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Heel hooks

Practice heel hooks on 5-6 easy steep moves, 3 tries per side.

Slot
On the wall
Focus
Technique
Time
20 min
Intensity
Moderate
Injury risk
Moderate
Intervals
5 rounds
Equipment
Boulders

How to do it

A heel hook is placing your heel on a hold and pulling with it like a hand. Place your heel firmly on the hold, point your toes out and slightly down, then pull by bending your knee and squeezing your hamstring and glute. Use it to pull your hips toward the wall or to move up. Find 5-6 moves on easy steep boulders and practice each 3 times per side. Build up gradually - hard heel hooks can strain the knee and hamstring.

Who it’s for

Steep boulders, roofs and any move where you need a third point of contact. It’s also the technique most likely to hurt you if you go at it hard, so build up slowly.

Common mistakes

  • Placing the heel and hoping. Pull with it. Bend the knee and squeeze the hamstring and glute, the same way you’d pull with an arm.
  • Toes pointing the wrong way. Toes out and slightly down puts the heel where it bites. Toes up rolls the hook off the hold.
  • Cranking a hard heel hook cold. Hamstrings and knees don’t like maximum load with no warning. Warm up before you load one hard.
  • Ignoring knee pain. Pain on the inside of the knee is a reason to stop that session, not to add another try.

How to progress

Big obvious holds first, three tries a side, then worse holds, then heel hooks that have to hold you while you move a hand. Strong hamstrings help, so keep some Nordic curls or single-leg deadlifts in the same week.

When it fits

The training periods this exercise fits into in Blok Sessions.

  • Base Lots of easy climbing, good movement and aerobic fitness.
  • Performance Peak for a trip or a comp: focus, reading problems, trying hard.

Start with a ready-made block

A six-week strength plan with a deload, as a file for the app, and seven short emails on how to run it.