Chicks Training Tip: Advanced Rock Climbing Training

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Chicks its rock climbing season! I am so ready for tank tops and basking in the sun. Whether or not you are a weekend warrior who hits the rock gym during the week or someone who has a lifestyle that supports multiple days of climbing each week. We all need to strength train to improve our climbing. Our strength program should be designed to balance the body; improve imbalances created by the sports we love, make us stronger and injury proof.

Many athletes, climbers, runners, cyclists and the like believe that to get better we just need to do our sport more. Initially when beginning a sport that may feel like its true however more is not better, smarter is better, and cross training with strength helps fight off injury which often comes from imbalance and over use, and can help you breakthrough a performance plateau.

In previous newsletters, I’ve discussed basic and intermediate rock climbing strength programs. If this is you stick to the program, don’t stop! If you’ve done the Basic Training Program then try the Intermediate Training Program. Intermediates maybe it’s time step it up to the advanced. Now it’s time to get some training tips out there to keep you moving forward or to target the gals who need a more advanced level of training. So here we go…

Advanced Rock Climbing Training 5.11 or harder grades

What I have found to hold true for 90% of my climbers female or male; Once you climb at a certain level, and have been climbing for 3 – 5 years you have sport specific imbalances that are holding you back, as well as fairly typical strength deficiencies. In this training tip we will cover movements and next month put them into a training program to complement and improve your climbing.

Remember to warm up before all strength sessions and climbing sessions:
Shoulder openers, cuban press, cross over symmetry work Ys, Flys, Row, Pull down, should be done for each session. I covered these is previous training tips.

I’m going to give you a big list of movements, these will be used in your strength workouts. You’re first goal is to learn and/or review all  the movements and practice them one to two times a week. Pick 4 -5 different movements to work on each week. Perform 3 – 5 sets of 4 – 6 reps on all movements. This is prep work so when you’re ready to progress to the more difficult workouts you aren’t so sore that you can’t move. Practice these movements on days you’re not climbing or after climbing.

**Note all of these should be done with focused effort on scapular stabilization. Try to retract or squeeze your shoulder blades together like you’re holding a pencil between them while performing all movements.

Here’s your list: (**covered in previous training tips).

These are your NEW movements. Click on the links for how to videos on each of these movements:
I mean it, practice all these movements, if you go through all of them and build a proper base of quality movement and a knowledge of how much is heavy or what feels hard you’ll be ready by the time the next newsletter comes out which will focus on structured workouts and when to fit them in your training cycle.
As always, I highly encourage you to seek professional help to make sure you have the best form possible on all movements. You can watch my short videos, google and you-tube most of this stuff, however having someone watch you and give you feed back is invaluable.
Please feel free to contact me with training needs at:
Carolyn Parker