How to Use Bouldering to Train for Rock Climbing

Because the two sports are essentially the same, bouldering is a great way to develop your overall rock climbing skills.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Athletic Tapes
• Climbing Gear
• Climbing Harnesses
• Climbing Helmets
• Climbing Ropes
• Climbing Shoes

1. Get a training partner. If you can find someone who is as motivated to train as you are, you can push each other to work harder and get better.

2. Warm up and stretch before every bouldering session. An effective warm-up is an easy jog or bike ride followed by a few pull-ups and 10 minutes of stretching.

3. Build your climbing endurance with long and easy traverses and by spending increasing amounts of time on the rock without resting. Endurance training will build muscles while giving your ligaments and tendons a chance to recover.

4. Build power on short, difficult moves that require everything you've got. Be sure to rest between power-training sessions, as they can be extremely stressful on your ligaments and tendons.

5. Work on your weaknesses. Find boulder problems that force you to concentrate on aspects of climbing (balance, power, endurance, etc.) that you might need to improve.

6. Avoid overtraining to the point of injury - listen to your body's warning signs. Rest for at least 24 hours between sessions to allow your muscles to rebuild and grow.

Tips & Warnings

• The more time you spend on the rock, whether you're bouldering or rock climbing, the stronger you'll get and the better you'll become. Because bouldering and rock climbing involve the same movements, techniques and physical challenges, by bouldering as often as you can you're bound to see results.
• Bouldering is a physically demanding sport that could result in serious injury. We recommend that you seek the proper equipment and training before undertaking this activity.

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on 11/22/2005 First, I recommend buying Eric Horst's "Training For Climbing" book as it has a lot of good training advice. The workout schedule that has worked for me is to climb three or four days a week.
Day One- Endurance traversing at the gym.
Day Two- Rest.
Day Three- Power training at the gym.
Day Four- Rest.
Day Five- Rest.
Day Six- Outdoor climbing.
Day Seven- Easy climbing if I feel up to it, or rest if I don't.
Using this schedule I've gone from a V0 schlub to flashing most V3's and sending a number of V4's