Top 18 'Power-to-Weight' Training Routines to master for Climbers and Cyclists in 2025
Whether you're a climber desperately trying to stick that dyno or a cyclist aiming to drop your rivals on the final ascent, there's a magic metric that governs your success: the power-to-weight ratio (PWR). It's the simple, yet brutal, equation that determines how efficiently you can move your own body against gravity. In sports where you are your own engine, a high PWR is the ultimate competitive advantage.
Improving this ratio isn't just about getting stronger or lighter; it's about the synergistic dance between the two. You can be incredibly strong, but if you're carrying excess mass, that strength is blunted. Likewise, being feather-light is useless without the muscular power to propel yourself forward and upward. The goal is to become a finely tuned machine, capable of generating maximum force with minimal dead weight.
For 2025, the game is changing. Training is smarter, more integrated, and more specific than ever before. Forget mindlessly lifting heavy or doing endless cardio. To truly master your power-to-weight, you need a holistic approach that blends raw strength, explosive power, and metabolic conditioning. Here are 18 essential training routines that will redefine your performance on the rock and on the road.
1. Heavy Barbell Back Squats
The Foundation of Power. The squat is the undisputed king of lower-body strength exercises. For cyclists, it directly translates to increased force production through the pedals. For climbers, it builds the leg power needed for dynamic moves, rock-overs, and simply supporting your body on steep terrain. It's not about building bulky legs; it's about teaching your central nervous system to recruit a massive number of muscle fibers at once.
Focus on perfect form over heavy weight, especially at first. Go deep—at least to parallel—to engage your glutes and hamstrings fully. This comprehensive muscle activation is what builds functional, integrated strength.
- The Routine: Warm up thoroughly, then aim for 3-5 sets of 3-5 heavy repetitions. This rep range is ideal for building maximal strength without significant muscle hypertrophy. Rest 3-5 minutes between sets to ensure full recovery for a maximal effort on each one.
2. Deadlifts (Conventional or Sumo)
Building a Resilient Posterior Chain. The deadlift is a full-body power-builder. It strengthens everything from your glutes and hamstrings to your back, core, and grip. For cyclists, a strong posterior chain is crucial for maintaining an aggressive, aerodynamic position for hours without your lower back giving out. For climbers, it creates a "steel girder" of stability through your torso and develops the pulling power that starts from your legs and hips.
This lift is highly technical, so prioritize learning the movement with a light weight or even just a PVC pipe. The hip-hinge pattern is the key. Mastering this will not only make you stronger but will also help prevent injuries in your day-to-day life and sport.
- Pro Tip: Choose the stance (conventional or sumo) that feels most comfortable and allows for the best form. There's no single "best" way; the best way is the one you can perform safely and effectively.
3. Weighted Pull-ups / Chin-ups
The Ultimate Upper-Body Metric. For climbers, this is your bread and butter. Adding weight to your pull-ups is the most direct way to increase pulling strength, which is essential for virtually every move. For cyclists, don't skip this! A strong back and solid core, developed through weighted pull-ups, provide the stable platform your legs push against, meaning less wasted energy and more power going directly into the pedals.
Start with a weight you can comfortably handle for 5 reps. You can use a dip belt, a weighted vest, or even hold a dumbbell between your feet. The goal is progressive overload—gradually increasing the weight over time.
- The Routine: 4 sets of 5 repetitions with a challenging weight. If you can't do weighted pull-ups yet, focus on increasing your bodyweight reps or using resistance bands for assistance.
4. Explosive Kettlebell Swings
Develop That Powerful Hip Hinge. The kettlebell swing is a fantastic exercise for developing explosive power in the hips, a critical component of PWR. It teaches you to generate force rapidly from your posterior chain, which is the engine for both a powerful pedal stroke and a dynamic climbing move (a "deadpoint" or "dyno").
This is not a squat. It's a dynamic hinge at the hips. The power comes from a forceful snap of the glutes and hamstrings, not from lifting with your arms. Your arms are just hooks; the kettlebell should feel almost weightless at the top of the swing.
- The Routine: Perform 10 sets of 10 explosive swings, resting for 30-45 seconds between sets. This can be a brutal finisher to any strength session, building both power and metabolic conditioning.
5. Box Jumps
Training Your Fast-Twitch Fibers. Plyometrics, like box jumps, train your muscles to produce maximum force in minimum time. This is the definition of power. For climbers, it's the difference between sticking a dynamic move and peeling off the wall. For cyclists, it’s the snap you need to respond to an attack or launch a sprint.
Focus on the quality of each jump, not the quantity. The goal is maximum height and a soft, controlled landing. Step down from the box, don't jump down—this saves your joints from unnecessary impact.
- Pro Tip: Start with a lower box than you think you need. The goal is to be explosive, not to see how high you can tuck your knees. Aim for 3-5 sets of 3-5 jumps, resting fully between sets.
