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In the months leading up to the highly anticipated Netflix special Skyscraper Live, renowned free solo climber Alex Honnold embarked on an intense training journey.
At 40 years old, Honnold set his sights on conquering Taipei 101, a towering 1,667-foot skyscraper in Taiwan boasting 101 stories. His preparation involved mentally rehearsing the experience to familiarize himself with the emotions he would face.
“This mental groundwork shapes my physical regimen,” Honnold shared in a video released by Netflix Sports on Thursday, January 29, just days before he completed what many consider one of the most extraordinary physical accomplishments of our time on Sunday, January 25.
“Training for Taipei 101 differs significantly from rock climbing,” he explained. “I focus on replicating the bodily sensations, particularly the profound fatigue, as I prepare for a swift vertical ascent.”
Alex Honnold. Netflix
“On Taipei 101, you’re essentially gripping the same holds all the way up,” Honnold noted. “These large metal box grips seem easy at first, but after 300 repetitions, they become challenging. So, I engage in hundreds of reps daily, building my strength through pull-ups, push-ups, core exercises, stretching, and endurance workouts.”
Fans couldn’t help but notice that Honnold did a different type of pull-up, using his brute strength by holding the side of the squat rack and using the tips of his fingers.
Honnold is no flash in the pan, as he already proved to be a force by free soloing El Capitan — a 3,000-foot wall in Yosemite — without safety gear.
It’s easy to look at celebrities who get into great shape for a role and think that it’s easy for them because they have fancy equipment, personal trainers and chefs to set everything up for success. While that is true to a certain extent, almost al of them has a home gym, too, and many […]
“Preparation is one thing, and you can practice something and it feels a certain way, but when you do something you’ve never done before, you never totally know that you’re ready. And that fear is always there,” he pointed out in the Netflix clip.
Honnold also told GQ that it’s a “full body” effort and “strength-to-weight” ratio is essential. “You want to stay relatively lean and be able to hang onto things,” he explained.
Honnold uses a sanding block to sand his skin, noting that finger strength has “always been my weakness” so he’s continually worked at improving his technique. As for what he eats, the athlete said he doesn’t always stick to a protein-rich diet, and is more of a “flexible vegetarian,” consuming fish sometimes.
Even Hollywood’s fittest stars look to guidance from their trainers to make sure they’re looking and feeling like their best selves. Lacey Stone — who coaches Amanda Seyfried — encourages the Mamma Mia actress, 37, to get 6,000 to 10,000 steps per day in addition to staying hydrated and including “a protein and vegetable for […]
Honnold yet again redefined human limits with his rope-free ascent in Taipei. Elle Duncan, who hosted the Netflix special, said Netflix did have a plan in place in case tragedy struck, even filming the special on a 10-second delay so viewers wouldn’t witness it.
“There’s something to be said when five minutes before you go on air, someone slides you a card of what you’re gonna say if a person falls off the building and dies,” she said on the “Awful Announcing” podcast. “I had a card on my lap that basically was like, ‘We’ve experienced a fall and we’re going to get off air now and we will update you as soon as we can on Alex’s condition,’” Duncan, 42, revealed. “They were going to cut away.”
She continued, “Ultimately the goal of what can you take away from watching Alex Honnold climb, which is that as he said, ‘Life is finite,’ and if you have an opportunity in your life to do something that scares you and challenges you and pushes you, then you should do it.”