57 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad. Not bad at all..., February 19, 2003
This review is from: Training for Climbing: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Climbing Performance (Paperback)
Udo Neumann and Dale Goddard did would-be authors of climbing training manuals a real disservice when they published Performance Rock Climbing back in the early nineties. It was beautifully written, comprehensive, and extremely well researched. Few subsequent books on the subject have added anything to the knowledge base and some actually managed to subtract from it.
Having said that, many found PRC a tough read in that it was consumed with `why' and not so interested in `how.' Training for Climbing, on the other hand, is a much needed blueprint for `how' and is the first book that I'd rank in the same league with PRC.
Horst breaks his book into the triad of skills necessary for climbing: Mental, Technical, and Physical. The first two are, for the most part, a repetition of methodologies laid out in PRC, but with cute monikers like `Metal Wings.' The physical section is were Horst's book comes into its own. While it breaks little new ground, the focus on very specific training protocols will be highly useful to those who got bogged down in PRC. Horst tells you exactly what to do, when to do it, and how long to keep it up. He also includes chapters on nutrition and injury prevention that many will find useful and interesting.
Having said that I have a few serious reservations about the book (and a number of nitpicky ones that I won't bore you with.)
First, Horst's 3/2/1 week training cycle, while catchy sounding, is probably too short and will be sub-optimal for many people. For more on this, see PRC or if you want to go nuts check out Tudor Bompa's Periodization of Strength.
Second, Horst may have been a bit hasty in completely discarding muscular endurance training. I can't help thinking that his opinion on this subject is the result of an overly narrow interpretation the facts. Again, see PRC for more on this.
Lastly, there is no discussion of the strengthening of connective tissue-which may be why Horst is pretty much covered in tape in every photo.
Overall, though, a strong effort and a book that if read carefully, will help just about anyone improve their climbing.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good book (but heed the warnings), December 30, 2003
This review is from: Training for Climbing: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Climbing Performance (Paperback)
First off you must know that this is a book for a hardcore athletic climber. If you are a novice or a weekend climber you may want to start with something lighter.
This book treats climbing from a super-athletic perspective - covering exercise, nutrition and climbing techniques. Some of the info was way too heavy on the anatomy and physiology.
Still, this book focuses on improving your physical and (often not mentioned in any other book) mental technique. It breaks down skills into physical strength, mental and technique areas. Even though much of the training was over my head, this helped me focus on mental hindrances that were inhibiting my performance and had tests which illuminated my weaknesses and then helped me to focus on strength building exercises to work on those weaknesses (like forearm burn and elbow pain after climbing hard).
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just what I was looking for..., August 27, 2004
This review is from: Training for Climbing: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Climbing Performance (Paperback)
I've been climbing for a few years and I wanted to begin a more serious, structured training program to help me break through to the higher grades. Training For Climbing is the book I was looking for, given its scientific look at improving technique, strength and the mind. While such a detailed, measured approach to training may not be for everyone, it has great appeal to me as a longtime athlete who engaged in formal training for other sports. Training For Climbing helped me understand the many unique aspects to, well, training for climbing, which I found to be much different than what I had been used to from my previous sports experience. Furthermore, I enjoyed seeing the many research references and footnotes, and more importantly I was pleased by the overall LACK of "do as so-and-so hot-shot climber does" or "train like I train." Training For Climbing helped me diagnose and design the best training program for me, and I sense that the book will remain a key resource for me for many years to come.
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