@@francescovaroli6893 it’s pulled from the December interview. Thanks for listening! There’s also a bonus episode with Magnus over on Patreon, and I think I’m gonna be chatting with him again pretty soon. Lots more to learn from that guy.
do you not fingerboard anymore and just use this ? do you fell it could replace it ? are you doing max hangs, or repeaters with it ? really interested but kind of curious, cause I love the feel of hanging you know :) also, do you pull with your whole body or curling your fingers only ? thanks for the content !
@@victorblondel1902 all good questions! I still use both, as I think both have their place and also, it’s just nice to mix things up. But I think the Force Board is a far more specific and effective tool for generating finger strength, as well as endurance, when I’m not able to get out Climbing. i’ve posted some videos on my Instagram of various uses, from warm-up, to building endurance, to building max strength. To your question about strength, sometimes I will only curl my fingers (not use my legs or body), which isolates the finger flexors. And sometimes I will do a max rip, where I try to pull the thing out of the board that it’s attached to (using my legs, shoulders, arms, everything.). Creates different stimulus. I love how easy it is to travel with, and use at home when I can’t get to the gym.
Catalyst climbing does a great job explaining the psychological side of climbing and keeping up a positive attitude in some of their coaching videos, suggested viewing for everyone!
Something i noticed about myself and friends is not eating b4 climbing. Youd think youd get bloated and itd make you worse but when I DONT eat and come on an empty stomach I burn out and am low energy. Maybe not the heaviest meal or whatever but a decent meal beforehand, not just a protein bar. You need calories to move lol.
Normally when I go with friends I eat before I go and drive 30-40 minutes to get there (getting there at 6am). When I eat before going and have it digest and get into my bloodstream I do much better than for example, this morning. When I ate this morning and drove to the gym 8 minutes away, I definitely didn't have enough time to digest and didn't have enough water either so it went pretty poorly (Not as many sends, legs shaky, etc. I did warm up and stretch, but I think letting your body wake up fully and digesting food helps. Also I think temperature is definitely a big factor too 👀 If it's too hot I get out of it real quick.
@@George-nx8zuthe food you eat is never going to make a meaningful weight difference, the way it would negatively affect you is by giving you indigestion symptoms. eating a carb heavy meal 60-90 mins before training is pretty good for most
This is definitely it. My first year of climbing I stuck to v3-4 grade and never even tried projecting. I got in this weird mindset that it should be ‘Easy’ so when I would try a v5 and fall off the first move I would tell myself I’m not strong enough and just stick to v4. When I brought my friend to climb with me during year 2 I forced him to do v4s and he was already climbing at my level within a couple weeks. I realized I just never pushed myself. If you want to skyrocket your climbing progress, climb with someone stronger than you who climbs a few grades higher.
I find most of the time is the fear of falling on a boulder from the top where the crux is usually set. I find really need to practice falling by not sticking it.
It's the slabs for me. I cannot find the courage half the time to top them out if there's a sketchy foothold at the top. I haven't fallen down the wall yet and I don't plan on it 😅
@@HourRomanticist in slabs ım way more careful to place the foot , falled on volume yesterday though :D only a scratch but falling on top isnt an option
I have fallen a lot of times, but usually it's at least somewhat on purpose, I expect to fall, or I have time to react to the fall. The only time none of these happened was when I tried to hold on a sloper at the very top of the wall and my hand slipped unexpectedly, and then I fell in a strange way and twisted my ankle so bad it took 4 months to fully heal. Falling completely accidentally is scary.
@@HourRomanticist Doing harder boulders you'll fall down the wall a lot and it's fine really. Should train to react to falling and not hurting yourself.
Physical things aside, confidence is THE most important tool in climbing imo. Going from climbing in my range because I knew I could do it vs climbing things I wanted to climb because I just wanted to and confidently (not having a clue if I could or not) is tremendous to progress and enjoyment on the wall
Indeed. I know a lot of people, that if you encourage them, can easily send stuff they never thought possible. I fall in this myself, though.... It's like, there is this ladder-like route in my gym in an overhang and someone said, this looks easy to campus. And I said, nah, I probably won't make it... flashed it. So, at the very least, no matter how hard it looks, just try.
Don't look at grades. Have fun. Look at a climb, think about the movement and workout the moves. Much more rewarding, than grade hunting. We had one climber in our group who always said 8 UIAA was too hard for him. One day in a new gym, it wasn't UIAA Scale, it was graded in French, and he cruised one up with ease. We told him afterwards and from that point on, the blockage was gone in his head. I started hangboarding with feet on the ground. gradually increasing hangtime. Best technique for me getting stronger: climb slower and more precise, don't adjust the hand, after you placed it, wait 3 seconds before the hold to grab it. Suddenly easy routes, get really really hard. and your strength and technique will improve, because you have to have a good stand.
I’ve decided this year I’m gonna focus on cultivating what Louis Parkinson calls “Relentless Optimism” I’m going to try hard boulders that aren’t my style and between two grades lower than what I climb and three grades harder than what I climb ( so currently v4-v9). My joints muscles and my sleep are playing nice lately since I’ve cut back on vices and supplement well,so I think it’ll be possible to get stronger learn and better even if I stay the same grade.
I really like how you pointed out the importance of muscle memory. I am a beginner climber (started in the beginning of 2023, because of Magnus and other clibing youtubers btw) and I am always really surprised of my muscle memory. When I fall on a boulder 5 times and come back a week later, I almost every time stick the move. So this is just to give people confidence, that muscle memory doesn´t just work if you´re a pro climber oder you have climbed for 20 years. It even works if you are a beginner like me:) Also I´ve started hangboarding in january 2024, just from the best edge and for five seconds and I started with my feet on the ground too. I´ve done this for 2 months, lifted the feet slowly and a few weeks ago I started to use the campusboard for the first time. What I want to say is, everything takes time but if it feels good and you have no pain or anything in your fingers after you did the exercise, just start doing it. These exercises have helped my brain more than my fingers I might think, because I am so confident now but also know my limits:)
Awesome to hear! Congrats on the steady progress 💪. Lots more great advice in this full podcast episode, and many others with top climbers, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever 🙌
To go along with the muscle memory, I think subconsciously you know what to expect and what kind of force you need at each section since you've done the boulder before.
