Home > Indoor Climbing

Stay-At-Home Climbing Training Routine: Day 17

Day 17 of a 28-day climbing-training routine for athletes looking to progress during self-isolation.

As we roll into Day 17, it has become clear that no one is going to be climbing anytime soon. It can be difficult to find the motivation to train when we don’t even know when we’ll be able to use our new-found strength. It can feel like you will lose all of the progress you have made up to this point, but this is not the case.

Climbing strength is primarily derived from finger strength. Though finger strength takes a long time to build, it also takes awhile to lose. Though our forearms may lose some of their strength over this period, we can compensate by training finger strength on a hangboard and by making our bodies as strong as possible.

Over the next four days of our stay-at-home routine, we will seek to isolate and exhaust the high-end power of our agonist muscles. It is important that you try at a maximal level on each of the exercises relating to this muscle group. Our deload week will begin after Day 21 of training.

Day 17:

It is important that this routine is done in the order it is written.

Warm Up:

  • Warming up will likely differ between people, but these are a few good warm ups.
    • Shoulder rolls
    • Rotations: hold arms out perpendicular to the length of your body. Your arms should be parallel to the floor. Begin by rotating your wrists clockwise while your arms are straight. Then increase the rotation from the shoulders, maintain g your straight arms. Steadily increase the radius of rotation until your arms are wind milling, then reverse the direction.
    • Hang on a bar and retract and relax your shoulders
      • Complete a number of pull ups that would warm you up but not tire you out

Agonist muscles:

Once your biceps and shoulders are fully warm, or so warm that you could pull as hard as you would want, begin off-set pull ups.

Offset pull ups:

Offsets are designed to help you build one-arm power. Though we completed a few of these over the course of our conditioning period, we will adjust them for maximum output. For day 17, hang a rope from your pull-up bar. Place your hand as low as you can on that rope. Either knot it or tape the rope so that you know your maximum offset distance between days.

  • Complete 4 sets of 3 repetitions on each arm
    • Rest for two to five minutes between each set, even between arms
      • Be careful of your wrists during this period.
    • If you are already capable of completing a one-arm pull up, then strive to complete between 6 and 10 one-arm pull ups, a side, separated by two-minutes rest.

Lock-Offs:

Once your offsets are complete, rest for five-minutes and begin your lock-offs.

Try and hold a lock-off with one arm bent at 90-degrees. If this is too challenging, complete the exercise in a full lock-off on one arm. If this is too difficult, complete ten negatives.

  • Negatives: Hold a full lock-off with two arms at the top of the bar. Let one arm go and try and resist gravity with the other arm. You will either hold the lock-off or slowly descend to a straight arm position. The goal of a negative is to increase the time it takes to descend.
    • Complete ten one-arm negatives on each side
  • Lock Offs:
    • If you are able to complete the lock-off, then…
    • Aim to hold lock for 10 seconds. 3 sets a side.

One-arm rows:

Place a chair four-to-five feet away from your pull-up bar. Hang from the bar with both feet on the chair. Make sure that the chair is secured so that it does not move. Hang from one arm with your feet in the chair. Ensure that your torso is in line with your legs.

  • Complete 5 sets of 10 rows with either arm. To increase difficulty, push the chair further from the bar. To decrease the difficulty, bring the chair closer to the bar.

Antagonist Muscles:

Push-ups: High Intensity

Complete 5, 7, or 10 repetitions depending on your skill level per exercise. Once that is established…

Complete the following exercises three times in a row for a total of nine sets. Your total push-up count for the day will be either 45, 63, or 90 repetitions.

  • elbows-back push-ups: complete 5-10 then rest 30 seconds
  • diamond push-ups: complete 5-10 then rest 30 seconds
  • archer push-ups: complete 5-10 then rest 30 seconds

Core:

For Day 17 we will maintain a fairly high level of repetitions in our core exercises. We will reduce this number slightly in an effort to perfect our form. On the leg-lifts especially, strive for perfect form. Remember, perfect form means no swing and straight legs.

Hanging leg-lifts:

Beginner: 10 sets of 5 repetitions: bring the legs up so that your body makes a 90-degree angle

Moderate: 10 sets of 5 repetitions: bring your feet to the bar

Expert: 10 sets of 10 repetitions: feet to bar

Cardio:

Run for 45 minutes at a moderate intensity.

Flexibility:

Hold each stretch for 15-30 seconds:

  • Straddle Splits: This stretch is important to climbing as it increases a climber’s lateral flexibility for moves like stemming in a corner.
  • Hamstring: keep your legs straight and bend down to your feet. Keep your back flat for an alternate version of this stretch.
  • Hip-flexor: Flexible hip-flexors allow a climber to high-step.
  • Quadricep: preventative against injury
  • Triceps stretch: preventative against injury
  • Shoulder stretch: increases mobility
  • Calf stretch: increased heel-hooking mobility

Featured photo by @roadramble of Sam Hunter.

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

The Best Climbing Gear According to Our Editors – March

Every month we're bringing you our favourite gear so you can complete your climbing kit with the latest and best stuff out there