As for session 1 but it should feel easier.

SESSION 3: Do an extra middle stint

SESSION 4: As for session 3 but it should feel easier.

SESSION 5:Maintain same work times but cut rest times as follows:

8 mins to 6 mins / 10 mins to 8 mins / 15

mins to 12 mins / 20 mins to 15 mins

Monitoring Progress

Keep training notes to record whether or not you reached your targets. If you did then note how easily, and if not, then why?

Is any tweaking of the program required and did you feel good, average, or poorly recovered from the previous session? Did you notice any problems with your technique or motivation today?

Sessions per week

Quite simply, stamina training is more about quantity than quality (the exact opposite of bouldering) and so the more of these you can pack into a week the better, up to a point. A mid to high grade climber who is really trying to get fit could do up to 4 or 5 stamina sessions, with one additional bouldering (or power endurance) session. Low to mid grade climbers should reduce that figure to 3.

Always boulder or train power endurance the day before a hard stamina session or the quality and resultant training effect will be compromised. However, note that much lighter stamina sessions can be used for recovery purposes by those who are fit enough.

For more advice on training see Neil Gresham's Training for Climbing series.