Hey,

Does anyone know a good arm exercises for climbing? I am particularly interested in free weight exercises as this gives you the ability to control the intensity of the exercise.

Cheers,

PS. pulled a hamstring in a drinking game, both drinking and games are evil and should be avoided! Grrrrr

A good arm exercise is lifting a beer mug repeatedly.

You don't even need your hamstrings for it...

Then see the thread Weight

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Climb ZA - Administrator

Note that this should preferably be a FULL beer mug. Top up as required..

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You have an opinion, so do I. When these differ, please don't confuse your opinion with the truth, nothing is absolute.

Check out this article - http://www.indoorclimbing.com/Forearm_Exercise.html

& the video below: Titled 'Pilates Free Weight Arm Exercises : Pilates Free Weight Exercise'



Failing the above... break out the Wii

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Climb ZA - Administrator

'We're sorry this video is no longer available'......typical You Tube! One wonders what the point in uploading videos is if they just get removed arbitrarilly (sp?).

Arm exercises? What part of your arm exactly?? Its a bit vague but at least you recognise strength helps in this sport. Further information about what level you climb at, what your weaknesses are etc. would go a long way in helping you determine how to train. In the arms finger strength is crucial, unluckily it takes a very long time to build properly. Whilst you can increase the strenght of your forearms fairly rapidly it takes several months for the tendons to 'catch up' thickening to be able to withstand the load.

Dead hangs varying the load by taking weight off your body mass via pulleys and counterweight or adding weight with a weight belt (advanced climbers only) will allow you train the fingers to failure within a set time in each of the main grip positions. 15-20secs is good for trad climbing, sport 10-15secs, bouldering 5-10secs or less. Always warm up thoroughly before doing deadhangs, they are highly catabolic, and dont do them for months on end without resting adequately.
Hit strips look really good, mimicking climbing closely and allowing you to work to failure within a set number of repititions. I havent seen them on sale here but check out Eric Horst's website: http://www.trainingforclimbing.com/
Increasing any specific group's strength can create imbalances which may lead to injury, so always balance your workout with exercises that target the small stabilising muscles around the joints as well as strengthening opposing muscle groups.

Whilst all this specific training is great it ignores the fact that strong muscles need to be co-ordinated into a single unit for them to fully benefit your climbing. Exercises that work the entire body focussing on linking the limbs with the core are way more important than having huge biceps or rock crushing fingers. Exercises that use body weight only are a bonus (you can do them anywhere, anytime) and are more likely to create a balanced physique. This article may give you some ideas http://shinewellbeing.com.au/articles-p ... imbers.htm
Join a Pilates or yoga class to help yourself stay balanced, relax overworked muscles and keep injuries at bay. Keep changing your workout regime, the body adapts very quickly to stress, so you need to keep shocking yourself with new stuff to make the fastest gains. This is actually cool when you get it right as it feels like you are just fooling around, doing all sorts of different stuff (climb trees, run, swim, do agility drills, etc. - be inventive and have fun, it shouldn't feel like work) yet the payoff is big.