Guest Post by Brandon Villatoro (Travel Experta’s Son)
As with all sports, training certain parts of the body is essential for higher performance. In climbing, specifically, you need to be able to support and control your own body weight with your arms and fingers.
Pull ups are Essential for Climbers
Pull ups are very simple and cheap (as in you don’t have to spend a fortune on equipment). And they are so helpful. You can install a pull up bar in your house, you can go to the gym, or even find a sturdy enough branch.
Try to do 5-10 pull ups then rest about 7 seconds and do this 3-5 times daily. Keep in mind that when you are resting in between the exercises, never rest more than you work because then the exercise would be useless.
Related Read: Climbing Hand Care is Different Than the Rest!
Most people use an underhand grip with their fingers facing back towards them, this can help with biceps but if you do pull-ups with your fingers facing away from you because that also helps with back and shoulders. It also simulates climbing on the wall and on the rock.
The Plank – An Overall Magic Exercise for Core and Upper Body
This exercise helps gain core strength, shoulders, and back. The way that it can help you on the wall is with balance, movement on the wall, and overhangs.
The right way to do a plank is by putting your body in a pull up position, flexing your arms, and staying there, putting your body in a horizontal position so that your shoulders and ankles are in a straight line. If your abs and your arms start to hurt that means that you are doing it perfectly right. Try to do this for 20-30 seconds then rest less than 15 seconds.
Finger Strength Exercises – Climbers Best Friend
You can improve your finger strength by doing pull ups with only your fingers or just hanging by your fingers, but you may find it difficult because the bar is so thick for your fingers. This is where you could use a fingerboard or a hangboard.
Fingerboards are very useful because they have different hole sizes and different types of holds. Try doing 1-3 pull ups or hang for 3-5 seconds then rest about 5 seconds.
If you apply these exercises daily to your routine, they might take up as much as 15 minutes, the difference in your climbing will be truly noticeable.
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