A bouldering training plan for getting back into climbing after a break

"I feel strong, so why not try my old projects?"

Because the parts of you that recover fastest are the ones you can feel. After a few months away, your back and arms come back quickly, the moves start to feel familiar and you'll want to pull hard on small holds again. Your fingers aren't keeping up. Tendons and pulleys adapt more slowly than muscle, and they don't tell you they're behind until something tweaks.

So the plan goes by weeks, and the first fortnight is easy on purpose, even on the days it feels too easy.

Weeks 1 and 2: get your movement back

Three wall days a week, never two in a row, all on problems well below your old flash grade. If you used to flash 6C (V5), think 6A (V3) and under. Every session has one job:

• Monday: one rule per boulder, like quiet feet or no readjusting, then easy problems climbed with flow.
• Thursday: Sticky-man, where every hand and foot goes on once, and down-climbing, which gets your forearms used to time on the wall.
• Saturday: a circuit at your current flash level, repeated until each problem is clean.

Wednesday is at home: Abrahangs with your feet on the floor and ten minutes of pushing and shoulder work. Keep sessions to an hour or so on the wall, and stop while you still feel fresh.

Weeks 3 and 4: load the fingers, a little

Two things change. On Thursday, after the warm-up, you do five 10-second hangs on a 20 mm edge at a load that feels moderately hard but well short of your max. Put a foot on a chair if you need to. On Saturday, the circuit becomes the 8 boulder pyramid: eight problems that climb from your flash level towards your limit and back down.

Notice how your fingers feel the morning after. A bit of stiffness that's gone by lunch is normal. Soreness on one finger, at one spot, is the sign to back off.

Week 5 and after

If nothing aches, go back to a normal training week: limit bouldering, harder board sessions, and max hangs if you did them before. Bring them back one a week. Keep a deload week every third or fourth week from here, so you don't spend the next three months undoing the first four weeks.

What goes wrong

• Trying the old project in week 1. It's the most common way to end up taking another break.
• Adding hard days because the easy ones feel easy. They're meant to.
• Going straight back to four or five days a week. Three is plenty to start with, and two is fine if your week is full.

Who this isn't for

If you stopped because of an injury, see a physio first and follow their plan. And if the break was only a couple of weeks, you don't need a month of easy climbing: one easy week will do.