tips for climbers this christmas!

One week before Christmas!!!! At ngayon pa lang, super kulang na ko sa exercise. Here are some tips from Mr. Horst, our most-read climbing training author ;) Reposted from the Nicros Training Center.

#1 sure is a toughie.....!!!!!!

5 Keys to Effective Offseason Training

As winter bears down on much of the nation, many of us will be limited to pulling down on plywood and plastic. No matter if you climb at a large commercial gym or on a small home wall, the crux of winter-time training is finding ways to elevate your game so that you can enter next season as a stronger, more-skilled climber.

When climbing indoors it is easy to fall into the trap of concentrating singly on max bouldering, lapping the same routes, or less effective yet, social climbing. Transforming yourself into a better climber demands a more intelligent approach in which you enter the gym each time with the intention to train most effectively.

Here are five keys for getting the most out of your indoor climbing sessions.

1. Commit to engaging in a real training program. 

Simply climbing until you get pumped isn’t much of a training program. A real training program has a greater breadth and depth of purpose. Leveraging your self-awareness and intelligence, you must design and engage in a comprehensive, synergistic sequence of warm-up activities, climbing drills, route/problem sends, and a number of specific exercises. It’s very helpful to maintain a training notebook. Plan your workouts, and then go to the gym and work your plan.

2. Identify and train your weaknesses.

The quickest way to improve in climbing is to train-up your weaknesses. Conversely, practicing things at which you already excel (or engaging in the same familiar types of climbs) is a pathway to slow—or no—improvement. Growth comes from challenging yourself, stretching your boundaries, and learning new moves. Most important, you must identify your weaknesses—mental, technical, and physical—and target these weak areas with specific exercises and drills. Ask yourself: What three things are most holding me back on the rock? Write them down, and then develop ways to target each area with training.

3. Strive to improve your technique.

Regardless of the grade you climb, I guarantee that you can climb harder if you strive to refine your technique and quality of movement. The goal is to constantly expand your skill set, reduce technical flaws, seal off energy leaks, and to climb with greater economy. Here’s an excellent technique-training drill that you can use on any indoor or outdoor climb. Pick a climb to ascend repeatedly (over the course of a few sessions, if necessary) with the intention of mastering every move as if it were an Olympic gymnastic routine. Work to discover more efficient moves/sequences, unlock subtle rest positions, and move more precisely and briskly. Strive to maximize use of your feet (visually spotting and feeling each hold), soften your grip, and develop a greater sense of proprioception (feel your center of gravity shift to the optimal position with each new move). Practicing to make perfect is the pathway to excellence, whereas thrashing up a route once, and then moving on to the next climb, is the road to mediocrity.

4. Strengthen the antagonist and rotator cuff muscles.

If you climb long enough or hard enough you will likely incur some sort of sport-specific injury. Fortunately there are exercises you can perform to reduce injury risk. While elbow and shoulder injuries sometimes occur acutely, they are more often the result of muscular imbalance in the arms and around the shoulders. Regular training of the antagonist (push) muscles will help prevent these imbalances. Reverse wrist curls with a 10- or 15-pound dumbbell is a must-do, thrice-a-week exercise for all climbers—if you are not doing these, you are at greater risk of elbow tendinitis. Similarly, performing a couple sets of push-ups, light shoulder presses (use 10- to 30-pound dumbbells), and a few rotator cuff exercises (more on this in a future article) will go a long way toward strengthening and stabilizing your shoulders.

5. Keep the program dynamic and progressive.

Mental burnout, a performance plateau, and injury are often the unintended consequences of engaging in a never-changing training program. Keeping your workouts effective and fun over the long-term demands that you find ways to keep the program fresh, progressive, and on track toward your goals. Consider that while your current modus operandi was successful at propelling you to your present ability level, it will fail to advance you to the next. Elevating your climbing demands that you constantly challenge your mind and body in new ways.

Copyright 2010 Eric J. Hörst. All rights reserved.