Absolutely. If you're having an issue with a move, if you can try it as many times as possible, after a night's rest you'll usually be able to do it. I've noticed this with everything in life.
I think one thing that’s a very huge downer for confidence is the grading system. While it’s nice to compare yourself to others you also shy away from harder grades. Whereas with coloursystems that have huge overlaps in grades, it simply doesn’t matter that much and one is much more inclined to try the next harder colour because it might be a soft one for the colour. And just by that you „accidentally“ touch routes that are way harder than what you usually climb and get used to those. And one can still compare their „strength“ world wide to others on systemboards.
I interviews Carlo Traversi recently and he shared this perspective (which he implements at his gym). I love the sound of it. His interview will be out in about a month.
I’m 39, just started climbing 3 weeks ago. I’m in very good shape, been a bodybuilder/weightlifter for 23 years. I tried a move today and heard a loud pop and stinging pain in my pinky. Hard lesson learned today.
@@cosmoswatching4007hope you’re feeling alr man, be sure to take it easy in general climbing, your strength is gonna almost work against u climbing in terms of injuries bc you’ll be able to pull harder than is safe in more positions, just watch out for joints in awkward positions when you generate force
Yo I don't usually care for the sponsor of the video, in favt I usually skip them if I'm being honest, but that hangboard looks incredibly cool tbh. Like, absurdly useful for measuring finger strength, knowing where you are in the progress of your training (besides just hang time), and for knowing when to progress to smaller hold sizes. That genuinely looks super cool
I try my best to partner with brands that I personally believe in and are relevant for climbers. I’ve been using one of those for many months now, and it’s definitely improved my training routine. I use it to warm up at the crag or the gym, to train when I don’t have a lot of time to climb, and even right now when I’m on vacation.
Yeah I feel like I can only resend easy stuff because all my projects rn seem way too hard for me. I do make maybe a move of progress every session though lol.
Because its not a competition would be my answer... whether you're motivated is a genuine question as if you enjoy climbing at the grade you're on then doing all the extra training to improve is going to be tough!
Depends on your level of climbing. At the beginning I think it is way more helpful to just climb a lot instead of trying moves that are too hard and result in lots of resting. Climbing with people better than you definitely helps a lot.
I am all the opposite. I get on boulders that are rlly hard, give it lots of tries through out multiple session to the point where I am pretty sure I am not strong enough and then…I keep trying because who knows, maybe the next try it goes 😂😂😂
You're doing the right thing, assuming that move you're attempting is easy enough to still kind of executing, even if you fail. Sending is not training.
At the moment I got a couple of routes of the next grade and I try them and then break them into different parts to train just that part until it feels good and then the next
I have only been climbing for one month now and i managed to go from v0 to v6 simply because i tried stuff that seemed to be too difficult for me. I even tried two v6s when i haven't even done a single v5 yet and today i managed to do both. If you try something really hard, you will run into problems, which is great because problems give you a chance to improve. They narrow down where you might be lacking and then it's up to you to figure out what to do better. Once the problems is fixed, you will have become a better climber.
@@michael1 i never said you should try v6. I said you should try pushing your limit and try things that are harder than what you've ever climbed before. Of course you always need to know what's reasonable for you to do and not. Nobody is going to improve by failing on move 1 100 times within the first second, but if you find a problem that feels impossible to complete, but not impossible to try i think that is the sweet spot for improvement. I think you improve faster by creating a new type of skill that makes you go further than ever before rather than by improving already existing skills and going a path you've already been on before, mainly because with method 1 you will naturally get exactly what you get out of method 2 since you'll get a feeling for good technique way faster this way, since there is a clear distinction between what works and what doesn't. (The distinction is falling. Regular old technique will usually lead to a fall, while improved new technique will usually see immediate results.) V2 feels pretty easy now, not because i climbed a lot of v2s but because i climbed v6 already. Also personally i think it's way more fun this way, as i dont know anybody in climbing that doesn't like searching for ways to improve their technique while also simultanously challenging themselves and pushing their own limits. Also i don't think there is any single good coach that could ever not help a beginner climber. If they really are a good coach, they know what you are lacking and they know how to make you improve in that aspect. Everybody might learn a bit differently, but on a purely physical level we are very similar to each other in concepts, so good coaches teaching good climbing concepts will always be helpful to everyone. At that point it's not subjective, just science. If you disagree, it's like saying "you won't lose weight by running, because they way you structure your running doesn't work for you personally". No that's just plainly wrong. You will always lose weight by running. You might be able to optimize weight lose with the way you run, but you will always lose atleast some weight by running. Edit: I also never said that you need to brute force your way through an extremly difficult boulder with 70 attempts on day 1, but regularly working on it would be good.
@@michael1 60% of what you said consisted of telling me about what you do, 20% consisted of weird analogies and the other 20% consisted of a misunderstanding of the points i was trying to make, which were the sole thing your entire comment is based on, which i grasped relatively early on. 0% of your comment consisted of making logical arguments against my ACTUAL points, not the points you thought i was trying to make. Basically the situation is like this: I said: "I like apples" You said: "I disagree, i dont think bananas taste good. Anyways here is the 4 page document you never asked for about the fruits i like." Those are the reasons i didn't read your entire comment. I do read books on the regular though. Also im not saying that how you try to improve isn't effective, i just don't think it's efficient. Just like how i would've been fine with the efficiency of my way being argued against, but that's really not what you did. So yeah, sorry about reading the entire comment. I truly deserve to be disrespected for it...
