How to Train for Climbing at Home

• Posted on 7 June 2021
• By Ben
• Posted in boulder, circuit breaker, Climbing, hangingboard, metolius, routine, Train, training
• 0

Maybe you cannot go to your climbing gym. Join your favorite Boulder or even you cannot get together with all your climbing partners. We do not want to go back in our climbing level and certainly we do not want to get lazy. So here we give you a few ideas to keep in mind to stay strong and keep improving our technique and strength:

How to train for climbing at home

Maybe you cannot go to your climbing gym. Join your favorite Boulder or even you cannot get together with all your climbing partners. We do not want to go back in our climbing level and certainly we do not want to get lazy. So here we give you a few ideas to keep in mind to stay strong and keep improving our technique and strength:

• Train your Full Body

You need to be aware that your normal climbing routine should be adapted to your home or playground training routine. This means you have to replicate the full (or try to) variety of moves, holds and patterns in order to distribute the energy you use into your hole body and not just your forearm or shoulder, for example. So, do not just focus on the training hang board. There is a full body to train, and you want to focus on 4 groups:

1. Upper Body
2. Core
3. Legs
4. Fingers and Forearms

• Play on your league

If you use to climb once a week, do not increase to 4 hard home training sessions. Start with one, then move to Two, and so on. Especially if you use the fingerboard. You must be very cautious when transfer the active dynamic training of the climbing wall or boulder to a dead hang fingerboard training. It can be too hard on some specific muscles and increase the chances of get an injury. Do not overload on your training history too significantly.

Play with the pull up bar, the fingerboard, dumbbells, use the pinch and crimp block and focus on exercises to use the weight of your own body so you are moving the different stresses areas all over your body and not all 100% work stressing your forearm muscle.

• Warm up

Every time you skip worming up you are increasing the chances to get injured. A good warm up must have:

1. Cardio. You can jog, use a skipping rope. The idea is to increase your pulse.
2. Limber Up. Do some dynamic stretching.
3. Easy strength-based movement. Arms, forearms, hands, shoulder. Gradually increasing in intensity.

• Cool Down

You should always be doing some form of cool down after any training session, especially after a hangboarding session. Your fingers are delicate joints which won’t have a massive amount of blood flow through them on normal, daily activities. This means that you have to put extra effort in to clear that lactic acid and others out before your arms cool down and it stays there.  This is some easy climbing and some low-level cardio for 5-15 minutes after every training session.

Don’t forget to stretch. Static stretches are better in this warm down to maintain flexibility.

Restorative stretches help muscles recover. They also improve flexibility. For climbers, some of the important areas to focus on are the chest, back, hips, hamstrings, and forearms.

You can try this this Beginner Training Routine at home or you can make your own routine.

https://www.outdoorlife.com.sg/blogs/blogs/beginners-climbing-training-routine-for-home/

EXERCISES we recommend:

UPPER BODY

• Push Up

• Diamond Push Up

• Tricep Dip

• Superman

CORE

• Plank Up and Down

• Push Up and Rotate

• Reverse Crunch

• V-Sits

• Side Plank

• Bicycle Crunches

LEGS

• Bodyweight Squats

• Wall Sits

• Calf Raises

• Single-Leg Balance Touch.

• High-Knee Skips

FINGERS AND FOREARM

• Hangboard Routine.

If you have a hangboard at home, is time to use it.

We will explain how to use it in a different post.

• Pulley Sprain Prevention.

Place a rubber band around the tips of your fingers on one hand. Spread your fingers as far apart as you can without bending your wrist.

• Wrist Curls.

Sitting in a chair, take a dumbbell in each hand. Place your forearms against your legs with your wrists hanging off the front and palms facing up. Curl your wrists upward towards your body. Then slowly lower them back down.

• Inverse Wrist Curls.

The same than before, only this time the palms of your hands are facing down.

WARM UP

Dynamic Stretching:      

• Squats

• Knee Pull Ups

• Torso Twist

• Finger Flickers: Hold your arms out in front of your body. Make a tight fist and squeeze hard for one second. Now flick your fingers, like you’re flicking water at someone, and spread your fingers as much as possible; hold for one second. Repeat this 12 times.
• Wrist Rotations: Hold your arms held out in front of your body, and make a fist. Moving just your fists, rotate them around in circles: 12 circles to the left, 12 to the right.
• Shoulder Rotations & Arm Circles: Roll both shoulders forward five times, then back five times while arms dangle down by your sides. Next, lift both arms and rotate the arms/shoulders five times forward and five times back, making sure to keep the motion as smooth and controlled as possible.
• Neck: Stand with perfect posture and draw your chin into your neck five times. This is a very subtle movement that aligns vertebrae. Now, turn your head to the left and then slowly to the right. Look all the way up, and then all the way down. Finish by drawing your chin into your neck five more times. Repeat this whole sequence three times.

COOL DOWN

• Full Arm Stretch: Stretch your fingers and forearms on the climbing wall by pressing your palm against the wall while standing, with fingers down. Try it with fingers up, too.

• Chest Stretch: Lie on your back, with a rolled-up blanket, block, or climbing helmet under you in the middle of your back. Let your arms fall to your sides to open your chest muscles.

• Hip Stretch: From a seated position, extend one leg and then cross your other ankle over the extended leg’s knee; fold forward to stretch the hips.

• Quads: On your back, lie with your knees bent and your feet back toward your hips to stretch your quads. If this is too intense for you or if you feel pain in your knees, use a block or blanket under the back to decrease the intensity. Or, try doing the pose with one leg back at a time.