Pro-Sports

I realise that I don’t climb any more but I did - once.  Perhaps I flatter myself, but I have fond memories that I was actually quite good at it, too.  For someone with almost zero sports talent, I’m going to start a series of tips on what I did to improve my climbing.  If you have zero talent as well, stick with me and try these exercises out.  With a lot of blood, sweat and tears, I’m pretty sure you’ll be climbing pretty decently, too.

Training Tip 1

The best thing you can do to get better at rock climbing is to rock climb.  In my rock climbing hey day, I often heard a lot of people tell me that they would start rock climbing after they build up some strength.  Now I don’t know if that was just an excuse to say, “Look, I don’t want to offend you but rock climbing’s not my sport and I’m never coming back,” or if they really thought that they should get stronger before they tried rock climbing. 

If you’re really serious about giving rock climbing a go, then don’t waste your time pumping iron at a regular gym to “build up your strength” before you hit the rocks.  The best way to get better at rock climbing is to climb.  It is really as simple as that.  Pumping iron might be useful at a later stage but it won’t do you much good at the start.  I’ve seen plenty of buff guys coming into the rock climbing gym who can’t climb to save their lives. 

Personally, even if I wanted to get stronger, I would do it by climbing more, not swapping out my climbing sessions with regular weight training sessions.  Why?  Because weight training is symmetrical.  When you do a lat pull down, you pull equally with both arms.  You don’t use your legs to help you and you certainly don’t have to balance on tiny footholds while you’re at it.  Additionally, time spent at the regular gym is time you aren’t spending climbing.  Since you can only do so much weight training (your rock climbing sessions included) a week before you start to overstrain your muscles, you lose out on the opportunity to hone your other climbing skills - such as balance, finger strength, footwork, etc.

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