Dear Friends! Though we may have never met, we are connected through our shared passion for climbing. Over the last 32 years I have "talked training" with thousands of climbers and I'm proud to have helped tens-of-thousands of individuals around the world improve their climbing through my books, magazine articles, seminars, and this web site.

T4C is partnered with leading handhold and wall manufacturer NICROS to produce the Training Center and monthly TC Beta e-newsletter. Below are links to a few recent training articles; click the Articles link above for a completeindex. Follow the Multimedia link for Podcasts and the Books link to learn more about my books. Enjoy! --Eric Hörst

Training Podcast #66 - Personal inventory & goal setting for 2010, and an intro to new Horst book, Maximum Climbing!

Training Podcast #65 - When Legends Die: The Powerful, Profound Message of our Climbing Heroes

Training Podcast #63 - Strength Training Strategies

Download Free Training Chart - By popular request, here's the Training Macrocyle from my TFC book. Excel file | PDF

5 Keys to Effective Offseason Training As winter bears down on much of the nation, many of us will be limited to pulling down on plywood and plastic. No matter if you climb at a large commercial gym or on a small home wall, the crux of winter-time training is finding ways to elevate your game so that you can enter next season as a stronger, more-skilled climber. Read on >>

Self-Assessment Part 3: Evaluate Your General & Specific Conditioning This is the third of an 8-part self-assessment process that will help transport you to the next climbing level. Don't miss this! Read on >>

Effective Pull-up Training - What You Need to Know The standard pull-up has long been a staple exercise for climbers. But how can you best train with pull-ups? What if you can't do enough pull-ups to even train them properly? At what point should you begin doing weighted pull-ups? Read on >>

Top 5 Antagonist Muscle Exercises Strength and flexibility in the antagonist muscles is fundamental to controlled, precise movement and for maintaining joint stability. Unfortunately, few climbers regularly engage in training of these antagonist muscles, thus hindering performance and increasing injury risk. Read on >>

Two Mental-Training Strategies for Developing Better Focus The ability to narrow and maintain focus is a crucial climbing skill, especially when fearful thoughts begin to scatter focus while on lead or amidst a high-ball ascent. In this article your will learn a focus-training technique as well as a method of narrowing focus before a lead climb or boulder problem. Read on >>

Home Training with NICROS Pump Rocks A set of Pump Rocks™ may be the single best piece of home training equipment save a home climbing wall. Not only do Pump Rocks facilitate a sport-specific, pull-muscle workout anywhere you can hang them, but they also enable you to train some of the vital antagonist push-muscles as well as the core muscles of your torso. Read on >>

Overcoming the Fear of Falling Not only beginning climbers struggle with the fear of falling. I often hear from experienced climbers, and sometimes even seasoned veterans, who to struggle with this fear. In this article I'll explain the pathway to managing this fear. Read on >>

A "Power Principle" for Improving Technique One of the key principles for effective skill development and motor learning is that you must strive to achieve near-perfection of specific skills and techniques, and not be satisfied to just “get by” at them. This is an immensely powerful concept, that’s unknown or ignored by many climbers... Read on >>