Build Power Endurance for Climbing with Cameron Hörst

The goal of a 4x4 is to spend repeated bouts climbing at roughly 80-90% of your maximum effort. A pitfall within this programming is that repeating the exact same boulder four times rarely accomplishes that. If the boulder is hard enough to challenge you on the first attempt, you'll often fail by the third or fourth rep. If it's easy enough to complete all four reps, the first half of the set usually isn't demanding enough to maximize the stimulus. Instead, Cam like to adjust the difficulty as fatigue accumulates. My preferred setup is: • Reps 1–2: A boulder just below your limit that you can confidently send twice with minimal rest. • Reps 3–4: Switch to a slightly easier boulder that still requires near-maximal effort in your fatigued state. Advanced climbers can take this a step further by selecting four progressively easier boulders (one for each rep) so every pull-on stays close to maximal intensity.