Climbing book review – Training for Climbing by Eric J Horst

I really want to get better at climbing. I’ve become obsessed with improvement. I even gave up my previous job to allow me more time to better my climbing. I’m not terrible at it, but I’m not great either. Like most people I started climbing and enjoyed rapid improvement until I reached a sticking point. I then became frustrated and started looking for ways to improve. Last year I read Dave McLoed’s book 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes. I found it hugely enjoyable and it helped me to become more confident, more consistent and to enjoy my climbing much more. It also provided me with a thirst for more knowledge. An experienced climbing friend of mine recommended I take a look at Training for Climbing by Eric J Hörst.

This is not light bed-time reading, it’s a full on training manual. As such it requires you to take notes, fill out surveys, create spreadsheets to plan training macro-cycles. Prepare to get your hands dirty!

The book doesn’t pull any punches. After nearly 3 years I wouldn’t really consider myself a beginner, but I’m not sure I fit the profile of the accomplished climber either. The weekly schedule for accomplished climbers includes: 4 climbing sessions per week, 2 of which are all-day sessions! It does provide an alternative for weekend only climbers, but that’s essentially climbing all weekend. Bad news for your non-climbing girlfriend/boyfriend then!

The book is divided into the following main chapters:

• An overview of training for climbing
• Self assessment and goal setting
• Mental training
• Training technique and skill
• Theory and methodology of strength training
• General conditioning exercises
• Climbing-specific exercises
• Designing your training program
• Performance nutrition
• Accelerating recovery
• Injury treatment and prevention

Chapter 1 briefly delves into the history of training for climbing then moves onto the demands of the sport followed by some interesting information on genetic potential. There’s a diagram showing a bell curve, one end representing those with below average genetic potential, and the other representing those with superior genetic potential. What the diagram shows is that the majority of people fall somewhere in the middle. Eric goes on to say that most people are ‘normal’ enough to be able to manage a 5.12 or even a 5.13 (that’s anywhere from F7a to F8a+ to you and me) – I would be very happy with that!

Chapter 2 includes a self assessment survey to enable you to ascertain where your climbing weaknesses lie so you can focus on improving in those areas. The results are divided into: mental, technique and tactics, and physical. It then goes into setting short, medium and long term goals.

Chapter 3 is focussed on the Mental training, an area that most non-professional climbers tend to ignore (myself included). The book covers all mental aspects of climbing, including: separating self image from performance, managing risk, controlling stress and pre-climb rituals. Be prepared to go deep, there’s some very useful information which will benefit most climbers. After all, an improvement in your mental game can be the quickest to implement and can have the most profound effect.

Chapter 4 – Training technique and skill – As with the rest of the book, there’s a wealth of information, presented in a very scientific fashion. The information on motor learning and effective skills practice is fascinating. There’s a self-evaluation sheet to help you ascertain where you need to focus your attention. The chapter features an in-depth description of all the main techniques employed in climbing.

Chapter 5 – This section heads into the theory and methodology behind strength training. It is very scientific and provides a deep insight into how muscles adapt to strength training. If you don’t care and you just want some tips, there are yellow boxes scattered throughout with useful summaries of the information (this device is used throughout the book, which is useful as there’s too much to take in through just one read).

Chapter 6 – General conditioning exercises is focussed on training and exercise for general fitness, core strength and flexibility.

Chapter 7 – This is where you can down and dirty with some climbing specific exercises. Perfect for those of you who like to talk about ‘beasting’. Finger boards, hyper-gravity training, HIT, campus boards and finger strength specific exercises are the order of the day.

Chapter 8 – Designing your training program, deals with planning your workouts for the next year of training. The advice is centered on intelligent training where you plan to reach your peak condition on a road trip or a competition. The book provides training programmes for beginners, accomplished climbers and elite climbers. The macro training cycle requires you to draw out a spreadsheet to plan your training cycles for the year. To save you the bother, I’ve done this for you. Scroll down for Excel and PDF versions.

Chapter 9 – Performance nutrition. What use is training if your body isn’t getting the correct fuel? Eric provides an in-depth guide to sports and climbing nutrition along with a what to buy and what not to buy on supplements.

Chapter 10 – Accelerating recovery. To be able to frequently train hard, you need to know how to recover. This section deals with all aspects of recovery from rest to stretching and self massage.

Chapter 11 – Injury treatment and prevention. This section was made for me. Years of using the gym, snowboarding and mountain biking accidents combined with my latest hard training for climbing routine has left me pretty broken already. I found some sterling advice.

I suspect this is the most thorough climbing improvement guide that money can buy. If you’re after something you can skim for a few easy pointers it’s OK, but it’s far more useful if you treat it as a comprehensive training program and dedicate some real time to it. It is a blueprint for becoming a better climber. But like the sport itself, it’s deep and takes a great deal of patience and determination to get the most from it.

Here’s those docs for planning your training programme:

• Climbing-macroscycle pdf
• Climbing-macroscycle Excel

If you would like a copy of this book, head over to The Climbing Book Shop: Training for Climbing by Eric J Hörst