Incorporating Cathe and Rock Climbing - mainly for the antagonist muscles

[Shadowpup]

Hello all,

I'm looking for DVDs to support my rock climbing habit I took that up not quite two years ago, and it's an amazing experience and activity, which I highly recommend!

Still, it does leave me with imbalances, especially upper body. You use much more pull than push in the upper body; most of your back gets a lot of work but there is not much for the chest, and the delts rarely kick in. I have a series of light workouts I do after climbing to balance, taken from the few climbing training books that do a good job of talking about those workouts, but frankly, that's boring compared to a Cathe DVD. Even after only twenty months, the multiple hours a week climbing with just a few short blocks of antagonist muscle training have left me with widening strength gaps. What I really want is a good solid Cathe rotation with variety, that I can use the day before a climbing session (ie doesn't challenge climbing muscles much).

Has anyone worked out a rotation that makes sense to balance out a climber? In some ways tennis and golf are similar that way, I'd guess avid golfers/tennis players may have similar issues? Those rotations would be helpful too. I have found ICE upper body to be a great help since the range of motion covers both climber muscles and slacker muscles; also parts of Pyramid upper body are good with substitutions for wrist strengthening work.

BTW, eventually I'll add in a rotation aimed at strengthening the climbing muscles themselvs, but imbalances are what lead to injury and I want to get in a better place there first.

PS I've been a Cathe fan for many years, though with a pause from using workout dvds when I moved from west to east. My friends on Getting Our Licks In have been great in helping me reconnect here at the forums.

 

[Miriam]

I know you posted quite a while ago, but I just joined the forums and am a climber and wanted to help!

How you deal with muscle imbalances might change a bit depending on your overall fitness goals and how often you climb. If you're talking about mainly strength training. One option is to use a loose push-pull-legs structure (don't forget legs...strong hamstrings and glutes make for strong heel hooks!). The Ripped With HIIT strength workouts are particularly good for this, since you get a push workout with the Chest/Shoulders/Triceps workout and a pull workout with the Back/Biceps workout. You can substitute climbing days for your push workout.

Another option is to include a comprehensive upper body routine, like Pyramid Upper, in your workouts. This will work your push muscles in addition to strengthening your climbing muscles. Scheduling this way might also help if you climb more than a couple of times per week, so you can be sure to have at least one rest day per week. My favorite options for this include the strength workouts from Xtrain (Burn Sets Chest/Back/Shoulders will hit all the big muscle groups, and you can add the burn sets bis/tris workout if you feel the strong need for accessory work, the other Xtrain lifting workouts are similar but work more in the muscle endurance 16-rep range rather than the lower rep strength and hypertrophy ranges). Choosing upper body splits from total body workouts like STS Total Body, Total Body Trisets (from the low impact series) or the new S&S Giant Sets are also options.

Specifically for climbers, take care of your shoulders and elbows! Rest days are important...active rest such as hiking, or even cardio can give your upper body a break. Also, stretching forearms and doing specific antagonist training to improve flexibility and muscle quality are key to preventing tendonitis or tendonosis in the elbows. Rice bucket exercises are great for this, and I've used Eric Horst's video to heal up a dodgy elbow...but an ounce of prevention would have been better to keep me from having to take time off climbing to heal! http://trainingforclimbing.com/effective-forearm-antagonist-training-for-climbers/