I mean this completely genuinely, so do not take offence to it because I'm not denying the fact that you *could* have reached V6 in the month you have been climbing. But I hope you can understand my skepticism, given that V6 is a very very high level for a beginner. My gym in the UK has a colour grading system, the HARDEST colour grades can be about V7-8. If you've genuinely got to V6 in a month, then you're in the top 1% of beginner climbers. I'm really sorry, but I simply don't believe you, but I am willing to have my mind swayed. Have you climbed/have access to any universal system boards (kilter, moonboard etc)? Have you got access to any outdoor boulders near you that are well known, and have had the grade confirmed by hundreds of climbers? Do you have an instagram or anything where you post climbs? Any of those would be useful, because they're a better way of gaugeing your max grade than your gym grades. Again, just to be clear, I'm willing to be proved wrong! I just don't believe it at this current stage
My first.. let's call it V3.. was a breezy deadpoint to a 2 finger pocket. Had I landed that move correctly, it would have been so easy. Unfortunately my feet slipped as I caught the pocket so I had to take a break from climbing 😂😂😂.
@@anticoxchange7698 was on a V1 where I went. And the feet were slippery af. I've also been told that their V1's are more like V2 or V3 anywhere else. It really made me stop going because V0 was too easy and V1 was such a huge gap, both in skill and finger strength. How am I supposed to improve if I can do literally none of the V1!
Ok love this BUT at the risk of being annoying, Magnus's audience is overwhelming male. Were there a lot of women in his program? For the average guy who can do 1-2 pullups without much training, and even more so for the average fit guy who can do 4-15 pullups, arm/shoulder strength is obviously not the limiting factor when they start climbing! But the average woman who doesn't have a fitness background? It took me like a year and a half of climbing to be able to do my first unassisted pullup. I was climbing the same grades as a guy who had started at the same time who could do 6 pullups, so I was somehow finding a way up the wall with technique and stuff, but I'm pretty sure that some strength training would have helped me. And I've heard similar feedback from other women!
Also I feel like all these interviews with pro climbers can't understand how much harder it can be if you start at an older age without a sports background. I climbed for two years in middle school, with my nice young tendons and never got anything more than DOMs, didn't do any significant physical activity for a decade and now I can't count the number of finger tweaks and various shoulders and elbow issues I get if I even dare to want to try hard on something that's more than half a step above my usual grade. Tendinitis (multiple times multiple places), tenosynovitis, collateral ligament injury, sprains... Like I'm progressing, but slooooowly. And again, I've heard this from other people that I climb with, if you have a background of using your tendons for a long time, even for another activity, weightlifting, gymnastics, wrestling, whatever, or even working manual labor, or if you start young, you come in with a significant advantage in the time it takes to adapt. Idk I just feel like it's another thing that gets overlooked if your audience are all 'the average guy' and your friends mostly athletes, long time climbers, and generally younger fitter guys (and also self selected genetically lucky people).
most elite athletes have little training knowledge for themselves, much less for others. we would be fools to ignore what they are doing, but we would be fools to follow what they are doing rather than rely on the research. people attribute success or progress to a great many things which the research suggests was counter productive, even. having worked with clients who cannot do a bodyweight pullup, we often have some immediate constraints and priorities to consider but this may just be something to watch for in a review of climbing. what I wish is more climbing gyms and climbers shifted away from the pullup as the gold standard exercise and instead invested in some lat pulldown/low row machines with an appropriately heavy stack or weight horns.
i’ve been climbing for 4 months climbing with better climbers the whole way through and magnus was so real when he said it makes you feel like a douchebag switching partner all the time 😭
Ive been climbing till i cant hold onto holds anymore since i started climbing 2 1/2 months ago and I see improvement every session. I do have a problem where I let go of the wall rather than falling off when i think i cant gi higher, meaning i dont try to failure, so im working on that.
Def be careful and don't push it. If you climb hard stuff until exhaustion the biggest risk is dry firing and injuring your tendons. Rather than let go when you think you can't climb higher it might be better to just downclimb and try to read the route. Dropping excessively isn't good for ya, even if you're really light.
Oh for sure. Lots of climbers “just climb”. But many will tell you that the intentionality of those climbing sessions really matters. Not just goofing around, but structuring your gym sessions to focus on a specific energy system or skill acquisition. Check out my full interview with Chris Sharma for more on this. And of course, make sure you’re having fun. Then it doesn’t feel like training :)
I tend to not try harder rputes because i cant even mentally figure out how the moves go. During the time I go to my gym, it is nearly empty so I rarely ever get to see someone do those v4+ routes to even know how the beta is supposed to go.
Great content, but oh boy do I dislike these clickbaity titles. They've become almost indistinguishable between all climbing videos. Anyway, thanks for bringing us your interview
Sorry. UA-cam is hard to navigate - I work with someone to help me with titles and all the stuff it takes to get videos seen. I try to ensure the title reflects the content and that the content delivers on the title. Do you feel this one didn’t deliver?
@@thestruggleclimbingshow don't listen to this guy. The title is accurate. This title format just feels like clickbait, even though the title itself is accurate. It's a symptom of the platform
Alright, I cant do a single pull-up. maybe its technique, idk. Can barely hang one arm. Height is 179cm, with weight, 82kg. I can send most v3 in 1 or 2 sessions, except for overhang boulder and I can make a progress on v4. What should I focus on? Strength or technique?
