Train to Live: Exercise & conditioning for climbing and bouldering
Our "Train-to-Live" posts are aimed to bring Exercise & Conditioning principles into the context of daily activities. In this post, we're going to look at CLIMBING.
There is something primitively satisfying about climbing. The visually challenging obstacle in front of us, the provocation of our survival instinct when we are literally hanging on, and the feel-good factor of getting our heart rate up and when we overcome a particular climb. It is also an activity with a relatively low “barrier to entry” - you don’t need a lot of equipment, you just need to turn up and give it a go!
Having said that, climbing is unique in its requirement as a high-skill sport and multiple physical qualities at the same time. You could say the objectives of climbing boils down to: HOLDING on, MOVING between holds, and KEEP MOVING in sequences. This roughly translates to Strength, Endurance, Balance and Flexibility. Whilst the technique and experience of climbing can only really be improved by actually climbing, some of the physical qualities required would need dedicated training sessions and exercises in order to improve. Think of the qualities mentioned above as the vocabulary of our body expression, and climbing being the language itself. It is a two-fold process: conditioning sessions to build, improve and expand our vocabulary, and climbing sessions to put them into practice to get better at our expression.
Let’s take grip strength as an example. Although every bit of climbing you do will help you build this unique strength, we will reach a point where the unstructured loading of a given climbing session is no longer enough to stimulate further gains. This is when specific training outside of climbing becomes useful. We need to incorporate exercises that can be measured and progressed by overload/recovery principles to target this particular aspect of strength.
In our other blog entry, we introduced you to the Foundational Movements that can be found in most sports and activities. You could say that the key foundational movements involved in climbing are:
PULL
HINGE
LUNGE
ROTATION
In our recent social media post below, we have demonstrated some ideas on how you can work on these movements:
These exercises can be progressed by shorter recovery times between each set, or adding additional resistance such as weights, or adjusting the speed of which each repetition is carried out. *
And then we also have to consider specific elements that are important to climbing:
GRIP STRENGTH
BALANCE
HIP MOBILITY
CORE STRENGTH
Again, we have demonstrated some examples of how to address these elements specifically:
Examples of progression for these exercises could involve using only one hand (for hanging and support), increasing the time-under-tension (how long you hold these positions for), or increasing the amount of repetitions to target strength endurance. *
Working on these foundational movements and specific elements could be a great way to improve your physicality that is specifically relevant to the demands of climbing. Combine this with your climbing sessions, you might start to notice a better “vocab” to express yourself in the activity, which hopefully means being able to complete those tougher “colours” and climbs. Because ultimately, that’s what we’re training for, isn’t it?
As always, we recommend that you speak to your coach/physio to make sure the exercises are appropriate to your physical level. They would also be in the best position to assess your circumstances and provide the relevant advice on planning your training, structuring your program and planning for recovery time. If you are currently looking for a physiotherapist, our physios in Kew are here to help. Get in touch with our team and we would love to hear your story!
* Note: The examples above are general suggestions only. Progressions of resistance, sets, repetitions as part of a tailored training program is guided by a trained physiotherapist or coach in accordance to the individual’s physical circumstances