Below are some frequently asked questions about the Route Climbing Training Program. If you still have questions about the program, just email us at support@trainingbeta.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

They take anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours, but almost always less than 2 hours. You can modify the program, depending on how many sets you choose to do of each exercise (given your current fitness level), and how much time you have available. We tried to make this doable for even busy climbers. Plus, we have found that it doesn’t take as much time to get stronger if you’re training the right way.

To do this program, you’ll need the following:

Optional Equipment

No, you can do as many or as few of the training days as you want, or as your schedule allows. We understand that not everyone has time to train 3 days a week, so you are welcome to skip or add days as your schedule allows.

Our philosophy is that some training is better than no training, so if you can only do 1 day in the gym per week some weeks, so be it. We think people do better at attaining their goals when they have a plan in their hands, and this is your weekly/monthly/yearly template to work from.

You should climb outside as often as you want – it’s totally encouraged. Everyone is different in their schedules and their requirements for rest days, so you’ll need to figure out how many days a week is best for you to climb.

Since this is an ongoing program, you might use these workouts 3 days a week during the winter and then only 1 or 2 in the fall during prime climbing season (or vice versa depending on what your seasons look like). And that’s totally fine. These workouts are here to support you in getting stronger, but if climbing outside is making you happy and taking the place of some of the climbing days we’ve laid out for you, then that’s awesome!

If you’re a weekend warrior, try to do the fingerboard or campus workout (whichever it is that week) on Tuesday and then one of the climbing workouts on Thursday, then climb outside on the weekends. If that’s too much, just do one of those workouts during the week – maybe on Wednesday instead to give yourself more rest days.

Also, know that training like this will likely make you more tired than usual. Your outdoor (and indoor) performance may suffer, but that’s a good thing. It means you’re getting stronger. If you’re trying to send something, just back off the training for a while and come back to it when you’re ready.

Both route climbers and boulderers would benefit from this program. This program focuses on improving your strength, power, and power endurance, and when you improve your performance in those areas you’re improving your overall climbing ability. However, this program is specifically built to accommodate route climbers who have access to a route wall or an outdoor area with a lot of variety. There is some bouldering in this program, but you will be using route wall to complete many of the exercises.

If you are looking to get stronger as a boulderer, we would recommend you take a look at our Bouldering Strength and Power Program. It has a very similar format to this program, however it focusses a little more on strength and power and doesn’t require a route climbing wall.

The short answer is yes, with some modifications. The program assumes that you are climbing routes that are around 25-40 moves long. So, whenever the program says, “climb a route”, you can make up bouldering circuit or climb multiple problems in a row to get the equivalent number of moves at a similar grade.

Yes, absolutely. In fact, this might be the best option for an all around climber who wants a large variety of workouts to choose from.

We have designed a tabbed interface into the dashboard, so each program is displayed in a different tab. With a subscription to both programs you will have access to 6 unique new workouts each week. This variety will will provide you with the ability to mix and match workouts and create a more custom experience.

It depends on how long you stick with it and how precisely you follow it. It also depends on what level of climbing you’re starting from.

If you were to push yourself hard and stick with at least most of the program, you could take your climbing up 2-3 letter grades within a couple months on this program, especially if your max ability is below 5.11. After 3-6 months on this program we’ve seen people gain an entire number grade, but each person is different. If you just take it easy on yourself and don’t do many of the sets and miss the workouts every week, your progress will obviously be slower. It’s up to you. The longer you stay on it, the stronger you can potentially get!

Any time! It’s best to start this training program at a time when you want to get stronger, which is pretty much always 🙂 Seriously, though, any time is a good time to add some training into your schedule, unless you have a comp or a trip coming up in just a week or less, in which case you should be tapering and not training hard. Anyone else could stand to put 1-3 focused training days into their schedule.

No, but it is cyclical. It’s hard to create a periodized training schedule that serves everyone because everyone has different goals at different times (ex: I want to climb my hardest route this coming April, so I have x number of months to get to my peak). So we created a program that will cycle between power endurance, power, and strength.

Having said that, even during the power endurance and power phases, you’ll be building finger strength on the hangboard. And even during the strength phase, you’ll be doing some power training on the campus board. And through all the phases, you’ll be maintaining your overall fitness. And don’t worry, there’s plenty of rest built into the program (one week off of intense training every 7th week) between phases to help you recover and continue improving.

Here’s the deal with the cardio. Kris deals with a lot of people who are physically just downright unfit. They can’t run a mile without feeling like they’re going to pass out, and it takes them over 10 minutes to do it.

Having a low level of fitness will not help your climbing, and working on your overall fitness will make you able to deal with doing more climbing in a day and push through being in pain (the good kind) so you can try harder in general.

If you’re super physically fit already, then skip the cardio or just do what you normally do for it. Daniel Woods is not a runner, but Kris has watched him crush the treadmill at the gym. He’s super fit and it shows in his climbing.

That means that Kris isn’t worried about having him run 3 days a week, or ever. If you have a base level of fitness, meaning you can walk up hills with a pack on, or jog comfortably for a mile, or ride your bike across town at a good pace without huffing and puffing, then skip it.

The videos will actually tell you how to make exercises easier or harder. For instance, on the campus board, you can put your feet on the footholds and do the moves, or you’ll be instructed just to deadhang. For pull-ups, we’ll show you how to do negative pull-ups or jumping pull-ups so you can work up to the real thing.

Every 3 weeks, you’ll be given a fitness or strength challenge, which is meant to track your progress. We’ll instruct you to record your results from those challenges so you can look back and see how much you’ve improved over time. In general, though, you’ll start to see improvements in your ability to recover, climb more difficult routes in a session, and more of them in a row. We recommend keeping notes in a journal, on your “notes” app in your phone, or in an online journal app. If you find a good one for climbing, please let us know at info@trainingbeta.com – we’d love to hear about it!

That depends on whether you’re trying to climb hard outside at the moment or not.

If you’re trying to climb hard outside…

1 Day During the Week

Then consider cutting down the workouts to 1 or 2 per week during the weekdays, and then climb hard outside during the weekend. If you’re just going to do one day of climbing during the week, do one fingerboard/campus board workout and warm up by climbing up to 2 grades below your limit. Do this preferably on Tuesday or Wednesday so you have plenty of time to recover for the weekend.

2 Days During the Week

If you’re going to do 2 days during the week, then do 1 fingerboard/campus board workout and one climbing workout on maybe Tuesday and Wednesday, or Tuesday and Thursday during the week. Do the fingerboard/campus board workout on the first training day during the week so you have plenty of time to recover before the weekend.

3 Days During the Week

If you insist on doing all the workouts during the week, then do one day of climbing on Monday, rest one day and do the fingerboard/campus board workout on Wednesday, and climb again on Thursday. That way you at least have 1 day of rest before the weekend.

If you’re not trying to climb hard outside…

Then schedule the 3 workouts whenever you can fit them in your schedule while making sure you get enough rest. You want to have at least 1 day of rest on either side of your fingerboard/campus board workout, so that’s really the only defining rule. Maybe do a climbing day on Monday, a fingerboard/campus board day on Thursday, and a climbing day on Saturday. Or something along those lines.

Yes, every route climber can benefit from gaining strength, power endurance, power, and cardio fitness. If you’re worried about the campusing workouts, don’t worry: we’ll let you know if you should be campusing given your current ability level, and what to do instead of the campus workout if you’re not there yet. We’ll do the same with every other exercise. The last thing we want is for you to get hurt!