Why Climbers Should Rethink Core Strength Training

what does core strength mean use your core more according to a recent survey we conducted core strength means a lot of different things from the strength and the muscles at the back of your body to the strength of your abs but by far the most common answer was the ability to create body tension on the wall and a trained core strength answers varied even more from playing to deadlifts to leg raises to front levers and everything in between but here's the problem most of those answers are wrong at least in my opinion that within the time span of this video I think I can convince you to see it my way using a little survey data some principles of biomechanics and climbing and my experience as a physical therapist we're going to highlight four mistakes climbers are consistently making when it comes to core strength and body tension and then at the end I'll provide recommendations for how to train them some of the things we discussed might have you reassessing a lot of your training decisions as well as your answer to the age-old question how do I get better body tension mistake number one defining core strength however we want the first mistake is really no one's fault in particular it's more so an issue the climbing Community faces as a whole we use terms that aren't clearly defined to understand why this is such a problem consider the following sequence there is no official climbing dictionary climbers use core strength in variable ways core strength ceases to refer to one specific thing no one exactly knows what the other is referring to when saying core strength assumptions or guesses cause errors in communication training and technique decisions are made in error goals are not met time and energy is wasted climbing or Fitness suffers to avoid this we should adopt a single definition of core strength we can avoid arbitrarily making up a definition by basing it on existing anatomical literature so the definition of core strength would be the strength of the structures that compose a three-dimensional space in our middle section with the upper boundary being the diaphragm the front and sides being the rectus abdominis trans or subdominal and oblique muscles the rear being the paraspinal and gluteal muscles and the bottom being the pelvic floor and hip girdle so basically it's a cylinder of meat around our middle now if for some reason you think this definition is dumb and you refuse to use it well that's fine because the other mistakes were discussing will still apply no matter how you define your core obviously we need to strengthen all those muscles to help us climb better right this leads us to our second mistake thinking body tension is not about having a great nutrition routine you're going off script there bud telling you man nutrition equals body tension well luckily this video is sponsored by ag1 having a healthy nutrition routine is crucial for us to stay on top of our game working with clients writing scripts filming videos responding to comments managing the website and social media and oh yeah climbing enter ag-1 a comprehensive daily nutrition supplement Made Simple with 75 carefully curated high quality Whole Food sourced ingredients including vitamins minerals superfoods and adaptogens what's even better is that it's got prebiotics probiotics and naturally occurring enzymes to bolster digestion and diversify the gut microbiome and our favorite aspect ag-1 is NSF certified for sport the gold standard for professional athletes who have to adhere to strict rules regarding supplements and nutritional products it lets consumers know that what is on the label is actually in the powder athletic greens is giving the Hooper's beta fam a free one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin D3 and K2 and 5 free travel packs with your first purchase go to athleticgreens.com Hooper's beta to get started on your order the real mistake number two thinking body tension only depends on strength this one always seems to lead to a lot of confusion and wasted training time just because you have good strength whether that's strength in your core or your fingers or anything between does not mean you will have good body tension here's an example imagine on an overhanging climb and there's a move that requires a lot of body tension body tension is a broad term so for Simplicity let's just say it's the ability to maintain control while doing a move if you have no body tension you'll flub off the wall like a wet noodle so we need to find a way to create body tension so we can control momentum and stay on the wall without falling to accomplish this we'll need one to identify a balanced and stable body position to to engage the right muscles to achieve and maintain that position temporarily and three enough strength in those muscles to make it all possible in the first place in other words to achieve body tension we need technique coordination and strength clearly strength is not the only fact Factor if we're severely lacking in one of those categories our body tension will suffer of course there will be some overlap and interplay between these categories for example turning a muscle can improve our Mind Body Connection to it so certain strength training exercises can improve our coordination however it would still be a mistake to think strength training is the only thing that matters for body tension check this out if I catch a hold with elbows straight and shoulders disengaged I can't control the momentum at all so I fly off if I catch the hold with bent elbows and shoulders engaged now I can easily control my momentum and generate great tension my muscles didn't get twice as strong in between attempts I just improve my technique and coordination so if you feel that you're lacking body tension on a climb don't immediately assume you're too weak and if you think your issue is specifically your core realize you might have a perfectly adequate core that just lacks coordination rather than a weak core that needs tons of strengthening okay now you might be thinking I get it I get it but I'm pretty sure my technique and coordination are fine so it must be core strength that's my issue right not so fast mistake number three thinking body tension comes mainly from the core while core strength definitely does play a role in body tension it's not the biggest contributing factor all three regions the upper body lower body and core can play key roles in body tension but don't be fooled into thinking they play equal roles just because all these muscles are being used to create body tension does not mean they're