Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Training

Here is a short and not very exciting video showing the training exercises I do, outside of bouldering, to develop core and finger strength. I typically warmup with some time on an elliptical trainer and doing some pushups, situps, and free weight stuff such as bicep curls. I will always do rotator cuff strengtheners as well. This takes between ten and fifteen minutes. Then I take about five minutes to do some deadhangs and a few easy pullip sets, typically five reps each. The rest is on the video. I will usually take 30 to 45 minutes overall to complete the workout which I find is enough to get me feeling reasonably sore that day and the next. The key in bouldering is to have finger strength linked with a good core and shoulder area, allowing you to extend your contact strength in any direction and hold it. My biggest weaknesses are working across large spans and long dynos and I will be working on how to improve in those areas.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice. i'll post my boring training film soon i think. worthless question: are your edges homemade or are they campus rungs?

Peter Beal said...

homemade stuff from home depot. Very cheap and modifiable and virtually identical to the specialized campus rungs

sock hands said...

hey pete: for what it's worth: i haven't been doing it this year, but it really helped me last spring to simply put my legs in a pike position, or if tired, knees hiked up on any pullups or deadhangs i would do. it seemed to build core along with the fingers and better replicated steep climbing.

i still cannot do a one arm hang on anything less than a bucket. booo.

Anonymous said...

Peter:

Good stuff. You mention doing rotator cuff exercises as well; what exactly do these entail?

Anonymous said...

the video is not working...

Anonymous said...

do you think there is any value in going all the down on the weighted pullups or is the stress on the shoulders too much for a training exercise? opinions, comments, thoughts?

Peter Beal said...

Sockhands has a good point. Leg raises in a dead hang position are a great idea. The rotator cuff strengtheners consist of lying on your right side with your right arm bent at the elbow, hand palms up. Lift a light barbell, no more than 10 pounds towards your chest/left shoulder, 10 to 20 reps. Then with your left arm, again bent at the elbow across your chest, lift the barbell up and away from the chest. Switch sides and arms.

Also Dan, have you turned off public access to your blog?

To TT: Never fully extend the shoulders or elbows in any training exercise and especially not with weight. The load should be borne as much by muscle and tendon as possible and not by joints and ligaments.

Anonymous said...

psh. i knew that. i was just making sure YOU knew that. *cough*