Training For Climbing

Getting pumped doesn’t always mean you need more endurance—it may mean you’re wasting the fitness you already have. In this episode, coach Hörst share 22 practical ways to improve climbing endurance through smarter training, better movement, stronger recovery, and more efficient route execution. Think you need more endurance because your forearms get pumped? Maybe—but that may be only part of the problem.

In this episode of the Training for Climbing Podcast, veteran climber Kevin Dahlstrom joins Eric Hörst to discuss his life reboot, coming back from injury, training and recovery after 40, longevity, and the mindset required to keep improving as you age. What if some of your best climbing is still ahead of you—even after age 40? My latest Training for Climbing Podcast guest, Kevin Dahlstrom, is living proof that it’s possible. Kevin didn’t climb his first 5.13 until age 50.

In this Training Café episode, Eric Hörst discusses the most common factors that limit climbing performance. Hint: Quite often it’s NOT lack of strength! Listen to this episode to learn impactful ways to level up your climbing beginning today! Watch the video on the T4C YouTube channel, or watch on the embedded video player below. Enjoy! Join the conversation with coach Hörst on future live broadcasts.

Training for a major mountain objective takes more than simply getting fit—it requires mountaineering-specific preparation for sustained vertical gain, long summit days, altitude, pack carrying, and demanding descents. For weekend warriors with limited training time, an adaptive mountaineering training plan can help turn everyday workouts into focused preparation for arriving at the trailhead truly ready to climb. There is no shortage of good training advice out there.

In this Training for Climbing podcast, Coach Horst details how you can break through a performance plateau and reach your goals (and beyond) with 9 Lessons to Build Discipline, Train Smarter & Climb Harder. What if the biggest thing holding back your climbing isn’t finger strength, power endurance, body weight, age—or finding the perfect training program? What if the real limiter is much simpler: you’re not consistently doing the things you already know you should be doing?

Want to climb longer, recover faster, and finally stop getting pumped off your project? Then this episode is for you. In this special coaching session with Ryan Devlin, I deliver a deep-dive masterclass on rock climbing endurance training, sport climbing performance, and the science of building lasting endurance.

What if one of the greatest performance enhancers wasn’t another training session, but a better mindset? Learn how joy, play, and curiosity can reduce pressure, accelerate skill development, and help you climb closer to your true potential. Rannveig Aamolt enjoying steep tuffa climbing at Kalymnos. Nathan Welton photo. Most climbers believe that achieving a breakthrough requires becoming increasingly serious.

Master negativity with proven Stoic mindset strategies for climbers. Learn how to reframe setbacks, manage fear, control your thoughts, build mental resilience, improve climbing performance, and thrive both on the rock and in everyday life. Every climber knows the feeling. You pull onto your project feeling strong and motivated. Then a foot slips. You fumble a sequence you’ve done before.

In this Training Café episode, Eric Hörst explores the often-overlooked concept of durability—the ability to maintain strength, power, technique, and mental focus as fatigue accumulates over the course of a long climbing session or day at the crag. Unlike resilience, which relates to injury resistance, durability is about sustaining a high level of performance even after hours of climbing.

Alex Megos pulls back the curtain on one of his favorite fingerboard workouts in this training-focused video (below), explaining a simple but highly effective protocol he has used for years to build climbing-specific finger strength and power-endurance.