An evidence-based guide to improving your climbing performance

In The Science of Climbing Training, top Spanish climbing coach Sergio Consuegra provides an evidence-based approach to training for climbing. It is designed to help you improve climbing performance, whether you’re taking the next step in your training as you work towards your project, or if you’re a coach looking to optimise your athletes’ training.

When it comes to training for climbing, there is an overwhelming amount of information out there. In The Science of Climbing Training, top Spanish climbing coach Sergio Consuegra has analysed our sporting needs from the perspective of exercise and sports science to provide an evidence-based approach to training for climbing. It is designed to help us improve climbing performance, whether we’re taking the next step in our training as we work towards a project, or if we’re a coach looking to optimise our athletes’ training. It doesn’t contain any 'magic' training methods, because there are none – although you might be shocked by the science behind some popular methods.

The first part explains what training is and how different training methods are governed by the physiological and biomechanical processes that occur in the body. The second part looks at how to improve specific needs (such as finger strength and forearm muscle endurance) and general needs (such as basic physical conditioning, pulling strength, pushing strength, strength training for injury prevention) for the different demands and types of climbing and bouldering. The third and final part suggests the best ways to fit it all together. It looks at adjusting training volume and intensity, and tapering to encourage supercompensation, all to help us achieve improved performance, whether it’s a breaking into a higher grade, ticking that long-standing project or climbing a dream route.

Sergio Consuegra Gómez discovered climbing and mountain sports when he started university, and he graduated with a degree in sports science from UPM university in Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). He went on to teach the mountain sports and activities module at UPM for several years. With a keen interest in strength training and the design of training programmes, Sergio is constantly rethinking traditional ideas and championing scientific evidence as the basis of any training plan. It is this approach to training that led him to write this book: focusing on the science behind climbing performance and training, as opposed to methods based solely on personal experience, to provide an evidence-based approach to training for climbing. He’s currently the director of coaching at Indoorwall climbing centres and is also an active climbing coach. He lives in Jaca, Spain, where he can get out in the Pyrenees on a daily basis. Find out more at sergioconsuegra.com