Building strength to improve your rock climbing practice takes time and resilience. Squeezing a workout into your day can be an additional challenge between work, school, or regular climbing time. Here are some fast workout ideas to try between your day-to-day tasks.
5 Fast Workout Ideas to Build Climbing Strength
- Build Upper Body Strength with Door Frame Pull-ups: Find a strong door frame in your home and do a few short hangs to make sure it will hold your weight. Grip tightly and start completing short sets of pull-ups. Treat the door frame like a hang board, using an open crimp position while doing pull-ups. If you are not at home or don’t have a door frame strong enough, find a strong tree branch, table, or railing instead. Extend your legs in front of you to create the same pull-up motion above your head.
- Strengthen Your Core with Planks: A strong core is essential for climbing as it improves balance and control. Start your plank in a push-up position, ensuring your back is straight. Hold this position as long as possible. Planks are also effective when resting on your elbows if the push-up position is too difficult.
- Practice Balance with Single-leg Toe Touches: Balance is vital for bouldering and climbing. Single-leg toe touches are a great way to improve balance while strengthening your lower body. Start by standing on one leg, then lift the opposite leg behind you. Bend your standing leg and squat low enough to touch your opposite arm to your foot. Return to an upright position. Complete this a few times before switching sides.
- Do Wrist Winds for Forearm Strength: Strong forearms enable many different skills for rock climbers, especially in bouldering and sport climbing. Wrist winds are an effective exercise to build forearm strength. Start by gathering rope, a cylindrical object (such as a water bottle), and a can of soup. Tie one end of the rope around the soup can and the other around the water bottle. Hold the water bottle end to end in your hands. Then, slowly twist the bottle to tie the rope up around the bottle and pull the can towards you. Doing this exercise repetitively provides an excellent forearm workout.
- Work Your Grip with a Textbook Hold: This final exercise is a simple way to improve your grip strength between sessions at the gym. Grab a few large books and grip the spine like you are carrying a suitcase. Walk around the block a few times – or take a couple of turns around the house – several times a week and watch your grip improve!
Bonus Workout Idea: Visit Your Local Bouldering Gym
Put your strength to work at Blocworks in Edmond, Oklahoma. At Blocworks, we pride ourselves on creating a welcoming environment for climbers of all skill levels. Our team plans regular community events and competitions. Plan your visit to our bouldering gym today! Find your climbing community and learn more about bouldering at Blocworks.