Tips for Rock Climbing in Your 60s, 70s & 80s
Irmgard Braun shares her tips after climbing 5.13 in her late 60s, and Steve McClure gives advice for "old folks" looking to climb in their later years
Many rock climbers continue to climb into their 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. In 2013, with a combined age of nearly 140 years, Jim Donini and George Lowe made plans to climb The Nose of El Capitan in a single day. Donini was about to turn 70 and Lowe 69.
In 2019, 99-year-old Greta Plowman tried climbing for her first time (story here). American Lee Sheftel didn’t start climbing until he was 33 years old and he did his first 5.14a at the age of 58, he continued to climb 5.13s into his 70s – interview with him here. Chuck Odette climbed a new 5.14a at 61 and John Hoffman climbed 5.12c at age 74 in Bishop.
In 2022, German climber Irmgard Braun climbed 5.13a at 69 years old with Open Box at Gorges Du Tarn. Then in 2024, she climbed 5.12c at the age of 72 with Le String a Fredo. Braun started climbing in the 1980s. “I climb about three or four times per week, on rock, if possible, and quite often in a climbing gym,” she said in 2024. “My lifestyle is not at all ascetic, I like to drink good wine and love chocolate.”
In 2020, Brit Steve McClure wrote several tips for older climbers on Instagram. McClure said he refers to people over 45 as “old folks” – he climbed Rainman 5.15b at age 48. Below are tips from Braun that were shared on 8a.nu, and the tips that McClure shared on social media – his website with more tips here. Keep on climbing!
Tips by McClure
Don’t get injured: Obvious. At any age, even a cut finger is annoying, but unfortunately injury will be one of the biggest obstacles most of us face in attempting to achieve our goals. For over 45s, injury becomes the biggest factor! Injuries appear faster and take far longer to go away. Where once a little niggle disappeared, it now quickly becomes a full blown problem taking years to heal, if not a permanent injury that has to be managed, alongside all the other permanent injuries!
The one bit of advice I’d give to start with (out of many), is not to climb through a ‘tweak’. Many times in younger days I’ve felt something ‘go’, stretched it out and kept on climbing, and generally got away with it. But not anymore. Now I wake up in the morning and that minor tweak has become a full blown injury putting me back weeks if not months. When in a warmed-up and psyched state a minor tweak may not feel too bad, but there is potential for disaster. You’d think we’d get wise with age, but instead maybe we lose our short-term memory, or perhaps become too stubborn. Stop. Assess carefully. If you must continue, at least give it time, often even 30 minutes will tell you the score. Do something less intense or different. In many cases much of the damage is done after the tweak by carrying on hammering the injury. Unless you succeeded on your 5 year redpoint project, or onsighted your hardest route ever, you almost certainly won’t be glad you carried on through an injury when you wake up with a throbbing finger or an elbow like a balloon!
Train your strengths: The opposite of training your weaknesses, this isn’t the usual advice! However, over 45, I’m afraid lots of stuff is fairly downhill. What physical strengths you lose over 45 are hard to get back. (Unfortunately this is not the case for weight, which appears to be the opposite.) You’ll have heard of ‘maintaining strengths’, well this requires training. Your physical strengths are likely to be well embedded and gained from what you enjoy doing, and crucially, what you WILL enjoy doing in the future. Right now, more than ever, it’s key to keep what strengths we have. ‘Strengths’ are easier to maintain, and potentially more interesting to do if you like that style of exercise. Now is a good time to work weak areas, but don’t neglect strengths. If you’ve been training hard for years, you’ll know that even just maintaining requires HARD training!
The positives of training your strengths are that you’ll enjoy doing it (and so do it), you won’t lose what you gained over years, and you’ll be ready to go once these hard times improve, and back out enjoying climbing to the level you were before. The negatives are that improvements are very hard to come by. ‘If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got’. To be fair, at 45 and beyond, if you manage to maintain your standard (especially for a well-trained climber) then you are generally winning! However, improvements feel great, especially for the old timers, and are certainly achievable. For real gains we probably need to work on our weaknesses.
Don’t train your weaknesses: WHAT? Don’t train your weaknesses? I don’t think I’ve heard that one before… Actually this is not a rule, but more of a warning! Many of our weaknesses are due to injury or niggles.
If you have an old injury that keeps coming back, try and get to the bottom of it – is there a muscular imbalance? Some tight areas? But don’t push it with training. It’s not worth it, and you can probably get by without that ‘strength’. If you spend your life with broken shoulders then work on stability rather than gaining strength, or if your fingers are constantly taped up like a mummy, ditch the tape and stick to bigger holds and powerful moves when training indoors.
In more usual times, if you are out climbing , this climbing will be enough to maintain any dodgy areas without making them worse. Other ‘non-injured’ areas are trained harder indoors. Be very truthful with yourself regarding old injuries and what you feel you need to do about them, and if it’s worth pushing them for potentially marginal gains, even if they do survive!