Both strength and technique are needed but if you're lacking pulling strength that will need to be addressed sooner than your technique imo. Being able to do at least 5 pullups is pretty important once you reach that v4-5 stage, especially on overhang problems. It's harder when you're heavier, I def relate to that being 87kg myself, but because you're naturally pulling more weight it feels pretty sick to be able to do 5 perfect pullups 💪
I am a woman and i can also not make a pullup, i first focused on technique, to get the best out of me. Learned from more experienced climbers until i really struggled, that i needed to do one pullup to get to the top, but alsp improving balance. So after climbing i try with the band to do as much pullups as possible, Sometimes it is less, i don't care about the number, then i feel exhausted it is enough. Now it is 5 months later (still cannot do a pullup alone) since i started practising and really made progress on my problems :) i also try not to look on the grades, if i feel i can make it or i am interessed in a move i just try it ☺️ Just trying to start a harder boulder is still progress!
My son tells me I have the strength but not the confidence. I have a problem with fear of falling and not committing enough. I'll be working on it as soon as I get back after the minor knee surgery. There's a real element of needing mind over matter, at least in my case.
It took me a couple years of very thoughtful and deliberate work to address my fear of falling… And once I got it into a better place, I started flying through the grades and just enjoying my time on rock more than ever. Lots of great resources out there, from Hazel Findlay‘s Strong Mind course to some great books like the rock Warriors Way and Vertical Mind.
Non competitive just recreation types. Similar as running, cycling.intervals hurt. Athletic , competitive people improve quick no matter the physical activity
Older climbers have an advantage in tendon strength. If you can't do some dynos anymore, I get that, but youre tendons are stronger than younger people (old man strength).
@@HourRomanticistI disagree. I climbed for two years as a teen with my nice new young tendons and never got more than DOMs. I picked up climbing again a decade later and I've had almost all of the tendon issues I know of minus pulley injuries (knock on wood). Old man strength only really works if it comes with a history of working with your hands a lot imo!
I was quite intrigued by the forceboard, then I saw the advertising part and the +10% off and all that... it just put me off buying one. Too much hype just makes me not interested in said product. Good products don't need constant plugs.
I appreciate your feedback. Partnering with sponsors is how I can afford to make my show (it’s a lot of work and expense). I pride myself on only partnering with brands I personally use and love. And I do personally use and love the ForceBoard. It has made my finger training much more consistent. And I think it’s pretty nice to offer a discount. You could choose not to use it of course, but I think most people would prefer to save money if given the option, while also supporting me as a creator who’s working hard to put out helpful climbing content. I’m not a big studio, just a guy in his basement doing the best I can. But whether you use the link / code or not, I really do think the ForceBoard is awesome. It has totally improved my training routine and how I warm up at the crag. Hope your climbing is going great!
The #1 thing I learned is that „good technique“ is mostly understood as prioritizing utilization of legs over upper body strength. However, this often puts additional force on the fingers and is difficult to withstand for beginners, which is why I claim that strong fingers are a prerequisite for learning proper technique.
Often people say: Wow he's climbing so beautiful. That's great technique. The other guy lacks technique. No he might lack strength to properly use good technique. He might know how to to that move beautifully if the holds were better or with less overhang. More often than not it's poor core strength.
@@th3l05t-f1zsprains are super common though. It's happened to me, last month I saw a girl break something in her ankle, my local gym is known for it!
I think injury prevention is a big thing, not only for climbing, but for all sports. It's very easy to get swept up into the fun and excitement and forget that bouldering is just like any other sport or resistance training - you need proper rest! Many people just like to train and climb through nagging issues and that can lead to more serious injuries that put you out for ages. I unfortunately tore my Achilles a little over a year ago (playing volleyball) and that put me out of climbing for like 8-9 months. I lost so many of my gains because of that and it really sucks to have to build it up again. Luckily stuff like technique stays ingrained in your body forever, but those strength and finger gains really faded away. I really should have been more diligent in maintaining that strength, but I was more focused on rehabbing my actual injury.
Level Up your Finger Strength with Force Board, Get 10% OFF with code 'STRUGGLE' ➡ thestruggleclimbingshow.com/forceboardyoutube
Is this a new interview or a clip from the December 7th show? Thanks! Love the podcast!!
@@francescovaroli6893 it’s pulled from the December interview. Thanks for listening! There’s also a bonus episode with Magnus over on Patreon, and I think I’m gonna be chatting with him again pretty soon. Lots more to learn from that guy.
do you not fingerboard anymore and just use this ? do you fell it could replace it ? are you doing max hangs, or repeaters with it ? really interested but kind of curious, cause I love the feel of hanging you know :) also, do you pull with your whole body or curling your fingers only ? thanks for the content !
@@victorblondel1902 all good questions! I still use both, as I think both have their place and also, it’s just nice to mix things up. But I think the Force Board is a far more specific and effective tool for generating finger strength, as well as endurance, when I’m not able to get out Climbing. i’ve posted some videos on my Instagram of various uses, from warm-up, to building endurance, to building max strength. To your question about strength, sometimes I will only curl my fingers (not use my legs or body), which isolates the finger flexors. And sometimes I will do a max rip, where I try to pull the thing out of the board that it’s attached to (using my legs, shoulders, arms, everything.). Creates different stimulus. I love how easy it is to travel with, and use at home when I can’t get to the gym.
@@thestruggleclimbingshow thanks for taking the time !
nah it's cus the shirts I wear are too heavy
😂
Damn I have really good news the guy in this video sells shirts
Tops off ftw lol
But magnus hardly wears shirts during climbing 😅
Rungne shirts are actually 7kgs so when you take it off, you become stronger just like Magnus
Climbing with and observing people who are better than you is so helpful, I've learned so much by doing that.
Catalyst climbing does a great job explaining the psychological side of climbing and keeping up a positive attitude in some of their coaching videos, suggested viewing for everyone!
Great recommendation!
what is the video's title?
Something i noticed about myself and friends is not eating b4 climbing. Youd think youd get bloated and itd make you worse but when I DONT eat and come on an empty stomach I burn out and am low energy. Maybe not the heaviest meal or whatever but a decent meal beforehand, not just a protein bar. You need calories to move lol.
