BICEPS 💪
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I believe training biceps is a MOVEMENT that climbers can benefit from.
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Why curls then?
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Different muscle groups have infinite applications to climbers, the biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis (the three [or four] relevant units) being no exception. Now, although it may seem most applicable, I am going to simply state the correlation between these muscles and pull ups as they are utilized during the pull motion. They are quite useful, so training curls will assist pull strength (as well as many other movements I will not discuss as of now), but where I would like to discuss the relevance is movement based.
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With climbing being a skill sport, technique and movement should be the primary concern of athletes. It shouldn’t be “how can I get my brachioradialis strong”, it should be “how can I get stronger in this movement I would like to do on the wall” (this is a concept I constantly need to remind myself, especially with my fascination with the specifics of physiology). So why are curls relevant? We rarely overload our biceps on the wall, especially the general climber who doesn’t focus on them much (I am different, I overuse my biceps to compensate for other weaknesses), but the ability to curl is quite frequently used during climbing.
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Underclings are constantly seen in our sport, on rock, competitions, etc. and even more so the ability to control the supination/pronation (rotation) of the forearm is a constant factor. Curls, especially hammer and reverse, are an amazing way to train those movements off the wall, especially when it is rarely overloaded or adequately trained on the wall. We want to get to a move and already be prepared for it so all we have to do is learn the movement, not have to gain the capacity on or after the fact.
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With that, and the relevance to many other movements, I believe the biceps should be trained off the wall.
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Hammer curls in my mind are the most encompassing of the curl variations, targeting the brachialis and brachioradialis more than biceps (supine/general) curls do.
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Reps: 6-10 (Ideally the 7-9 Range)
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 3-5 minutes (ish)
2-3 Times Per Week
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Slowly get into it, enjoy the ~gainz~
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⚡️188 LBS Force Production on my Left Arm⚡️
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This was my number when I tested myself a week ago with (I was fatigued, I may have been able to hit higher fresh), and it is a good piece of Data to have and create a goal based off of.
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The past year has been encompassed by rehab of my pulley and getting my fingers back to strength, but with that, I finally took a step back from climbing and my vicious cycle of training only fingers and pull strength.
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With this step back, I have probably gained more than I would have without it. This includes (some overlap on previous posts):
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🥑Improved mental health
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🍓Increased time and psych for my other passions.
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🌻Strongest my relative strength has ever been for all but my fingers (due to obvious reasons, but 🔙🔜)
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🦖Learning more about kinesiology, biomechanics, physiology, etc.
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🍄New knowledge about what is important for me to improve my climbing.
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2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣LBS 🔜
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Less said: I'm
15/03/2021
OVERLOADING THE FINGERS
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Finger strength is a top. And I have given a general strength focused isometric training explanation, but I want to give some more general information on some principles I believe climbers need to understand: Load.
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Load is a well understood concept, but I know I previously didn’t realize how many factors affect it, and I am assuming many climbers are in the same boat. Load is not just weight (intensity), it is all of the factors that affect force and the strain on the tissue targeted. How many think of intensity when they hear load, but the factors that affect load are vast. Factors such as duration , stability, frequency, direction, contraction type, torque, etc. all are going to affect the load on the tissue, but there are two that I would like to focus on with the fingers for now:
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❇️Velocity and Volume❇️
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The reason I consider these to be so important is they are (in my observations and experience) the largest factors in the cause of an injury. Most of the other factors mentioned will cause failure, due to autoregulation, before they can injure tissue. The difference with velocity and volume is it is easier to: produce higher load due to increased velocity/acceleration, especially with uncontrolled movement, or increase stress on the tissue due to repetitive loading within a session, or without adequate rest. Both of these are lacking the same level of autoregulation as most loading. Producing higher than usual loads, or higher than tolerable amounts of stress, on the tissue are two MAJOR risk factors for injury.
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These are applicable to all forms of training, but especially pertinent to finger training (high loads on pulley and flexor digitorum tendons), with research indicating tendon’s like lower volume, high intensity, and high frequency.