The absolute key is being able to get out climbing as much as we can. Injury over 45 takes forever to shift, and quality days out are becoming numbered (sorry – but that’s the truth, even if it’s still 1000’s). You will be far better off climbing very marginally below maximum because your biceps were a tad feeble, than blowing them to bits trying to reach your 18 year old personal best in curls.
We also often have weaknesses because we have avoided certain styles, or avoided a type of training because we didn’t like the look of it. In this case…. DO train your weaknesses. But for the over 45’s, especially with lots of time on your hands to throw yourself into a new plan…. A lot of care is needed, which takes us to Part 4……
Train your weaknesses: Ah – now this sounds more familiar! Of all the times, now is probably as good as ever to work on physical weaknesses. There is time to make a difference! STRUCTURE and ROUTINE are key, and for those with busy and awkward lifestyles, for once this may be possible. But for the over 45’s, take care. There are some important points.
Identify and prioritize. You may feel you know your weak areas. But what areas will make the difference to what you want to do? This is crucial. As an example, I watch as the kids fly around between volumes indoors with amazing burl, and I’m so bad at that. But do I need that strength for what I want to do? Like for onsights of routes like Nightmayer? NO. But I watch climbers solid on 2 finger pockets and I think ‘do I need that’? The answer is YES. Maybe some ‘burl’ work is useful, but don’t be sucked in to what everyone else is doing with their hours of weights and rings work. Think about what you need for your climbing and what areas you are weak in for that type of climbing.
Take care. Areas of weakness will unfortunately be weak! They can break or develop injuries over time. Perhaps only work these areas twice a week at first and bring in stress levels gradually. Think about stability and form. And be wise with age – research and understand recovery and inbalance.
Know your age! Some strengths become hard to increase as we get older. You will struggle to beat your 20 year old max deadlift. Increasing muscle size is tough going. However, I’ve found that many older climbers can make decent gains in finger strength and strength endurance, which are often areas holding them back. Personally I’ve made big gains in half crimp strength which is something I neglected for years. At the moment I’m working on that and am already at my all-time PB.
The good news… is that weak areas, if worked on with routine and with care, can still make gains, and there is nothing better than a 50 year old making gains in any department, other than waist-line maybe.
Maintain intensity: To improve you need to stay the same….. well that makes sense. Let’s just expand. The key to making gains in our outdoor performance is to maintain what we already have. And then make small gains where we can. This is an important one! As you age your muscles start to dwindle. I’m afraid it’s a battle to simply keep what we have!
Our muscles are the size they are because they need to do the tasks we ask of them. This is really the key. For many of us the muscles become weaker not just because ‘age’ withers them, but because we don’t ‘ask’ them to do enough.
If at 35 years old you were doing sets of 2 pull-ups with 50kg attached, then slipped sets of 5 with 20kg at 40, then doing sets of 10 unweighted pull-ups at 45, then you are asking far less of your muscles and they will trend towards endurance and shrink to the demand. Maintaining intensity is far more likely to maintain overall muscle strength, even if the rest period between exercise is increased. In many cases we drop intensity NOT because we can’t do it, but mainly because we don’t like doing it so much…. It just feels hard!
There are many climbers, and examples in loads of sports, where older athletes have trended towards endurance away from power and strength. This is a natural progression we can’t stop. But we can slow it. With climbing, there are always some hard moves. Don’t be that old climber who can hang on forever below the crux, but can’t do the hard moves!
Maintain intensity particularly with the fingers and pull-strength. Do some very hard low rep work. Watch out for impact (high intensity campusing and dynos), and beware one-arm lock-offs on the elbows.
Avoid Junk Miles: Ever feel tired in the afternoon? Fall asleep on the sofa at 6pm? Do you feel knackered after a climbing session and go home to bed when you used to go for a few pints? It’s coming to us all.
Successful training is all about appropriate exercises and sufficient rest. Think about that! Both of them. Many of us don’t rest enough, and appropriate exercise often needs a bit of thought. I used to do a 30 mile off-road bike ride then go straight to the wall and train for 3 hours. But then I found I just couldn’t be arsed to train after a ride so just did the ride and trained the next day… and then began to notice the day after the ride I was feeling a bit sluggish…. My climbing slipped. I re-calibrated, the rides were not so important, focused on the climbing, and soon was feeling bouncy and making gains.
Even if you still feel you can squeeze it all in, just take a look at your psyche and intensity. Are you really firing on all cylinders, or maybe feeling just a bit off-par? Personally I have found I make WAY bigger gains when rested and feeling fresh.
