Professional climber and Friction Labs athlete Zoe Steinberg shares practical tips for climbers of all levels to train effectively while keeping it fun and sustainable.
As much fun as hanging out at the climbing gym or getting outside on the weekends is, deciding to train specifically for climbing goals can feel pretty overwhelming. The idea of sifting through loads of articles, social media reels, or podcasts about correct and incorrect training methods can seem daunting, especially if you’re newer to the game or don’t have a background in sports science or a similar field. Not to mention, climbing is a hobby for most people, not a profession. Dedicating a significant portion of your free time outside of work to structured workouts that may or may not help you achieve the outcome you want over the course of weeks or even months isn’t always an appealing prospect.
For anyone who’s interested in focusing more on their training but is still a bit hesitant to commit that much time and effort, you’re not alone. As a climber who has a “normal” 9-to-5 job and also continues to compete and travel to pursue goals in climbing, I’ve been faced with the same decision. Over the years, I’ve been able to come up with some strategies for how to train for climbing in a way that’s effective, minimizes the risk of injury, and doesn’t require you to prioritize spending hours alone in the gym over socializing or climbing for fun.
If you’re a bit newer to climbing, you may not be fully used to moving your body on the wall. It’s ok if being on the wall still feels a bit odd or unnatural—this feeling will diminish over time, as you spend more time climbing. At this stage of your climbing, you will likely see more gains from just climbing and getting used to moving your body on a vertical plane instead of focusing on specific drills. It’s similar to how you might feel if you were to try skiing, skateboarding, or surfing. Moving on the board or skis will feel a bit weird at first, but the more time you spend on them, the more natural it will start to feel. Make sure to listen to your body so as not to overdo it—if you’re finding yourself feeling tired or noticeably sore, especially in localized regions, take a day or two off and come back when you’re feeling more rested.
It is completely natural to gravitate towards the style of climbing that you’re best at or find the most fun. And this isn’t to say that you should avoid those climbs at all! Rather, make sure you are spending time on climbs with different angles, hold types, and styles of movement, as opposed to climbing exclusively on problems or routes that feel easiest for you. This will help you build your base of techniques and skills that will be utilized more and more frequently as you progress through the grades. One way to make sure that the stuff you’re climbing on is varied is to spend a few sessions climbing all the boulders in the gym at a certain grade. For example, if you’re a V4 climber, see if you can complete all of the V2s up in the gym over the course of a few sessions (make sure you listen to your body—if you start to feel exhausted or something starts to hurt, call it for the day and continue when you’re feeling good).
Climbing is a full-body sport, but keeping track of what your entire body is doing while you’re just trying to stay on the wall can be challenging. While you’re on the wall, try to be aware of what your whole body is doing, as opposed to just focusing on whatever limb you’re trying to move. As you progress through the grades, the movements you do will become more complex and require more coordination. This doesn’t just refer to comp-style paddle dynos or skate moves—as holds start getting worse and footholds become smaller and slicker, you’ll find you have to focus simultaneously on maintaining pressure with one limb while moving another or engaging your core at the same time as releasing a limb. By getting used to thinking about your body holistically, rather than only thinking about one limb or body part at a time, you’ll find yourself more prepared for these types of coordinated movements when you start to see them on projects.
At this point, you’re probably familiar with some of the more complex climbing techniques and movements but not necessarily in the habit of immediately thinking about utilizing them on projects or gym problems. Try to incorporate some of these different movements more often during climbing sessions, even if doing so isn’t strictly necessary for the climbs. For example, you can try skipping holds on warmups by dynoing or seeing if you can do slab problems with no handholds. Practicing these movements will make them feel more natural and allow them to come to mind more readily. The more intuitive these movements become, the quicker you’ll think of them as options when trying to figure out beta on projects.
As much as almost all boulderers hate hearing this, just because you only boulder does not mean you shouldn’t have some small amount of endurance. Likewise, it can greatly benefit sport climbers to be able to climb more powerfully through certain sequences. Adding in one bouldering or board climbing session a week can help build power for those who predominantly sport climb, which can be really useful on more physical routes. Similarly, sport climbing or doing some 20-30 move circuits once a week can help build and maintain a reasonable base of endurance or power endurance (whether it be endurance or power endurance is dependent on the number and difficulty of moves), which can be a huge advantage on more sustained or longer boulder problems. You don’t have to dedicate entire, multi-hour sessions to switching things up—even 45 minutes once a week can go a long way if done consistently.
