Many climbers have the idea that the best way to get stronger and be able to do more powerful moves is to spend some time bouldering. However, while bouldering is a extremely useful tool, Alli Rainey wrote an article arguing that bouldering alone is not the most efficient way to gain sport-specific strength for climbing.
“Bouldering is not ideal strength training. It’s not the most effective and efficient way to target sport-specific physical deficiencies that hold you back from improving at climbing. This is not to say that bouldering can’t play a key role in a training program, nor is it to say that bouldering can’t help a person improve their strength. But it is a reality that it is not and will never be the most effective means for gaining sport-specific strength. And this is simply because it’s too random to specifically target and push areas that need work in the most effective and efficient way.” – Alli Rainey
Essentially, Alli’s argument is that climbing movement is too varied to efficiently target areas of weakness. Instead, Alli suggests weight lifting with exercises chosen to mimic climbing movement patterns and target areas of sport-specific weakness. In doing so, Alli believes that you remove the randomness of climbing movement and can more efficiently produces strength grains.
“Weight training provides a much more targeted and precise way to work on specific areas of weakness that hold you back in climbing. It’s efficient and effective, a very systematic approach to making relevant strength gains. Choosing appropriate exercises that replicate the movements required for rock climbing is crucial, as is choosing a sets and reps scheme, plus a days-per-training-cycle scheme, that makes sense for a person interested in making climbing-specific strength gains. You take the randomness out of the training and replace it with sport-specific movements aimed primarily at increasing strength, not muscle mass, along with counter-movements, or opposition muscle training, to keep the body in balance.” – Alli Rainey
Take a look at the full article by clicking through bellow and next time you’re heading to the gym for just another bouldering session think about incorporating some weight lifting into your training. It just might be the extra push you were looking for to help you take your strength to the next level.
Click Here: Don’t Just Boulder – How to Get Stronger for Climbing
(Photo Credit: Matt Pincus; @mpincus87; Area: Joes Valley, UT; Climb: Eye of the Beholder, V11; Climber: Dusty Rasnick)
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