being used the same amount our fingers forearms shoulders and back are usually being heavily taxed meaning they'll often be the first thing to fail or hold us back on the other hand our calf muscles are also being used but they're being taxed relatively little compared to our upper bodies Our hamstrings are being used but usually they're far from maxing out and our core muscles are being used but they're almost never under so much stress that they'll become a point of failure so all these core and leg muscles are definitely being used to help create body tension but that doesn't necessarily mean strengthening them would help get us more body tension so now you might be thinking even if it might not be holding me back I might as well train it just in case right the answer lies in our final mistake Mistake 4 ignoring training priorities one thing that I found particularly interesting in the results of our survey was that very few people thought core strength was one of their top three weaknesses and yet about two-thirds of people said that they have been doing core strength training to improve their climbing there could be many reasons for this discrepancy and I'm not saying they shouldn't be doing that but it does remind me of another really common mistake climbers often think we should train core strength just because it sounds important or because we hear other people talking about it but since we all have a limited amount of time and energy to spend on training we need to be more strategic with our training choices if we spend a bunch of time doing exercises and drills that don't help us reach our goals we're either wasting time or we need to reevaluate our goals so before you start core training ask yourself what is my main goal with training what do I think are the best steps to accomplish that goal and is core strength high enough on that list to Warrant training let's use a common example say climber A's main goal with training is to increase the body tension for climbing they suspect finger strength technique and shoulder strength are the main things that will help them accomplish this so those are their top training priorities they have enough time after their sessions to also add in core strength training but after some experimenting they find core training makes them more tied the next session and they can't complete their other training as effectively therefore core strength training for climber a is probably not a good choice say climber B's main goal is to lose weight and increase their General athleticism as broadly as possible with climbing as a fun side hobby they've never done much training before so they start by hitting as many muscles as they can with compound exercises core strength training with compound exercises is in line with their goals and they enjoy doing them therefore core string training for climber B is probably a good choice as you can see everything depends on your goals and your resources but if you decide you do want to train core strength or body tension how should you go about it for core strength that's still functional for climbing you should focus on the cylinder of muscles in the middle of your body with a bias towards the obliques more than the rectus abdominis there are a million different ways to hit these muscles but my personal favorites are the following variations for obliques I like side planks and Copenhagen planks both progressed with hip dips and added weight for rotational core strength I like band resist to trunk rotation progressed with thicker bands for the anterior chain I like plank shoulder Taps progressing to plank rows with dumbbells for posterior chain and a little extra spice I like offset slash fulcrum deadlifts progressing with added weight these exercises are chosen because they are approachable and progressible for pretty much anyone and can benefit other areas of your climbing training such as improving shoulder stability if you find any of these exercises to be extremely hard even in their base form it may indicate you have some weakness there for body tension we now know it's a combination of technique coordination and strength we also know the strength aspect is mostly facilitated by fingers shoulders and back we can Target all three categories of body tension by climbing on overhangs with holds that require precise footwork consciously trying to keep our feet on when possible this is in my opinion the simplest and broadest way to increase body tension however if we want to train the strength aspect of body tension Off the Wall here are a few of my favorites Max hangs on a hangboard for finger strength and recruitment weighted pull-ups and one arms or assisted pull-ups if you can't do body weight to increase that back and shoulder strength inverted rows for a different but equally important back and shoulder strengthening exercise which also involves the posterior chain progressing to toes on a box then one arm variations or even feed off variations campus boarding not as much in this case for strength but to help you practice coordination and Joint engagement while being able to use your feet if regular campusing is too hard and face pulls with an overhead press to encourage good scapular mechanics and for a little extra fun do them on a single leg to slightly increase core engagement my final advice is to remember that having a strong core for climbing is necessary but that doesn't mean your core is currently too weak and needs training you don't need to be able to plank for four minutes to climb B5 deadlift your body weight to have good body tension for climbing or be able to do 50 leg lifts to be able to keep your feet on in the cave on the other hand if core training effectively helps you reach your goals then it's a great choice so did I convince you do you think I'm right about core strength and body tension let me know what your favorite ways of training those are and if I didn't convince you let me know why until next time train based on your goals climb send and repeat

Channel: Hooper's Beta

Views: 88,043

Keywords: climbing, rock climbing, bouldering, sport climbing, rope climbing, climbon, climb stronger, climb better, rehab, physical therapy, doctor of physical therapy, orthopedics, strength, mobility, function, training, strength training, climb harder, sport, athletics, fun, education, sport training, training for climbing, core, core strength, abs, abdominals, 6 pack abs, abs for climbing, core strength for climbing, tension, body tension, maintaining tension, tension climbing

Id: jwyd40EBnlI

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2023