Training Tips is a series written by the climbing coaches from Redpoint Training. If you’re looking to improve your climbing, check out the Redpoint Assessment. You’ll walk away from your Assessment with the knowledge of your opportunities for growth and a personalized plan to help you make gains.
You’ve probably heard of ARC training before. You know, that dreadful thing where you climb for what feels like forever without getting off the wall. Is it endurance training, or a mild form of torture?
Well actually, ARCing can be a very soothing way to increase your climbing proficiency, discipline, and endurance. Most things worth achieving in life don’t come easy. Building a solid climbing endurance base is no exception. Staying on the wall for that long is a battle of the mind more than anything else. If you can push past that mental block and learn to enjoy endurance training, the payoffs can be quite enormous.
Aerobic Restoration and Capillarity (or ARC) Training, is a training approach to develop aerobic endurance by encouraging vascular development in the forearms. The goal is to climb for 20 to 40 minutes without surpassing your “anaerobic threshold”, the point where you start developing a strong “pump” (that stiff, fatigued feeling) in the forearm. You’re looking to sustain a mild warm pump that is continuous throughout the entire session. It will take a few sessions to find the right intensity: too much pump will put you in power endurance mode, and too little pump won’t help you develop increased endurance. ARCing is traditionally done by traversing or using a scatter board like the ones at First Ascent Avondale, but you can also use an autobelay. If you use an autobelay, just make sure there aren’t others waiting for it. Try to keep your autobelay ARC sessions to off-peak hours.
ARCing is very good for general conditioning, and great for long sustained routes that lack a crux. It takes longer to see the results, but the results are longer lasting, with a longer payoff. ARCing also provides you with a fantastic time to work on footwork, breathing, and drills as you go up and down the wall, improving fitness and technical skills simultaneously. I recommend climbers find 2-3 technique drills to work on while ARCing so by the end of their season they have improved exponentially.
Here is a quick video I recently put together to explain ARCing in depth:
It will take a few sessions to figure out the right grade for your ARC training. Example benchmarks you can start with are listed below. Start on the low end, then work up a letter grade until you find the sweet spot for a full 20-minute session, or move down a grade if you feel you feel relentlessly pumped out. Once you’ve found the right starting grade, I recommend working up to 30 minutes for a session before moving up to the next grade. While you’re at it, try to select routes that target your current goals.
| Level Of Climbing | Arc Ballpark |
| 5.9 / 5.10 | 5.7+, 5.8+ |
| 5.10c-5.11c | 5.9 |
| 5.11c-5.12a | 5.10a |
| 5.12a-5.12c | 5.10a-c |
Like anything else, one ARCing session won’t do much for you. You’ll need to put in 3 or more weeks of ARCing 3 times a week to see gains. If you’re consistent, you will see significant gains, and you’ll surprise yourself with how long you can hold on when working your next project.
Cheers and Happy Climbing!
-Branden LaCour
Learn more about Branden and his tips for training at www.thesendingcoach.com.