-1
Climb an easy boulder, take away one hold, climb it again. Repeat until it's too hard.
- Slot
- On the wall
- Focus
- Problem solving
- Time
- 20 min
- Intensity
- Moderate
- Injury risk
- Low
- Equipment
- Boulders
How to do it
Start with an easy boulder you can already climb cleanly. After each successful climb, eliminate (or declare off-limits) one useful hold and find a new way to do the same boulder without it. Keep removing one hold per round until it becomes a genuinely different, harder problem - this forces new body positions instead of just repeating the same solution.
Who it’s for
Sessions where the wall is stale and you want something to solve. Removing a hold forces a new body position, which is a much better way to find weaknesses than trying a harder grade.
Common mistakes
- Removing the hold that makes it impossible. Take away one useful hold, not the only hold. If the round dies immediately, put it back and take a different one.
- Repeating the same solution with a longer reach. If the new version feels identical, you removed the wrong hold.
- Starting too hard. An easy boulder gives you five or six rounds. A hard one gives you one.
- Removing hands only. Footholds change a problem far more than handholds do.
How to progress
Play it with a partner who chooses which hold you lose. Once it gets genuinely hard, keep the last version as a problem in its own right and come back to it.
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.
Related blocks
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.