Stay-At-Home Climbing Training Routine: Day 21
Day 21 of a 28-day climbing-training routine for athletes looking to progress during self-isolation.
Day 21 will mark the final hard training of our 28-day cycle. The following seven days will feature a great amount of rest and should allow our bodies to heal after what was a strenuous three-weeks. This period of time will function as our deload week. In our deload week, we will continue to train, but at half the intensity of the third week. This will allow our bodies to heal and will ensure that we will be able to return to training in a fifth week, if we so choose. We will be rested and ready to push our limits further than that which we were able to accomplish over this 28-day cycle.
It has become clear that we will be isolating for a little while yet. It is not easy to remain motivated when you cannot get outside or to the gym. Though compensating through hangboards and training is significantly better than sitting at home, it is overtly less entertaining than climbing with your friends. How do we fill this time?
Well, with the things that limit our ability to climb when the world is not enveloped in pandemic. Over the course of a year, each of have to plan our climbing trips and competitions around our work and life schedules. This period of time allows us to get ahead on those aspects of our lives so that we can go out and climb. In this way, it will become easier for us to go climb when the world returns to normal. Though there are may be only a small number of things that we can accomplish in this period, every little bit can help. In the completion of goals we can find ourselves with heightened motivation as we propel ourselves towards the perfect sessions of our futures.
Day 21
It is important that this routine is done in the order it is written. Today will be as challenging as yesterday.
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 21, 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.
- Rest for two to five minutes between each set, even between arms
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.
High-intensity Pull-ups.
Complete 5 – 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.
- pull-up: complete 5-10 then rest 30 seconds
- wide-grip pull-up: complete 5-10 then rest 30 seconds
- archer pull-ups: complete 6-10 then rest 30 seconds
- alternate sides as you go, six archer pull-ups would equal three leading right and three leading left
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 21 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
The 5-minute Core Destroyer:
- One minute each of the following exercises:
- Plank
- big kicks
- swimmer kicks
- V-Sit
- big kicks
- There is no rest between each exercise, instead rest at the conclusion of all five exercises. Then rest for five minutes and repeat the series twice more.
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 image by @kevinjaytobin
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