This tip can take a bit longer to implement than some of the others, as it requires a bit more introspection. As you start to push closer and closer to your current limits (these can and will change over time as you progress in the sport), the margin for error becomes progressively smaller. One way to minimize the likelihood of error while climbing is to work on climbing more efficiently. Climbing with efficiency looks different depending on if it is a sport climb or boulder, the angle and style of the climb, and other factors, but certain extra movements and muscle flexions tend to be common habits among climbers and make for good things to start working on. Examples include readjusting your grip multiple times on one hold, maintaining bent elbows as opposed to straightening your arms, and frequent foot slips as a result of not trusting your feet. Focusing on reducing extra movements such as these can help you save energy and potentially improve your chances of sending a project, especially one closer to your limit. Try to think about incorporating awareness of these habits into your warmup so you will be a bit more at ease on the wall.
Just because you managed to send a climb doesn’t mean you did it the best way. If you’re a V11 climber, you can probably get away with making a mistake or two on a V8 but still sending. However, you probably don’t have that same margin for error on a V11 project, which makes efficiency extremely important. Take some time each week to repeat 3-5 of your hardest sends in the gym around 3 times each, focusing on executing the moves as efficiently as possible or possibly even optimizing your beta. Try to repeat climbs that vary in angle, movement style, and hold type. This exercise can help you feel more comfortable on climbs at or close to your limit, which is a very effective way of pushing your limits further.
As much as exercises like planks and crunches can help build a solid base of core strength, these kinds of exercises become less directly applicable the higher up the climbing grades you go. It’s pretty unlikely that you will have to be able to do a front lever on a V3, but it is definitely possible that you’ll have to do something similar on a V13. Utilizing tools like TRX (or similar) straps, gymnastic rings, or pull-up bars/hangboards for core workouts can build core strength that is more specific to the movements you are likely to have to do while climbing. Make sure to keep an eye on your shoulders and elbows, especially if using rings, bars, or a hangboard—even if these exercises aren’t themselves climbing, they put additional strain on these joints.
Adequate rest, both during and in between sessions, is crucial to improving your climbing and avoiding injuries. Don’t push through injuries, as this will almost always aggravate them and make them last longer. If you’re feeling physically tired, listen to your body. Sometimes, especially during workouts involving laps or significant numbers of moves, feeling tired is to be expected. However, if you feel especially exhausted or there is localized pain or discomfort, consider backing off or even stopping your session. The same thing applies if you feel under the weather—pushing through a session just because you don’t want to let a cold get in the way of training can lead to illnesses lingering, which will impact your climbing more than an extra day off.
Despite being a full-body sport, climbing tends to focus on relatively specific movements (especially pulling). Antagonist exercises, both with and without weight, can help balance this out, which is beneficial to general fitness and avoiding overuse and repetitive stress injuries. Additionally, there are definitely some aspects of climbing where you’ll benefit from exercises that target different muscle groups, like mantles or press moves. Similarly, mobility work like stretching (both active and passive) and yoga can be hugely beneficial. Flexibility can make movements like high steps and heel hooks feel much easier, help avoid muscle tightness after sessions, and reduce the likelihood of injuries due to muscle strains or tears. However, make sure you are using correct form for any lifting, calisthenics, or stretching—doing these exercises incorrectly can lead to injury.
One of the best ways to get better at climbing is to climb a lot. However, that doesn’t mean you should avoid other sports. As I mentioned in the point above, as much as climbing is a full-body sport, it does predominantly involve rather specific movements. This can sometimes lead to overuse injuries, as well as boredom sometimes. This is especially likely if you live in a location where the weather prevents you from getting outside for long stretches (if climbing outside is where your motivation lies), if there are no comps coming up (for mainly competition climbers), or if you just feel a bit generally unmotivated and choose to push through that. Participating in other sports in addition to climbing can be a way to spend more time with friends or outdoors. Plus, you might find that fitness or coordination from whatever other sport or sports you choose to try might actually have positive impacts on your climbing.
Nobody is motivated all the time, and what lack of motivation looks like varies from person to person. Some people are able to go through the motions and keep training despite low motivation, and others have a harder time grinding in the gym when they have no desire to be there. Even people who are usually able to push through lack of motivation sometimes find themselves just too unmotivated to get into the gym or on the rocks as much as they’d like. This happens to everyone at some point or another, and it is completely fine and normal—life happens. If you find yourself feeling a bit burnt out, don’t be afraid to take as much time off as you need. Pushing through burnout to train can lead to that lack of motivation lingering for longer and can increase your risk of injury if you ignore fatigue or other common symptoms of burnout. Instead, just be patient and do sports or other activities you feel psyched about, and the motivation will come back with time.
