intro to training for climbing

i am by no means a training expert. the following is simply my understanding and what i have come across while researching for my own training regimen.

it seems like every strong guy or girl at the gym or local crag/boulders/whatever has a different training plan that got them strong, ranging from "ya bro, i just climb all the time" to "get on a hangboard for x hours a week" to "i just sit on my ass and eat a lot." honestly, all of the above will probably make you a better climber to some extent (well, except the last one), but i am going to simplify it for you, and hopefully explain what it is that helps you.

there are many training techniques used to become a stronger climber. in this context i mean "stronger" in a purely physical sense - not common climber context, which is interchangeable with "good". all these techniques fall into what are essentially 3 and a half different physical attributes: (1) your aerobic endurance, (2) anaerobic endurance, (3) strength/power, (1/2) contact strength.

aerobic endurance - how long you can go without getting a pump. raising your aerobic endurance increases the difficulty at which you can climb before anaerobic energy production begins/lactic acid starts building up/you get pumped

anaerobic endurance - once pumped, this is how long you can tolerate the pain before you pump out and fall. this also plays a large part in stamina, which is your ability to recover from high-intensity work. raising your anaerobic endurance will let you continue to climb longer once you start getting pumped; raising your stamina will increase how many high quality attempts you can make on your project over the course of a day

strength/power - how physically strong you are as a whole/your ability to apply that strength quickly. they are separate but similar, so for our purposes we will talk about them together. an increase in strength will raise your ability to lock off or campus; an increase in power will help with dynos and quick movements off of hand holds.

contact strength - refers to local strength in your forearms and how much force you can exert through your fingers. increasing your contact strength will make it easier to use smaller holds. contact strength is extremely dependent on the situation: you can be really strong on crimps and small edges, while at the same time horrible at slopers or pinches. some people include this with strength/power, but as it is entirely possible to be able to do 100 pull ups and at the same time not climb a v2, i am separating them.

i will elaborate on each of these, one at a time, in the future. the specific posts will be much more in depth and include exercises to train each attribute. i plan to get a training section up on here, with links to notable training websites and other good information. unfortunately, i'm swamped with work, so it may be a while before this is done. bear with me

lastly, i will say that no matter how hard you train, if your technique sucks it will mostly be in vain. unless you've been climbing a long time, it is probably better for you to work on footwork/turning/fluid movement than squeeze off another campus burn at the end of a session