David Mason Training for King of Limbs

My main focus for this 2014 trip had been King of Limbs and it felt like it was coming together, all be it slowly, until I hurt my shoulder when climbing El Corazon and it was game over for that trip.

I knew that I would return the following year solely for King of Limbs and so my preparation would have to be impeccable. Why was I so motivated for King of Limbs? What appealed to me about this specific climb? And why was I prepared to fly 9000 miles and spend a pretty penny or two just for one small boulder problem?

I still struggle to answer these questions, even now! King of Limbs isn’t an incredible line; it wouldn’t be a significant ascent in the world of rock climbing and it’s a big walk to spend time in a cave, which is just big enough for one!

However King of Limbs was always in my mind; to me, it is as pure and simple as bouldering gets – 3 incredibly difficult moves involving power, tension and immense amounts of shoulder and finger strength – this is followed by easier climbing – but definitely droppable easier climbing!

So what went into my successful ascent 10 months later in 2015? The answer to that is a lot!

David Mason Climbing The Power of One V13; Photo courtesy of David Mason

Injuring my shoulder on El Corazon lead to a finger injury and so the autumn of 2014 was spent in rehab and doing as much as I could without making it any worse. I then went to the States for 6 weeks to visit Joe’s Valley and Red Rocks with brief stopovers at Moes Valley and Black Mountain. I was using this trip to see where I was; and I was surprised that I felt pretty good, all accept my fingers that is, but I knew they would be weak. Climbing on rock, however, is great for injuries and upon returning to the UK my finger was feeling back to normal and it was time to strengthen it.

I planned to spend January and February climbing on rock as much as I could, as well as getting my fingers back up to scratch with some very basic training. This involved campussing twice a week and fingerboarding three times a week. Now this isn’t a huge amount of training but I wanted to be rested for the rock and so I would go out in the day and then return to the wall or the cellar to hang off small bits of wood until I felt suitably tired. I was also doing yoga 2-4 times a week as well as completing a short TRX routine most days to increase the stability around my shoulders.

I set myself many process goals of where I wanted to be at certain times and I was lucky enough to hit most of these, which served to keep my motivation high and push me to train harder.

David Mason climbing El Corazon V13; Photo credit: Jeremy Huckins

Below are the campus and fingerboard routines that I was completing for much of January and February 2015.

Campus Routine:

Exercise 1 :

• 1-4-7-10 followed by a maximal move, normally 1-5 or 6.
• I would rest for 2.5 minutes and complete this 3 times with each arm leading.
• Once I could complete all 6 reps I added weight, 2kgs at a time up to 6kgs.

Exercise 2:

• 1-5-8 attempts.
• Same rest and reps as above.
• Once I could do this I would add weight, 2kgs at a time up to 6kgs.
• When I could do this on standard rungs I moved to a smaller rung size.

Exercise 3:

• Campussing on a 45-degree board for about 20 minutes.

Fingerboard Routine:

Exercise 1:

• One arm assisted repeaters.
• Using the bottom, middle rung on a Beastmaker 2000 I would complete 8 reps of 7/3 repeaters using assistance.
• Angles of hangs – full lock x2, 90 x2, 120 x2, straight-arm x2.
• I would complete 3 sets with 3 minutes rest between each set.
• I would progress this by reducing the weight of the assistance.

Exercise 2:

• Three finger chisel/half crimp on the bottom, outside edges of the Beastmaker 2000.
• Completing 7/3 repeaters for 1 minute at an arm angle of straight to 120 with shoulders my initiated.
• I would complete 3 sets with 3 minutes rest between each set.
• I progressed this by adding weight.

As the weather started to warm up and it began to get too hot for the gritstone I decided to have a few weeks of rest before getting into the thick of it. Over these two weeks I spoke to friends and began to plan my training for King of Limbs. I didn’t want it to be as specific as trying a replica for countless hours as I thought this may put added pressure on me that I didn’t need but it was specific in that I worked on the areas of strength which I knew were required for the problem.

Flights were booked and I had three months to get strong enough to climb that boulder problem. I felt like my fingers were recruited back to where they had been before getting injured and so I was in a good place to make some gains!

Photo courtesy of David Mason

So what did I know? I knew I needed to be stronger in the fingers and shoulders as well as having good tension and the ability to put weight through a small but positive foot hold at just the right moment. I had been on King of Limbs the previous year and so I knew what I was lacking; an example of this was that in 2014 I only stuck the crux iron cross move a few times over 3 or 4 sessions, when I returned in 2015 I did this move 5 out of 6 attempts in my first session!

Over the next 3 months I completed sessions of the following –

• Rings (shoulder stability/strength and core).
• TRX (shoulder stability).
• Bar core (core strength).
• Super set weighted pull-ups with dips (arm and shoulder strength).
• One arm hangs (finger and shoulder strength).
• Steep board climbing (all round strength).
• Campussing (to keep my contact and arm strength recruited).

As my departure date got closer I started to climb outdoors more as the weather was good and it meant that I would go away filled with confidence, if I was successful that is, and knowing how to move on rock. I supplemented this time on rock with training sessions that wouldn’t wreck my skin, including fingerboarding, rings, TRX and core.

This time spent on rock is exceedingly important for me and if the weather allows for it I always try to get out whenever possible. Strength training is key to improvements but knowing what to do with this strength is also very important in my opinion. I need to know how much to pull, or how little, and everything outside is more intricate and subtle than indoor training, even if it’s a basic problem. By climbing on rock I learn to find these intricacies and how to make the most of each attempt on a single move, a link, or a send attempt. All this would be as important as my new found strength in the process of climbing King of Limbs.

On a psychological level ticking boulders also gives me great confidence in my ability, even if they aren’t as hard as what I want to climb in the long run, they keep me ticking over and help to maintain motivation and self-confidence.

So I left for Rocklands feeling stronger than ever and in a good mental place after getting a few problems under my belt over the spring-time. I was confident that if I could just maintain my skin in a healthy state then I would climb King of Limbs.

I’ll let the video tell you how it went!