The 3 Most Important Rock Climbing Exercises
If you are like most rock climbers you have begun to get frustrated with all the different types of training for climbing routines out there. You are thinking to yourself could this really be this complicated? Well, it doesn't have to be because there are certain climbing principles that are proven and others that are simply time wasters.
For decades rock climbers have been trying to figure out what rock climbing training exercises work and what exercises are simply a waste of time. In this article I am going to give you 3 of the best and most essential training for climbing exercises.
The first essential climbing exercise is the pull-up. While most normal people can do very few pull-ups you go into a climbing gym and you can see people cranking out 40 or more pull-ups like it is their job. Why? Simple, rock climbers need to have good upper body strength and there isn't a better exercise out there that works your upper body more so than the pull-up. It is important that you start to work on your pull-up strength by doing pull-ups 3-5 days a week. You will want to get to the point where you can at least do 20 or more pull-ups in a slow and controlled manner.
Now the next essential climbing exercise has to do with developing finger strength. Now there are really two incredible exercises for developing finger strength. Here we will actually cover both of these for you because that is how important they are. First you should focus on doing some bouldering in addition to your roped climbing. The power and pure difficulty of individual bouldering moves will develop great contact and finger strength. To become a more well rounded rock climber try to do as many different styles of bouldering as you can. The will improve all the areas of finger strength that you need. Second, you need to start doing hangboard workouts. Hangboards are designed specifically by rock climbing companies to mimic rock climbing handholds. You can use this as a tool to focus on individual grip and hand positions, which allows you to control your development of finger strength. We recommend that you have a balanced mix of bouldering and hangboard routines into your normal rock climbing efforts.
The last essential exercise for training for climbing is stretching. I know that might sound funny but flexibility in your body is crucial for staying injury free. By being flexible it will not only help you stay injury free, but to recover faster from your workouts. It is important to focus on this a little bit everyday by doing some basics stretches in the morning or at night. We also recommend that practice some yoga or do pilates as well.
Even though you probably already knew these simple climbing training exercises my guess is you are not practicing them. If you are you most likely are not practicing them enough and probably not improving on them each time you do them. Take into consideration the power of these exercises and really commit to adding these to your rock climbing training routine.