You’ve seen them in the local climbing gym.  Boys and girls traversing left and right on the climbing walls, making us wait that extra 2 seconds in annoyance as we ready ourselves to climb a roped route.  What are they doing?

It’s called ARC’ing and it requires continuous climbing for 20-45 minutes, at a moderate but sustainable level.  It’s one of the foundational exercises to increase (A)erobic (R)espiration and (C)apillarity.  To put it simply these kids are working on their climbing endurance.  One of the biggest benefits to ARC’ing is improving grip control and pump management.  30 continuous minutes on the wall is quite a workout for most any climber.  If you are prone to overgripping or needlessly pumping out (which we all are) then ARC’ing is what you want to do.

The key goal to ARC is to improve your forearm muscles ability to rely on aerobic energy, which allows you to sustain climbing for a long time.  Anaerobic energy is what you use when you are about to pump off the wall.

Have you ever been at a local crag and you see one climber struggle up a route?  They pump out, hang for a bit, try again and pump out again.  They are relying on their limited amount of anaerobic energy to get up the route.  Then another climb comes along and experiences no issues going up the wall.  In fact, they look like they are climbing up a ladder.  It’s so easy for this climber because the climbing stays below her aerobic threshold, which is sustainable for her.  The more you are able to stay UNDER your aerobic threshold the easier the climbing will be and the longer you can go.  ARC’ing is the way to move your aerobic threshold higher.

What’s most curious about ARC’ing is, despite it’s proven track record, I never see adults in the gym doing it.  It’s always the boys and girls in the local junior climbers club that engage in this exercise.  Maybe that’s why they are so much better climbers than we are.  Which is another question we always ask ourselves.  How does that kid get up that route so easily and I can’t get off the deck?  Those youth.  More like those youth are smart.

So how can you apply ARC’ing to your existing climbing regime:

  1.  Find a time when the gym is not too busy.  It requires alot of traversing in and around roped routes, so you don’t want to spend all your time excusing yourself to get around folks.
  2. It takes a couple of sessions to find the ‘strenuous but sustained pump’ that allows you to stay on the wall for 20-45.  Start out with 10-15 minutes and work your way up.
  3. If you pump off the wall you are climbing too hard, so the benefits of staying sub-max pump won’t be realized.
  4. ARC’ing can be done as a warmup or at the end of a climbing session.  I always do it first thing, as I find myself quite tired if I wait till later.

Great resources on ARC’ing:

Self-Coached Climber

Rock Climber’s Training Manual