Normally when I go with friends I eat before I go and drive 30-40 minutes to get there (getting there at 6am). When I eat before going and have it digest and get into my bloodstream I do much better than for example, this morning. When I ate this morning and drove to the gym 8 minutes away, I definitely didn't have enough time to digest and didn't have enough water either so it went pretty poorly (Not as many sends, legs shaky, etc. I did warm up and stretch, but I think letting your body wake up fully and digesting food helps.
Also I think temperature is definitely a big factor too 👀 If it's too hot I get out of it real quick.
I'm guilty of doing this because I believe I'll have an easier time climbing if I'm lighter. But its probably not the optimal way to train
I climb best on an almost empty stomach, like a banana before and i feel my best
Toast and honey is a good preworkout snack/meal
@@George-nx8zuthe food you eat is never going to make a meaningful weight difference, the way it would negatively affect you is by giving you indigestion symptoms. eating a carb heavy meal 60-90 mins before training is pretty good for most
This is definitely it.
My first year of climbing I stuck to v3-4 grade and never even tried projecting.
I got in this weird mindset that it should be ‘Easy’ so when I would try a v5 and fall off the first move I would tell myself I’m not strong enough and just stick to v4.
When I brought my friend to climb with me during year 2 I forced him to do v4s and he was already climbing at my level within a couple weeks. I realized I just never pushed myself.
If you want to skyrocket your climbing progress, climb with someone stronger than you who climbs a few grades higher.
I find most of the time is the fear of falling on a boulder from the top where the crux is usually set. I find really need to practice falling by not sticking it.
It's the slabs for me. I cannot find the courage half the time to top them out if there's a sketchy foothold at the top. I haven't fallen down the wall yet and I don't plan on it 😅
@@HourRomanticist in slabs ım way more careful to place the foot , falled on volume yesterday though :D only a scratch but falling on top isnt an option
I have fallen a lot of times, but usually it's at least somewhat on purpose, I expect to fall, or I have time to react to the fall. The only time none of these happened was when I tried to hold on a sloper at the very top of the wall and my hand slipped unexpectedly, and then I fell in a strange way and twisted my ankle so bad it took 4 months to fully heal. Falling completely accidentally is scary.
@@HourRomanticist Doing harder boulders you'll fall down the wall a lot and it's fine really. Should train to react to falling and not hurting yourself.
@@outandabout259I hear you. I did my biceps in on an accidental fall downclimbing and was out for three months.
Physical things aside, confidence is THE most important tool in climbing imo. Going from climbing in my range because I knew I could do it vs climbing things I wanted to climb because I just wanted to and confidently (not having a clue if I could or not) is tremendous to progress and enjoyment on the wall
Indeed. I know a lot of people, that if you encourage them, can easily send stuff they never thought possible. I fall in this myself, though.... It's like, there is this ladder-like route in my gym in an overhang and someone said, this looks easy to campus. And I said, nah, I probably won't make it... flashed it. So, at the very least, no matter how hard it looks, just try.
1:04 Magnus making me feel like a ball of confidence. I will try any route with what in my mind looks like good holds. The bigger the better.
Don't look at grades. Have fun. Look at a climb, think about the movement and workout the moves. Much more rewarding, than grade hunting.
We had one climber in our group who always said 8 UIAA was too hard for him. One day in a new gym, it wasn't UIAA Scale, it was graded in French, and he cruised one up with ease. We told him afterwards and from that point on, the blockage was gone in his head.
I started hangboarding with feet on the ground. gradually increasing hangtime.
Best technique for me getting stronger: climb slower and more precise, don't adjust the hand, after you placed it, wait 3 seconds before the hold to grab it. Suddenly easy routes, get really really hard. and your strength and technique will improve, because you have to have a good stand.
I’ve decided this year I’m gonna focus on cultivating what Louis Parkinson calls “Relentless Optimism” I’m going to try hard boulders that aren’t my style and between two grades lower than what I climb and three grades harder than what I climb ( so currently v4-v9). My joints muscles and my sleep are playing nice lately since I’ve cut back on vices and supplement well,so I think it’ll be possible to get stronger learn and better even if I stay the same grade.
Love this!
I really like how you pointed out the importance of muscle memory. I am a beginner climber (started in the beginning of 2023, because of Magnus and other clibing youtubers btw) and I am always really surprised of my muscle memory. When I fall on a boulder 5 times and come back a week later, I almost every time stick the move. So this is just to give people confidence, that muscle memory doesn´t just work if you´re a pro climber oder you have climbed for 20 years. It even works if you are a beginner like me:)
Also I´ve started hangboarding in january 2024, just from the best edge and for five seconds and I started with my feet on the ground too. I´ve done this for 2 months, lifted the feet slowly and a few weeks ago I started to use the campusboard for the first time. What I want to say is, everything takes time but if it feels good and you have no pain or anything in your fingers after you did the exercise, just start doing it. These exercises have helped my brain more than my fingers I might think, because I am so confident now but also know my limits:)
Awesome to hear! Congrats on the steady progress 💪. Lots more great advice in this full podcast episode, and many others with top climbers, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever 🙌
To go along with the muscle memory, I think subconsciously you know what to expect and what kind of force you need at each section since you've done the boulder before.
Absolutely. If you're having an issue with a move, if you can try it as many times as possible, after a night's rest you'll usually be able to do it. I've noticed this with everything in life.
I think one thing that’s a very huge downer for confidence is the grading system. While it’s nice to compare yourself to others you also shy away from harder grades. Whereas with coloursystems that have huge overlaps in grades, it simply doesn’t matter that much and one is much more inclined to try the next harder colour because it might be a soft one for the colour. And just by that you „accidentally“ touch routes that are way harder than what you usually climb and get used to those.
And one can still compare their „strength“ world wide to others on systemboards.
I interviews Carlo Traversi recently and he shared this perspective (which he implements at his gym). I love the sound of it. His interview will be out in about a month.
