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Dear Eric, What’s the best way to learn to climb more with the legs and less with the arms? I’m a struggling beginner and my arms tire quickly. –Alice
Hi Alice, Yes, it’s important to use your legs as much as possible. Here are two drills to help you out: #1 drill is called “soft touch” — climb indoor routes with the intention of relaxing your grip on each hold to the minimal force needed to hang on. Think about relaxing your fingers, arms, and shoulders….and feel the your body weight go onto your feet. Concentrate on placing feet precisely and moving your hips over the higher foot (or equally between feet). #2 is “down climbing routes” — rather than lowering from the top of a climb, ask your belayer to feed out rope so that you can downclimb as far as possible. This drill forces you to look at the feet, move your hips, and move quickly—all important skills to learn. At first you may feel like downclimbing makes your hands/arms work harder—but again, think about relaxing and letting your weight drop onto the feet. It takes time and practice, but you will develop better footwork and learn to move more efficiently over difficult terrain.
Hi Eric, I’m curious if you could help answer a mystery of mine. I climb 5.12 and V7 outside and consider myself more of a power climber than a techy one. My issue is that I cannot campus—not at all! I try every once in a while and my best is laddering up for maybe three moves before falling. Any ideas why I can’t campus as well as your average V4 climber? I can one arm a jug as well as pull up on the small monos of the beastmaker but just can’t seem to campus. Any ideas as to why I’m struggling? – Ian (Boston, MA)
Hi Ian, That’s interesting, but I know what’s likely going on—you have a low “rate of force production”, so power moves are difficult since your contractions come on a bit slower than someone else of the same strength. It’s a nervous system thing…which you can certainly train up.
First, let’s get your muscles to recruit better (more synchronous) by doing some weighted pull-ups. Add a weight belt (or hang weight from your harness)–add enough weight to limit you to just 6 or 8 pull-ups. It might only take a 20lb weight belt (for more resistance hang free weight plates from the belay loop of your harness). Anyway, you want to do 3 sets (3 minute rest between) of 6 to 8 pull-ups with this added weight. Do this two or three days per week, towards the end of your climbing session. After two weeks, add a 4th set the next two weeks, then take 5 days off….and then test yourself on the campus laddering drill. You should be able to go a bit higher.
Now step two—campus up the board as far as you can (laddering), and when you can’t go up any more, then reverse ladder back down. Do this 5 times (3 minute rest between each lap), again near the end of your climbing session. Do this for two weeks, and you should notice some improvement with each workout.
Once you can ladder all the way up and back down, you can begin playing with other Campus exercises; but progress with caution, being sure not to tweak a tendon…and avoiding grabbing rungs with your arms at full extension (bad!). I’d avoid doing Double Dynos until you reach the V10/5.13 grades. Let me know how it goes—good luck!
Hi Eric! How do you correct muscular imbalances between the dominant and non-dominant sides of your body? I am right-handed and a much stronger climber when performing dominant side moves. Is there a way to equalize the body? – Kinza (Texas)
Hi Kinza, That’s not uncommon, and you can correct it somewhat by doing some unilateral or offset exercises. For example, you could do uneven (offset) grip pull-ups with the weaker arm holding the bar and the stronger arm holding onto a loop of sling about 12 inches below the bar. Do three sets of these uneven grip pull-ups with the weaker arm (only) in the top position—be sure to pull all the way up into the top position with each repetition.
Be creative and try to figure other ways to train the weaker arm separately, in order to target your weaknesses. Most people can train up the non-dominant side to within 10% of the other. Not sure you’ll ever get the equal, but you can try!
Hey Eric, I’ve been climbing for a little over a year now and I can boulder V10 (after a week or so of projecting), but I feel like I am not making the gains I was making when I first started bouldering. I also need to work on my core a lot. Could you recommend a basic but effective training routine to supplement my normal days at the gym? Thanks! –Will
Hi Will, That’s an incredible progression in 1.5 years—about the fastest I’ve ever heard of someone getting to V10! Of course, the downside to your rapid ascent is that eking out V11, V12 and above will take much, much longer as your learning and strength curves level out. Some people spend a year (or years) to achieve the next grade once they hit double digits. Of course, you’re unique, and you could progress faster if you train right.
As for a program, it’s impossible to provide you with a personalize program via email, but max finger strength, power, core, and flexibility should be your top 4 priorities. You’ll need to self-coach and determine the best approach to improving in each of these areas…but weighted fingerboard hangs and the campus board should be two staple exercises. Of course, staying uninjured must be a constant consideration as well—knowing when to say when on both training and when working a stressful problem. As for core training, check out the book Gimme Kraft—it’s loaded with great core and power exercises. You can learn more at www.gimmekraft.us Good luck, and drop me a note when you hit v11!