Also think about what you are trying to achieve. Most training is NOT rocket science. If you are a route climber who wants stronger fingers, and your routine is to always do 2 hours of route climbing which leaves you pumped to bits, then are you making gains to your weak fingers? A fingerboard session after loads of pumpy routes will not work.. Prioritise, do the fingerboard work straight after your warm up. Then do your routes. Don’t just do what you’ve always done, or you’ll always get what you’ve always got. (that’s not a new quote).
Have fun: Sounds a bit corny. But sometimes the fun element can be lost in search of numbers, and the joy harder to find as performance starts to slip. There is no doubt that for many of us numbers do count, and we measure ourselves by them. But take the pressure off. For nearly every climber in the world, no one else measures you by numbers. They don’t really care. What they do care about is that you are happy and having fun. A joyful tick of a 7b is way better than a screaming fall off the last move of an 8a. It’s absolutely true we have to keep pushing hard; it’s satisfying to be the best we can be and to know we worked hard to get there. Know that, know you are your best, don’t allow numbers to judge. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. We don’t have as much time as we used to have. Fill those days on the crag with fun and good memories (but of course still cranking hard after all the training we did).
Tips by Braun
Don’t injure yourself: Stay away from training on the campus board, bouldering in the modern style (dynamically between volumes – far too much strain on the shoulders!). Toprope bouldering is a much better alternative. If something hurts or even only slightly twinges, it is better to stop, at least until the following day and to look out for what develops. Really warm up well. This can take a damn long time, especially in cold weather. I need at least 5 warm-up routes on the climbing wall with increasing difficulties. Particularly train your shoulder stability. I only do two exercises twice a week, but more would be better, especially for people with long limbs. Stop climbing before you get pumped. Most injuries happen when you are tired. Treat your limitations with care. For instance, “Egyptians” are dangerous if you suffer from arthritic knees, and people with elbow problems should stay away from locking off. Most often you can substitute risky moves with other techniques.
Train your strong points: Most climbing coaches would advise you to improve your weak areas of performance. But I believe that this is valid more for younger climbers who are striving to become high-performing allrounders in every type of climbing, on rock as well as on plastic. At the age of now seventy years, I basically climb following the pleasure principle. So I don’t struggle up a horrible offwidth crack and avoid those revolting slopers. The climbing I most enjoy is on well structured limestone with small crimpy holds. People who prefer granite or sandstone, will naturally be dealing with cracks, that call for good holding power and advanced jamming techniques. People focussing on artificial walls will again have different priorities, like explosive dynamos and learning to work miracles on slopers by the laying on of hands. It is essential to concentrate on what you really enjoy and to choose your goals correspondingly. Then your chances for success will be the best.
Stay or become flexible: To train general flexibility and body tension, Yoga (and Pilates) are certainly very suitable. For people who like to practice these methods, they certainly are an excellent complement to climbing. However, they are nothing for me, finding them too time consuming and difficult to keep up. So I train my flexibility specifically for climbing. For instance, to achieve high and precise foot placement, calling for active flexibility – the limberness and power to lift the legs very high. Also, an open pelvis is useful, allowing to keep your body closer to the wall, as well as the ability to perform extended spreads in dihedrals.
Climb regularly, also at a highly intensive level: If you want to climb hard routes at your personal limit, it will be necessary to pull really hard at the crux moves. Young people do this without holding back, while senior climbers tend to be more hesitant. But your standard of climbing decreases if, for fear of injury, you limit yourself to the cruising routes. Except for top athletes, it is probably sufficient to try hard crux moves once or twice a week, at 80 or 90 percent of your maximal power. In roped climbing, your projects will provide a perfect opportunity for this. Hereby you can try out new moves and improve your technical abilities. If jumping off isn’t a problem, of course, you also can go bouldering. You should climb hard endurance routes always after and never before the stress of close-to-the-limit maximum-power-moves. To keep your endurance, one session per week is enough for the general customer.
Don’t be scared of falling where it is safe: Fear kills the fun of climbing. And it also steals your strength, as you hold on much too hard if you are afraid. On top of that your climbing technique also often evaporates. So to lose your fear of leading can easily mean advancing a whole grade. However, healthy caution also has its place – see tip number one. Check out the situation rationally. Stay away from dangerous routes and don’t hesitate to disarm a hazardous section with a clipstick. But also don’t hesitate to fall if the situation is safe! If this seems difficult, you can take a special course in air traffic control or hire a coach.
Have fun! For many older climbers like myself typical climbing training, maybe on a fingerboard or a pull-up bar, just isn’t fun. So we don’t train long and hard enough – and the results are negligible. People of such persuasion can work towards their goals solely by climbing, if they follow a halfway systematic approach. But this also isn’t everybody’s cup of tea! Then you will have to accept, that the aspired goal is not that important after all and that your top priority is having fun. That’s fine too! If you’re old, you realize how little time you have left and how important it is to enjoy it.
Chuck Odette on Climbing in late 60s
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