Browse: Home / Cameron Hörst’s Proven Strategy for Endurance Training

Menu

Skip to content
Header image

Training For Climbing – by Eric HörstLogo

Train Smarter, Climb Harder!

Menu

Skip to content
  • Privacy Policy
  • About
    • Welcome to the New T4C!
    • About T4C
    • Eric’s Biography
    • Eric’s Publishing Resume
    • Eric’s Books (1994 – present)
    • Meet the Hörst Family!
    • Testimonials
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Eric
  • Knowledge Base
  • Multimedia
  • Buy Books
    • Training for Climbing (3rd edition)
    • The Rock Climber’s Exercise Guide
    • Maximum Climbing
    • One Move Too Many
    • How To Climb 5.12
    • Learning to Climb Indoors
    • Rock Climbing: VA/MD/WV
  • Training Tools
    • Lattice “Triple” Hangboard
    • Lattice “Mini Bar”
    • Lattice “QUAD” Pinch Block
    • Lattice Heavy Roller – Forearm Training for Climbers
    • Lattice Training – Lifting Pin (aka “Loading Pin”)
    • Lattice Flex Mat – Yoga & Stretching Training
    • Lattice Training “Micro Holds”
    • Lattice Mega Bar – Portable Hangboard for Climbers
    • Endless Rope Trainer
  • Research
  • Coaching
  • Links

Cameron Hörst’s Proven Strategy for Endurance Training

Posted by Lucie Hanes on April 14, 2023 in Train Strategy | 841 Views | Leave a response
22 1 
5
Shares

Learn from Cameron Hörst’s strategic approach to working on his weaknesses, improving his endurance, and sending three 5.14d’s in a month!  

For most climbers out there, the 5.14 grade carries an air of mystique. It’s a gateway into the most elite ranks of sport climbing. You’d be hard-pressed to find a climber who doesn’t dream of crossing that threshold, while few actually achieve it. The road to ticking just one route at this illustrious grade weeds out all but the most committed. The select few climbers that do make it through don’t do so through luck or talent alone; they fight for every send. 

Cameron Hörst long ago earned his spot in the 5.14 club—by age 11, in fact! But earlier this spring, he unlocked a whole new level of achievement. He clipped the chains on not only one, but three 5.14d’s: Smoke Wagon at Mount Potosi near Las Vegas, Southern Smoke Direct in the Red River Gorge, and Zoolander, also in the Red. Not only that, but he completed all of them in just over a month. And while the sending itself may have happened quickly, that’s merely the tip of the iceberg. Everything beneath the surface took far longer to build.

Cameron Hörst on Smoke Wagon, a true test of his endurance training.
Cameron Hörst on Smoke Wagon, a true test of his endurance training.

Two of these routes, Smoke Wagon and Southern Smoke Direct, required Cameron to embrace his anti-style. Before this season, he’d largely avoided such long and pumpy tests of endurance. The key to breaking through any plateau, though, is working on your weaknesses. Cam knew that his relative lack of endurance would hold him back, no matter how much brute strength or power he possessed. There’s no getting around the extremely high levels of strength necessary to pull through crux moves. But the aerobic system can help offload some of the anaerobic strain. High aerobic capacity (endurance) stretches the limits of a climber’s anaerobic capacity (strength and power). This is essential on long routes that keep throwing punches all the way up and demand your hardest efforts even in the final throes. 

Endurance Training

Cameron Hörst employing his endurance on Southern Smoke Direct.
Cameron Hörst employing his endurance on Southern Smoke Direct.

So, Cameron spent the year leading up to these sends leaning into the areas where he’d historically fallen short. “The training goal for most of 2022 was to build out my aerobic system to make the most of my maximum power and strength,” Cam explains. 

He structured his training schedule around three main elements: 

  1. High-volume, submaximal climbing either in the gym or outdoors (two to three days per week)
  2. Maintenance of his current level of maximum power and strength, via bouldering in the gym plus exercises on a system board, hangboard, and campus board (once per week)
  3. Select outdoor projects that targeted his “anti-style”, a.k.a. long endurance routes (schedule depending)

After spending the majority of the year focused on endurance training, Cameron felt that his weaknesses had largely caught up with his strengths. “My aerobic system function had essentially reached a peak within the constraints of my current level of strength and power,” he reflects. He wouldn’t be able to see any further progress without raising the ceiling on his available strength and power. 