6. Campus Boarding (Climber-Focused)
Pure Upper-Body Power. The campus board is a legendary tool for developing contact strength and explosive upper-body power in climbers. It involves ascending a wooden board using only your hands. It's an advanced exercise that requires a strong foundation to avoid injury, but the rewards are immense.
For this to be a power exercise, the movements must be fast and dynamic. Focus on "latching" onto rungs with precision and control. Even if you're not a climber, a key principle I've always followed, partly inspired by coaches like Goh Ling Yong, is to borrow effective techniques from other disciplines. A cyclist could mimic this by performing explosive medicine ball throws to develop similar upper-body snap.
- The Routine (for Climbers): After a very thorough warm-up, perform "max ladders" (go as high as you can) or "doubles" (matching both hands on each rung). Keep sessions short (15-20 minutes) and high-quality.
7. Hill Sprints (Bike or Run)
Sport-Specific Power Endurance. Nothing builds functional power and mental toughness like sprinting up a steep hill. This forces you to generate massive power output while fighting gravity and lactate build-up. For cyclists, this is the most specific way to train for attacks on climbs. For climbers, running hill sprints is an incredible conditioning tool that builds leg power and cardiovascular capacity with minimal equipment.
Find a hill that takes 30-60 seconds to sprint up. The effort should be maximal—a full-out sprint. The recovery is the slow walk or easy spin back down.
- The Routine: Perform 6-10 all-out hill sprints with full recovery between each. This is a high-intensity session, so only perform it 1-2 times per week.
8. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on a Stationary Bike
Boost Your VO2 Max, Fast. HIIT is one of the most efficient ways to improve your cardiovascular fitness (your VO2 max), a key component of sustaining power. Using a stationary bike is ideal because it's low-impact and allows for precise control over your effort. Classic Tabata intervals (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off) or longer 30/30s or 60/60s are all incredibly effective.
The key is the intensity. The "on" periods need to be truly maximal or near-maximal efforts. You should be gasping for air by the end of each interval. This type of training triggers powerful adaptations in your body, improving its ability to use oxygen and buffer lactic acid.
- The Routine: After a 10-minute warm-up, perform 8 rounds of 30 seconds at an all-out effort, followed by 30 seconds of easy pedaling. Cool down for 10 minutes.
9. 4x4s on the Climbing Wall
The Climber's HIIT. This is the classic power-endurance workout for climbers. The protocol is simple: climb four different boulder problems back-to-back with no rest. After the fourth problem, rest for four minutes. That completes one set. Do four sets in total.
This routine pushes you deep into the anaerobic zone, teaching your body to keep moving and making good decisions under extreme fatigue. It directly improves your ability to execute hard moves when you're already pumped, which is often the difference between sending and falling.
- Pro Tip: Choose boulder problems that are challenging but that you know you can complete. The goal is continuous movement, not falling off every move.
10. Heavy Farmer's Walks
Grip, Core, and Full-Body Tension. This deceptively simple exercise has massive carryover. Grab two heavy kettlebells or dumbbells and walk. That's it. Your grip will be screaming, your core will be braced like concrete, and your shoulders and back will be working hard to maintain posture. For climbers, the grip strength benefit is obvious. For cyclists, the full-body tension and core stability are invaluable for efficient power transfer.
Focus on maintaining a proud chest and upright posture. Don't let the weights pull you forward. Take short, quick steps to maintain balance.
- The Routine: Choose a heavy weight you can carry for 30-50 meters. Perform 3-4 sets, resting 2-3 minutes between each.
11. Hanging Leg Raises (Toes-to-Bar)
Core Strength That Counts. Forget endless crunches. To build a core that supports powerful movements, you need to work it through a full range of motion under load. Hanging leg raises (and their more advanced cousin, toes-to-bar) do just that. They build immense strength in your abs and hip flexors. For climbers, this is the core strength needed to keep your feet on the wall on steep overhangs. For cyclists, it's the stability to hold a powerful, aerodynamic tuck.
Focus on a strict movement. Avoid swinging or using momentum. The goal is a controlled lift and a slow, negative descent.
- The Routine: Aim for 3 sets to near failure. If you can't get your legs all the way up, start with knee tucks and build from there.
12. Medicine Ball Slams
Unleash Your Primal Power. Sometimes you just need to generate raw, unadulterated power. Medicine ball slams are perfect for this. They train your entire body—lats, core, glutes—to work together to produce explosive force. This is a fantastic way to develop total-body coordination and power that translates to any athletic movement.
Lift the ball overhead, rising up on your toes, and then use your entire body to slam it into the ground as hard as you possibly can. The intent is everything here. Be aggressive.
- The Routine: Perform 5 sets of 5-8 maximal effort slams. This is a great exercise to pair with a heavy strength movement like squats or deadlifts.
