UKC

In this short pre-cursor to his main training article series, climbing coach Robbie Phillips takes us through a 'warm up' and 'cool down' routine to help with our climbing and training sessions.

"As well as warming up, it's always important to relax your body from all the hard climbing it's been doing..."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=3698

In reply to UKC Articles:
A little more info re: dynamic vs static stretching wouldn't have gone amiss. I still see way to many people statically stretching in their warm up.

In reply to UKC Articles: Ace article. I already do some of this but never spend as long on it as I should...

In reply to UKC Articles: It is quite easy to involve warm up and cool down as part of a training session at a climbing wall but much harder to achive this outdoors at the crag or on big days out. We use a skipping rope to get the heart rate up. Anyone have ideas on good warm up outdoors.

In reply to Adam Coles: A fast walk to the crag or a quick run before I get the climbing shoes on gets my heart rate up a little

In reply to Adam Coles:


I do dwarf press-ups. As for normal press-ups but balance on your knees and on pallell fists. Uncomfortable to do it on a rocky ledge but OK on jumpers. You can knock out 3 times as many of these as normal press-ups and get a bit of a sweat on if you want to and IMO it is good for your elbows but not for looking cool.

Some have started taking fingerboards to the crag to hang of a bolt to get fingers recruited. Admirably geeky. I tried using a pair of rock rings last weekend hitched to the rope through the first bolt which had a DMM revolver krab to set up a pulley affair. Set-up needs a bit more refinement yet.

In reply to Adam Coles:

Most trad crags (apart from sea cliffs with ab descent) are easy to warm up at, as there are normally some easy bits of rock to climb around on (as per the article), or easy routes to do. I find Sport crags without easy routes more of a challenge, and if I can't find an obvious traverse to play on, or an easy start of a route, then I just tend to do what I do on my fingerboard - find some good holds and do some pull-ups and hangs, then link short sections with good holds, introduce some smaller holds etc. It's not as satisfactory as a proper warm up as described in the article but seems to work ok.

This issue of Warm up and cool down is always a bowl of contension and the trends tend to go round in a cyclical fashion. I like to see the Warm-up as 4 processes, In the prefered order they are; 1, Mobilisation of the joints (not to be confused with stretching), 2, Heart raiser to pump the blood around the body, 3, dynamic stretching followed by 4, climbing specific movement. When teaching groups or clients I usually try to incorprate the first 3 processes into one 'all in' activity....This can be done both in areas/walls where there are restrictions on space as well as where you have plenty of space to run around. I do something very similar to what Robbie is suggesting for the climbing specific activity.

In relation to Warming up outdoors, I think most people accept the walk in as part of the warm up but this really depends on the distance and the terrain....Walking into Bowden Doors which is completely flat and from Car to crag takes aproximately 2 minutes is not really suitable. However, walking into Scugdale (N.Yorks.) takes 15-20 mins and is up hill on rough (ish) ground should be suitable. It may be worth doing some specific mobilisation and stretching as for indoors with both types of outdoor venue. As has already been suggested starting easy on the climbing should also be incorperated into outdoor warm up's either through easy routes or through easy bouldering.

I hope this helps

Cliff (www.roxcool.co.uk)

In reply to Cliff Lowther:

I guess people could always park further away, to increase the benefit?

In reply to winhill:


If you cool down between routes going for a jog with all your clothes and duvet jacket on does the trick. I also used to deliberately give myself hotaches by putting my hand in snow or running water to get the blood flowing back to my fingers. Not so keen/stupid to do that now.

In reply to Adam Coles: Try coffee and a marly light!

In reply to Cliff Lowther: Great name for a climbing instructor! Off to Kalymnos tomoro!!

In reply to UKC Articles: Nice article, looking forward to the next in the series!

In reply to UKC Articles: You can't beat using a foam ball to get blood flow in the arm as you walk to the crag/wall, makes the arm feel so much more nimble. I've got a DP ball from needle sports for a few quid, which is perfect, haven't even felt sligtly injured since!

http://needlesports.com/Catalogue/Rock-Climbing-Equipment/Training-Equipmen...

In reply to andyb211:

Ding dong

In reply to MRJ:

Dynamic and static warm-up in one easy to follow video http://www.posingproductions.com/video.php?form_action=play&video_id=71

In reply to andyb211: I wish I had £1 for everytime someone has said that...lol Not many people forget me though