The Nugget Climbing Podcast · Steven Dimmitt

EP 292: Tom Randall — How to Program Your Training Like a Pro (Repost from Patreon)

February 9, 2026·1 hr 48 min·8 clips

Tom Randall's method for self-assessment: ask 4-8 climbing friends to privately write your top 3 strengths and weaknesses — the results will 'kind of hurt because they're true.'

1. Host Stephen Dimmitt reintroduces a February 2022 Patreon episode with Tom Randall as a free release, framing it as a masterclass in training program design for self-coached climbers. 2. Tom Randall is co-founder of Lattice Training, widely described as the largest climbing training company in the world, and is also known as one of the Wide Boys for his crack and off-width climbing. 3. The episode's central aim is to give self-coached climbers a practical framework to build a training program without needing a paid coach, from self-assessment through to periodization. 4. Tom argues the first step is building an objective self-profile: how often do you currently climb, where, and in what format — and importantly, keeping this realistic rather than aspirational. 5. He recommends a peer-feedback self-assessment: ask 4-8 climbing friends to privately write your top 3 strengths and weaknesses on separate pieces of paper, then read the results together for consensus. 6. Tom notes this exercise still matters years later — he retains notes from his own 2006/2007 assessment that revealed his finger strength was so poor he shook trying to hang a 20mm edge two-handed at bodyweight. 7. Tom discloses he climbed his first 8b at age 31, one month after his first child was born, and his first 8c six months after that — the result of targeting weaknesses identified by friends rather than continuing to train his strengths. 8. The core rule for program design: restrict any training cycle to one to three focus areas, because dispersed effort across six to eight targets produces worse outcomes than concentrated work on two. 9. He specifies energy system incompatibilities: training strength and power endurance simultaneously, or endurance and power endurance simultaneously, blends adaptations without producing gains in either. 10. Compatible pairings include high-end strength with base endurance, or technique and onsight confidence — areas that do not draw on the same recovery or energy system resources. 11. Tom recommends the industry-standard 3:1 loading cycle: three weeks of hard training followed by one relative rest week at approximately 50% volume reduction, keeping intensity high for intermediate and advanced climbers. 12. He advises beginners doing their first training cycle to reduce both volume and intensity in rest weeks, specifically eliminating any sets taken to failure because recovery time from failure work is significantly higher. 13. For a three-month off-season block, Tom recommends maintaining focus on the same one or two areas throughout rather than rotating through multiple skills, because soft tissue structural changes require sustained stimulus. 14. He emphasizes keeping climbing skills active even during focused training blocks — stopping all climbing to hangboard for three months and then expecting performance to have improved is a common error he explicitly warns against. 15. Tom drew on the Lattice database to identify climbers with elite-level strength and fitness profiles who were performing far below expectations, and found nearly every one climbed 50 days or fewer per year on rock. 16. For city-based climbers with one two-week annual trip, he recommends a 50-50 year split: the first half on foundational strength and conditioning, the second half on sport-specific practice that mirrors the trip's demands. 17. He distinguishes between a climber who has spent years on rock and needs only to refine specific physical qualities versus a climber from a gym or calisthenics background who has never applied that base to climbing movement. 18. The conversation is structured as a practical coaching session, with Stephen posing hypothetical climber archetypes and Tom responding with specific program recommendations — making it highly accessible. 19. Intermediate to advanced self-coached climbers planning a training season and looking for a structured framework will find the most direct value in this episode. 20. Beginners seeking motivation or trip inspiration rather than programming methodology may find the detail level overwhelming without a specific training goal in mind.

As heard by us

A useful training conversation for climbers who want progress and are willing to face the tradeoffs it brings.

Tom Randall makes this a practical talk about how climbers build training around real goals, not vague ambition. Stephen Dimmitt keeps steering it back to the hard question: if improvement matters, what are climbers willing to give up to make room for it?

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Why you'd press play

You want a practical masterclass in how to organize and program your climbing training.

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