Natalia Grossman is a professional rock climber who has achieved incredible success, including multiple World Cup medals and podium finishes at the World Championships. Known for her strategic mindset and physical prowess, Natalia shared her approach to staying at the top of her game on the Test Piece Climbing podcast. As the caption for her episode noted, “Mindset As An Underdog vs Topdog, Climbing Your Best While Injured, and Knowing She’s ‘Ready’ For a Comp.” Here’s how Natalia trains her body and mind to perform her best.
Grossman opened up about her training routine with Redbull. She says that she makes sure to stay consistent. “My training varies with the season. During competition season, from April until September, I travel. When I’m home I train five times a week. For power training, I normally spray wall, which is climbing hard boulders on steep terrain. I also work on skills using competition-style boulders. For power-endurance training, I do circuits of 30 to 40 hard moves, where movement with my left or right-hand counts as a move. For pure endurance, I’ll do 50 easier moves or go rope climbing on the wall for a longer period of time.”
Grossman tells Redbull that building muscle is something she focuses on. “For climbing, physical strength is a necessity, especially finger and upper-body strength. So once or twice a week, I’ll do hangboarding, where I hang by my fingers off a wooden board. I can add weight in, too. And I’m always working on my leg strength and power; for that I do squats, hamstring curls, deadlifts and pistol [single-leg] squats. For upper-body strength, I do lots of rows and curls. But when the competition season starts, I focus more on maintaining leg strength, because my upper body is just naturally stronger.”
Grossman tells Redbull that she makes sure to do a lot of stretching. “I think being flexible is helpful for getting my feet high and keeping my hips close to the wall. I used to do gymnastics, which I think made me very flexible. Now I maintain it by doing 10 or 15 minutes of stretching every morning. I start with frog position and splits. Then I do upper-body stretches to open up my shoulders and chest. When I get to the gym, I’ll do band work to finish my upper-body warm- up—movements like bringing the band across my chest or a curling motion. And then I do a bit with my fingers, too.”
Grossman revealed how she stays focused during a competition with Redbull. “In bouldering competitions, when I turn around, I have four to five minutes to figure out a climb that I’ve never seen before. Before I start, I like to lower my heart rate and get into a calm state. I have to come up with a game plan quickly and I try to stick to it. When I’m waiting behind the wall, I put on loud music so I can’t hear the crowd. Then I’ll just close my eyes and take some deep breaths. When I’m in a final where I’ve seen the climbs before, I’ll close my eyes and visualize myself climbing the boulder.”
Naturally, Grossman spends a lot of time outside. Besides climbing, hiking is an outdoor activity she does to keep herself in shape. Grossman shared a photo of herself hiking by the beach in this Instagram post. She captioned it, “Some much needed island vibes🏝🌊🌞Now I’m onto the next adventure! Thrilled to spending the next month in my second home… Innsbruck😍”