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Don’t take this as high volume or high velocity training being bad. There are few training’s that are “bad”, it’s all about understanding the factors and knowing what stimulus is applicable to the desired outcome. The closest thing to being an absolute, is the fact that: Absolutes are nearly always wrong (ironic, right?)
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STAY
05/03/2021
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
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Anyone who desires to improve at climbing (or anything) should be familiar with this concept. We apply load, adapt, increase the load, and repeat. It is the basis for not only improvements in strength, but also can be applied to concepts beyond sport (think of school, it’s all increasing the “load” on the brain).
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Why is this important for climbers?
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Beyond the obvious: Getting Stronger/Better to Improve Our Climbing; Progressive overload is a concept we MUST understand for injury prevention and rehab!
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Finger injuries are all too common in climbing, I am no stranger (many flexor digitorum strains and even a grade III pulley rupture). Now why is progressive overload so important for finger (or any) injuries in climbers? To answer that, we have to think about WHY we injure something: we go beyond the “tolerable load zone”. This can be due to an endless amount of factors, but common ones are too high velocity, too high volume, and lack of capacity/ability to tolerate the loads we wish to apply.
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Ability to tolerate high velocity, volume, and loads are developed by, you guessed it: Progressive Overload.
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The common concept of solely climbing to get stronger is not one I agree with. I by no means say on the wall training “won’t” get you stronger, but it is inefficient and a sub-par version of overloading. Tendons (and most tissue) respond well to HIGH INTENSITY/LOADS, and we reduce the intensity/load when we decrease the force on the fingers (or other systems) by using technique, lower body, and other systems to ease movement up the wall (of which we SHOULD do).
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With this decrease of load on each system on the wall comes a necessity for supplemental training off the wall in order to be efficient and apply progressively higher loads. Without this training, we rely on volume, fatiguing/neglecting technique/other systems, and uncontrolled (often high velocity) loads to overload and improve which is inefficient, against accepted physiological perspectives, and the most common risk factors for INJURIES!
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Check out my other, and upcoming, posts for more information on supplemental training techniques, and more overload principles.
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BENCH
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Antagonist?
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If I’m being honest, calling almost any training movement antagonist to climbing is nonsense. There are few, if any, muscles trained that are not applicable in an agonist sense to sport. Bench, overhead, and other pushing movements are no exception. They are considered antagonists because climbing is widely assumed to be a “pulling” sport, but while the movement up the wall relies primarily on pulling, there are countless movements that are strictly agonist to the chest, triceps, and other (considered to be) “pushing” muscles/groups.
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Now, let’s talk about benching. Bench press is most often considered training for the chest, which is not incorrect by any means. Benching is an amazing method for training the pectoralis major and minor (the chest muscles), but it does so much more for the shoulder joint and girdle. I am a fan of encouraging everyone to consider just how pertinent the shoulder and scapula are to climbing. As I said, it’s a gross oversimplification to consider climbing just an upper body, and even more just a pulling sport, but even if we simplify it to that, we are calling the main movers of the sport to be the arms. The shoulder and scapula are most proximal (closest inwards) to the body, therefore movement is happening in the shoulder girdle (commonly called the “scap” or “scapula”) and shoulder joint (GLENOHUMERAL joint, commonly called the true “shoulder”) when we move our arms/hands for climbing.
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There is so much more to discuss on this topic, and I will continue it with regards to movements such as overhead press, isometric lock offs, etc., but for now take this away. Muscles such as the pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi (“lats”), Trapezius, and more are all trained during certain PUSHING movements such as bench press, but also immensely powerful and in need of strength for pulling movements needed in climbing.
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INTRO TO BENCHING:
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8-12 REPS
3-4 SETS
2-3 TIMES PER WEEK
LOAD (WEIGHT) AS NEEDED TO BE IN THE 8-10 REP RANGE ON SETS 3/4
[USE A SPOTTER/BARS]
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MORE on delt and shoulder strength 🔜, for now, know it is trained with bench and WILL help your climbing.
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🎦.dpt
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