Should climbers lift weights?
The age old question, should climbers lift weights?
A regularly debated topic, I thought I would make points for both sides, so you can make your own decision.
The 3 major reasons why climbers I have come across that climbers don’t lift weights:
Its not as fun as trying to send projects
Not sure how to lift weights
They don’t want to get heavy
The 3 major reasons why climbers should:
Injury prevention, prehab or function improvement is a requirement for anyone who wants to stay injury free
Climbing is a movement sport, learning to move well on the ground with weight will benefit performance on the wall
Weight lifting doesn’t mean getting heavy, strength training means strength gains without the weight increase.
Over the past 5 years of coaching strength training, I have seen basic easy weight lifting with a focus on movement improvement boost performance in every case that I have worked with. This doesn’t need to be high volume or heavy, it’s more about how you use the weight to teach you how to apply tension in different movement patterns.
There are 6 major body movement patterns:
Squat
Push
Pull
Lift
Carry
The 6th: Twisting and multi directional
The gym is one of the best ways to learn how to control and improve your movement skills, how so? You control the platform, focus, weight and the speed, these moves can easily be assessed and correctives put in place to improve them. On the wall we don’t have that option, moves are fixed, a wall angle is fixed and we are moving between holds that are a fixed size.
We don’t really have any control how far outside our own level of learning ability or capability this movement may be.
The other side of the coin
Climbing is and will always be a movement sport, we can get as strong as we like but without understanding the movement at its foundation, how to move between the holds, we will always find moves we struggle to unlock or find the flow of climbing through.
A conventional weights gym weaker climber will be forced to look for better movement on the wall because they aren’t physically strong enough to brute force their way through movement sequences.
Is there a place and time for both?
Over the first few years of climbing, progress comes faster from spending more time on the wall, climbing with the intent of moving better and understanding movement across a variety of styles and wall angles, over coming fears and learning to try hard and better, pair this with time in the gym doing prehab work such as rotator cuff strengthening, thoracic spine mobility, forearm extensors and rotational strength, pushing movements and mobility improvement is a sure fire way to progress faster and reduce the glass ceilings and injuries that are often created by just getting stronger.
After a few years of climbing, technique has the potential to be pretty good, this is a good time to talk to a coach to see what areas of your technique can still be improved.
After the first few years and some coaching, strength training can be a good way to take your climbing to the next level, eventually you will find moves that you aren’t physically strong, powerful or fit enough to be able to pull.
Whats are your thoughts or questions?
Cheers
Ash