Rock Climbing Training - Strength

If you want to climb overhanging, negative sloping, and long-reach moves, then you should train your muscle strength. Working out the muscles to their maximum ability with resistance and in a repetitive fashion is one way to increase your muscle strength. This stimulates muscles to synthesize more contractile protein, thus increasing strength.

Remember that repetition is the key when you want to increase your strength. You can either do this climbing-wise or in the gym by Training with Weights. Also, do not forget to do some Warming Up and Stretching before you start exercising. Afterwards, do some Cooling Down exercises.

Goal	Type of Exercise
Strength	Gym Exercise Use a high weight to complete 5 - 10 repetitions until muscle failure. Do sets of 4. Climbing exercise Repeat a strenuous bouldering problem or climbing route four times and then take a break to allow your muscles to recover.

A note on the Gym Exercise:
When pulling weights, make sure that you choose the right weights. Select a weight or resistance that you can barely move five to ten times before your muscles give out. Do four sets of the exercise (of 5 to 10 repetitions). Do these exercises three or four times a week. Target specific muscles and muscle groups. Moreover, do not forget your training goal: you want to increase your muscle strength and not look like a body builder. Having muscle mass more than what you need is just additional weight and will make it harder for you to climb.

Add more weight if you can do more than 10 repetitions. Take weight off if you cannot do at least five repetitions. Faithfully and methodically continue this pattern. Your strength will improve after just a few weeks of training.

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