XC Training Lab Series Vol. 1

In 2018 we have teamed up with Spit Magazine to bring you training beta – articles, photos and video clips to motivate and educate climbers about training tools, methods and offer some training inspiration for your own sessions.

In this, Volume 1, published in Spit Magazine n.4 January/February 2018 we highlight the training room and basic functions of all that nice wooden equipment.

Your Gym’s Training Room. All that wood, weights, mats and elastic bands. To the trained eye it all makes sense, like a work of art, each piece with its unique use. However to the uninitiated it may seem like a torture chamber, the noise included!

To take your first steps in the ‘lab’ with all those muscular guys and gals making it look so easy is daunting and so, in this series, we will break it all down, explaining what the tools are designed for, the training methods and some practical training advice for you!

Let’s be clear – climbing is skill based and it is important to approach your climbing as a practice. The old adage stands true: climbing is the best training for climbing. Much like the musician practices a piece of music to be able to perform near perfection in concert, we climbers must practice our movement skills, coordination and strength to be able to climb better. Of course, at a certain point if the musician wants to play a certain song, when we want to climb more difficult sequences, we need to improve our strength, our power, our coordination to heighten the level of our practice.

Take note, many of the tools you find in your gym’s training space are designed to be used by experienced climbers with a strong base-level strength. If you are just starting out in climbing improvement will come faster by simply practicing your core skills – foot work and movement techniques – and in doing so you are in fact increasing your physical strength.

The campus board, named after the prolific board of wooden rungs installed by Wolfgang Gullich at a university gym – hence the name – to train explosive power for his cutting edge climbing in the Frankenjura. The action – climbing up and down without using one’s feet, though there are certain types of training and introductory exercises that benefit from using one’s feet.

The campus board is for training power and dynamic strength using the plyometric action of repeated extension and contraction of arm muscles. The benefits are greater contact strength, dynamic ability, lock off strength and muscle reaction.

Gymnastic rings, hanging carrots and compression training straight out of Star Wars! Because these tools are free hanging it forces us to engage our core and shoulders, improving stabilizer muscles, grip strength and coordination – often all at the same time.

These tools are suitable for basic fitness training, too, and when used properly can be used safely by climbers of all abilities.

Hangboards are the classic training tool found in all gyms and many homes of climbers. The hangboard is designed for deadhangs – straight arm hangs – and pull ups to strengthen our fingers. With all the different pockets, slopers and pinches, these boards allow us to isolate specific grips and even individual fingers.

Pegboards are a fairly new phenomenon in climbing gyms, brought over from oldschool gyms and Crossfit centres. Pegboards are useful for building up the bigger muscle groups involved in deep lock offs, stability and bent arm strength.