Hey there.

I've decided I want to utilise bodyweight training to help with my climbing and I've picked out a few exercises:

-Pull-ups
-Push-ups
-Sit-ups
-Handstand push-ups
-Body weight squats (eventually one legged)
-Finger hangs

Are these appropriate for climbing? Are there others I SHOULD be doing?

I'm having trouble with deciding how often I should perform them and how many reps and sets to use. Any help regarding this would be a massive help.

Bit of background info:
-23 years
-6ft 3inches
-77kgs (170lbs)
-Climbing for two months.

Cheers.

you can do hand-stand pushups but not a one legged squat?

Hand stand push ups are nowhere near as hard.

doing a hand stand, and then doing unsupported pushups, while handstanding... is not as hard as a one legged squat?

you are smoking crack, or you don't hike nearly enough.

doing a hand stand, and then doing unsupported pushups, while handstanding... is not as hard as a one legged squat?

you are smoking crack, or you don't hike nearly enough.

Hey there.

I've decided I want to utilise bodyweight training to help with my climbing and I've picked out a few exercises:

-Pull-ups
-Push-ups
-Sit-ups
-Handstand push-ups
-Body weight squats (eventually one legged)
-Finger hangs

Are these appropriate for climbing? Are there others I SHOULD be doing?

I'm having trouble with deciding how often I should perform them and how many reps and sets to use. Any help regarding this would be a massive help.

Bit of background info:
-23 years
-6ft 3inches
-77kgs (170lbs)
-Climbing for two months.

Cheers.

Back to this... feel free to do the exercises above, of course, but it is unlikely that they would help you with your climbing.

If you want a climbing improvement, with only two months of climbing under your belt, you will see more improvement if you focus on technique and on developing climbing-specific strength by climbing. Read Self-Coached Climber (standard advice--still the best).

Hey there.

I've decided I want to utilise bodyweight training to help with my climbing and I've picked out a few exercises:

-Pull-ups
-Push-ups
-Sit-ups
-Handstand push-ups
-Body weight squats (eventually one legged)
-Finger hangs

Are these appropriate for climbing? Are there others I SHOULD be doing?

I'm having trouble with deciding how often I should perform them and how many reps and sets to use. Any help regarding this would be a massive help.

Bit of background info:
-23 years
-6ft 3inches
-77kgs (170lbs)
-Climbing for two months.

Cheers.

Hey there.

I've decided I want to utilise bodyweight training to help with my climbing and I've picked out a few exercises:

-Pull-ups
-Push-ups
-Sit-ups
-Handstand push-ups
-Body weight squats (eventually one legged)
-Finger hangs

Are these appropriate for climbing? Are there others I SHOULD be doing?

I'm having trouble with deciding how often I should perform them and how many reps and sets to use. Any help regarding this would be a massive help.

Bit of background info:
-23 years
-6ft 3inches
-77kgs (170lbs)
-Climbing for two months.

Cheers.

yeah, in all seriousness, if you can do one pullup at this stage, you can do enough pullups to be getting along with.

The cross-training that I'd personally recommend would be yoga, for flexibility and balance, and hanging leg lifts. (hang from a pullup bar or hangboard, point your toes, keep your legs straight, and lift your legs to at least horizontal if not higher, in sets of 8-12. do 3 sets a couple times a week.) The hanging leg lifts train the muscles you need to be able to keep your feet ON, which is kind of important for good technique.

edited to add, in case it's not obvious: don't allow yourself to swing when you do the leg lifts. holding yourself stable is part of the exercise.

If you want to do these activities because you find them rewarding that's fine, but you should not be doing them and expecting any impact on your climbing. Even something like finger hands which can be helpful probably won't in your case because you just don't have any movement experience.

At all levels of climbing the top priority is to get a high volume of high quality movement practice. This is all the more the case for the novice climber who knows none of the movement patterns involved in climbing. Your priorities should be:

1- Learn to make high quality contact with the rock or wall. this means quickly identifying hand and foot holds and the ability to establish good quality contact with the holds. The silent feet and glue hands activities are helpful here.
2- Learn the fundamental movement patterns found in climbing, turning, initiating movement from the lower body, how to move with straight arms (not a goal in itself but a good way to learn other skills)

3- Each day you climb either out doors or at the gym climb at a level at which you are comfortable. If the hardest climb you can do is 5.9 then you should be doing a high volume of 5.6 - 5.8 but if you find yourself struggling or just pulling yourself up the wall, just stop and get on something easier.

high volume of high quality practice should be every climbers mantra.

Anyway glad that you are psyched to climb but keep your focus on what will actually make you a climber. Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice. Big help.

I'm very interested in Yoga: is it best to get taught or can I buy a book and teach it to myself? (recommended books?)

Also I tried hanging leg raises today and I could barely lift my legs 45 degrees. Is there an exercise that can help improve this? Or do I just keep plugging away at it.

Once again, thankyou all for the advice.

p.s. Is the "9 out of 10 climbers" book a worthwile purchase for someone who has only been climbing for 2 months?

The cross-training that I'd personally recommend would be . . . hanging leg lifts. (hang from a pullup bar or hangboard, point your toes, keep your legs straight, and lift your legs to at least horizontal if not higher, in sets of 8-12. do 3 sets a couple times a week.) The hanging leg lifts train the muscles you need to be able to keep your feet ON . . .

You're overestimating the importance of strength and underestimating the importance of quality of movement. At your stage of the game you should be reading, eating, and shitting with The Self-Coached Climber at your side.

Jay

Do they? I would think that they primarily train the muscles that you need to get your feet up to the holds, but not necessarily the ones you use to maintain contact with the holds once you get your feet up there. I'm not sure what non-climbing exercises you could do to train those muscles, which is an instance of the cross-training-for-climbing conundrum.

Jay

p.s. Is the "9 out of 10 climbers" book a worthwile purchase for someone who has only been climbing for 2 months?

I'll grant that I have not read anywhere else about them being helpful, so I really only have one data point. Personally, though, I feel like it has helped me in being able to keep my feet on, specifically on overhanging terrain, especially on very long moves where one or both legs was at full extension, or when the feet are bad and I have to be careful not to apply too much downward pressure lest they slip off, or when I have to stab for feet that are far away, because it strengthens that ability to hold sort of a pike position. and practicing holding body position and not swinging helps maintain control. YMMV, I suppose.

Leg lifts target the hip flexors and the abs. The hip flexors do the work of lifting the legs while the abs stabilize the pelvis. Jay is right about their relation to climbing.

Increasing one's "body tension" and keeping the feet on holds is a far more complex matter than can be addressed by leg lifts and I would argue that the hip flexors play a minor (if any)role in keeping the feet on holds on steep climbing since hip flexion in many positions is the natural action of gravity. In my analysis its hip extension and adduction that are the primary actions at the hip joint involved in what climbers call body tension. Also included in body tension are ankle extension, at the knee both extension and flexion are involved and in the trunk, there is extension and lateral flexion as well as stabilization of the pelvis.

That is a very brief summary and it leave out a lot of detail but its a start.