How to train lock-offs for bouldering without chasing a one-arm pull-up

"Is it strength or technique?"

Try the 3 second rule on a boulder you can flash. You hover each hand above the next hold for 3 seconds before you take it. If you come off while hovering, look at your feet and hips before your arms: when your weight isn't over your feet, no amount of pulling strength keeps you there. If your feet are fine and the arm still sinks, that's strength, and the off-wall part below is for you.

Get the position right first

A lock-off is holding your body still with one arm bent while the other reaches. It gets much easier when:

• The hip on your reaching side turns into the wall, with a backstep or a drop knee. Your shoulder comes closer to the hold and your reach gets longer. That's a twist lock.
• The pulling elbow stays tight to your ribs. An elbow that flares out to the side (a chicken wing) is a weaker position.
• Your shoulder stays pulled down, away from your ear.
• Your feet keep pushing, so the arm only holds what's left.

On the wall, twice a week

Pick one per session, early, while you're fresh:

• The 3 second rule. Hover before every hold.
• Smell the hand. Pull in until your nose almost touches your hand on every move, on boulders two or three grades below your flash level.
• Jump into a lock-off. Catch a hold with the arm already bent to 90 degrees and hold it there. It's harder on the elbows, so build up to it.

Off the wall, one exercise

One of these is enough, twice a week.

• If you can't do 5 pull-ups yet, start there, with slow negatives to get you going.
• Offset pull-ups, one hand on the bar and one on a towel lower down. The high arm does most of the work, and you pull towards one-arm strength without the load.
• Frenchies, 5-second holds at the top, at 90 degrees and at 120. They're rated high risk, so warm up properly, stop at any elbow or shoulder pain, and only start once ordinary pull-ups are solid.
• Weighted pull-ups build the raw pulling strength underneath. The weighted pull-up calculator works out the load.

Do the heavy ones, Frenchies and weighted pull-ups, on a day off the wall, or at least not after a hard climbing session. If you climb 6B (V4) or below, keep to the wall drills and bodyweight pull-ups for now. More climbing will do more for you than heavy pulling.

Where it goes wrong

• Training lock-offs at the end of the session, when your arms are gone. You end up practising sinking.
• Going straight to one-arm work. It loads the elbow and shoulder harder than anything else here.
• Locking off when a hip turn would do it. If every move feels like a one-arm pull, it's technique.
• Adding the hover drill, Frenchies and jump lock-offs all in the same week. Pick one on the wall and one off it.

Who this isn't for

If your elbows are sore, leave out the jump lock-offs and the heavy pulling and see a physio before you add them back.