Before i start lets be clear, good technique is THE most important factor underpinning successful climbing. Adding strength to poor technique will simply reinforce that poor technique and only get you so far.
That being said, adding strength and mobility to solid technique will bring about considerable improvements in your climbing. Executing those hard moves will become easier, you will be more resistant to fatigue and you will dramatically reduce your risk of injury.
We are looking to achieve maximal increases in strength with minimal increases in muscle mass, increased mobility through the hips, increased stability and reflexive strength through the shoulders and a super strong trunk so we can transfer that force efficiently through the body.
What areas of the body do we need to strengthen?
For novices, the climber finger strength and upper body strength are undoubtedly limiting factors, ones that can be addressed both through an increased volume of climbing and some upper body strength work.
For the vast majority of intermediate/advanced climbers finger strength and vertical pulling strength is well developed. The biggest transfer from weight room to climb is through increased leg strength. Try testing your strength ratio, see how many step ups you can do onto a box just higher than knee height then compare that to the number of one-arm pull ups you can do in the same amount of time. I’m guessing there will be a big discrepancy in the totals. The legs are stronger, a whole lot stronger, but are they strong enough?
So you’ve placed your foot on a good edge (assuming you have adequate hip mobility to get it there). You want enough leg strength to be able to drive your body upwards without having to tap into your precious and limited arm strength. So we are talking Glute, Hamstring and Quad strength. Also Isometric Calf strength to avoid ‘sewing machine legs’ when edging on smaller holds.
So what exercises should you be including in your training?
Exercises to give you that leg strength: loaded step ups, Bulgarian split squats, single legs squats, deadlifts, isometric calf holds, box jumps, pogo jumps.
Trunk strength to help you transfer that lower body strength through the body:
Pallof presses, roll outs, Turkish get ups, plank variations, suitcase and farmers walks, bear crawls, deadbug variations.
Add in some shoulder stability/strengthening work to help bulletproof you from injury and a good mobility routine and you’re well on the way to helping your climbing.
For more information on performance training for climbing contact us at info@exeterpersonaltrainer.s4l.dev
