1. Get a hangboard for your house and mount in above a doorway. The Metolius Simulator is the one that I use. You can search the internet for training routines, and/or use the one that comes with the hangboard. You can easily do a 10 minute very effective hangboard workout at home every morning.
2. Use your countertops or 2 chairs next to each other to do dip workouts, as opposed to pushups. Dips lend themselves better to climbing sport specific workouts. You can do 3-5 sets of dips in less than 5 minutes
3. Choose 3 different ab exercises and alternate between dip sets. My favorite ab exercises are side-crunches, hanging leg lifts, and raised leg crunches.
4. 20 Minute Interval runs are effective. Intervals mean that you run hard for 30 seconds, jog for 1.5 minutes, and repeat.

That obviously is a very short workout, but something is better than nothing. So adding all that time up, let’s say you wake up, get dressed for a run, run for 20 minutes, come home, do a hangboard workout, dips, and abs. You can get that complete workout in in less than an hour, maybe in less than 45 minutes. Can you find 45 minutes to workout in the morning? If your answer is NO, then consider waking up earlier! It will be worth it. I remember when I started training for climbing years ago, I started out doing short workouts like this, and soon became addicted to it, and began waking up earlier and earlier so I could get in more training!

Interval training is exactly what it sounds like….you run with intervals of fast and slow paced running. Here is a beginner workout, and advanced workout for you to try:

Beginner Running Interval Training for Climbing:

1. Plan on running for 30 minutes
2. Start out with a 3 minute jog/slow run to warm up
3. At 3 minutes, run hard for 30 seconds
4. Jog for 1.5 minutes
5. Run hard for 30 seconds
6. Jog for 1.5 minutes
7. Continue to repeat that pattern until you get to 3 minutes away from your finish time, where you will finish with a 3 minute jog.

Advanced Running Interval Training for Climbing

1. Plan on running for 1 hour
2. Start out with a 3 minute warm up
3. Run hard (90% maximum heart rate), but not sprinting, for 8 Minutes.
4. Jog for 3 minutes
5. Repeat that pattern until 3 minutes from finish time and finish with a 3 minute jog.

Give it a try! Not only will it help with lactic acid removal, but it will make you lose weight quickly too…which is the #1 hindrance to climbing performance!

• Increase Capillary Size
• Increase the Body’s Ability to Remove Lactic Acid from Muscles
• Build aerobic endurance
• Keep off excess body weight

Other than being intentional in sport-specific training (more details on that next week), training with running intervals accomplishes ALL of the above objectives.

Running Intervals

1. Choose a running route that will give you some elevation change (hills)
2. In the beginning, start with 30 minute sessions 4 times per week, eventually turning 2 of those sessions into 1.25 hour sessions. The goal is to really push yourself, so if you start in week 1 with 30 minute sessions, by the end of week 3 you should be pushing yourself to 1 hour sessions, and then 1.25 hour sessions by the end of week 4.
3. Start out your run with a 3 minute jog. Then run hard (at 90 percent of your max) for 5 minutes. Then back to a 3 minute jog, then 5 minutes hard, etc. Repeat this pattern for the duration of your run, allowing for a 5 minute jogging cool down at the end.
4. If you do this for a 10 week period, you will notice incredible climbing performance improvement, as well as increased all around health!

You can read more about this and other running ideas at the Running Blog posting on VO2 Max and Intervals.