I know what you’re thinking.  Daniel Woods is a boulderer.  Why should I listen to him about training for sport climbs?  Well, the simple answer is that while Daniel is best know for being one of the strongest boulderers on the planet, he also has multiple 5.14d and 5.15 ascents under his belt.

Personally, I find switching between climbing styles pretty difficult.  So, when Neely asked Daniel about how he was getting ready for his recent trip to Ceuse France in his TrainingBeta Podcast episode, I was all ears.

Daniel does a great job of explaining exactly what he does for his route training and why he does it.  Give it a read below.  You may be surprised at what he does.  Then, if you like what you see here, be sure to check out the full interview/transcript by clicking through below!

Daniel Woods on Training for Routes:

Neely Quinn: So going back a little bit, you said that a session in the gym lately is just up-down-ups. Can you explain what a session looks like and how long you go in for?

Daniel Woods: So a typical session for me lasts for about 3 hours. I do a 30 minute warm up, and warming up I’ll do some dynamic stretching, I’ll climb v0-v5, and just cruise around. Really get in tune with my body, and make sure everything is working properly, then I’ll usually break. Then I’ll do some harder boulders, and then after I session some harder boulders, I’ll rest again. That’s when I’ll go to the cave, and do the up-downs, which is climbing up a boulder, then down an easier boulder, then up another harder boulder. I found that doing this type of training is good, because it helps since you’re climbing on boulder problems, you can’t really chill and rest for long periods of time. You have to keep moving, and develop a good breathing rhythm, and also try and stay in the game with your head, because you’re constantly doing hard moves. Overall it’s just a good training tool.

Neely Quinn: And how many up-down-ups do you do?

Daniel Woods: Right now I’ve been doing about 5. Up-down-up is considered one set, and then I’ll do that 5 times. I’ll start out with a couple of easier ones, and then I’ll try to do three really hard ones, that I’m going to be really pushing myself on. Usually that adds up to about 200 moves, and then yeah, I’m done with my endurance portion of the training sesh.

Neely Quinn: And how long do you rest between those sets?

Daniel Woods: In between, I try to only rest for about… if it’s something hard, I’ll rest like 10 minutes. If it’s something- if I have a day where I’m not pushing myself as hard, then it’s usually 5 minutes.

Neely Quinn: Okay. And how long is that cave-  you’re at Movement in Boulder, right?

Daniel Woods: Yeah, so the cave, going up, is roughly around ten moves. Ten plus moves I’d say. Some of these lines that I’m doing probably average around 35-40 moves total.

Neely Quinn: Okay.

Daniel Woods: And then I’ll do that five times.

Neely Quinn: Why do you choose to do that instead of actually getting on a rope in the gym?

Daniel Woods: That’s a good question actually. I think, for one, you don’t need a climbing partner to do it, you can kind of go in and do it whenever. I don’t have to rely on someone else. And then I think the main reason I do it, is that I can actually set harder things for myself, doing it this way. If I go downstairs and I sport climb, I’m limited to what I can do, because the things they have set downstairs aren’t as hard as what I’m looking for. So I go into the cave, and I can find really hard boulder problems, and then just try to build endurance through that.

I guess my theory is that if I can recover on a v7 down climb, or I can feel super fit when I’m going up a v11 after doing 20 moves, that implants this thing into my head, knowing that I’m capable of climbing my project for sure. This is what I’m going to be looking at when I’m projecting outside.

Full Episode and Transcript: TBP 079 :: Daniel Woods on Training, Comps, Life Stuff, and The Pressure to Send

(photo courtesy of Jon Cardwell)

Other Articles You Might Like:

• Ask Kris 003 :: Training for Bouldering vs Routes
• Transitioning from Bouldering to Sport Climbing: 5.9 to 5.14
• From Bouldering to Route Climbing Part 2: Training Details
• Mark Anderson Advanced Endurance Training