How Alex Honnold trains and works out to keep improving, plus one tip for sneaking in extra conditioning.
In an interview from 2022 with the recent dad, Alex Honnold talked about his regular week which involves climbing outside 3-4 days, then one training session inside, usually on a moon board doing limit bouldering to improve his strength.
"If you want to improve, focus on your weaknesses, if you want to perform focus on your strengths." — Alex Honnold
His home workouts include hangboarding, one-arm pull-ups, and core exercises, such as leg lifts, front levers, and planks.
Alex also puts emphasis on stretching and general conditioning, necessary for getting those high steps or a longer reach to a far hold.
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He has a useful tip for getting in more conditioning which is to save a bit of energy at the end of the day by skipping the last pitch you might do at the crag.
Take that energy to go home and hangboard or do leg lifts. Alex swears by the mindset of slow progress - Improve by one grade each year, and in a decade, you’ll be climbing the hardest routes in the world.
I know that it’s not the optimum way to train, but it’s a nice way to live.
Alex climbs with Bill Ramsay who is 61 and has more finger strength than him. He can hang board with weights clipped to him and he works 5.14's.
It’s not about getting more training exercises in but making sure you have the right balance between them so you can keep going.