UKC

I climb indoors a couple of evenings a week and supplement this by doing other activities on the days in between. At the moment (winter) this is usually running followed by stretching/Yoga.
On other days I might run & use weights apparatus for antagonists, e.g all the 'pushing' exercises like shoulder press etc.
My question for all the training gurus out there is:
Which is more beneficial for injury prevention/muscle balance, the stretching or weights, or are they both equally valid activities on non-climbing days?
Thanks.

In reply to purple sue: I would definitely go with antagonist training over stretching any day. If you have good joint stability then good mobility will follow quite normally, which is usually the crux of stretching, long muscles dont necessarily make good muscles (or safe ones for that matter).

I do some stretching but its mostly t-spine stuff and some hips. The way i use my kettlebells sorts out shoulder stability and mobility better than anything else ive ever known.

Cheers
dave

In reply to purple sue:

Do both, it doesn't take that long!

In reply to Trevor Langhorne:

Do some stretching but the antagonists are key. Key thing to understand is that climbing flexibility is primarily active rather than passive. That is, you use your muscles to put a limb in a certain position. If those muscles are weak you wont get it there. Being able use your hands to tug yourself into weird and wonderful shapes ain't much use when you're using them to cling on!

-ross

In reply to purple sue:
mmmm, i think the type of yoga/stretching i would recommend over weights would be quite intensive/power yoga and lots. try baron baptiste/shiva rea (her more dynamic ones) don't go for the basic joss/celebrity crap. breathing with the flow while developing core strength and defined balance as opposed to pumping up with reps works for me...don't knock it 'til
you've tried it

In reply to helpful people:
Thanks for the interesting feedback. The reason I asked is primarily because it's easier for me to do stretching/yoga (definately the more powerful type) than gain access to weights. Both seem to be of some benefit as my range of movement (especially tendon range) gets decreased by training hard. In the past antagonist work has proved useful for injury prevention though.

In reply to quiffhanger: That is exactly why I said do both! In my experience training for strength risks increasing stiffness (especially since a bit of person watching in the gym shows how many people don't train through the full range of movement in the quest to use heavier weights). Having balanced strength and flexiblility is the ideal!

Sorry for posting under an old log in.

Trevor

In reply to mistermingrel:
'especially since a bit of person watching in the gym shows how many people don't train through the full range of movement in the quest to use heavier weights'
Lol, yep, that's me all over! Will certainly try to bear that in mind in the future

In reply to purple sue: Have you considered resistance yogacinolatte fusion!?

In reply to purple sue: I do a bit of both most lunch times. Start with 20mins of yoga to keep the flexibility going, then pick up my dumbbells for shoulder presses, rotator extensions, tricep extensions, reverse wrist curls etc. I also made a 'weight on the end of a stick' thing for antagonist elbow exercises (after seeing a useful video on here a year or so ago).

I find this just about keeps me the right side of injured and able to train my climbing