Something New

Sometimes we get stuck doing the same thing (s) over and over, day in and day out. The little routines that we fall into can often times make us plateau and stop realizing any gains. If you are in a place you want to be, then there is nothing wrong with maintenance. However, it doesn’t hurt to change things up every now and then, even if it’s only for a short period of time.

Let’s look at your climbing – we’ll use myself as an example, since I recently was in the predicament I described above. I was feeling kind of stale, that my climbing was not only not improving, but was deteriorating a bit and also that my body had lost it’s definition and tone. So I took some time and devised a quick 15-20 minute workout to do two times per week on top of my regular climbing. This involved a hard circuit and a tiny bit of core at the end. The focus was on back and chest, since the back muscles are important for climbing and the chest balances the back out.

It’s been two and a half weeks and the differences have been astounding! This goes to show that by changing things up a little, adding something, upping the intensity, you reinvigorate the body and can get massive changes in results.

Below is the workout that I devised. Keep in mind that it is very taxing and that you want to make sure that if you follow it, you adapt it to your own needs. Make sure you warm up and cool down and drink plenty of water.

Back/Chest Circuit

• Chest Press x 15 reps
• Pull Ups x 15 reps
• Flys x 15 reps
• Inverted Rows x 20 reps
• Decline Press x 15 reps
• Reverse Flys x 15 reps
• Typewriters x 8 reps
• Push Ups x 25 reps
• Inverted Rows x 20 reps
• Hanging Push Ups x 12 reps

Perform these with no rest in between exercises. If you can’t complete the required reps for an exercise, take a few seconds to shake out, but make sure you complete all the reps.

Take a two minute rest and perform 1 set of hanging leg raises (knees to chest) while hanging off of slopers. This will help with contact strength.

 

So never underestimate the difference a small change can make. Little things as simple as adding a circuit, or even working through a really hard climb that you normally wouldn’t get on can have huge impacts on your climbing and gains that you may want to make or goals you may want to achieve.