-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 intensity
- Injury risk
- Low injury risk
- 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.
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Take the quizWho 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.