How ClimbPlan Builds Your Training Plan (The Tech Behind the Curtain)
A look at the multi-layer AI system that generates your personalized 12-week climbing program.
When you complete the ClimbPlan assessment and hit "Generate Plan," a lot happens in the next few minutes. Here's what's actually going on behind the scenes.
Layer 1: Your Profile
The assessment collects about 30 data points: your current grades, climbing experience, injury history, available equipment, weekly training hours, preferred climbing styles, goals, and schedule. This isn't a generic questionnaire — every answer directly influences your programming.
For example, if you report a healing shoulder injury, the system flags overhead pressing movements as restricted and substitutes lateral and rotation-based alternatives. If you only have access to a home wall and hangboard (no gym), it adjusts session types accordingly.
Layer 2: Macro Coaching
The AI acts as a head coach, designing your 12-week macro plan. This includes:
- Phase structure (typically 3-4 phases across 12 weeks)
- Weekly session distribution (which days are climbing, off-wall training, or rest)
- Progressive overload curves
- Deload week placement
- Phase-specific coaching notes
This layer considers periodization principles, your injury constraints, and your stated goals. A climber training for competition prep gets a very different phase structure than someone focused on injury rehabilitation.
Layer 3: Exercise Programming
Each training session gets filled with specific exercises from our curated library of 90+ climbing-specific movements. The AI selects exercises, sets, reps, rest periods, and intensity targets for every session in a 4-week block.
Exercises are matched to your equipment access, injury restrictions, and the phase goals. A base phase climbing session might focus on high-volume moderate-grade problems with technique drills, while a power phase session might include limit bouldering attempts and campus board work.
Layer 4: Adaptive Coaching
As you train, daily check-ins and session logs feed back into the system. The AI monitors:
- Sleep quality and recovery
- Soreness patterns (especially finger tendons and shoulders)
- Session completion rates
- Motivation levels
- Perceived difficulty
At each 4-week checkpoint, the system regenerates the next block with adjustments based on your actual data. Consistently completing sessions with low perceived effort? Intensity goes up. Reporting high finger soreness? Volume decreases and recovery work increases.
Why AI, Not a Template?
Generic training plans exist — you can find them in books, on YouTube, on Reddit. The problem is they can't account for your specific combination of grade, injuries, equipment, schedule, and goals.
A template might prescribe campus board training for a V4 climber with a healing pulley injury. That's not just unhelpful — it's dangerous. ClimbPlan's AI understands the interactions between these factors and programs accordingly.
The result: a plan that's genuinely yours, backed by the same periodization science used by elite coaches, at a fraction of the cost of hiring one.