Do you regularly climb indoors, but stagnate at a certain level of difficulty and want to improve? Specific climbing training is a good option to push your level and a good complement to regular climbing in the climbing hall. However, there are a few points to consider.
An article by Adrian Frommherz, sales advisor at Transa Travel & Outdoor
Additional training exercises before and after the actual climbing and bouldering have several purposes. On the one hand, they are suitable for warming up, on the other hand, you can increase strength, flexibility and coordination with regular and specific training units.
Even regular bouldering is ideal as a form of strength training.
They are also ideal for individual stress control, for example after injuries or as a "break" between intensive climbing days. By the way: Even regular bouldering is ideal as a form of strength training, in addition to climbing on a rope.
Warm up: start gently
The most important thing in climbing training: warming up your muscles and mobilizing your joints. Why? By specifically setting the circulation going and activating the individual muscle groups, you significantly reduce the risk of injury. Rope jumping, jumping jacks and yoga exercises such as the sun salutation are suitable as warm-up exercises.
As a warm-up exercise, you can also climb the same simple boulder several times, with breaks in between and in other variations: For example, once with a crossed sequence of grips, once with clapping your hands behind your back between the grips or by not using your feet on the grips, but only directly the wall. This puts a strain on your body and trains your arm muscles.
As a warm-up exercise, you can also climb the same simple boulder several times
Strength building
Once you've warmed up a little, dynamic stretching and mobilization of your joints is helpful and shouldn't be skipped. The blood circulation is promoted and small tensions are released. Once the circulation is in swing, the individual muscle groups must also be activated. It doesn't take much more than one Thera-Band. To strengthen the climbing-specific muscles, many climbing halls have set up appropriate training corners and rooms. If these are currently closed, the infrastructure of a Vita parcours is generally sufficient.
Targeted increase
Regardless of whether you are just starting your climbing training or want to specifically push your level: less is more. When analyzing your route, try to identify in which area you want to improve.
Do you lack the strength in your fingers? Or do you lack maximum strength? Would you like more torso stability in the overhang? Select exercises that address these specific shortcomings and supplement them with accompanying compensatory exercises.
Let your climbing buddies analyze you and be open to constructive criticism: it is often much easier from the outside to identify weak points and opportunities for improvement and to provide feedback. Be mindful of other climbers and let exercises and ideas inspire you.
Tips for climbing and training boards
Training equipment such as a fingerboard (or hangboard), campus blocks or strips, large and small handles are suitable for building up finger strength. Here, too, the following applies: always warm up sufficiently beforehand, ensure correct posture, exercise in a controlled manner and increase the intensity step by step.
Not for beginners: Specific finger training only makes sense after about two years of regular climbing.
Not for beginners: Specific finger training only makes sense after about two years of regular climbing, since the finger joints are not strong enough beforehand and the risk of injury is therefore too high. One of the most popular boards is the Beastmaker, in which 1000er series for advanced climbers and as 2000er series for experts. There are practical apps that enable a well-structured training.
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