Next week we are launching our first Strength and Conditioning course! Parthian Climbing’s Fitness Manager, Matt, explains more below…
Off-the-wall training”. What is it and why bother? Off-the-wall training refers to any time spent not pulling on rock or plastic, but training with the goal to improve our climbing performance.
As climbing is a unique sport, it can be hard to know exactly how to get better at it. The most effective way to improve your climbing is to climb, as it is a “movement mastery” sport. Technique and climbing economy should be prioritised, but sometimes our physical limitations hold us back, no matter how fresh we feel or how efficiently we are climbing.
“Without strength, there is nothing to endure”
Increasing our max strength allows us to grip smaller holds and pull through big reaches, but an overlooked benefit is that it is the number one way of staying injury free. Strength training is more effective at reducing the risk of both chronic and acute injury; more so than stretching, foam rolling, proprioceptive training and more effective than all of them combined!
Effective and well-rounded training for climbing includes more than just strength training. There are in fact 10 ‘components of fitness’ that add up to our overall climbing performance.
Strength, Power, Speed, Cardiovascular endurance, Agility, Muscular endurance, Coordination, Balance, Flexibility and Accuracy.
We can be really strong and not that flexible and climb a 7a. Someone else might top the same route, but with the opposite fitness, allowing them to be able to use more footholds or in a more creative way, not needing to rely on brute force.
Rounding out our fitness is a great way to increase performance on the wall, stay injury free and feel better moving our bodies when we climb. If this is something that you are interested in doing, then Parthian can help.
“Parthian’s first personal training course is coming this summer! We are offering six weeks of climbing-specific off-the-wall training to elevate your climbing performance. Get stronger, more injury resistant, chase down those higher grades, climb more, and feel better doing it.
A pre-training questionnaire will be sent to you before the start of the course. Your first session of six will be two hours long and consist of baseline testing to better gauge where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Matt will build a bespoke program based on this session and the information you have provided. The data from this session will also be used for comparison at the end of the 6 weeks.
For the remaining five weeks, you and up to three others will be training with Matt for an hour and a half every Wednesday, following the bespoke plan he has created for you. You are welcome to contact Matt through E-mail to tweak your plan if needed, and you will receive a copy of your plan along with other resources to help you meet your goals.