Upon arrival to the gym it is necessary to prepare your body for training:

1. Warming up. The reason is to strengthen all important muscles, concern on hands and back.
Most injuries are caused by just inadequately warming up.

After warming up – stretching, which should take about 10 minutes, will come on light climbing. Look for larger holds and lower angle walls. It is better to have a slight overhang; try to stretch your body to all sides. Don’t forget any of the basic climbing moves.  Do not forget to breathe during preparatory light climbing. The right breathing technique is the base of climbing.

2. And now let’s go to the training! First, chose easier boulders- about ten moves. The first five of them you should climb without any problems.  Then, if you feel fit and prepared, you can continue to your main objective. You must know what you want to train, what you will focus on. Give all intensity to training; do hard boulders or longer routes, basically in whatever focus your discipline and determination are the most important. The best is to train in a pair. Training goes easy and everyone has his/her own style, and one can learn from the other.  Try to use all profiles and angles of the wall, do not climb just in one, you will stagnate. Even use all scale of holds, especially these you do fit least. Training should not last more then two hours; therefore you must climb in quick pace to get more and it has desired quality. After an hour of training, Or about half way through training, take a short (about ten minutes) rest. This is because you should not drop the quality of your climbing because you are tired. Choose a difficulty and intensity so that you are not completely trashed in 10 minutes. After an hour and a half you should begin to be pumped. Now the most important thing must continue:  finish yourself by easier boulders in quick sequences (in case of routes it means 5 times 20 moves on maximum), so you will drop to may be 20 % of your standard performance.

3. After hard training you do not need to do additional pull ups. If you go to maximum, you do not even think of it. It is necessary to climb on easy terrain in vertical wall on big holds and de-tox tired arms. Stretching is as well good, especially for those who are week in flexibility. Other important things: take shower, it gets you relaxed and washes away fatigue, and cream your hands, skin heals better. I tried many creams, but the best are those from drugstore. And at home I recommend auto massage of hands and arms. It shortens the time of regeneration and recouperation. Regeneration will be the topic of my next article.

4. A couple pieces of advice not to forget:
- do not train if you do not feel relaxed
- motivate yourself  before training
- do not train in the same pattern always, it loses efficiency
- do not climb always on the same wall
- train with various climbing partners
- do not forget to drink electrolyte drinks, your energy will sustain longer – dehydratation is exhausting
- training must be fun, do not do anything that you do not like
- try to plan specific training in advance
- keep a regular training diary

The author of this article is the World Champion, the winner of the World Cup 2004, and the climber of the year according to the international climbing site 8a.nu. He has published a series of articles about training on his new site www.tomasmrazek.cz. He has just launched the English version of it. We cooperate to provide the other details of his training series here on CzechClimbing.com (Translated by Lezec.cz)