Rock Climbing Training - Aerobic Capacity

To improve mental and physical alertness throughout the day, you should train your aerobic capacity. More on Cardio and Aerobic Fitness can be found at our Cardio Exercise section.

There are two commonly used aerobic training methods that provide a good balance between Strength and Endurance. They are Circuit and Interval Training. More about this can be found at our Fitness website.

If you would like to apply Circuit Training to climbing, choose two parts of your body and the muscle functions that you want to train - for instance, your leg strength and forearm endurance. Then decide on the exercise. All in all, you will have four exercises. With a Circuit Training, you should alter these four exercises. For example: 1) boulder vertical up and down four times; 2) boulder on 45 degree wall for one minute 3) dyno four times 4) traverse back and forth on a 70-degree wall for five minutes. The climber repeats the circuit for 30 minutes. Again, this is just an example.

To apply Interval Training to climbing, climb hard and long enough to get your heart rate up (just be conscious of your pulse, don't try to actually take it while climbing). Get down and walk to lower your heart rate - or instead of walking, shift to a vertical traverse and continue bouldering at lower intensity. Before your heart rate fully recovers, shift back to hard climbing. This kind of training is uncomfortable - it causes sore muscles! The increased lactic acid brings fatigue and discomfort. Some can take it, some cannot. However, it will increase your heart stroke volume and help your body become more efficient at lactic acid removal, thus increasing your aerobic capacity.

Goal	Type of Exercise
Aerobic Capacity	Gym Exercise Any type of Cardio in order to elevate heart rate to target for at least 20 minutes, three to four times a week.