UKC

HI guys,

Been away from climbing for a while now, looking to get back into it, unfortately fell into the trap of too much food not enough training.

Basically i'm a fatty and I realise the best thing for climbing, is climbing, unfortunately i can't always get to the wall but have a very convenient gym.

What i'm looking to do is to increase my strength without going overboard and becoming stacked and lose a bit of weight, anyone got any advice?

Currently changing my diet as well so just trying to make my transition back into climbing!

Thanks

Alex

In reply to Taer:

Naturally pull ups are the most specific gym exercise. And there are so many variations to do.

I would do press ups to balance the antagonistic muscles (pecs and tris)

Deadlift and Core are both popular although I don't personally do them.

I don't see any need to do bicep curls, bench press, leg machines...

I think shoulders are worth training as they don't add too much muscle weight, and you build up resistance to shoulder injury.

My two pence anyhow
Dan

In reply to Daniel Heath:

Cheers Dan, sounds good to me to be honest!

Thanks for the information, I'm just trying to creaate a training plan so that I can track my progress or at least have a goal to work towards, for shoulders i've been having a look and someone recommended side arm raises, shoulder rolls.

Anything else for varietie's sakes?

I've also heard a good training program is to do one similar to gymnasts, which would make sense, all body weight exercises etc...

I read too much lol

Alex

In reply to Taer:

Doing a press up like this (elbows straight back)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2tEmrsXWo6U/UFdubAyGYYI/AAAAAAAAAPk/4ZeqECaMGWM/s... targets the shoulders instead of the pecs. The difference is quite noticeable.

It would be worth considering rep range too (to avoid building mass)

This is a tad controversial, but I believe the following is generally accepted:
Very low reps - Strength
8-12 reps - mass
12+reps - endurance

If you like reading, don't take my word for it but it's worth looking into :P

In reply to Daniel Heath:

Rather embarrassingly pull ups are not something I can do for more than one or two reps, would it be recommended to start up with bicep curls etc to get stronger firts...

Then again at gym they have one that you climb up to and can use weights beneath your feet to alleviate some of the weight might just use that thinking about it....

Those press ups look interesting lol wil try them out, as for the reps I did quite a lot of reading on it this afternoon seems there's not masses of evidence either way so cant seem hard to try to stick to more reps

Alex

In reply to Taer:

If you're in the gym they could well have a 'pull up machine' which can help you out with counterweights at first...

In reply to Taer:
If you can do one solid pull up, don't bother with machines, negatives or any of that. Just hammer them with volume, do loads of sets of one. A pull up bar at home is ideal for this, if you leave it set up and do one every time you walk past it for example. After a couple of weeks see how many you can do in a set, guaranteed to be more than you can do now.

In reply to nw:

+1

Slow Negatives are also great. Do the same thing for a few weeks then try something different.

In reply to Taer: Hi Alex, first an foremost you need to be training your grip. This is even more important that pull ups! Though they should be trained as well, obviously. The average gym may not have a fingerboard, but you can still do some more generic grip training. Buy a set of Fat Gripz and take them with you for some thick bar work (deadlifts, rows or even just static holds). Hanging some towels from the pull up bar and doing some deadhangs from them will be great too. You can pinch weight plates for pinch strength.

Beyond that, all the usual stuff really. Just do a decent full body workout. If you want to lose weight as well, might be work trying barbell complexes while you're at the gym, they're a great form of conditioning.

In reply to Taer:

whatever you do, do it to progress and optimize. when you do cardio stuff, focus on that and go somewhere with it, same with pull ups or weights or 'core' stuff.
occasionally mix it up to develop other things, but always training with 'a bit of this and a bit of that' every time never develops anything in particular.

theres lots of stuff pertinent to climbing - anything that engages lots of joints and the limbs really. minimize machine useage as they take all the movement out for you and thats exactly what you want for climbing.
theres all sorts of climbing-specific stuff too, but give it a while to get in the general pipeline before worrying about it.

and as you say - make 50% of it happen in the kitchen (starting at the store with what you stock your shelves with).

like anything; you get out what you put in, same old story. but may the fitness gods bless you with a gym full of girls in sports bikinis.

In reply to Taer:

If you want to loose Fat then changing your diet will be 80-90% of the work. However it is easier if you are able to understand the science behind nutrition, fat, fat storage and loosing fat. Gary Taubes has written a very good book called Why We get Fat. The lay-persons version of Good Calories-Bad Calories.

If you want to get strong and have access to free weights and bar I would suggest buying Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 book. Try to ignore the size of man, he is not a rock climber! However the 5/3/1 program is designed for strength gains.

Good luck

In reply to riddle:
Thanks for all the hints and tips, I had a look at the barbel complexes, I think i might start with a dumbell complex as it looks like an easier warm up to the barbel ones lol!

Will have a look into those books as well.

did a session at the gym yesterday with a friend mainly worked back, I realised I couldn't even do one pull up (I'd been using bad form). Also done a lot of own weight exercises at home, hanging leg raises, sit ups with knee tucks, pressups (elbows out and elbows back) Trying to do more reps and sets as the days go on.

Feel like i've been hit by a truck especially in my shoulders but i guess that's a good sign

Alex