A couple of months ago we posted a video of Luzan Matyas training specifically for an attempt to red point the world famous Action Directe 9a/5.14d. In this video, he has reconstructed the route in three section even crafting replica holds to ensure that his training is as specific as possible.
Well since we posted this first video, Luzan has been hard at work training and has put out another video that details another part of his brutal looking training routine. Here, Luzan has created a hang board routine that replicates the route complete with simulated clips and specially crafted holds that mimic the texture and geometry of the holds on the actual route. Luzan describes this part of his training as,
“An ~60 second hangboard workout on carefully carved and textured holds; and so by following any ascent on a mounted smartphone, the short but powerful route can be easily replicated as a finger isolation exercise with roughly a 9a effort. A simple and bulletproof 9a fingerboard workout developed after already 2 trips.” – Luzan Matyas
Essentially Luzan campus between these small one and two finger pockets in sync with footage of the actual route. It looks absolutely brutal! Take a look.
While we aren’t all training for Action Directe and most peoples fingers cannot handle this kind of abuse, Luzan’s training is a perfect example of setting a goal and doing whatever is necessary to achieve it. It is hard to imagine a more specific training program.
Watch Above or Click Here for the Original: Training for Action Directe
(video still courtsey of Luzan Matyas)
I’m interested to hear how this plays out as far as the dynamics of action directe go. The boarding looks really static compared to several of the key moves on the route itself which are more or less finger to finger dead points, if not full dynos. Otherwise very impressed at the specificity of the training routine.