Login | November 15, 2024
Indoor rock climbing workouts
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: April 1, 2019
I wrote a column back on Oct. 31, 2016, which advocated rock climbing as a pretty fun way to keep your workouts new and exciting.
In today’s column I’d like to take a more focused look of this sport by addressing specific components of climbing––endurance, power, power-endurance and technique––and how to construct distinct climbing workouts to address these elements.
And the fact that we have a host of local indoor rock walls makes such a proposition totally doable, because to construct specific and repeatable climbing routines you need consistency with respect to the climate, routes and anchoring systems.
Indoor walls make climbing specific workouts a four-season, any-day-of-the-week possibility. You can do your workouts when it’s dark and cold outdoors in the winter and when it’s wet and rainy outside in the spring.
Inside a rock gym, your world is always warm and cozy.
Now I’m discussing this topic because a climber, just like any other fitness buff, can get caught in a rut by doing the same routine week after week. And too much status quo can lead to plateaus, and plateaus can lead to staleness.
By implementing change in one’s climbing routine you can continue to challenge yourself physically and mentally.
And this variation theme isn’t intended for just the hot shot rock jocks, this advice is just as pertinent to novice and intermittent climbers to.
So let’s take a look at these key elements with which to add variation and specificity to rock climbing workouts.
Muscular power
This can be defined as the ability of muscles to generate as much force as possible as fast as possible. And what we’re talking about with respect to climbing are high-intensity, short burst movements––lunging and ballistic-type movements to name but a few.
Power training isn’t easy stuff, and you don’t want to do it more than a once or twice a week.
So for a power workout, get in a really good warm-up by doing some general climbing for a solid half hour.
Now your power workout goes like this: Pick a really tough move or a series of a couple of hard moves and work on that for 5, 10 even 15 minutes. Then, follow that up with a couple minutes worth of push-ups followed by pull-ups.
Do this power climbing/push-up/pull-up sequence as a circuit and do anywhere from two to six circuits based on your climbing fitness.
Start on the low side with respect to the workout parameters and as you get stronger and more powerful, increase time and circuits.
Muscular endurance
In this case we’re talking about muscles being able to complete a movement repetitively over time. Apply this to climbing and it’s the ability to perform low intensity climbs for longer periods of time.
Endurance training involves developing the stamina to keep plugging away at the route(s) with no rest.
Now there are a slew of ways to work climbing endurance. I typically do what are called laps, which involves repetitive climbing efforts on an easy to moderate route.
Now you can do this by repeatedly climbing up the route and getting lowered by your belayer. I like to climb up and climb down, which is a double whammy because there’s literally zero recovery time between laps.
Power-Endurance
This is exactly what it sounds like, the ability of muscles to repeat high-intensity movements one after another. A key component of power-endurance is the ability to maintain body tension, which is predicated on a solid level of core strength.
A great exercise for power-endurance work involves practicing a demanding series of moves repetitively for X amount of minutes, resting, then repeating. Work up to a max of six rounds.
Technique
A nice way to practice technique is to use it as a warm-up and/or warm-down. I occasionally use traversing (moving laterally) as my warm up, practicing such climbing techniques as step-throughs, back-steps, flags etc. And throughout it all, I concentrate on developing flow, where all the movements are deliberate and precise.
As you can see, whether you’re a serious climber who’s looking to climb harder grades, or just a part-timer who’s looking to spruce up your climbing workouts, incorporating specificity in your routine is a bonafide ticket to improvement.