Functional Strength & Overhangs: 12 Intensive Practice Sessions (PDF Download)

£25.00

Developing a high level of strength, power and endurance for climbing can give us a greater number of options for how we climb, allows us to tackle harder climbs, and often gives us more margin for error. All climbers know this, but when we have limited time at the climbing wall each week, it can be hard to sacrifice our enjoyable time on the wall and opt for the gruelling work of hanging off the fingerboard or doing sets of pull-ups and leg raises. In addition to this, many climbers already have a great deal of strength, but find it difficult to learn how to apply this strength effectively to the climbing wall - more time on the fingerboard or being able to do a greater number of pull ups won’t solve this! This plan aims to help climbers build strength, power and endurance whilst learning how to effectively apply this strength at the same time...

Tell me more!

This plan has been designed by Louis Parkinson - former member of the GB climbing team and known worldwide for his expertise in teaching climbing movement and mindset - with the aim being to provide an accessible, affordable and effective month of focused practice, helping the students who engage with it to build strength, power and endurance whilst simultaneously learning how to effectively apply this strength to move more efficiently through a series of detailed, on-the-bouldering-wall session plans.

Developing a high level of strength, power and endurance for climbing can give us a greater number of options for how we climb, allows us to tackle harder climbs, and often gives us more margin for error. All climbers know this, but when we have limited time at the climbing wall each week, it can be hard to sacrifice our enjoyable time on the wall and opt for the gruelling work of hanging off the fingerboard or doing sets of pull-ups and leg raises. In addition to this, many climbers already have a great deal of strength, but find it difficult to learn how to apply this strength effectively to the climbing wall - more time on the fingerboard or being able to do a greater number of pull ups won’t solve this! This plan aims to help climbers build strength, power and endurance whilst learning how to effectively apply this strength at the same time...

Tell me more!

This plan has been designed by Louis Parkinson - former member of the GB climbing team and known worldwide for his expertise in teaching climbing movement and mindset - with the aim being to provide an accessible, affordable and effective month of focused practice, helping the students who engage with it to build strength, power and endurance whilst simultaneously learning how to effectively apply this strength to move more efficiently through a series of detailed, on-the-bouldering-wall session plans.

  • This plan is designed to be used by a wide variety of ages and ability levels! The only
    limitations are as follows:
    - The sessions are to be performed at an indoor bouldering wall.
    - There is some basic climbing knowledge required, so we recommend a minimum of 6 months climbing experience before engaging with this plan.

    We expect that this plan will be most useful for climbers operating in the V1 - V5 area, but climbers of any level can have preferences and imbalances in their climbing. If you want to get stronger, tackle harder climbs, and have a great time doing it - this plan is for you!

  • To start practicing, simply follow session plans shown in the Session Plan pdf.
    The sessions have been divided into 4 separate weeks, with 3 sessions to follow in each week. Don’t worry if 3 sessions per week is too much for you; simply work through the sessions in chronological order, and expect that your practice will last for longer than the scheduled 4 weeks!


    Each session has a column of detailed guidance on which drills / exercises to do, for how long, and at what level of difficulty. Alongside this is an additional column of notes from Louis, with further guidance as to what to focus on whilst going through your planned sessions.


    Every drill and exercise contained in the plan has extensive additional details and video demos, which can be found in this Reference Document! We’d recommend reading through each of your upcoming sessions ahead of time so that you can read through/ watch any required video demos ahead of time, and minimise the amount of time spent looking at the reference document during your sessions. At first, you may find yourself referring back to this document repeatedly for details, but after a little while the exercises will become familiar, and you’ll need to refer back to this document less and less.


    A thorough warm up is included at the start of each session, in addition to a stretching cool down at the end of each session. If you had previously not been doing any warm up or cool down as part of your climbing sessions, including these is essential! If you already have a warm up and cool down routine which you are comfortable with, please continue using this.

  • In week 1: We’ll be building confidence and fitness with some mileage on overhangs, getting an introduction to training boards, and learning to project overhanging boulders.
    In week 2: In the second week, we’ll be getting lots more mileage on overhangs under our belts and learning a range of functional strength training drills which we can perform on the climbing wall.
    In week 3: This week will see us learning about and improving our contact strength through a series of drills and some focused campusing (climbing overhangs without the use of our feet!)
    In week 4: In this final week, we’ll be putting all of the last few weeks of learning together with some confidence and consistency practice as well as some focused projecting on hard overhanging climbs!

    Overall: When learning something new, it is common to feel as though you are doing it all wrong - especially if you’re learning something which you know to be outside of your comfort zone. Don’t worry if you’re finding the drills and exercises difficult and awkward at first, or if you’re struggling to complete the goals of the various challenges, because the aim is just that; to be challenged!


    The session plans you will go through are designed to challenge you, and through being challenged you will learn LOADS; all you need to do is enthusiastically go through each session, focusing on learning rather than focusing on outright success.

  • If you are uncertain about any aspects of this plan which aren’t answered by the Reference Document, if you are struggling to access any video demos relevant to the training, or if you’re unable to perform one of the drills / exercises and are uncertain why, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email at enquiries@catalystclimbing.com.