Stay-At-Home Climbing Training Routine: Day 28

We have done it. After four weeks, 28 days, and a total of seventeen training sessions, we have arrived at the end of our cycle. Over this last week we have rested significantly more than in the previous weeks. As a result, we should feel stronger than before and ready to progress to the next stage of our training. Though today will be of a relatively low-intensity, it will be useful to record how you are feeling with each of the following benchmark exercises. Strive to qualitatively assess your strengths where quantitative measurements are impossible.

The next step in our training will concern itself with power. Power, in this case, is defined by the speed with which someone pulls. We will begin this portion of our training on April 15, and it will span the course of a four-week period. This last month has been tough for everyone, but by allowing ourselves achievable goals, we can more easily pass the time. Learning how to train by oneself is essential to strength gains as it builds mental fortitude.

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I’ve had a lot of people ask me recently about how I deal with elbow and finger pain. When my tendinitis gets bad there are a few things I swear by: 1. Vid 1: Push-ups! My push-up routine is pretty simple and I focus on having really good form. The video shows the three type I do; tricep push ups with your hands in close, classic, and wide. I try to keep my weight on my hands as much as possible, so you can see my feet slide on the ground to keep good form. I usually do these in sets of 5 of each type, resting a bit in between. 3-5 reps. 2. Photo 2: Icing!! I swear by icing my elbows and fingers when they’re painful. @penguinfingers are especially helpful for this ??❄️ I like to ice fingers for 30 seconds at a time and elbows for longer, more like a minute. Repeating a few times. 3. Vid 3: The hammer exercise (can also be done with a broom ??). Preferably you take a sledge hammer, or something long, and you rotate it with a straight arm. Sometimes you need assistance bringing the weight back to vertical. Shouldn’t be too hard (don’t use too much weight and focus on engaging the elbow). You can change the difficulty by holding the hammer/broom closer to the head. 4. ?DRINK WATER!?I notice huge difference in my elbows when I drink enough water. 5. Massage/stretching. Hanging straight arm in chin-up position is a great elbow stretch and massaging elbows and fingers helps with blood flow! I hope this helps! Stay healthy everyone ??

A post shared by Kyra Condie (@kyra_condie) on Apr 12, 2020 at 12:18pm PDT

Day 28

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 28, 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.

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 28 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.

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

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Sending more projects, this time inside. After some thought I figured I’d move the wall into my basement, and it’s well worth it. Looks like I’ll be spending most of my days down here raging and blasting techno music. @evolv_worldwide @evolvcanada @thenorthface @thenorthface_climb

A post shared by Ethan Salvo (@ethansalvo) on Apr 12, 2020 at 4:42pm PDT

Featured photo by Yves Gravelle