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Hi Eric, Is strength training and building muscle mass in the lower body detrimental to climbing success? –Kinza (Texas)
Hi Kinza, We do train deadlifts and squats (and plyo box jumps) as posterior chain strength is important in climbing. Furthermore, these are also potent core exercises! The key is to use relatively heavy weight and do sets of just 3 to 6 reps—this approach will bring about neural strength gains, but yield very little in the way of hypertrophy (and weight gain). For example, when I deadlift I do a warm-up set of 160lb (roughly my body weight, but you might need to use more or less) for 6 reps, then I do a set of 190 for 5 reps, and a set of ~215 for 3 reps. I train these lifts twice per week, as do all of my clients and my two climbing sons. Of course, proper technique is critical—I encourage people just starting out with these lifts to get proper instruction and to proceed carefully.
Hey Eric, Is it necessary to allow calluses to form to get better at climbing? I’ve researched online and it appears most veteran climbers say the strength of the skin is more important. So should I keep the calluses that form, or should I try to flatten them out and keep my hands soft? –Andrew (New Jersey)
Andrew, You do want the skin on your finger tips to toughen up some, however, thick calluses on your fingers or palms is actually a bad thing—they can catch onto edges and sometime tear your skin (flappers) or cease and crack…which can become a chronic problem.
Anyway, if you climb 2 or 3 days per week, the skin on your tips will toughen up some—that’s good. However, you do want to sand down (by ~50%) any thick calluses that form—use a piece of 100-grit sandpaper or a foam sanding block. Do this at least once per week. Using a skin conditioner after showering at night is a very good thing—keeping the skin somewhat soft actually makes it more resistant to tearing AND it increase skin deformation when gripping tiny edges, thus giving you better purchase.
Hi Eric, I’m mom of four kids (12, 10, 7 and 5 yrs) who have been climbing for 4 years with a local climbing club. Unfortunately, they haven’t gotten adequate coaching/training, yet they still took part in the National competition and were in the first 3 places! So now I’m trying to make a training program for them and build a home wall where they can train, but I have no idea how to make it or what they need to do. I’m writing you because you are the only person I found to talk about training children. Can you help? –Iliana (Bulgaria)
Hello Iliana, I’m happy to hear from you—sounds like you have an amazing family! Yes, building a bouldering wall at home would be great. Maybe build something about 3 meters high and perhaps 6 or 8 meters wide, if you have the space. Build the wall at angles that overhang, not vertical like the walls of your house. Make 3 sections, each at a different angle past vertical…..around 20, 40 and 60 degrees past vertical. It’s important that the kids learn to move efficiently on different angle walls—you must try to foster both improvements in skilled movement and strength. Limit their climbing to 4 days per week–their growing fingers need rest days!
Of course, a good coaching does help—so if you can travel once or twice per month to a better club with a professional coach, that would be great for the kids. Also, climbing outside is a great way to improve, especially for your 10 and 12 year olds. I’m sorry I can’t give you much more advice, but please do keep following my Web site for more youth training articles.
Good luck, and keep in touch. Perhaps someday our families will meet!
Hey Eric! I’m curious about applying periodization to my training outside of the pulling muscles. Would it be wise to regularly alternate reps and resistance? –Micah (Oregon)
Micah, If you are talking about supplemental, non-climbing-specific exercises (like for push muscles, the legs, hips, back, etc.), then you really do not need to periodize. In fact, since you are a relatively advanced climber I have a very specific program for you for this kind of training. It’s indeed helpful to strengthen the pushing muscles and the posterior chain muscles, but you must be sure NOT to train in a way that will add a lot of muscle mass—you obviously do not want to do a body building program (like 4 sets of 8 – 12 reps), since this will bulk you up. Instead you want to train for neural adaptations which will make you much stronger but without much added mass. The way to do this is heavy weights and low reps. For example, if doing bench press….do one warm-up set of 10 to 15 reps with a light weight (half of training weight), then do two more sets of 5 reps using a 7-rep-max weight (that is, whatever weight you could lift only for 7 reps before failure). Rest three minutes between each of the three sets. You can use the same strategy for other exercises like shoulder press, dips, squat, deadlift and such. You really don’t need to do more than 4 or 5 basic movements/lifts.
Do this workout twice per week on your rest days from climbing. You’ll get stronger and climb harder!
Hi Eric! I started climbing July of 2014, and I can’t get enough of it!! I project 11a/b and V4/5. I have some concern that I might be training/climbing too much. I was wondering if you might have any quick words of guidance as they pertain to a healthy training regimen. My training (just recently started) is 2 weeks on, two weeks off. The ‘on’ weeks are composed of 2 climbing sessions (usually Monday and Wednesday), and one day (usually Thursday) of strength training (HIT/Lockoff) followed by three days of rest. On the off weeks, I am climbing outside 3 days a week where I will either top rope or boulder. I’ll be going on a climbing trip in Italy over the summer. Would you suggest implementing the 4-3-2-1 scheme before that? –Joe (California)
Hi Joe, I think your new program sounds okay–no need to implement a 4-3-2-1 at this time. Perhaps on your off weeks, when you just climb, you could add in 2 antagonist strength workouts. This won’t take long, just 30 to 40 minutes of pushing exercises to maintain muscle balance as your climbing (push) muscles get stronger. This is very important to maintain balance around your elbow and shoulder joints as you climb harder. My book Training for Climbing will give you good guidance on this topic.
Traveling to new areas is the absolute best way to build out your technical skills—travel as much as possible (and train smart) and you’ll be on the fast track to the higher grades. Drop me a note in the Fall and let me know how it’s going. Have fun!