Big one is trying to reduce injuries, especially for older climbers
I’m 39, just started climbing 3 weeks ago. I’m in very good shape, been a bodybuilder/weightlifter for 23 years. I tried a move today and heard a loud pop and stinging pain in my pinky. Hard lesson learned today.
Absolutely humbled by bouldering
@@cosmoswatching4007hope you’re feeling alr man, be sure to take it easy in general climbing, your strength is gonna almost work against u climbing in terms of injuries bc you’ll be able to pull harder than is safe in more positions, just watch out for joints in awkward positions when you generate force
Yo I don't usually care for the sponsor of the video, in favt I usually skip them if I'm being honest, but that hangboard looks incredibly cool tbh. Like, absurdly useful for measuring finger strength, knowing where you are in the progress of your training (besides just hang time), and for knowing when to progress to smaller hold sizes. That genuinely looks super cool
I try my best to partner with brands that I personally believe in and are relevant for climbers. I’ve been using one of those for many months now, and it’s definitely improved my training routine. I use it to warm up at the crag or the gym, to train when I don’t have a lot of time to climb, and even right now when I’m on vacation.
This is so crazy, that’s my climbing gym. Never thought it was big enough for Magnus to come through
What gym? And where is that video on?
I always film myself when I train so I can see what I did because when I'm climbing I kinda zone out 😁
Great advice!
Glad it was helpful!
I'm the opposite. I try stuff way too hard and barely ever actually send anything 😂
Same. Try stuff. Get a pulley injury. Get angry at myself. Try again. Yet finger boarding is sooo boring, I would rather climb injured 😂😂😂
Yeah I feel like I can only resend easy stuff because all my projects rn seem way too hard for me. I do make maybe a move of progress every session though lol.
@@assaqwwq only need 6 sets a day as warm up
I need to be comfortable slipping off the top of a route. I find my lack of confidence when climbing being from fear.
Because its not a competition would be my answer... whether you're motivated is a genuine question as if you enjoy climbing at the grade you're on then doing all the extra training to improve is going to be tough!
Definitely, the best way to improve is just trying really hard stuff!
Depends on your level of climbing. At the beginning I think it is way more helpful to just climb a lot instead of trying moves that are too hard and result in lots of resting.
Climbing with people better than you definitely helps a lot.
I am all the opposite. I get on boulders that are rlly hard, give it lots of tries through out multiple session to the point where I am pretty sure I am not strong enough and then…I keep trying because who knows, maybe the next try it goes 😂😂😂
You're doing the right thing, assuming that move you're attempting is easy enough to still kind of executing, even if you fail. Sending is not training.
At the moment I got a couple of routes of the next grade and I try them and then break them into different parts to train just that part until it feels good and then the next
I have only been climbing for one month now and i managed to go from v0 to v6 simply because i tried stuff that seemed to be too difficult for me. I even tried two v6s when i haven't even done a single v5 yet and today i managed to do both. If you try something really hard, you will run into problems, which is great because problems give you a chance to improve. They narrow down where you might be lacking and then it's up to you to figure out what to do better. Once the problems is fixed, you will have become a better climber.
@@michael1 i never said you should try v6. I said you should try pushing your limit and try things that are harder than what you've ever climbed before. Of course you always need to know what's reasonable for you to do and not. Nobody is going to improve by failing on move 1 100 times within the first second, but if you find a problem that feels impossible to complete, but not impossible to try i think that is the sweet spot for improvement. I think you improve faster by creating a new type of skill that makes you go further than ever before rather than by improving already existing skills and going a path you've already been on before, mainly because with method 1 you will naturally get exactly what you get out of method 2 since you'll get a feeling for good technique way faster this way, since there is a clear distinction between what works and what doesn't. (The distinction is falling. Regular old technique will usually lead to a fall, while improved new technique will usually see immediate results.) V2 feels pretty easy now, not because i climbed a lot of v2s but because i climbed v6 already. Also personally i think it's way more fun this way, as i dont know anybody in climbing that doesn't like searching for ways to improve their technique while also simultanously challenging themselves and pushing their own limits. Also i don't think there is any single good coach that could ever not help a beginner climber. If they really are a good coach, they know what you are lacking and they know how to make you improve in that aspect. Everybody might learn a bit differently, but on a purely physical level we are very similar to each other in concepts, so good coaches teaching good climbing concepts will always be helpful to everyone. At that point it's not subjective, just science. If you disagree, it's like saying "you won't lose weight by running, because they way you structure your running doesn't work for you personally". No that's just plainly wrong. You will always lose weight by running. You might be able to optimize weight lose with the way you run, but you will always lose atleast some weight by running.
Edit: I also never said that you need to brute force your way through an extremly difficult boulder with 70 attempts on day 1, but regularly working on it would be good.
@@michael1 60% of what you said consisted of telling me about what you do, 20% consisted of weird analogies and the other 20% consisted of a misunderstanding of the points i was trying to make, which were the sole thing your entire comment is based on, which i grasped relatively early on. 0% of your comment consisted of making logical arguments against my ACTUAL points, not the points you thought i was trying to make. Basically the situation is like this:
I said: "I like apples"
You said: "I disagree, i dont think bananas taste good. Anyways here is the 4 page document you never asked for about the fruits i like."
Those are the reasons i didn't read your entire comment. I do read books on the regular though. Also im not saying that how you try to improve isn't effective, i just don't think it's efficient. Just like how i would've been fine with the efficiency of my way being argued against, but that's really not what you did. So yeah, sorry about reading the entire comment. I truly deserve to be disrespected for it...
Commercial V6? Cause a V6 outside in your first weeks is absolutely NUTS
@@gxbrielwatches4088 yeah commercial but a v6 for a comp so i'd assume it's pretty correctly rated. It's v7 now though.
