Training for Climbing, 2nd: The Definitive Guide to Improving Your Performance (How To Climb Series)

back down.
     

    Now pull up on the handholds and lock off one arm, so that you can reach up with the other hand to touch—not grab onto—a hold at full arm reach. Allow your body to twist and tense as needed to make the lock-off solid. Hold this lock-off position for two seconds, before dropping back to the starting position. Immediately pull back up and lock off on the same arm. Hold this lock-off for two seconds, then return to the starting position. Continue this lock-off-and-reach motion with the same arm locking off for a total of six to twelve repetitions. Use large hand- and foot-holds if you cannot do at least six lock-offs, whereas you will need to add weight (ten-pound weight belt) if you can do more than twelve lock-offs.
    Rest for a minute or two, then perform a set with the other arm locking off. After training each arm you’ll want to take a five-minute rest before performing a second set with each arm.
ONE-ARM LOCK-OFFS
     
    The ability to hold a steady one-arm lock-off is vital for hard bouldering and roped climbing. This exercise is obviously very specific to this need—but it does demand a high level of base strength for proper execution. If you cannot hold a solid one-arm lock-off, it would be best to train with Hypergravity Pull-Ups or Uneven-Grip Pull-Ups instead of this exercise.
    Begin with both hands grasping the top of a single Pump Rock. If you plan to lock off on your left arm, for example, place your right hand on top of your left—but with your right hand grabbing from the opposite side of the Pump Rock. Using a pull-up bar, grip the bar with your hands side by side and the palms facing each other. Pull up into the lock-off position, and then immediately let go with the top hand (in this case the right). Hold the static lock-off position as long as possible, ideally for between five and fifteen seconds (hard). It helps to think about pulling the Pump Rock toward your armpit. When you begin to lose the lock-off, either grab back on with the other hand or lower yourself slowly to the straight-arm position. Take caution not to drop yourself rapidly into the straight-arm position!

     
    One-arm lock-off.
     

    Dismount and rest for one minute before executing a one-arm lock-off in the same fashion with the other arm. After executing one lock-off with each arm, take a three-minute rest before performing another one-arm lock with each arm. Do a total of two to four lock-offs with each hand.

Power-Training Exercises
     
    When climbers talk about power, they are typically referring to the need to make quick, strenuous reaches or handhold grasps on steep terrain. This type of movement is the stuff of steep sport climbs and V-hard boulder problems.
    Physiologically, your ability to move powerfully is a function of how fast muscular motor units can be called into play and how well they are trained to fire in unison. Effective power-training exercises must then target the nervous system with fast, dynamic motions that are far different from the strength- and endurance-training exercises covered in this chapter. Inherent to power training are high dynamic force loads, which provide beneficial training stimuli but also threaten the joints and tendons of the fingers, arms, and shoulders. For this reason, the following power-training exercises are inappropriate for beginner or recently injured climbers, as well as anyone lacking the maturity and discipline to follow the training and rest guidelines.
    Adequate rest between power exercises and workout sessions is also crucial. As a rule you should not engage in more than two power workouts per week. Furthermore, individual workouts should be relatively brief: Training intensity and speed are more important than training volume. In fact, performing a high volume of power exercises (or training power more than twice per week) is a prescription for injury. Constantly remind yourself that in training power, less is more.
POWER PULL-UPS
     
    This simple power-building exercise can be performed on any pull-up bar or fingerboard. Initially, you may train power exclusively by doing a few sets with this exercise; or you could just do a single set as a sort of power warm-up before executing one of the other exercises described below.
    Grip a pull-up bar or the largest holds on a fingerboard in the palms-away position. Your hands should be about shoulder width apart. Now explode upward with the goal of doing the upward phase of the pull-up as fast as possible.