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- Written by: Chris Ashworth
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So another year has rolled around, and while I usually have a vague idea of what I'd like to achieve climbing-wise in the year ahead, this year I'm going to take things a bit more seriously with a training program and document my progress both on the website here, and on the Youtube channel.
I have tried a paid training plan in the past, but it's been difficult to adhere to something which has a strict day 1 do this, day 2 do this, kind of regimented program. If I'm going to stick to any kind of concerted training effort then it needs to be a bit more fluid and flexible to fit around life, and work, so I'm just going to come up with my own.
Obviously, I'm not a professional coach or trainer, so what you see here is just my best go at something, and a record of how it works out for me, so I'd better start by saying a bit about my starting point and current climbing level.
Current
The essential stats, I'm 44 years old, 6'2" / 188cm and weigh 74kg. Last year I was pretty solid bouldering V6/7a outdoors, with quite a lot of HVS/E1 trad mileage, with the odd bold E2/3. I don't really do any sport climbing.
I have climbed for about seven years now, starting with indoor bouldering, and moving into more trad when I moved back to the UK four years ago. I ticked my first V6 over two years ago now, so I've been a bit plateaued for a while, and definitely feel like I've reached a point when I can't practically 'just climb more' to improve, I need some structured training to complement the climbing.
Goals for 2025
This year, I want to focus on trad and concentrate on learning how to try hard on gear and get comfortable with working hard routes and falling safely. I'd really like to get some routes with 6a/6b UK tech grade, so E3/E4.
I'd be happy to get a proper V7/7A+ boulder ticked as well.
I don't have any weight loss or other goals, I just want to climb harder.
Training Plan
So, here is the basis of the training plan I've started with in January. I'll be doing monthly updates on how I've managed to stick to it in reality, and the progress or otherwise I've been making. The main points are :
Hangboarding
I'll aim to do some finger strength stimulus six days a week. The default is a 30-minute hangboarding routine. I use Dave Macleod's program which I'll link below. The basis of it is :
- Warm up (bodyweight hangs, pull ups)
- 3 sets of 10-second max hangs on open/chisel grip
- 3 sets of 10-second max hangs on half crimp
- 3 sets of 10-second max hangs on three finger drag
I started the year by adding 10kg for the max hangs.
Bouldering
Get to the bouldering gym two nights in the week for minimum two hour session, and make sure to try hard
Gym
On other weekdays, do some light antagonist exercises, pushups, rows, some weighted pullups, and a swim.
Weekends
Trad or bouldering outdoors, weather-permitting. If weather doesn't allow, then indoor bouldering, 2-3 hours.
Data/Metrics
As people watching my channel will know, I bought a Tindeq Progressor at the end of the year, but I ended up replacing it with a cheaper bluetooth scale and the Climb Harder app. I'll be tracking my Peak Force metrics
Summary
This will likely evolve over time, and I'll be flexible with elements of it, but seems good to start. I've already been running this for nearly a full month and I've some interesting results and modifications to discuss in my first monthly update which will come at the end of January. See you in February, and I hope your 2025 training is going well!.
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It's been a pretty grim couple of weeks since I returned from Morocco, firstly with some pretty awful weather, but mainly because I came down with a nasty cold/flu, that turned into a chest infection, and laid me up indoors. I'm not full 100% over it yet to be honest, but Friday was my birthday, and I was determined to get outdoors, somewhere, and pull on some rock.
Newstones is a great spot for a short session, with a trivial walk-in, and it's exposed enough to dry quickly. When I got there, conditions were pretty marginal, no rain, but high humidity and wet, slippery grass that made for some exciting landings. Still, it was quite nice to give the drone a whirl with no-one around to bother.
So, I did manage to pull together a video, despite not managing to climb anything! Good to get some practice talking on camera, and most of all, a good excuse to get outdoors in some fresh air.
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One more from my crack apprenticeship in Tafraout in November.
After sampling the granite in the afternoon on our fourth day of the trip, we opted to go for a whole day of classic crack routes on day five. We headed straight to the first on the list in the morning, just as the sun was coming round, and Simas got on lead.
Well, Supercrack lives up to it's name, a perfect splitter in an enormous granite boulder, starting with some tricky thing fingers, with small feet, slowly widening into perfect hand jams as you cruise up the finishing section. Absolutely beautiful, and a great way to get start the day.