Welcome to the world of bouldering competitions! Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned participant, this comprehensive training plan is designed to elevate your fitness to the next level. By incorporating climbing-specific workouts and general fitness, this article serves as your ultimate guide to preparing for your upcoming bouldering competition. The benefits of this plan? Enhanced power, endurance, muscular strength, finger strength, and the ability to conquer comp-style boulders.
Bouldering demands a high level of power and strength. When training for a bouldering competition, you should focus on five key areas:
- Power
- Endurance
- Muscular strength
- Finger strength
- Comp-style boulders
The structure of your training is adaptable to your specific needs and time constraints. If the competition is several months away, you may consider block training. This involves focusing on one component at a time, rotating to the next after 3 to 4 weeks. If you only have a month or two until the comp, a hybrid system may be more suitable. This involves one session for each of the five areas per week, with the option to double up on the area you feel the weakest. This flexibility encourages you to take control of your training. To get started, review the five focus areas and the sample training plan below!
Sample Plan to Get Fit for a Bouldering Competition
Five Focus Areas and Drills
- Power
During power training sessions, your focus should be on quality over quantity. Power training aims to hone in on your physical limit and increase the difficulty of moves you can complete.
Limit Bouldering: Pick 5 to 8 boulders that require you to try at 90-100% maximum effort. After a thorough warm-up, try each climb, resting for a minimum of five minutes between climbs. It’s okay if you don’t finish the boulder. Focus on giving maximum effort for whatever number of moves is feasible.
Make-Up Bouldering: Create three four or 5-move sequences that require you to give 90-100% effort to complete. That can be challenging, so don’t stress if your make-up climbs are initially too easy or hard. The more you incorporate this drill, the easier it is to create sequences of the perfect difficulty. If you need help making sequences of moves, just pick a challenging section of an existing boulder. Try each make-up 2 to 3 times or thrice until you can complete it. Rest a minimum of three minutes between attempts.
- Power Endurance
These sessions will increase your capacity to execute moderately complex moves for longer. They are often a climber’s least favorite session, but training your power endurance will increase your competition success. The classic power endurance workout is a 4×4.
To perform a 4×4, pick four boulders of moderately challenging (60-70% maximum effort). Repeat each four times within four minutes. Rest four minutes between climbs. If you’ve picked adequately challenging climbs, you may fall before finishing all four laps on the third and fourth climbs. That’s okay. Again, the goal is quality attempts.
- Muscular Strength
Adding strength training on top of climbing can feel impossible. However, an effective strength regime can be simple and quick, and just thirty minutes before or after climbing is enough to see improvements without compromising your climbing. The four main areas to focus on are your back, chest, core, and legs. You know your weaknesses best, so choose exercises that will be most beneficial to you. Here are some great exercises to build climbing-specific strength if you need ideas. When possible, use dumbbells and opt for single-leg or arm variations, as climbers’ arms and legs rarely perform identical movements on the wall.
Back: Weighted pull-ups, rows, scapular pull-ups
Chest: Push-ups, dips, DB bench press, bicep curls
Core: Hanging leg raises, planks, mountain climbers
Legs: Pistol Quats, Single-leg RDLs, Cosshack squats, calf raises
- Finger Strength
Using a fingerboard is the most efficient way to increase finger strength. You can use a hangboard, a portable fingerboard attached to weights, or a force gauge. The benefit of using a portable fingerboard or force gauge is that you can work one hand at a time. To prevent injury, always perform finger strength sessions before climbing sessions.
For your workout, a 20 mm edge is the sweet spot. Aim for 4 to 8 sets of pulls, each consisting of 3-4 reps of 3-5 seconds. The key is to exert maximum force with each pull but be bold, use the first few sets as a warm-up, and gradually increase the load.
- Comp-Style Climbing
As bouldering competitions evolve, more and more are leaning towards competition-style setting – think dynos, coordination moves, lots of volumes, and big dual-tex holds. But don’t worry; many local competitions will set climbs similar to the boulders you’ve tried in the gym. To feel fully prepared for comp-style boulders, you’ll want to specifically train ‘learned movements’ such as toe-hook catches, pogos, mantles, and various dynos. These movements are considered ‘learned’ because the more you practice them, the more prepared you’ll feel for any bouldering challenge.
Find boulders with dynos, volumes, toe-hooks, run-starts, or other coordinated movements to practice comp climbing. Try them until you can stick the move three times in a row. If no climbs with these moves exist, create your own. Pro tip: Team up with a friend and have fun during this training session. Check out another gym in the area (if within your means) that has set competition boulders.
Sample Weekly Routine
Putting all five focus areas together, here is how a weekly routine may look.
Monday: Back and Core Workout, Power Session
Tuesday: Finger Strength, Power Endurance
Wednesday: Active Rest Day
Thursday: Chest and Core Workout, Power Session
Friday: Finger Strength, Comp-style climbing
Saturday: Legs & Core Workout
Sunday: Active Rest Day
That’s it! Getting fit for a bouldering competition requires honing in on your power, power endurance, physical and finger strength, and increasing your exposure to comp-style settings. Without realizing it, you likely limit boulder, strength train, or do multiple of the above workouts. Focus on refining your workouts by adding a training intention for each session. Stick with it long enough, and you’ll see improvements in your climbing and bouldering competition. Good luck and happy sending! Feel free to share how your competition(s) goes!