How Strength Training is Misunderstood by Climbers (Part 2)
This post was originally published on Climbing Magazine here and here.
In Part 1 of this article we discussed some common mistakes that climbers make when weight training (for instance favoring the perceived difficulty of unstable exercises like the TRX over more stabile exercises that actually train recruitment) and the different adaptations that our bodies produce when weight training. In Part II, I provide a simple strength training protocol, with variations.
How to implement a simple strength training regimen
Choose a handful of exercises and use them for a handful of months. Remember, your chosen exercises don’t have to look like rock climbing. For example, the movement pattern involved in horizontal pulling (dumbbell rows, seated rows, inverted rows) doesn’t resemble that of vertical pulling (pull-ups, lat pull-downs, etc.), but they are basically the same from a strength training standpoint, especially for athletes new to training. You do, however, need some variation in the exercise itself (see exercise variations below).
What not to do
You’re wasting time if you’re trying to strengthen the pushing and/or pulling muscles and your intensity is less intense than your bench press and pull-up loads. You are doing nothing more than getting coordinated at a movement that isn’t your sport. You’d be better off climbing instead. There are too many movements to train, and you’ll never hit them all, so don’t try and re-create climbing movements off the wall. It just doesn’t help.
What exercises does science suggest?
Listed below are the most thoroughly researched strength training movements. For 90% of climbers, using a selection of these movements (one from each category) is enough to supplement your on-the-wall training. Pick one exercise from each category, get coordinated at it, progress the load, be patient, and climb more than you lift. The underlined exercise is the most commonly used one.
Pushing. Barbell bench press, Smith machine bench press, machine chest press, inclined bench press, dumbbell bench if you have to.
Incline Bench Press
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Pulling. Seated rows, lat pull-downs, dumbbell bent over rows, weighted pull-ups, barbell bent over rows.
Weighted Chin Ups
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Triple extension. Barbell deadlift, barbell back squat, hex-bar deadlift, barbell step-ups.
Deadlift
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Shoulders. Overhead press, landmine press, lateral raises.
Overhead Press
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Fingers. Check out my article “Are Most Climbers Getting Fingerboard Training Wrong?”
If you’re uncomfortable with the movements, get a coach to show you how they’re done. But trust me: lifting is relatively easy. If you can climb up a wall on random plastic holds, you can lift something heavy off the ground. Unfortunately, most climbers that I consult with are intimidated by strength training. If that’s you, contact a weightlifting coach like Natasha Barnes; they can show you what to do and help you avoid getting hurt. Once you get started, you’ll never look back.
A simple training progression
Once you’ve chosen your exercises, your next step is to progress the load over time. I recommend aiming for two strength sessions per week for the initial month, after which you could push it to three or more days per week. Once familiar with the stimulus, you can strength train every other day with no downside, whereas (for most of us) climbing every other day will eat the soul out of your forearms.
Here’s a simple progression:
Block 1: Weeks 1 through 6
Strength train two times per week. Do all movements in each session. If you’re lifting on the same day as climbing, rest for 4-6 hours between workouts in order to be maximally effective in your recruitment. If you’re new to training, lift on a non-climbing day because you’ll be sore at first.
4 sets of 5-7 reps/set. Each set should be around 60% intensity for 6 weeks. Pick a load that is challenging to complete for 5 repetitions on the first set, then take a long rest (3-4 minutes) and try to hit 5 reps again every set with the same weight. If you don’t get 5 reps exactly, that is OK. Rest for a while and try again. Don’t drop the load simply s that you can complete a predetermined rep number. This phase aims to gain coordination with the exercise, expose the tissues to more intensity, and let the body adapt to the stress. You’ll be able to push more reps (and weight) as you adapt.
Block 2: Week 7
After your first 6-week block, take a week off from strength training. Then increase the intensity.
Block 3: Weeks 8 through 13
Strength train two-three times per week. 5 sets of 2-4 reps/set. Each set should be around 80% intensity, so the load here is your 3-rep max per day. After warming up, find a load you can complete for 3 reps. Then take a long rest (3-5 minutes) and try to hit that same rep number for 5 total sets. Each week you should see increases in starting weight. Again, if you don’t hit three reps every set, that’s OK. Make sure your rest is adequate and have intention with every rep. The quality of the reps does matter.
Exercise Variations
Exercise variations are necessary in the long-term to reduce the repetitive nature of training movements. The goal is still the same—overload a muscle group and its connective tissues—but the intention is to not “over-grease the groove.” For example, because shoulder injuries are so common in climbers, it makes sense to do more than just mimic the range of motion used in our sport while training. The variation allows us to continue overloading the tissues with less risk of repetitive injuries, because any motion done at too high of a dosage can be toxic.
Exercise variation examples:
Full range of motion. The most familiar form of weight training—in which you complete the full movement. For example, if you’re doing a lat pulldown, you’re pulling from straight arms until the bar is roughly level with your sternum. A full range of motion is an exercise without variation—the thing you’re varying from.
Isometric holding positions. Instead of focusing on movement, you’re focusing on holding a position, just like holding a lockoff. I suggest two joint angles (90 and 120 degrees); each rep is 2-3 seconds long.
Partial range of motion. By doing either the bottom half or the top half of a movement, we target different portions/muscles. For example: pulling from straight arms to 90-degrees in a lat-pulldown works the traps and back more than the bicep (the upper half), while focusing on the lower half of a bench press works the pectoral muscles more than the tricep.
Bench Press Variation
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Full-range with a hold/pause at the bottom (or top) of the movement. This is typically a hypertrophy-building protocol that adds muscle size in the stretched position. In a bench press, this means holding with the bar just off your chest; with a lat pulldown, it means holding with the bar in a lockoff position.
Full-range with accommodating resistance. In this version, an athlete will use elastic bands or chains to modify the intensity at different ranges of motion while performing a full range of motion.
I don’t include the variations here to confuse anyone or make it seem complicated. Quite the opposite is true. Understanding exercise variation should make it more simple. For example, I don’t need three different pressing and pulling exercises to train for climbing. I can get away with having one for each movement, then using the exercise variations to keep exposing and progressing the muscles to a mechanical load greater than my sport. What I don’t want to do is jump ship and focus on new exercises just because they feel more challenging, since all we’re doing here is training specific skill coordination rather than overloading our tissues.
Remember the point
As you can see, you don’t need a magnificent strategy to use strength training properly. For those who are really into strength training, there are plenty of nuanced methods that will help you make minor incremental improvements, but for a rock climber looking to produce more force on the climbing wall, once you’re coordinated and gaining recruitment, those additional small improvements probably won’t help you see increases in your climbing performance.
The next time you do a strength phase, if you’ve plateaued in your gains, use one of the noted exercise variations, modify the load according to the variation, and keep the intensity up. Don’t waste your time learning random skills off the wall. You’d be better off climbing.