No-hands climbing
Slab traverses and easy boulders using your feet only, hands off the holds.
- Slot
- On the wall
- Focus
- Balance
- Time
- 20 min
- Intensity
- Low intensity
- Injury risk
- Low injury risk
- Equipment
- Boulders, Slab vertical
How to do it
On a slab (a wall that leans back, less steep than vertical), traverse using only your feet, with your hands off the wall or just touching it for balance. Once that's comfortable, climb easy slab boulders using fewer and fewer handholds until you use none. Do 5-6 laps or climbs, and step off whenever you lose balance - falling off low is normal in a balance drill.
Run it now
The same timer as the app: a five-second get-ready, then every round and rest counted down with a beep. Keep this page open while you train.
No-hands climbing
0:00 / 20:05
Ready
20:05
5 rounds
Slab traverses and easy boulders using your feet only, hands off the holds.
High risk: read the protocol, stop if anything feels wrong.
- 5
- rounds
- 20:05
- total
Done.
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Take the quizWho it's for
Slab climbers, and anyone who over-pulls. If you can't stand on your feet without your hands, you're using your arms to hide it, and slab will find you out eventually.
Common mistakes
- Hips hanging back from the wall. Get your weight over your feet. Leaning back is what makes feet skate.
- Looking up. Watch the foot you're placing until it's placed.
- Rushing. Slow, deliberate weight shifts. There's nothing to catch you.
- Treating a fall as failure. Stepping off when you lose balance is the drill working. Do it low, and land on your feet.
How to progress
Traversing with hands off the wall comes first, then easy slab boulders using fewer handholds each lap, then none. When that's comfortable, take it onto vertical ground, where the margin is much smaller.
When it fits
The training periods this exercise fits into in Blok Sessions.
Base Lots of easy climbing, good movement and aerobic fitness.
Deload Train less, let your fingers recover, keep moving.