Rock Climbing: Add-On | Uphill Athlete

TRAINING PLANS

Rock Climbing: Add-On

Add 2 weekly rock climbing sessions to your endurance training routine.

Elevate your game.

Do you want to bring structured training to your rock climbing? Do you want to combine skill learning with your climbing gym sessions? Are you an intermediate climber who wants to improve your skills while building strength and endurance? Do you want to layer 2 days of rock climbing training on top of your aerobic base training? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this is the plan for you.

Diligently crafted by Steve House and Josh Wharton, this 12-week rock climbing training plan complements our running programs for individuals seeking to enhance their endurance by adding two days of rock climbing per week to their routine.

A common skill amongst advanced and expert climbers is the ability to try really hard! This is a trained skill, and cannot be underestimated.

Workouts are labeled with “am” or “pm” to emphasize the importance of timing. The aim of this is to spread the load, maximize rest time, and increase workout quality. We’ve added an asterisk (*) symbol to the most critical workouts in the training schedule.

Embrace the grind, do the work, and know that it will pay off down the road!

Plan details

To buy this plan, you will be taken to TrainingPeaks to complete your purchase.

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All plans are delivered through TrainingPeaks, the most robust training tool available.

If you seek to enhance your endurance by adding two days of rock climbing per week to your running routine, you’re at the right place.

A woman climber wearing a green helmet and harness, standing at the base of a rock area.

Built by Uphill athlete coaches with input from world-class climbers​

We wrote this plan with beginner to advanced-intermediate climbers in mind. Because of how you set your own intensity, based off your gyms grades, it works for a wide variety of abilities. From easy to mid-5.12.

Yes! This plan is designed to get you in the climbing gym two days a week. It was written as a supplement to training for another focus such as mountaineering, alpinism, or rock climbing.

It depends on the fatigue you’re carrying from your primary training plan or routine. This plan is designed to be layered on top of a primary training plan. It is more skill-focused than strength-focused, but if you’re in a particularly difficult period of your primary training, say late in a base period with high volume, this could hamper your primary training. As with any training plan, you must closely monitor your fatigue and adjust accordingly.

If you find yourself in this situation, you should prioritize your training for your primary focus. The rule of thumb is that an athlete can increase their capacity in any one area while maintaining other capacities. To increase multiple capacities, like rock climbing and aerobic fitness, simultaneously is always difficult.

This plan is skills-focused and uses a process for you to set your climbing-training level of difficulty in any indoor climbing facility. If you are a beginner, it is often best for you to simply climb more. But if you wish to climb more with the structure of a training plan, this plan will work well for you.

Yes. This plan incorporates a process where you find your own level for your particular climbing gym and so it is adaptable to every skill level and experience level.

ROCK CLIMBING TRAINING PLANS

Beginner to Intermediate Rock Climbing

$39

Advanced Rock Climbing

$59

Rock Climbing Training Plan add-on

$29

Route Climbing level 1

$69

Route Climbing Level 2

$69

Route Climbing Level 3

$69