How to heel hook on boulders, and build the strength for it

Short answer

Put your heel on early, with your toes turned out and slightly down. Then pull: bend the knee and squeeze the back of your leg and your glute, so the heel drags your hips towards it. Heels pop when the hook only rests on the hold or your hips hang away from it. Practise on 5 or 6 easy steep moves, 3 tries per side, once or twice a week, and build the back of your legs with 3 sets of 10 to 12 slow hamstring curls per leg, 2 or 3 times a week.

"Why does my heel keep slipping off?"

Usually for one of these reasons:

You put it on late, when you're already swinging off, so it never takes weight.
It's resting on the hold. A heel hook only holds while you pull with it.
Your hips hang away from the wall, so you pull the heel outwards off the hold instead of along it.
Your toes point up. That rolls the heel off the back of most holds.
It's on the wrong part of the shoe. You want the rubber at the back of the heel on the hold, with the hold sitting in the curve, and the soft side of the shoe off it.

How to set one

Look at where the hold is best before you lift your foot. Put the heel on that spot.
Turn your toes out and slightly down. That locks the heel against the hold.
Weight it gradually. Bend the knee and squeeze the back of your leg and your glute.
Pull your hips towards the heel. On a steep wall that brings your body in so your hands can move. On a high heel it lets you rock over onto it.
When you're done with it, take it off slowly so your body doesn't swing out.

Practise this on easy steep moves first, on holds you can use over and over. Once it's reliable, heel hook load repeats add a 2-second pause in the pulled position, which is where most climbers let go of the tension.

Toe hooks work the same way, the other way round

A toe hook pulls with the top of your shoe instead of the heel. Hook the toes behind a hold or a roof edge, pull them towards your knee and keep the leg tight. Most toe hooks fail for the same reason heels do: the leg relaxes and the foot floats off. The toe-pull tension drill trains holding that tension while you move a hand.

If a feature is big enough, a heel-toe cam or knee bar wedges the foot or leg in place, and you can often let go with a hand and shake out.

The strength behind it

A hard heel hook is the back of your leg pulling against your bodyweight. Off the wall, that's a few minutes, twice a week:

Hamstring curls with a band, slider or ball. This is the main one.
Butterfly bridges for the glutes, which pull alongside the hamstrings.
Single-leg Romanian deadlifts with a light weight, for the top of the hamstring.

Nordic curls are the next step once single-leg curls are easy. They're much harder, so start with a partial range.

Put the heel hook drills in the climbing part of a session, early and fresh, and the curls in the strength part at the end.

Where it goes wrong

Going from barely heel hooking to pulling as hard as you can on your project. Give it a few weeks of easy moves first.
Snapping the heel on and yanking. Load it gradually, especially high above your head.
Hard heel hooks at the end of a long session, when the back of your legs is tired.
Pushing on through pain. A sharp pain or a pop at the back of the thigh or in the knee means stop, and see a physio.

Who this isn't for

If you mostly climb vertical walls and slabs, you won't meet many heel hooks yet. Precise feet and balance will help you more for now. And if you've hurt a hamstring or knee before, get a physio's go-ahead before you start pulling hard on heels again.

The exercises

Heel hooks

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

20 min · Moderate risk · 5 rounds

Heel-hook load repeats

3 heel hook moves: pull through the heel, pause 2 s, finish. 3 tries per side.

23 min · Moderate risk · 18 rounds, 1:00 rest

Toe hooks

Practice toe hooks on 5-6 steep moves or features, 3 tries per side.

20 min · Moderate risk · 5 rounds

Heel-toe cams and knee bars

Practice heel-toe cams and knee bars on 4-5 steep features, 3 tries each.

20 min · Low risk · 4 rounds

Hamstring curls (heel-hook prehab)

3 sets of 10-12 slow curls per leg with a band, slider or ball, 1 s squeeze at the top. 1 min rest.

7 min · Low risk · 3 rounds, 1:00 rest

Butterfly bridge

3 sets of 12 bridges with soles together, 2 s squeeze at the top, 1 min rest.

5 min · Low risk · 3 rounds, 1:00 rest

Single-leg Romanian deadlift

3 sets of 8 slow reps per leg, 90 s rest. Hips level.

8 min · Moderate risk · 3 rounds, 1:30 rest

Questions

Why does heel hooking hurt my knee?

Pain in the knee on a heel hook isn't something to train through. Stop heel hooking hard on that side and see a physio. Once it's sorted, come back on easy moves and build up again.

Do I need strong hamstrings to heel hook?

For hard ones, yes. A heel hook pulls with the back of your leg and your glute, so on a steep boulder that's real load. Technique comes first, though: most heels that slip are placed late or not pulled at all.

Heel hook or toe hook?

Heel hook when the hold is beside or above your hip and you want to pull your body in and up. Toe hook when the hold is out to the side or on a roof edge and you need to stop your feet swinging.

How do I heel hook above my head?

Get the heel on, pull your hips up towards it with the hamstring, then turn the knee out and rock your weight over it. It needs hip range as well as strength, so if your foot won't get that high, work on hip mobility alongside it.

How to heel hook without your heel popping off