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Climbing-Rock > Grip Training
Pre-Season Climbing Training Series
Part III
The third of a series of Body Results
newsletter articles that will provide you with some varied, challenging,
and effective off-season workouts. Part
I features exercises that you can do anywhere, with minimal equipment
other than your bodyweight and a backpack or hand weights. All exercises in
Part II are ones you can do with access to cables or free weights that you'd find in most
gyms. It's important to have a good base of strength (at least 2
months of training) before attempting the variations in Part III below,
which introduces pre-season gym training to help
you increase your finger and grip strength as well as upper body pullup
strength for the upcoming summer of outdoor climbing.
Finger Strength Training
Below are four finger strengthening
exercises we like to suggest to climbers. For a more in-depth look
at developing finger and hand strength, we recommend John Brookfield's Mastery
of Hand Strength. Climbers need a high amount of two different kinds
of finger strength: pinch grip strength (to hold on to slopers and
little nubbins) and supporting strength (to hang on to hold after hold,
especially when placing pro.) Try adding one or two to
any given upper body strength workout, and remember to place finger
training toward the end of your workout (especially following your
pullups!) so you can still complete work
for chest, back, shoulders and arms without a tired grip limiting the
rest of your work. Do the selected exercise (s) for 3-4 weeks,
then replace one with another and keep cycling through. You may
find that certain ones help more than others -- for example, if you know
your pinch grip needs help, you might do specific training for it for 3 weeks, cycle off it
for 3 weeks, then return to it using more weight.
Supporting Grip Strength
Open Palm Deadlift
Shown left is Doug Schurman demonstrating how to use a device called Rolling Thunder
Revolving Deadlift Handle, available through IronMind
for $32. Their trademark device is perfect for developing
supporting strength for climbing, strength sport exercises like
the deadlift, and pullups. You can also use this on
cable weight stacks for seated rows or lat pulls, and it
effectively strengthens your grip in the open palm position.
To make something similar for use at a home gym, attach weight to
a 2 1/2" diameter pipe roughly 10' long.
Farmer's Walk
Another good way to train supporting strength in
the hands and fingers is the Farmer's Walk, so called (I can only
imagine) because of the close resemblance to farmers carrying
heavy buckets of slop or milk great distances (think old
times!) Hold a substantial dumbbell (shown here, 70# each)
in each hand and walk 100 feet before setting the weights down and
allowing grip to rest. Repeat desired number of sets.
Pinch Grip Strength
Pinch Grip Device Training
Shown, right, Doug holds two varied thickness
pinch grip trainers, one made from a 4x4" wood block, the
other purchased through Iron
Mind for $13. Especially good for developing pinch
endurance. With both devices, load an appropriate weight
that you can hold for anywhere from 15-60 seconds, depending on
your goal. You can hold them statically, do upright rows,
carry them on Farmer's walks, or perform 1-arm rows.
Medicine Ball Grip Training
Another fun (and inexpensive) way to train grip
strength is to use partially inflated medicine balls of different
weights. Shown here are homemade balls of 8 and 15#.
To make your own, buy playground rubber balls and a pair of
needlenose pliers (to remove and re-insert plug) and fill with
water from the tap. The more fully inflated the ball, the
wider (and stronger) the grip needed to hold on. Another
option for homemade pinch training devices? heavy books or
dictionaries. Start with an abridged version and work up to
Webster's Complete.
For crimp grip training check out Body Results' Grip Trainer
Upper Body Strength: 6-1-6-1-6-1 Wave Loading
Like most climbers, if you'd like to increase upper body pulling strength
without gaining a lot of extra muscle mass to hoist up the slope with
you, then try a technique called mixed neural drive/hypertrophy
training, originally introduced to this country by National
Weightlifting Coach Dragomir Cioroslan and brought to our attention by
Charles Poliquin on Testosterone's
web site. We've modified it slightly to fit the needs and
training experience of most of our readers, and we'll use pullups as our
example. Remember, before trying this, make sure you already have
several months of strength training under your belt.
Be sure to do a general warm up (some light cardio, stretching, etc. to increase
blood flow and get the body prepared for more targeted muscular work)
and then do a specific warm up on the lat pull down. We'll use the example
of a 150# person who can do 6 pullups in a row. Such a person
might do warm-up sets of 75# (50% targeted weight) for 5 reps, 110# (75%
targeted weight) for 3 reps, and then rest a few minutes before starting
the pullup portion of the workout.
The first bodyweight pullup set
would be a set of 6 repetitions (whatever is near your maximal weight
for 6 reps), with a few minutes of rest before the next set, which will
be 1 rep at maximal or near maximal weight (in this case, perhaps an
extra 25# attached by a hip belt or held between the legs.) By
doing the 1 rep at near maximal weight and waiting for 3-4 minutes, you
can lift more weight for the next set of 6 than you could if you hadn't
done the single rep. Do these with palms parallel, as shown, or
pronated (forward grip) to more closely replicate the position your hands would be in while climbing.
In the next wave of 6-1, try adding 2.5-5# to each of your first two starting sets. In our
example above, the person might add 5# for 6 reps and 27.5# for 1 rep,
again resting 3 minutes between each set. Finally, for the fhird
wave, add another 2.5-5# to each. Our example lifter would attempt
7.5# added to bodyweight for 6 and 30# added for 1. The
system supposedly works by potentiating the nervous system and thereby
allowing your muscles to lift more weight. Regardless of the exact
mechanism, it works quite well. You can also do this for bench press, squats, or any other lifts where
you want to maximize strength. One caveat, however: because
this is essentially nervous system training in addition to strength
training (and the nervous system takes longer to recover than the
musculoskeletal system) we suggest you only use this technique once a
week, on one muscle group at a time (don't do it for every single body
part or your body will retaliate by shutting down!!) For the other
strength session, you might do lat pull downs or other back work, 3-4
sets of 6-10 repetitions, rather than maxing out. Always listen to
your body and back off if the work loads are too intense for you.
One thing you can try that will build finger and grip
strength as well as pullup strength is to do pullups holding onto rope
cord or dowels (particularly if you are an ice climber.) Some
climbing gyms will already have various thicknesses of dowels hanging
over a squat rack, but if not, you can get some rope (3 feet of it, at
least 1' diameter) from a hardware store and take it with you to
the gym. Loop it over the top of a squat rack and voila, you're
ready to do grip and pullup training!
These sample climbing
strength exercises are examples of the individualized program
development available to you through your Outdoor Conditioning Coaches at Body
Results. Remember, however, that everyone has different needs depending
on training age, body type, individual goals, exercise history, and
time available. If you have questions or comments about the
above article, contact us.
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