Power and Strength Training

For the remainder of 2022, Cam returned his attention to those factors. In practice, this essentially involved flipping his previous training routine on its head. 

  1. Maximum strength hangboarding (two to three times per week)
  2. Maximum bouldering on the Kilter Board (two to three times per week)
  3. Weighted pull-ups and one-arm pull-ups (twice per week)
  4. Maintenance of his current level of aerobic power via one power-endurance workout per week
  5. Maintenance of his current level of aerobic endurance via one high-volume circuit or route climbing session per week

The months of focus on endurance and aerobic capacity compounded on themselves over time for cumulative gain. Capping off that training with a return to maximum strength and power primed the abilities he’d already honed so well in the past. The combination of the two in these ratios helped Cameron calibrate his skill-set for these three proud sends. 

We might not all be on the verge of sending multiple 5.14’s in a season, let alone a month. But climbers of all levels can apply Cameron’s lessons to their training. When you reach a plateau, turn to your weaknesses while doing just enough to maintain your strengths. As the two begin to balance out, refresh your strengths. The new skills you gain along the way will take your old ones to even higher heights. 

Related Articles:

  • Slowing the Pump Clock: 5 Strategies to Improve Your Climbing Endurance
  • Are You Ready for Send Season?
  • ‘Boulder Campusing’ Power Endurance Training for Climbers
  • How to Train Sport Climbing Endurance on a Home Wall
  • Weighted Pull-Up Training for Strength, Power, and Endurance

Copyright © 2000-2023 Eric J. Hörst & Lucie Hanes | All Rights Reserved.


22 1 
5
Shares
22 1
Posted in Train Strategy | Tagged cameron horst, climbing endurance, climbing training

Stronger Tendons. Fewer Injuries. Really!

supercharged collagen for climbers

Research-based connective tissue, joint, and muscle matrix support for climbers.

Learn more at PhysiVantage.com

Beat the Pump with SENDURE-X!

Endure X Performance Drink by PhysiVantage

Increase your power endurance, stamina, and recovery between repeated efforts in training and climbing!

Learn more at PhysiVantage.com

Lattice Testing & Training Tools

Lattice Testing & Training Tools

Shop Now >>

#1 International Best Seller!

Eric Horst's Training for Climbing, 3rd edition, 2016.

Click the book cover to learn about this international best-seller!

Vegan BCAA & Electrolyte Supplement

FLOW bcaa electrolyte physivantage

Support muscle function and performance through long workouts or days of climbing.

Learn more at PhysiVantage.com

PhysiVāntage Europe!

physivantage nutrition europe

Attention UK & EU climbers! You can now buy PhysiVāntage nutrition from the EPIC-TV shop!

Premium Protein for Muscle Strength/Power Gains & Faster Recovery

Weapons-Grade Whey Protein Complex by PhysiVantage

The first recovery protein designed for climbers! Feel the Weapons-Grade difference.

Learn more at PhysiVantage.com

PowerPlex Plant-Based Protein!

Powerplex Plant-Based Protein

The Most Advanced Plant-Based Protein and Collagen Alternative for Vegans!

Learn more at PhysiVantage.com

Knowledge Base

  • Train Body
  • Train Technique & Skills
  • Train Mind
  • Train Strategy
  • The Hurt Locker (Injury)
  • Youth Training
  • Climbing Mastery
  • Nutrition & Recovery
  • Research
  • Gimme Kraft! Videos
  • Basic Training
  • Climbing 101
  • T4C Videos
  • T4C Podcasts

Connect with T4C on Facebook!

https://physivantage.com/

Privacy Policy

https://trainingforclimbing.com/privacy-policy/

Footer logo
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Follow T4C on . . .twitter_logo1facebook-sm

 
 

Popular

  • Free Training Programs for Climbers

    309450 views / Posted July 11, 2019
  • Treating “Climber’s Elbow” – Rehab and Prehab Protocol

    212201 views / Posted May 14, 2021
  • 4 Fingerboard Training Protocols That Work

    189358 views / Posted November 21, 2022
  • The Best Climbing Exercise You’re Not Doing: The Scapular Pull-up!

    159690 views / Posted September 2, 2020
 
 

©2021 Eric J. Hörst - All Rights Reserved | Hörst Training, LLC

Menu

Subscribe to Training For Climbing Newsletter


(Your email address will NOT be shared or sold, and you can unsubscribe at any time.)