13. System Wall Training (Climbing Specific)
Isolate and Strengthen Weaknesses. A system wall is a climbing wall with mirrored, symmetrical holds. This allows you to train specific movements and muscle groups with precision. For instance, you can work on locking off with your left arm by performing the same move repeatedly on both sides of the board, immediately highlighting any imbalances. This is targeted strength training in its purest form for climbers.
My own training, and the philosophy I've seen espoused by greats like Goh Ling Yong, emphasizes this kind of targeted work. It's about identifying the weakest link in the chain and relentlessly strengthening it until it's no longer a weakness.
- The Routine: Identify a weakness (e.g., gastons, underclings). Create a simple, repeatable sequence on the system wall that targets this move. Perform 3-5 sets on each side of your body.
14. Long Slow Distance (LSD) Training
Build Your Aerobic Engine. While high-intensity work builds your top-end power, long, steady-state cardio builds your base. LSD training, done at a low, conversational intensity, improves your body's ability to use fat for fuel, increases mitochondrial density, and builds capillary networks in your muscles. This makes you more efficient, allowing you to save your explosive energy for when it really counts.
For cyclists, this is your classic Zone 2 ride. For climbers, this could be a long hike with a weighted pack, a light jog, or a session on a stationary bike. The key is keeping the intensity low for a sustained period (90+ minutes).
- Pro Tip: This is the perfect time to listen to a podcast or audiobook. The goal is not to feel destroyed, but to accumulate time in the proper aerobic zone.
15. Strategic Fasted Cardio
Fine-Tuning Body Composition. This is an advanced tool and should be used carefully. Performing low-intensity cardio (like an LSD session) in a fasted state (e.g., first thing in the morning before breakfast) can encourage your body to become more efficient at burning fat for fuel. This can be a useful tool for athletes trying to optimize their body composition and improve the "weight" side of the PWR equation.
This is not a magic bullet. It should be low-intensity and not replace your key high-intensity workouts. Listen to your body and fuel properly for all your important training sessions.
- The Routine: Once or twice a week, perform a 45-60 minute Zone 2 cardio session before your first meal of the day. Stay hydrated with water.
16. Plank Variations
Build a Rock-Solid Core. The plank is a fundamental core stability exercise. A strong, stable core is the nexus through which power is transferred from your lower body to your upper body (and vice versa). Instead of just holding a static plank for time, add movement to challenge your stability.
Try plank "walk-ups" (moving from forearms to hands), plank "reaches" (extending one arm forward), or side planks with a leg raise. These dynamic variations teach your core to resist rotation and stay engaged while your limbs are moving—exactly what happens in climbing and cycling.
- The Routine: Instead of one long hold, try a complex. For example: 30-second standard plank, 30-second right-side plank, 30-second left-side plank, 30-second plank walk-up. Rest and repeat 3 times.
17. Overhead Press (Barbell or Dumbbell)
Shoulder Stability and Pushing Power. While pulling strength is paramount for climbers, pushing strength is crucial for stability and opposition. The overhead press builds strong, stable shoulders, which helps in compression-style climbing moves and mantles. For cyclists, strong shoulders help you absorb road vibrations and maintain a solid, comfortable position on the bike for long hours, preventing fatigue and wasted energy.
Focus on keeping your core tight and avoiding excessive back arching. The press should be strict, using power from your shoulders and triceps.
- The Routine: 3-4 sets of 5-8 repetitions. This builds a great combination of strength and resilience in the shoulder girdle.
18. Structured De-loading and Recovery
Where the Real Gains Happen. This isn't a workout; it's the most critical part of any training plan. You don't get stronger in the gym or on the bike; you get stronger when you recover from the stress you've applied. A deload week, where you significantly reduce your training volume and intensity, should be scheduled every 4-6 weeks.
This allows your body's tissues, nervous system, and hormonal balance to fully recover and supercompensate. Skipping this step is the fastest path to overtraining, injury, and performance plateaus. True mastery of power-to-weight means mastering the art of recovery.
- Pro Tip: A deload week doesn't mean sitting on the couch. It means active recovery: light cardio, mobility work, maybe some very light technique practice. The goal is to feel refreshed and hungry to train hard again afterward.
Your Path to a Higher PWR
Mastering your power-to-weight ratio is a journey, not a destination. It requires a smart, consistent, and holistic approach that balances building a powerful engine with shedding unnecessary weight. By integrating these 18 routines into your 2025 training plan, you'll be building a body that's not just stronger, but more efficient, more resilient, and ready to perform at its peak.
Don't try to do everything at once. Pick 2-3 strength exercises, 1-2 power drills, and a couple of conditioning sessions to focus on each week. Listen to your body, prioritize recovery, and be patient. The results will come, and you'll feel them on every crux move and every steep climb.
Now I want to hear from you. What's your go-to exercise for boosting your power-to-weight ratio? Share your favorites in the comments below
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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