
So, in short, you can’t achieve optimal strength endurance with extremely heavy weights. And the heavier you are, the better your oxygen turnover and stroke volume need to be. Training the muscles this way requires a lot of oxygen and so you’ll need a good cardio base to continue past the lactate threshold. What’s more, is that you also need the systemic work capacity (central endurance) to match that continuous power output. Because, conversely, a less power-oriented athlete will have a greater pool of slow twitch fibers. However, type II fiber is also less energy efficient, which is why this advantage is lost once you lower the weight enough and increase the amount of reps. See also: Rethinking Endurance – Specific Peripheral Adaptationsīench pressing your max will help you to build more type IIa muscle fibers, which means you’ll have more to work through before they all become fatigued. For example, you will increase blood supply to the muscles via angiogenesis, alter the types of twitch muscle fibers available. Moreover, there are localized adaptations that improve the endurance of those muscles specifically. More Reasons to Train for Strength Endurance Learning to bench press won’t help them to punch harder, for longer. The noob will find their arms wobbling around as they struggle to execute the pattern correctly. They are readily able to recruit more motor units and they can perform the exercise without energy leaks. One reason the bench presser can press more is simply that they have become more efficient at that movement. To hear more from Steve Bechtel listen to our podcast interview with him here.The reason for this, is that strength endurance actually is determined by multiple factors. Steve Bechtel is the author of Strength: Foundational Training for Rock Climbers.
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Learn how to keep from falling off the jugs at the top of your project because you’re too pumped to hang on!… CLICK HERE: Climbing Endurance 3.0
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To learn more about these types of endurance and how you can be training them to improve your climbing endurance, read the full article by clicking below.

My “first gear” is strength and power, second is power-endurance, third is what I call “intensive endurance”, fourth is “extensive endurance”, and fifth is day-long stamina.”īased on these “gears” of endurance, Steve outlines his new endurance program consisting of three different types of sessions: extensive endurance, intensive endurance, and power endurance. I like to look at climbing endurance in terms of gears, like in a vehicle.

“ In climbing, we’re interested in power endurance, muscular endurance, and all-day stamina. Steve then describes what these three steps are: get good, get strong, and get power, and how they contribute to building endurance. To build perfect endurance, you’re going to want to go through three very long steps before you spend too much time conditioning for the pump.” -Steve Bechtel Although this is correct thinking to a point, building the perfect endurance machine starts a long way from melting off jugs high on a climb. Almost reactively, our first inclination is to see out that same awful and debilitating pump again and again, in hopes that somehow we’ll be better able to handle it next time.

“ The need for “more endurance” is apparent to almost every climber, and is burned into the psyche of everyone who’s blown a redpoint at the anchors of a project. This article from Steve Bechtel’s site,, is a really good breakdown of endurance and what, specifically, that means for climbing. Want to learn how to build your climbing endurance to hopefully keep that kind of thing from happening? Ever fallen at the top of a project on a redpoint burn?