I mean this completely genuinely, so do not take offence to it because I'm not denying the fact that you *could* have reached V6 in the month you have been climbing. But I hope you can understand my skepticism, given that V6 is a very very high level for a beginner. My gym in the UK has a colour grading system, the HARDEST colour grades can be about V7-8. If you've genuinely got to V6 in a month, then you're in the top 1% of beginner climbers. I'm really sorry, but I simply don't believe you, but I am willing to have my mind swayed.
Have you climbed/have access to any universal system boards (kilter, moonboard etc)? Have you got access to any outdoor boulders near you that are well known, and have had the grade confirmed by hundreds of climbers? Do you have an instagram or anything where you post climbs?
Any of those would be useful, because they're a better way of gaugeing your max grade than your gym grades. Again, just to be clear, I'm willing to be proved wrong! I just don't believe it at this current stage
My first.. let's call it V3.. was a breezy deadpoint to a 2 finger pocket. Had I landed that move correctly, it would have been so easy. Unfortunately my feet slipped as I caught the pocket so I had to take a break from climbing 😂😂😂.
Worst fear every time I see a dynamic move to a pocket lol. Even when fully warmed up pockets are rough on my fingers.
Shitty setting to do this on a v3
@@anticoxchange7698 was on a V1 where I went. And the feet were slippery af. I've also been told that their V1's are more like V2 or V3 anywhere else. It really made me stop going because V0 was too easy and V1 was such a huge gap, both in skill and finger strength. How am I supposed to improve if I can do literally none of the V1!
Ok love this BUT at the risk of being annoying, Magnus's audience is overwhelming male. Were there a lot of women in his program? For the average guy who can do 1-2 pullups without much training, and even more so for the average fit guy who can do 4-15 pullups, arm/shoulder strength is obviously not the limiting factor when they start climbing! But the average woman who doesn't have a fitness background? It took me like a year and a half of climbing to be able to do my first unassisted pullup. I was climbing the same grades as a guy who had started at the same time who could do 6 pullups, so I was somehow finding a way up the wall with technique and stuff, but I'm pretty sure that some strength training would have helped me. And I've heard similar feedback from other women!
Also I feel like all these interviews with pro climbers can't understand how much harder it can be if you start at an older age without a sports background. I climbed for two years in middle school, with my nice young tendons and never got anything more than DOMs, didn't do any significant physical activity for a decade and now I can't count the number of finger tweaks and various shoulders and elbow issues I get if I even dare to want to try hard on something that's more than half a step above my usual grade. Tendinitis (multiple times multiple places), tenosynovitis, collateral ligament injury, sprains... Like I'm progressing, but slooooowly. And again, I've heard this from other people that I climb with, if you have a background of using your tendons for a long time, even for another activity, weightlifting, gymnastics, wrestling, whatever, or even working manual labor, or if you start young, you come in with a significant advantage in the time it takes to adapt. Idk I just feel like it's another thing that gets overlooked if your audience are all 'the average guy' and your friends mostly athletes, long time climbers, and generally younger fitter guys (and also self selected genetically lucky people).
most elite athletes have little training knowledge for themselves, much less for others. we would be fools to ignore what they are doing, but we would be fools to follow what they are doing rather than rely on the research. people attribute success or progress to a great many things which the research suggests was counter productive, even.
having worked with clients who cannot do a bodyweight pullup, we often have some immediate constraints and priorities to consider but this may just be something to watch for in a review of climbing.
what I wish is more climbing gyms and climbers shifted away from the pullup as the gold standard exercise and instead invested in some lat pulldown/low row machines with an appropriately heavy stack or weight horns.
i’ve been climbing for 4 months climbing with better climbers the whole way through and magnus was so real when he said it makes you feel like a douchebag switching partner all the time 😭
Ive been climbing till i cant hold onto holds anymore since i started climbing 2 1/2 months ago and I see improvement every session. I do have a problem where I let go of the wall rather than falling off when i think i cant gi higher, meaning i dont try to failure, so im working on that.
Give your finger tendons a rest bro
Def be careful and don't push it. If you climb hard stuff until exhaustion the biggest risk is dry firing and injuring your tendons. Rather than let go when you think you can't climb higher it might be better to just downclimb and try to read the route. Dropping excessively isn't good for ya, even if you're really light.
Personally I really don't enjoy training, can I keep improving past 7a lvl's just by climbing 2/3 times a week?
Oh for sure. Lots of climbers “just climb”. But many will tell you that the intentionality of those climbing sessions really matters. Not just goofing around, but structuring your gym sessions to focus on a specific energy system or skill acquisition. Check out my full interview with Chris Sharma for more on this. And of course, make sure you’re having fun. Then it doesn’t feel like training :)
I tend to not try harder rputes because i cant even mentally figure out how the moves go. During the time I go to my gym, it is nearly empty so I rarely ever get to see someone do those v4+ routes to even know how the beta is supposed to go.
What's the TLDR version?
How do I deal with the pain Magnus! How do I deal with the paiN! V7 is so painful :( I can't....
rest
Great content, but oh boy do I dislike these clickbaity titles. They've become almost indistinguishable between all climbing videos. Anyway, thanks for bringing us your interview
Sorry. UA-cam is hard to navigate - I work with someone to help me with titles and all the stuff it takes to get videos seen. I try to ensure the title reflects the content and that the content delivers on the title. Do you feel this one didn’t deliver?
@@thestruggleclimbingshow don't listen to this guy. The title is accurate. This title format just feels like clickbait, even though the title itself is accurate. It's a symptom of the platform
That’s because all the videos that don’t have clickbait titles don’t show up on your recommended page
Alright, I cant do a single pull-up. maybe its technique, idk. Can barely hang one arm. Height is 179cm, with weight, 82kg. I can send most v3 in 1 or 2 sessions, except for overhang boulder and I can make a progress on v4. What should I focus on? Strength or technique?
Both strength and technique are needed but if you're lacking pulling strength that will need to be addressed sooner than your technique imo.
