If you can find 5-6 hours to train every week, you can significantly improve your climbing.  With structured training after work twice a week and a day or two on the weekend, an outdoor weekend trip here and there, you have the time and resources to get better.

So before we move onto part 4, let’s recap:

1. You have specific, attainable, inspiring goals
2. You know the six components that go into a succesful plan
3. You have looked at your goals and their timing and decided whether block or non-linear periodization is best for you.

Now what?

It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty and plan out your time in the gym each week. I am going to take you through some sample schedules that will be mostly relateable to the average weekend warrior–which is me.

I climb 3-4 days/week. I go to the gym 2-3 days after work M-F and climb on the weekends 1-2 days (if I’m lucky, I am outside on these days).

Non-linear sample schedules

Weekly schedule, non-outdoor climbing:

Day	Category	Description	Duration
Mon	Rest	–	–
Tues	Integrated Strength	Lifting, hangboard	75 min
Weds	Endurance	ARCing	60 min
Thur	Rest	–	–
Fri	Power Endurance	timed bouldering	75 min
Sat	Rest	watch football	–
Sun	Power	Limit bouldering	90 minutes
Mon	Rest	–	–
Tues	Integrated Strength	Lifting, hangboard	75 min
Weds	Endurance	ARCing	60 min
Thur	Rest	–	–

WEEKLY TOTAL TRAINING TIME: 5 hours

Weekly schedule with outdoor climbing:

Day	Category	Description	Duration
Mon	Integrated Strength	Lifting, hangboard	75 min
Tues	Rest	–	–
Weds	Power	Limit bouldering	90 minutes
Thur	Endurance	ARCing	60 min
Fri	Rest	–	–
Sat	OUTDOOR CLIMBING
Sun
Mon	Rest	–	–
Tues	Integrated Strength	Lifting, hangboard	75 min
Weds	Endurance	ARCing	60 min
Thur	Rest	–	–

WEEKLY TOTAL TRAINING HOURS: ~4 hours plus a weekend outside
….
The key is to rotate between Strength, Limit bouldering, Endurance and Power Endurance. I have decoupled my outdoor climbing with my training. I climb outside, have a good time and pick up training where I left off in the cycle when I come back. Learn more about block periodization in part 3.

Block Sample Schedules

For block periodization, at least in the case of the Rock Prodigy Program, the schedule is pretty simple. See below for breakdown by phases. Each phase lasts 2-6 weeks depending on your goals and climbing experience. You can learn more about this program by picking up your own copy of The Rock Climber’s Training Manual.

Base Fitness

Tuesday: ARCing 60-90 minutes
Thursday: ARCing 60-90 minutes
Saturday/Sunday: climb outdoors on moderate routes

Strength:

Tuesday/Thursday: Hangboard, lift
Saturday/Sunday: moderate routes outdoors (or inside)

Power:

Monday: campusing, limit bouldering, lifting
Thursday: limit bouldering
Saturday: outdoor climbing
Rest Sunday

Power Endurance:

Tuesday/Thursday: linked boulder circuits or route intervals
Saturday/Sunday: redpoint attempts

Resting

Resting is critical. Recently I’ve noticed myself trying to do too much back to back. I only recently have dialed in what I can do back to back and what I can’t. I know I need a rest day before I limit boulder now, no matter what. I also need a rest day before strength training. I also know that if I’m feeling too tired for that day’s agenda I can slot in low-end endurance and move on to the next day of training when the time comes.

I also prefer to rest before I go outside. I want to be fresh and presentable when I get the chance to climb on real rocks.

Outdoor climbing

I get outside whenever I can and I do my best to make the most of these days. I like to follow Eric Horst’s philosophy on the time you spend climbing:

“Shoot for a 3:1 ratio of practice time to performance time”.

Gym days are for practice, for me. Extrapolating from this philosophy, days outside are about 1/3 performance and 2/3 practice. In a weekend I like to spend one of the days working something hard and the other day climbing things I can onsight. This enables me to both try hard and practice smooth, high-skill climbing outside.

I climb outside as much as life allows and I hope you do too!

 

Summary

1. If you can climb three days per week and dedicate an average of 6-8 hours/week to climbing, you can improve.

2. Rest days must be taken when needed

3. Climbing outside is fun and opportunities to climb outside should be seized and cherished and celebrated with crag beers with good pals.

How many days a week can you get to the gym? What time management strategies have you found? 

I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment or shoot me an email at goodsprayclimbing@gmail.com.

If you’d like to gain some insight into your strengths and weaknesses as a climber, check out my climbing theme song quiz! While it’s definitely a good time, it shines a light onto the aspects of your training and climbing that might be holding you back and keeping you in a plateau. And once you get your result, I’ll also send you some tips and tricks to help your training and climbing more effective and efficient!