Climbing is a skill sport, but strength also plays a huge role in climbing success. As you progress up the grades in climbing, strength grows in importance. In this video, Lyti and I do a simple strength assessment, including pushups, pullups, crunches, a one-rep max hang and max duration hang. This measurement represents our baseline strength prior to starting a specific training regimen. We’ll test again after two months of training to see how we’re progressing.
Proper balance is critical for good rock climbing. Properly positioning your center of gravity is the best way to create balance, and your hip position is the dominant driver for your center of gravity. In this post, we discuss and demonstrate a few examples of how to get your hips more centered over your anchor foot, increasing balance and making moves easier.
If you struggle with staying in balance when climbing, try to pointing your shoulder at the next handhold you’re trying to reach. Shoulder pointing makes reaches easier and helps you maintain good balance while moving up the rock. Read on for more details.
Proper hip rotation is a critical skill in efficient climbing. Lots of beginning climbers tend to climb with their hips square to the wall the entire time. Sometimes this is needed, but more often than not, rotating your hips as you ascend keeps you in better balance and saves energy. If you’re someone that always climbs square to the wall, try this drill. It will really imbue the importance of great hip rotation when climbing.
Last week I described X-motion, which is a dominant movement pattern for quality climbing. One of the keys in X-motions is to have sufficient core tension to maintain a stable position between your two anchor points. In this post, I describe a drill that helps you increase your perception of how much core tension to use on a given move.
X-motion is my name for the most basic movement pattern used in quality climbing. X-motion creates balance by anchoring your body in a series of X’s as you ascend a wall. If you struggle with balance when climbing, or feel yourself barn-dooring off the wall frequently, X-motion may help you climb better. Read on to learn more.
Climbers need both strength and power. Power is just strength applied quickly. A power pushup is a great way to build power in your antagonistic pushing muscles. No extra weights are required and you can do it just about anywhere. This blog post covers a few different variants of a power pushup.
I break down project route visualization into two key areas: Visualizing beta and visualizing success. I use these two sides of visualization to help increase my likelihood of sending. Read on to learn more about how I use these two techniques.
Tying in with a figure 8 knot is the most common way to attach to a climbing rope. The figure 8 is heavily used because it’s easy to tie, is reliable, and is easy to see if the knot is correctly tied. There are better and worse ways to tie the figure 8. Read on to learn what a properly dressed knot looks like and how to finish it the best way.
Like any significant venture in life, setting climbing goals is a key first step toward success. Matt has recruited his friend and climbing team member, Lyti, in a quest to achieve their summer climbing goals. Read on and watch the video to hear more about how they’re going about achieving those goals.
There is a lot of gear you need to be a well-rounded climber. In this post, we give an overview of gear you might want for several stages of your climbing career, from the first time you head to the gym for some bouldering, to climbing multi-pitch trad routes. We’re focused on route climbing here, not bouldering, ice climbing or mountaineering.
Clipping a quickdraw while leading is an essential skill that every climber needs to master. In this article and video, we cover four rules for making a good clip and three methods of actually clipping the rope. Read on if you feel you need to up your clipping game.