Being able to do at least 5 pullups is pretty important once you reach that v4-5 stage, especially on overhang problems. It's harder when you're heavier, I def relate to that being 87kg myself, but because you're naturally pulling more weight it feels pretty sick to be able to do 5 perfect pullups 💪
I am a woman and i can also not make a pullup, i first focused on technique, to get the best out of me. Learned from more experienced climbers until i really struggled, that i needed to do one pullup to get to the top, but alsp improving balance.
So after climbing i try with the band to do as much pullups as possible, Sometimes it is less, i don't care about the number, then i feel exhausted it is enough.
Now it is 5 months later (still cannot do a pullup alone) since i started practising and really made progress on my problems :) i also try not to look on the grades, if i feel i can make it or i am interessed in a move i just try it ☺️
Just trying to start a harder boulder is still progress!
do band assisted pull-ups until you can do 5 without it, I went from 1 to 13 in one row in 2 months with this
When was Magnus at Como rocks???
One of my biggest blockers is having consistent belayers that I can trust
Anyone have a link to the climbing course where all the clips are pulled from?
My son tells me I have the strength but not the confidence. I have a problem with fear of falling and not committing enough. I'll be working on it as soon as I get back after the minor knee surgery. There's a real element of needing mind over matter, at least in my case.
It took me a couple years of very thoughtful and deliberate work to address my fear of falling… And once I got it into a better place, I started flying through the grades and just enjoying my time on rock more than ever. Lots of great resources out there, from Hazel Findlay‘s Strong Mind course to some great books like the rock Warriors Way and Vertical Mind.
i do way worse when i film myself climbing but i still do it once in a while to see how gremlin-y i look like on the wall
😂
Non competitive just recreation types. Similar as running, cycling.intervals hurt.
Athletic , competitive people improve quick no matter the physical activity
You’ll never climb harder if you don’t try the harder things. That’s always the first step.
Magnus : other sports are repetitive while in climbing there is always something new.
Speed Climbers : ...
Me always trying the stuff thats way out of my reach
1. Getting old
2. Eating too many doughnuts
3. Drinking too much beer
Older climbers have an advantage in tendon strength. If you can't do some dynos anymore, I get that, but youre tendons are stronger than younger people (old man strength).
@@HourRomanticistI disagree. I climbed for two years as a teen with my nice new young tendons and never got more than DOMs. I picked up climbing again a decade later and I've had almost all of the tendon issues I know of minus pulley injuries (knock on wood). Old man strength only really works if it comes with a history of working with your hands a lot imo!
@@HourRomanticist i don't think old man strength has that much to do with strong tendons
I'm stuck at V5 cuz I don't wear Prana clothes. Only reason. 😢
lol feel like an elephant on the wall. No way I’m filming that.
Buy rugne pants
Not necessarily filming yourself. Also when other people are watching and pushing you.
Anyone drilled the Force Board to a skateboard yet?
That might be fun lol
Multitasking 🤣
interesting
Bros climbing in my mid missouri gym💀
Same
Im over confident i truly believe i can climb harder grade but fail and get frustrated with myself 😂
I was quite intrigued by the forceboard, then I saw the advertising part and the +10% off and all that... it just put me off buying one. Too much hype just makes me not interested in said product. Good products don't need constant plugs.
I appreciate your feedback. Partnering with sponsors is how I can afford to make my show (it’s a lot of work and expense). I pride myself on only partnering with brands I personally use and love. And I do personally use and love the ForceBoard. It has made my finger training much more consistent. And I think it’s pretty nice to offer a discount. You could choose not to use it of course, but I think most people would prefer to save money if given the option, while also supporting me as a creator who’s working hard to put out helpful climbing content. I’m not a big studio, just a guy in his basement doing the best I can. But whether you use the link / code or not, I really do think the ForceBoard is awesome. It has totally improved my training routine and how I warm up at the crag. Hope your climbing is going great!
Oh i see so to climb v12 i just have to be more confident. It doesnt matter if i cant hang off one arm
but you need strength to keep trying a problem is too hard for you
Most people I know who invested time to get stronger lost the rest of their private life and became somewhat miserable.
The #1 thing I learned is that „good technique“ is mostly understood as prioritizing utilization of legs over upper body strength.
However, this often puts additional force on the fingers and is difficult to withstand for beginners, which is why I claim that strong fingers are a prerequisite for learning proper technique.
Often people say: Wow he's climbing so beautiful. That's great technique. The other guy lacks technique. No he might lack strength to properly use good technique. He might know how to to that move beautifully if the holds were better or with less overhang.
More often than not it's poor core strength.
@@Sandkasten36 Yes I also heard people talk like that. Climbing beautifully is actually just climbing way below your usual grade. 😅
Next step is removing the bottom as well folks
Magnus looks like he is too tired to have this conversation.
It’s not the camera, it’s bc he took off his shirt.
😂
Because they break themselves then can't 🙈.
Because most climbers don’t improve because they don’t want to be in a wheelchair after falling
getting hurt while bouldering indoors is actually pretty hard if you dont do anything stupid
@@th3l05t-f1zsprains are super common though. It's happened to me, last month I saw a girl break something in her ankle, my local gym is known for it!
How stupid can a you tube be
Gee idk bro
I think injury prevention is a big thing, not only for climbing, but for all sports. It's very easy to get swept up into the fun and excitement and forget that bouldering is just like any other sport or resistance training - you need proper rest! Many people just like to train and climb through nagging issues and that can lead to more serious injuries that put you out for ages.
I unfortunately tore my Achilles a little over a year ago (playing volleyball) and that put me out of climbing for like 8-9 months. I lost so many of my gains because of that and it really sucks to have to build it up again. Luckily stuff like technique stays ingrained in your body forever, but those strength and finger gains really faded away. I really should have been more diligent in maintaining that strength, but I was more focused on rehabbing my actual injury.