10 December 2016

Climb like an orangutan and improve your endurance

If you use 50% of your max power on each arm, your blood circulation is almost non-existing and you will quickly get a burning pump. If, instead, you climb with a technique where you try to take as much load on one hand and let the other rest, you can go on for a long time. The best way to train this technique is simply just to let go with the lower hand as soon as you have reached the next hold. Start practicing directly during your warm up on juggy routes. In practice, it means that you will move your feet several times in between you move your arm movements. Do not dyno. After a couple of hours you will notice a change while climbing or bouldering also on harder moves. The biggest gain of this technique is, nevertheless, found on relatively easy terrain. Hopefully this orangutan climbing style will improve your ability to rest and give you better endurance. This focus on one arm climbing will also make your shoulder and biceps muscles stronger which is especially good for overhangs.
29 comments
Sort by:
Date
Reply
Most commented
Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on t…

Welcome to Vertical-Life Web

Six years after partnering with 8a.nu, we’re excited to announce the unification of the 8a.nu website and the Vertical-Life app into a single platform: Vertical…

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…

Favorites
Katie Lamb makes history

Katie Lamb has become the first woman to climb 8C+ by completing Box Therapy (8C) in RMNP. Daniel Woods made the FA back in 2018, and only Drew Ruana and Sean B…

"It was dramatic to the very end." On the 8a finish of Project Big in Flatanger, Jakob Schubert explains that a horn broke and he was close to falling. The last three minutes of the video show just how much this climb means to him."This horn could have ended my career... This was the biggest mental …

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…